tell me your favorite song

so these past few days have been nonstop busy, and the the next few days will be just as crazy.

once I got back from Beijing I spent the beginning of the week preparing for my final presentation and studying for my final exam.

we had a really nice 10 course banquet after our exam, and i tried jelly fish. it was kinda lame, but cool to say i ate it

and after we had finished all that last thursday, we definitely celebrated....chinese style....

we did KARAOKE!

and it was soo much fun!!!! The whole group went out and we had a private room and they had a huge selection of western songs: oldies, 90s, one hit wonders, and top 40 stuff. ever since then i've had a random song pop in my head and then while I'm trying to figure out why I have the song in my head i'll remember... Oh ya, we sang that at Karaoke. ex: i would walk 500 miles....

it's been fun, haha.

the next day some of us went to Shenzhen, a city in mainland China, that has this huge mall full of knock off watches/purses/etc. The mall is crazy big, about 6 stories. I bought some "Chanel" and "Fendi" sunglasses since I had stepped on my sunglasses when I got back from karaoke the night before :/

Saturday we went to Ocean Park - which i did not enjoy at all. too many people and too big! It's like cedar point 15 years ago meets san diego zoo meets sea world. but, to make up for my boring morning Kaitlynn and I finally made it to the Peak.

The Peak was SO BEAUTIFUL! It is the highest point in Hong Kong and we watched the city turn from day to night and it was such a cool transformation watching the city come to life. It also puts Hong Kong into perspective, just how big it is!! Even though I've been here for a month, looking at how huge this city is I realize that I haven't even seen 20% of it. And it is just so gorgeous. so sooo gorgeous!

Today me Andy Kevin and Kaitlynn had some great Dim Sum at a place in Tsim Sha Tsui (which I think might be one of my favorite areas). The place was classic Chinese style restaurant - with grandma style pink curtains and ruffles and "crystal" chandeliers all over and all these chinese women running around with bamboo stacks of dim sum. and i tried shark fin dumplings, which were great. to top it off, the shrimp dumplings were shaped like penguins and the marshmallows were shaped like bunnies. :) so fun.

the next few days consist of some field trips and laundry and packing and soaking in the city as much as i can. part of me is wishing that my flight this thursday was going back to DTW since i'm more home sick at this point, but I think Japan will be pretty cool. just hope no one has forgotten about me since i've been away ;)

Beijing-a-ling

So, I just got back from Beijing.

and it was sooo cool! i think everyone should put Beijing on there must-visit-list

there is so much i could say about the trip but to keep it reasonable i made a top ten :)

1- THE GREAT WALL! on july 17, 2009 i jumped around and shouted at the top of the great wall. and, i carried my pocket bible all the way to the top, opened it at a random passage and read psalm 104 - which was actually SO perfect! "The glory of the Lord shall endure forever; the Lord shall rejoice in his works" & "i will sing unto the lord as long as i live i will sing praise to my God while i have my being"

2-Tiananmen Sqaure.

3-Pictures - so the chinese looove to sneak pictures of you, and a lot will actually ask you to take pictures with them (i felt like a celeb). plus, they made the FUNNIEST poses while taking their pictures - remind me to reenact these when i get home ;)

4-PEKING DUCK. deliciousssss

5-Cameron. one of the guys on our trip that just added a little humor to all our situations - especially when he "gracefully" collapsed into the pool.

6-OLYMPIC PARK! i ran a lap around the olympic stadium. I would LOVE to be able to go to the next olympics, seems like such an amazing event.

7-bartering. this is always fun, and by the end of the trip we were great at it. i bought some chinese style shoes for about US $2.50

8-Hutong village. This really showed us what old Beijing was like and we took a rickshaw around the square.

9-Kung Fu. we watched a kung fu show, which was so impressive, and then all had this ridiculous song in our heads about a lotus and raindrops the next day.

10- BYOTP. I was pretty excited to get my asian experience when i had to use a squatter once in hong kong - but was so sick of them by the end of beijing, since that is all they had!! and no TOILET PAPER! one guy even charged me 1RMB to use a toilet. But, i can say i'm an expert squatter by now.

(11- ice cream. cheap and delicious. the mega orange creamsicle, and one that tasted like french silk pie/cool whip on a stick, and a banana cream pie flavored one. yum!)

finally made it back to hong kong and was completely exhausted. we moved to Chinese University for the next few days in HK. This university is SO gorgeous, imagine MSU but buried in a mountain. very cool - but, really inconvenient and expensive trying to get downtown, which is definitely a bummer

busy week ahead - final exam & presentation, and then a few days to soak in as much of HK as i can before we go to Japan next week!

Dim Sum and then some

and i still love hong kong :)

we did lots of school things this week. we visited the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Mandarin Oriental, and Disney! and we took our financial midterm

and i did lot of eating this week. Monday - chinese food in Mong Kok. Tuesday- chinese food on Nathan Street (where i tried goose and it was delicious). Wednesday - chinese food at central (where i tried something that i'm not sure what it was.... ). Thurday - chinese food w/ my big brother in TST. and yesterday we finally had some Dim Sum!! Which is a "must have" in Hong Kong. It was soo good. It's just a big variety of dumplings and buns and smaller dishes. Me & Kaitlynn are going back today for some more.

During one of our nights at Lan Kwai Fong (HK's grand river) we went to a bar owned by a canadian who is really cool. he has a lot of imported beer, which is a nice treat since the chinese don't have any great beer to offer.

the best part of this week was on friday. we went to the Big Buddha, and it was soo cool. you take this gondola up into the mountains, it's about a 25minute ride and it is so beautiful and stunning. and, the gondola is glass all around (even the floor) so a little adrenaline kick during the ride. the buddha is also very big and very cool and i think anyone who comes to HK should see this.

okay, i'm going out to enjoy this city.

hi mom, i miss you! and i love you!

a rainy update

Thursday night, a few of the girls went to Mong Kok and realized there are some cuuuute shoes in Hong Kong! My goal is to not buy anymore, otherwise i'm going to have to pay shipping to get them all home ;)

But really, Mong Kok was a lot of fun - exactly what you think of when you think China. There were crowded streets and bright signs everywhere and lots of bartering. And i got some authentic bubble tea, yum.

Friday we visited the Hong Kong Stock Exchange - and i wasn't really that impressed with it.

Later that night we went to dinner for Dr. Singh's birthday, and then a lot of us went to Lon Kwai Fong (a street with a ton of bars and clubs on it). I had so much fun and it was great to get to know the group even better.... especially when everyone loosened up & was dancing to this cover band. To really get an idea, you need to check out the facebook pictures. At one point there were red bunny ears and a checkered glove making its way around...

Saturday we went to Macau, and saw the old city which was gorgeous! They were owned by Portugal, so much of the architecture and food is combined Portuguese & Chinese. I picked up some snacks to bring back to the US, and the spiciest hot sauce everrr!

speaking of spicy - kaitlynn & i had THE SPICIEST food i've ever had in my life today. Some splattered into my eye and i thought i was going to lose my eye! When we were done, my lips were so swollen i looked like Mary Kate Olsen, with a stupid pout. I had to buy some banana ice cream just to cool off my mouth

Lots of field trips this week & a midterm for finance. And its crazy lightning and raining today and it looks soo sweet when the sky lights up and you can still see the outline of the mountains. love it

the first few days

i love hong kong! i can't say that enough :) and i still haven't been able to stop smiling since i've been here.

day 1 - Kaitlynn (my roommate) and i ventured out on our own to get a little lost in the city. We took the MTR to east Tsim Sha Tsui. This is the southern end of Kowloon which overlooks the island of Hong Kong. We found our way to the Peninsula Hotel, one of the nicest hotels in the world, and were totally blown away. We went up to the sun deck which looked over the bay toward Hong Kong.... and stole a hand towel from the bathroom as our souvenir, then got kicked out because we had flip flops on. We had some drinks at a little cafe and soaked in the view of this gorgeous city.

Later that night the group went out to celebrate and of course we got lost... and hungry... and decided to eat in the next restaurant we found.... which was soo nice and sooo expensive :/ BUT the food was amazing. we had no idea what we were ordering, we just pointed to a few dishes and i ended up trying peking duck, eel, and i even liked the shrimp

day 2 - we had class, and that sucked. my mind is definitely not in school mode.

Me, adam and kylee went to Macau and did some gambling.... which i don't recommend doing in Asia unless you are very familiar with the games, because the dealers don't know english and can't explain to you what to do....

The Venetian casino was gorgeous and felt like we were hanging out in Italy for a night :)

day 3 - class this morning. tonight me and some girls are going to check out either Mong Kok (the busiest market in hong kong) or the Temple St. Night Market (and possibly get our fortunes read)

So far this trip has been perfect and I'm really enjoying it. There is so much to do and see. You learn how to do so much so fast here because you are forced to figure it out. While the people have been really nice, there have been so many times already where I've felt so lost and illiterate and stuck, which leads to a little homesickness.... but has really helped in learning more about HK.

also... i would consider myself an expert chopstick user by now ;)