Last days in HK

Wow, the semester is nearly over. 4 more days until I head back to the US. I really don't want to leave and reenter the real world. It has been like a 3 month vacation. So these last few days I am have to scramble around to study for my finals, see everything in HK I haven't seen yet, trek up to Shenzhen to get my custom made suit, and pack! ahhhh

Took a week long trip to China last week. Went to Shanghai and Yangshuo. I'll give a more detailed post later, but take a look at the pictures. The pictures below should entice you to go look! Yangshuo and Shanghai

Pictures Upload from Stanley

here are pictures from stanley

Cultural Exchange Showcase

A fellow exchange student put together a sort of talent show for local, mainland, international and exchange students to take part in. I played a pair of duets with my clarinet friend from the orchestra. But it was actually quite a cool show with lots of variety in the acts.

There were a couple groups reciting Chinese poems or drama. Most of these groups were made up of primarily international students. It was funny to here the reactions of the Chinese kids when the non-asians started speaking Chinese well! There were also groups that sang Chinese songs--one group sang some popular chinese songs that lots of people in the room were singing along with. There were also some hip hope dance groups, a belly dancer, an indian dancer, double dutch (which I'm sure many of the chinese kids have never seen before...they should come to any Evanston middle school to get a glimpse at the real deal!), and a girl playing a yangqin, a chinese hammered dulcimer.

All the groups were really impressive and the event was quite well attended. I wonder if it will continue on in the future, since the person in charge will be leaving. It is a great way for all the students to come together and enjoy performances from students around the world.

Hong Kong=paradise??? perhaps yes

So after my 1 and only class today, I headed over to the South side of Hong Kong island to Stanley village. This village is known for its market and beaches and is very crowded on weekends. Thankfully, it was not the weekend so I had a very leisurely time!

I walked around the village and saw the sights: one of the oldest Tin Hau temples in HK (Tin Hau is the goddess of the sea, so as a place where the sea is very important, there are many Tin Hau temples), a building that used to be over in Central which was moved brick by brick over to Stanley and rebuilt, beaches, and a market.

The market was quite nice. Not at all like the Mong Kok or temple street markets where the "shopkeepers" are constantly yelling at you, "Missy, Missy. copy watch? copy handbag?" Here you could actually walk with out being harassed. The stores were also nicer with real clothes, art stores, souvenir shops, and only a few fake designer bags!

The best part about Stanley were the beaches. I didn't' go to the main beach (although I wish I had gone over just to see it) and just went to some smaller beaches. I just sat there for a few hours under the sun and blue, cloudless sky, watching the waves come in and the cargo boats loll about off in the distance. Quite relaxing!

The south side of the island as seems like a different world than Central and Kowloon. No real businesses, hardly any high rises, more nature, and just a laid back feeling. ahhhh.....I'm relaxed just thinking about it.

Anyway, that's it for Stanley, but on the MTR back to campus, this couple walked onto the train. They seemed different than most Hong Kong people....just very well dressed. Hong Kongers strive to dress well, but often do so at the expense of quality. However, this couple just stood out for some reason. So I was looking at what the man was wearing, and noticed he had a brown belt on. I looked down at his shoes to see if they matched, but no, they were black! I thought about berating him for his inability to follow fashion rules...but upon looking at his shoes more closely, it seemed that somebody forgot to take the hair off the leather for his shoes! (and these hairy shoes probably cost 10 times more than regular leather shoes) I knew this couple didn't fit in!

pictures soon....

Bun Festival!

So as a replacement for Slope Day this year, I went to a Bun Festival held on a Cheung Cheu island. It was a great replacement! This is a small island about 30 minutes away from Hong Kong Island (on a fast ferry, an hour on the slow one) where no cars are allowed, nice beaches, the windsurfing capital of Hong Kong (apparently, Hong Kong's one and only olympic gold medal came from a windsurfer who trained here). And each year, lots of people swarm the island for their Bun Festival!

The Bun Festival obviously involves lots of buns. The buns are pretty big with a big red mark on the top for the baker and are filled with various sweet fillings (meaning red bean paste, sesame paste or an egg yoke custard). But the real attraction for the buns are the 40 foot towers covered them! At around 11 PM, people race to the top and try to pick as many buns off the tower as they can. About 30 years ago, the bun tower collapsed so the bun tower climbing was canceled. It was only reinstated in 2005, but with steel instead of bamboo supporting the towers and using plastic buns instead of real ones. They still make 3 huge towers and many small towers out of real buns though! They also build these paper effigies of the gods and people set up these picnics for the gods to come eat at. People go around to all the picnics that are seat up (probably 30 of them) and add more offerings and foods for the gods. They then burn the paper gods.

Also accompanying the festival is a parade featuring lots of chinese lions and dragons, marching bands of chinese instruments, and little kids in heavy makeup 10 feet in the air, supported only by thin polls! I also caught a little chinese opera.

For dinner, we had this great seafood dinner. I don't even really at fish or seafood and this was good! And so cheap. Less than $10 USD for like 8 different courses. The buns were cheap too, less than a dollar for a bun that probably could suffice as a meal in itself.

I missed the bun scrambling part because I had to get back to campus, but I'm sure it was fun. Here are more pictures on facebook. (Note, I brought my nice camera but when I got there I discovered it was out of batteries. I was going to bring my small camera, but then I decided against it. So I was left with the phone on my camera, which soon ran out of batteries too....)

recap of trip to japan

Finally time for my thoughts on japan and and summary of my trip. First of all, I couldn't have a better tour guide! Being able to speak japanese definitely helped me experience more of japan than if I were on my own (plus he's just so cute :) ). We were there right during the peak of Cherry blossom season, which made everything so beautiful. On top of that, there was hardly a cloud in the sky the whole time and only rained once on a travel day, so it didn't even matter that much.

I guess rather than fully describe where I went I will just try to briefly summarize the sights.

In Tokyo

• Meiji Shrine
• Harajuku-Really cool hip area with neat stores.
• Yasukuni Shrine-loads of cherry blossoms. Had food stalls set up all along major walks. Accross the street was a park with even more cherry blossoms. There were hoards of students there for the beginning of their semester ceremony...we were probably the only white people there.
  
• Shibuya crossing- the busiest crossing in the world, a 5 way scramble crossing. Starbucks has a prime realestate looking over the crossing, but didn't allow pictures. (I got one anyway though!)

• Yanaka-a suburban feeling, calmer area of tokyo. Had a pedestrian only street market where I tried this awsome meat bun (don't know what it was called)
• Akihabra-anime district with lots of arcades
• Odaiba-man made island. Big ferris wheel, fuji televeision building and a toyota car exposition. Sat in a 129,000 lexus!
• View from top of government building-Tokyo is so sprawling!
• Tea at the Park Hyatt. Not the same as the Penninsula, although the tea was really good!
• Imperial palace
• Mount Fuji! Saw it from the train to Kyoto. We got the rare chance to see it clearly--it was so clear that even the japanese were taking pictures!
• Had sushi for about the 3rd time in my life. I couldn't leave japan without having sushi! It was really good though! I would definitely have it again, although I don't know if sushi in the US can live up to it....
  

We went on a whirlwind day trip to Kyoto. One should really spend a few days in Kyoto, but we saw most of the major sites in a day. Kyoto is much more historic than Tokyo, as it was the old capital and was spared during the bombings of WWII.

• Kyomizu Shrine-more cherry blossoms and pretty buildings.
  
• Sanjusangendo- Japans longest wooden building filled with 1001 lifesized statures of Kannons. No pictures allowed inside, but the gardens around were beautiful
• Heian Shrine- Cherry blossom overload!
• Golden Pavillion
  
• 

We spent the last part of the trip in Kanazawa, a small historic town in Western Japan.

• Higashi Chaya District-A geisha district. Although we didnt' se any geishas walking around, we got a feeling for old japan. This area had a lot of cool businesses and shops
• Temples galore! There were multiple temple districts in Kanazawa. Literally, you would turn a corner and there would be a temple only about 50 feet in front of you. They were also so peaceful and no one else was really there.
• Kenrouken Garden-Considered one of the best gardens in Japan and it definitely live up to that!
• Kanazawa Castle
• Ninja Temple-A temple where the king could come and pray, but protected by ninjas! Looked like it was only 2 floors from the outside, but was actually 4! All sorts of trap doors and secret rooms. I felt like if I wasn't careful, a ninja might come and attack me!
• Yamanaka onsen- a day trip from kanazawa. Soaked our feet in natural hot springs (really hot! 43 degrees celsius=110 degrees F). We planned on going in the actual bath, but worried we wouldn't be able to stand the heat!
  
• Walk along the river in Yamanaka onsen, famous for its bridges.
• Had the best gyoza ever! This place has been making gyoza for over 100 years. and it showed!

Japan has a much different feel than Hong Kong. It seems that the people of Japan are heavily committed to their culture, whether it is the women in kimonos, the bowing, family life, or relationships between men and women. A big part of Japan is the salarymen culture. Basically business men in any other city, but there is a whole mindset associated with it. Japanese are just as fashionable as people in HK, but take even greater risks. Some of the outfits were just completely ridiculous, on girls especially! I tried to take candid shots of people, but didn't work out too well.

Japan is also quite expensive, at least compared to other Asian countries and Hong Kong. For example, a ride on the train costs between $1.10 and $3.00, while in Hong Kong the train is usually less than $1, almost always less than $3.

Tokyo is so sprawling, while Hong Kong is very dense. In Hong Kong, there are so many high rises, but in Tokyo most people seem to live in houses. The majority of apartment complexes seemed to be less than 10 stories. The train system is representative of that. It is very extensive, but so complicated! (the picture below is just one of the train systems! there are different systems with different maps!)I'm going to miss the japanese toilets. Heated seats, sprayers, music. Definitely the most technologically advanced things in many places! I'll also miss the udon, gyoza and yakatori. I'll also miss my tour guide!

japan photos up

View the albums here and here.

sorry its been so long!

So it's been a while since I last posted. Spring break + school (and watching more online TV) got in the way. Japan notes and pictures will come soon. I took over 600 pictures, so it's a lot to go through!

But one thing here that is funny are peoples names. People here generally have 2 names, a chinese name and an english name. Sometimes the anglicized version of their name is just the chinese character written out, sometimes people pick typical english names. Some are normal, some are...quite strange. Here are some examples of funny/interesting names I have seen.

• Sandwich
• Insect
• So John
• Law
• Hand
• Eterna
  

There are also people with more "typical" english name, but not really names you see every day in the US. Things like Danson, Kelvin, Tripp

Photos from taiwan (finally)

Here are my photos from taiwan on facebook. Sorry this took so long!

Random thoughts and Observations

Here are just some thoughts I have had while I'm here.

• The students at UST are really really fashionable, especially the girls. No t-shirts and jeans here. Shoes are big here, no flip flops unless you are just lounging around! Girls are always wearing nice shoes, flats, cute sneakers, boots. But almost outrageously, girls wear high heels all the time to class! Not just little heals, but sometimes full on 3-4 inch high stilettos. All the clicking is sometimes distracting!
  
• Boys, on the other hand, are a little more relaxed. However, backpacks, like flip flops, aren't really popular here. So the boys have resorted to using over the shoulder bags, cloth briefcase like things, duffel bags, and man purses, as we would call them in the US.
  
• I keep on thinking everybody has so many designer bags. But then I remember they are all fake. You can get any sort of copied bag you want at the street markets. So if most people have fake bags, and people know they are fake, what is the value in having a real bag, only for people to assume it is fake?
  
• There are people hired to do everything. For example, in all the eating places (on campus, in a mall, McDonalds) you never bus your own trays or throw away your garbage. Somebody is hired to just go around and pick up the trays and such. Extremely inefficient, I'd say. Another example, on campus we have security guards. I could see having people at the gates to the campus, but down near the residence halls far away from everything doesn't make much sense. Maybe it is to say they have security guards. The campus is quite isolated (even more so than Cornell as it is not in a town and is not really close to any main public transportation) and I don't really expect random people just show up. One of my favorite randomly hired person is the guy who cleans the escalator handrails. While I am glad they do clean those handrails, that is all I ever see this guy do. I suppose there are a lot of escalator handrails to clean here.... Well, I guess it is good that the government here (I assume it is the government) creates jobs for so many people.
• Walking here is chaos! I don't know whether it is the mixture of cultures or there is really just no organization to walking here. I figure that the side of the sidewalk you walk on would follow the side of the road you drive on. Here, people drive on the left (like england, opposite of the US). So I would think that would walk on the left as well. But no! Complete madness on the sidewalks. This follows with escalators too. Sometimes up is on the left, sometimes it is on the right. There is really no pattern!
• Speaking of the side of the road you drive on, in China, people drive on the right side of the road. So I wonder what happens at the boarder. Does it magically just switch? Plus, cars here have the drivers side on the left too...so do you need a whole new car when you go to the Mainland? I read you need new license plates....
• And finally, I'm only here for about 2 more months! wow. Midterms are a'happenin, spring break is about 3 weeks, and before I know it it will be finals! I need to explore some more soon!

Orchestra Concert Tonight

So I have an orchestra concert tonight. It is a joint concert with HK polytechnic university. The concert is over there tonight, and then on thursday we are performing the same concert here at HKUST.

Program:
1) Jupiter - 1st Movement
2) 老上海金曲組曲 (Old Shanghai Golden Melodies Suite)
3) Beethoven Symphony No.5 - 4th Movement
4) L'Arlesienne - All 4 Movements
5) Intermezzo
6) Carmen Suite - 1,1a,2,5,7,11 Movement
7) Encore: Beethoven Symphony No.5
8) Encore: Ponyo On The Cliff by the Sea (崖上的波妞)

My Comments:

1. One of the first orchestral pieces I ever played, back in prep orchestra in 8th grade. The same arrangement too!
2. Catchy songs. As for the composition as a whole? Interesting. Very strange transitions and orchestration. The keys change wildly with little or no musical warning.
3. I am going to try to play the untransposed version for fun. (The original part is in C rather than Bb).
   
4. Ok piece. I think we are playing the movements out of order...every time we've rehearsed its been the same order, but not the order of the movements. So a suprise tonight!
5. We only got this piece last week and are playing it tonight.
6. Again, I'm not sure what order we are playing the movements in. Plus, we haven't even looked at some of the movements recently....again, it will be interesting tonight.
7. No idea what movement this is going to be....
8. Soundtrack from a japanese video game. Pretty catchy and just kind of silly. Lots of people have it as their cell phone ringtone.

So it will be an interesting night, to say the least. It has been a fun experience over all. Rehersals are an adventure because everybody only talks in cantonese. Sometimes there are jokes where everybody laughs and I am obviously oblivious. I am also trying to figure out whether there will still be rehearsals after the concert. The next concert won't be until next semester, so I am unsure what will be going on. I hope they keep playing. Otherwise, I will have to try harder to find the practice rooms...they exist, but I have no idea where.

My Rainy Weekend in Taipei or: How I went to the top of the tallest building in the world!

This weekend, I took a trip to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. I went with a group of 4 people and we left early Thursday and got back late on Sunday. It rained almost the whole time we were there. I only saw blue sky the afternoon we arrived and the morning we left. Otherwise, rain or drizzle the whole time. Thankfully, I stayed dry with my raincoat, but my umbrella got lost somewhere in transit.

Anyway, I'm done with my complaints about the weather. It seemed all the exchange students at HKUST were going to Taiwan this weekend. We ran into 4 different groups at some point on the trip and we knew of others who were there too. We stayed in a hostel, which was actually quite nice. The 4 of us had our own private room and bathroom which was extremely convenient, secure and comfortable. The hostel had a good location, too, close to the train and one of Taipei's many night markets.

The afternoon we got there, we explored some of the sights near the hostel. We saw the Taipei botanical gardens, the Chiang Kai Shek memorial and the presidential office. The memorial also included the buildings for the national theater and concert hall. The whole area of the memorial was quite grandiose with a large square in the middle. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see good ole Chiang, as the doors to the memorial hall closed soon after we got there.

The next day, it was raining (of course), but we still stuck it out and saw things...mostly temples. We saw the larger ones: Longshan, Confusian, and Paoan. The cool thing in Taipei is that you might be walking down a street that has different shops and all of a sudden, an ornate temple is right next to you, just as if it were another store front! Compared to temples I have seen in Hong Kong and other parts of China, Taipei temples seem to be the most elaborate, especially with intricate carvings of dragons on the roofs and other animals on the roofs. We also saw the Sun Yet Sen memorial hall. We arrived just in time to see the elaborate ceremony for the changing of the guards. Here's a video of part of it:

On saturday we made our way over to the weekend jade market, which was convieniently situated underneath an overpass, so it was nice and dry. There were jade vendors as far as you could see. Once you finished with the jade market, accross the street was the weekend flower market. So many different kinds of flowers, plants and trees. There were beautiful orchids and bonzai trees. I wish I could take some home with me!

Later on Saturday, we made our way up to Danshui, the city on the mouth of the river. The city had an old vibe to it, with lots of street vendors, old buildings and temples. There was a boardwalk right along the river front that had carnival games and food. There were squids on a stick that were probably only caught a few hours before. Had the weather been better, I'm sure it would have been bustling with people and fishermen selling their catch. On the way back we went to the Shilin Night market. This is the biggest and most vibrant of all the night markets in Taipei. There is a large section for food stands and winding streets full of of trendy clothing shops. I didn't buy much (except for food, which I will talk about at the end!)

On Sunday morning, it finally was clear. We took the train and then the bus to the Yongmingshan National Park, Taipei's "backyard" as its advertised. We did a short hike to a open area on mountain where we were in the clouds! We kept walking down trecherous stairs made even more dangerous by the mist toward a visitor center and hot spring. Taiwan has interesting geological characteristics where there are many mountains, gorges, hot springs and even volcanoes! Sadly, the hot spring was closed for cleaning from 1-2:30 and we arrived just after 1. So I brough my bathing suit for nothing...so sad. It was nice to get out of the city for a while, however.

Following lunch back in the downtown area, we went over to Taipei 101: the tallest completed building in the world! One other person and I went up to the top (the other two didn't go, since it was too expensive...400 TWD (a little more than $10 usd, which couldn't get you into the sears tower or most museums in the US). But it is basically the symbol of Taiwan...its picture is on all their advertisements. Anyway, in addition to being the tallest building right now, it also has the fastest elevators in the world. It only took about 35 seconds to go up to the 89th floor , traveling at about 40 mph! It is actually quite an architectural marvel given that Taipei must endure cyclones and earthquakes! It really stands out since there are only a total of 2 skyscrapers in all of Taipei. To read more about Taipei 101, its accolades and interesting symbolism, visit wikipedia.
After our trip to the top of the man made world, we headed back to the hostel and then on to the airport to head back to Hong Kong.

Now to the most important part of our trip: the food! Actually, the majority of the trip was built upon the restaurants and night markets we wanted to go to. The Shilin Night market had all sorts of local treats. I had fresh donuts, sweet sesame pancakes, barbecue, pork and veggie dumplings, fresh fruit (some of which I had never seen or tasted before), bubble tea (it was invented in Taipei and actually has real fruit in it), a scallion bun, and the local favorite, chicken pounded thin and tender, fried and sprinkled with spices. Soo good. There isn't such a street food culture here in Hong Kong, or at least I haven't found it yet.

We also ate at real restaurants, usually for lunch. We had great hot pot (kind of like fondue, but with broth instead of oil) at a restaurant where the stove top was built right into the table. We also went to an all you can eat buffet. The food was decent, but the main attraction were the desserts. I had a great cream puff pastry, some sort of Taiwanese fruit custard, and really good chocolate cake.

Taipei also had lots of bakeries too. There were usually a couple on every block. They had some traditional western baked goods, but also had traditional chinese pastries. My favorite was a rice ball filled with peanut butter (Nou Mi Zi...wikipedia it).

Overall, despite the weather, it was a good trip. I think if I were to go back to Taiwan, I definitely want to explore the southern region of the country, where there are really neat nature sites. But my traveling might be done until spring break in japan...school is getting in the way.

Keep an eye out for more pictures!

Nintendo, 10,000 Buddhas, Exchange fair

So its been a little while since I posted last. I finally have schoolwork and have been busy exploring places, and playing games on sporcle.com (so addicting!).

I finished up my cultural extravaganza this week with a concert at the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. Their pieces included a world premier of a work for Nintendo Gameboy, Electronics, and Orchestra, Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1, Lutoslawski's Dance Pieces for Clarinet and Orchestra, and Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. Overall the concert was pretty good. The orchestra was small but powerful, but it was still different than the big sounds of the CSO I am used to. The Nintendo piece was tamer than I expected. There was some interesting moments of dialogue between the orcehstra and the electronics, but ultimately I kind of wanted something more...especially given the experience I have had playing world premiers in Wind Ensemble. The composer (a Hong Konger who is now a post-doc at princeton), came out in an orange prison suit and talked a little about the piece and then took his place in the back of the orchestra with all his "toys" (literally!). The rest of the concert was good, especially the Bartok. The soloist of the Chopin (Sergio Teimpo) was pretty virtuosic, and I even got his autograph! He's still young, but maybe it will be worth millions someday.

I also went on a walk in the Causeway Bay area. You can see some of the pictures in the last album I posted. I guess some of the coolest things on this walk were the temples. In Hong Kong, there seem to be random temples in the middle of the city. In the midst of all the high rises and modernity, you turn the corner and there is this tiny little temple. Because they are so small, it is kind of hard to breath because of all the incense. One of the temples had coils of incense hanging from the ceiling that burn for 2 weeks!

This past Saturday, I went up to Sha Tin in the New Territories to see the temple with 10,000 buddhas. Out of all the places I have been to so far, this one was the only one I struggled to find. Throughout Hong Kong, virtually every street corner and MTR exit are clearly labeled with the directions to attractions near bye. For this temple, I would have had no idea how to find it had I not been to Sha Tin before on an ikea run and saw a sign. Still, we got a little lost and ended up walking through a cemetery-ish complex that we thought was the temple before we got found the path to the actual temple. Walking through the cemetary, lots of people were giving us weird glances and when we got to the top of the cemetary and saw all these gold buddha figurines on another hill, we figured we were in the wrong place.

The actual temple was pretty cool. The steep and winding path leading up to it was lined on both sides with life size, gold buddhas, each one being different. That was cool, until we got to the temple itself. It was a large room where the walls were filled floor to ceiling with little buddhas, again every one of them being slightly different. I read that there are actually more like 13,000 buddhas in this room alone, plus all the life size ones....a whole lot of buddhas! There were even more buddhas around the temple, plus a cool red pagoda.

Also this week, HKUST hosted an exchange fair where exchange in students and former exchange out students for each school had a booth in the academic concourse. It was especially fun to talk to students who were at Cornell last semester and hearing about their experiences and reminiscing. They all agreed that Cornell was much harder than HKUST. So that makes me feel better about not doing so much work here (and about all the work I deal with at Cornell). I also met some of the students who will be going to Cornell next year.

So now I've officially been here a month. I can't believe it is March already. Before I know it, I will be on the plane back to Chicago! There is still so much I want to explore. I'm going on a trip to Taiwan this upcoming weekend. Hopefully some more traveling in SE asia will happen soon, but I really want to spend a lot of time getting to know Hong Kong.

View the pictures from this adventure on facebook!

New Pictures

I've added more pictures of the past couple weeks on facebook. Take a look!

week of culture

This past week, I engaged in many cultural activities...I feel so refined saying that! Last Sunday, my roommate and I went to see a performance by the Hong Kong Ballet. It was an "All Bach" performance, consisting of 4 pieces danced to, obviously, the music of Bach. Some of the pieces had live orchestra too, which added to the experience. The 1st half of the performance was refined and more "classical" ballet style. The 1st piece, called Concerto Barocco (danced to one of Bach's concerto for 2 violins) interestingly combined traditional ballet movements with modern shapes and ideas. There was a group of dancers plus 3 lead dancers (2 women and a man). The dance went very well with the music; I was impressed how the dance followed the counterpoint of the music by staggering the motions. The next piece was a little more modern (Clear), and showcased 7 men and 1 woman dancing to some other Bach Concertos. One thing that really out in my head was that with the when there was a little turn or flourish in the music, the dancers would also do a small movement such as wobble their heads side to side or clap their hands. Here's a clip of the dance on youtube, so you can get an idea.

The second half of the performance, while still ballet, was a lot more abstract. In the description of the first dance (Steptext), the program mentioned that it makes your expectations of the dance part of the dance itself, with the house lights coming on and off throughout the performance, short bursts of music and periods of no movement at all. The dance definitely met its description! A few minutes before intermission was over, the curtain came up and a bright light was seen on only part stage. The house lights remained on and eventually a male dancer walked out from the darkness and began to dance without music. Occasionally there was a loud interuption from on of Bach's violin partitas, but only for a few seconds. Later, 2 other men and a woman dressed in red came and did little solos without music. They danced together sometimes, the music would go on and off, and the houselights and stage lights would flash on and off as well. It was a little off putting at first, but at the end of the dance I actually really liked it.

The last dance (Mein Bach) was definitely the strangest. There were a lot of dancers on stage at a time and the dance was broken up into 11 different parts. The music consisted of some Bach music, and then some weird, dissonant electronic music. At one point, a long tube of about 5 or 6 florescent lights came down to the middle of the stage and the dancers flocked around it. The whole dance seemed almost extraterrestrial.

This past thursday, I went to the Hong Kong History Museum and saw the exhibit, The Hong Kong Story. The tickets to this museum (and most others) are extremely cheap..only 10 HKD and there is a 50% off student ticket. So I payed less than $1 for this museum. This exhibit followed hong kong history for 1000s of years. It was interesting to learn about the development of Hong Kong, especially the different people who came here throughout time, Hong Kongs position in the Opium Wars, the British Rule, Japanese Occupation and ultimately the handover back to China in 1997. This museum will definitely help me appreciate Hong Kong a little more.

My week of culture was capped of by a performance of Chinese Opera (Beijing style, I think Cantonese Opera is different) at the HK Cultural Center (or shall I say, Centre?) This performance was a compilation of scenes from different operas and had subtitles. This was my first live performance of any opera, let alone a Chinese one! The singing is not western at all. The singing is very high pitched, almost nasal, for both men and women. The audience audience always applauds after the actor finishes singing one word for a very long time (in one breath presumably), while changing the tone of the note. It was pretty impressive usually. The actors were accompanied by an orchestra of traditional chinese instruments, which had a really unique sound.

Chinese opera seems much more intricate and dependent on the singers themselves to tell the story, since there is very little props and scenerey. Every movement means something, as do the colors and parts of the very elaborate costumes. All the stories performed were very historical or had some moral, and I really liked most of them. Here is a picture I got from the bows. Unfortunately, the event was almost sold out, so my seat was in the absolute last row of the huge concert hall, so I wasn't able to really see the details of the costumes, masks and facial paint. I illegally used my camera to try and zoom in on the stage when the security guard wasn't sitting right behind me! Ultimately, there is so much more I need to know about Chinese opera to really appreciate it!

So that concludes my week of culture! It really isn't over yet, since this week I am going to a concert of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. There are so many concerts and performances going on because Feb-March is the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Maybe I'll go to some other performances before festival is over!

Horse Racing

So I went to my first horse race the other night. Don't worry, I'm not becoming a gambler...although you might be led to believe that after my escapades in Macau last weekend. But like Macau, I was somewhat successful in my betting. I bet on two races. I basically picked the horses by their names. The first race I bet on the 5 horse, Cool Cat. But during the race, I was sure I actually bet on horse 4, which placed. So when I went to collect on what I thought was a winning ticket, I was told I had a losing ticket. So sad.

The next race I bet on was race 6. This time I actually bet on the 4 horse to place, Super Goal Master, because I thought that was a ghetto fabulous name. This horse definitely was not a favorite to win, but it ended up getting second! So I won $26 hkd! So overall, between placing the two $10 bets, losing one and winning another, I came back up 6 whole dollars! WOW.

Horse racing was nearly as confusing as the slot machines where. There are 4 different kinds of bets that come on a little bit bigger than business card sized sheets of paper and look like scantrons. Then you check in various numbers on the card based on what race, which horse and what place, and how much you want to bet.

Everyone takes their horse racing so seriously here. They all have their newspapers and follow the odds on the TV very closely. There are off-track betting places all over the city that are always full on race days and saturdays. The race track is kind of like a little oasis in the city. All sorts of people are there; its very international. For the last races we watched, we were situated right near the start line and the finish, so we got to see the most exciting parts of the race! I definitely want to go back some time. They have all sorts of promotions--we tried to get our nails painted and fortunes told, but signed up too late since. We took the time to go to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner....we all needed some american food!

A little collage I threw together in photoshop (its a little small here, double click to see it bigger). I got some really cool pictures of the race. The one at the top is probably my favorite.

Picture Upload

Here are pictures from Macau and Central

adventure to macau

This weekend a large group went to Macau. To give you some background, like Hong Kong, Macau is part of China but has relative autonomy in government (a special administrative region or SAR). It was previously a Portuguese colony and was handed back to the Chinese in 1999. This Portuguese influence is definitely noticeable in the architecture and cuisine. But the most famous (or infamous) part of Macau is its casinos, as it was (and maybe still is, I'm not sure) the only place to legally gamble in China. Basically, it is the Las Vages of the East. Our group visited the Venetian: it is complete with Las Vegas style oppulance with marble everywhere, muraled walls and ceilings, a huge, maze-like high end shopping mall, canals with gondolas, people in costume, and even a curving escalator! I also had my first gambling experience there. Thankfully I can say my first gambling experience was successful, as I won 10 HKD on a slot machine! (a little more than a dollar). Then again, I only bet 20 HKD. Another person on the trip won 6000 HKD (about $775)! Macau also hosts the highest bungee jump off a building. So I guess this is a place for real risk takers.

To get to Macau, you take a 45 minute, high speed jet-foil ferry. The ferry is huge, goes really fast, seems to float on the water. Parts of Macau seem almost European on the surface, but still very Chinese. But signs are sometimes written in Chinese, English, and Portuguese. Walking through the streets, there were lots of shops all different types of beef jerky. To get your attention, they would snap their tongs or hit scissors on them. I tried a sample and it was actually pretty good (and I'm still alive, so that's a good sign). The sights in Macau mostly included remnants of Portuguese culture, the most interesting of which was the ruins of an old church. Culinari-ly, we went around the world! We had lunch at this great portuguese restaurant, getting things like chorizo, Macau fried rice, charcoal grilled chicken, and great salad and bread. For dinner, we were thinking italian, but ended up eating at a Nepalese place back in Hong Kong. A lot of curries and naan, but maybe more subdued and with subtler flavors than indian food.

Overall, it was a decent trip. It was hard going with such a large group. We started off with 16, and then I ended up in a group of 8. But when the 16 of us were trying to find the right bus to get on (and then getting on it!) I was slightly embarrassed by the situation, wondering what the people around us thought of this group of obvious tourists. It was a little frustrating at times (mostly because I was the only one who came prepared with a guidebook), but was still fun. Next time I go somewhere, I need to either go by myself of with a much smaller group.

adventure in central

So after my one and only class on Thursday morning, my roommate and I headed to Central (downtown Hong Kong) to get our student train passes. She had to head back to campus, but I stuck around and did a little exploring. After getting my bearings, I headed up to the Hong Kong Park, a very nice, relatively new man made park. There is a little lake with fish and koi swimming around and turtles that were sitting on rocks sunbathing. There also is an aviary, one with caged birds and one where you go inside and walk around. Lots of colorful birds flying around! I'll have to go back with my better camera an take more pictures. I also climbed to the top of a lookout tower and got cool views of the city. The park also had a greenhouse, sculpture walk, amphitheater, and playground. It was a peaceful break from the bustling city right below.

After the park, I followed a short walk that was in a guide book. Probably the highlights of the walk were seeing the government house--this is where the head of Hong Kong lives, and the cutting edge architecture of the skyscrapers.

Here are a few pictures. More to come.



Old Government House vs. New Skyscrapers

Lake in the park

first week of classes

Monday:

• 1:30-2:50 IELM 225 Operations Research II (Stochastic Processes): The professor (obviously) noticed I was an exchange student and took the time to come over and introduce herself to me. I found out later that she did her Phd at Northwestern and taught at Cornell for a few years! But right now, the class is a basic review of probability. Since I took a probability class last semester, its pretty boring right now...and just brings back bad memories of my previous statistics classes.
• 4:30-5:50 Math 201 tutorial which I didn't have this week.
  

Tuesday:

• 9:00-10:20 ISOM 366 Logistics Management: Seems like it will be an interesting class. The class was smaller and the students were much more respectful. But maybe this was at 9am. There seems to be a lot of group work, which will be a good way to get to know local students, but I'm worried that I will have to play proofreader and head writer on the 10-25 single space case study we have to produce by the end of the semester.
• 4:30-5:20 IELM 225 tutorial which i didn't have either
  

Wednesday:

• 1:30-2:50 Math 201 Intro to Analysis: Well, definately not the most stellar class I have had. We get lecture notes at the beginning of class and the professor basically copies them verbatum onto the white board...although he uses many different colors! This is definitely the most hardcore math class I have had in a while. It is a lot of mathematical proofs, something I have done little of in the past. Although the topics we will cover I have seen before in other classes, usually multiple times, it seems like we will be proving them rigorously. Lots of crazy symbols!
• 3:00-4:20 Lang 113 Introduction to Mandarin: This class is almost all exchange students. Today we were learning the alphabet, different vowels, basic sounds and tones. It was pretty hilarious as the teacher would say a letter and we would all repeat after her, often quite badly. There were points where I could hardly keep myself from laughing. It is hard to keep all the minute differences apart and is kind of all over the place. But I'll do my best!
  
• 4:30-5:50 Fina 111 Finance: I am sitting in on this class since I wanted to get an understanding in finance for my internship this summer. It is my largest class by far, there are about 600 students enrolled in 3 different lectures. The seats in these lecture halls are so comfortable. If this class were any other time than 4:30-5:50, I might fall asleep. But so far the lectures are interesting and engaging.

Thursday

• 9:00-10:20 ISOM 366 again
• 1:30-4:20 Sosc 178: Economic and population growth in china. I'm not sure if I want to take this class or not. I want to try relax this semester and be able to take the time to travel and explore.
• 7-9 Orchestra rehearsal! What an experience. The orchestra is VERY small. Only about 20 people. There is barely a full string section (no bass), there are 2 clarinets, 3 flutes, a trumpet and 3 trombones (somehow!), and a percussion player. Still they are playing reputable music, parts of both carmen suites, another Bizet suite, an arranged version of Jupiter Symphony (same version I played in my first orchestra experience back in 8th grade!) and we sight read Tchaikowsky's Cappricio Italienne. Thankfully, I had my A clarinet, but my other clarinet friend did not. They conductor made a joke that for $20,000 HKD you can change the key signature from B major (5 sharps) to C major (no sharps!). The rehearsal was was quite chaotic: playing when stopped, talking, cell phones, coming in late...nothing like that would ever pass for any rehearsal I have been in in the US! Plus, everything was in cantonese...I was barely able to figure out where we were starting. But everybody obviously was just there because they loved playing music, which is why I am there too! We are playing 2 concerts jointly with Hong Kong Polytechnic university in March.

Friday

• 9:00-10:20 IELM 225 again. A lot fewer people here today than monday. Probably because it was 9 am!
  
• 1:30-2:50 Math 201
  
• 3:00-4:20 Chinese
• 4:30-5:50 Finance

So I am in 16 credits right now, only 13 if I drop the sociology class. I almost feel bad taking so few classes. The some students I talked to are taking 6 or 7 classes! Crazy! I would never to that to myself at Cornell. But like I said before, I want to be able to relax and have fun while I'm here and not focus on school work so much.

It seems that there is a lot less time spent in the classroom. Maybe this means more must be spent outside of class, but I will have to wait and see if that is the case. But taking 5 courses at Cornell, I would often have 2 to 4 commitments to classes each day. Here, even with 5 courses I usually only have 2 classes a day only having 3 classes once. I'm not a fan of the 6 hour breaks in between, or the classes going until nearly 6:00.

The culture of the classes also much different than at Cornell. In some classes students speak up more, but often students are talking in the background. But from what local students tell me, the students from Mainland china are in the library all the time and always mess up the curve. While the classes seem easier, it seems harder to do well in them. At least my grades don't count in my GPA! Regardless, should be a fun and interesting semester.

Picture Upload

Here are pictures from my trip to the Big Buddha.

Cultural Exchange!

After my last class today, I started talking with a local student who was sitting behind me. I ended up having dinner with her and her friends, all local first year students. Other students kept joining us and ultimately there were about 9 local students and me sitting at a large round table. It was really fun to talk and interact with the students. The one girl whom invited me to dinner went to high school in Scotland, so she had an interesting combination of chinese and Scottish accents in her English. I suppose I will sit with them again in the next class! I feel like the new girl in school who just made her first friends. Although I am friends with other students, they are mostly exchange students as well, these are my first real Hong Kong friends!

Campus Life

Now that I've been here about a week, I've kind of settled into campus life and culture. Monday was the first day of the semester, so the campus really came to life as all the local students moved back in or came to campus for class. It was a little overwhelming walking into the main atrium and seeing it bustling with students; I felt pretty out of place. Until then, the only other people I saw on campus were other exchange students, but now it was filled with actual students. I kind of stuck out like a sore thumb. In addition to all the people, various student groups had set up booths. If you have seen Ho Plaza, this his Ho Plaza on drugs. Students build vary intricate booths and props, 15 to 20 of them are there, all dressed in uniform and they swarm you like nothing you have seen at Cornell offering fliers, canned coffee and fishballs.

One group was the new Cabinet for the dorm I live in. They had built an army tank (I had seen them working on it the past week but had no idea what was going on) and had about 20 students dressed up in green army uniforms (complete with helmets, green rain boots and plastic machine guns) marching around the atrium in formation and handing out fliers and paper with the cabinet's name on it. It was a little scary and at first I thought it was some sort of anti-US demonstration. Eventually I got up the courage to ask one of the students what was going on and he explained that there is a strong house affiliation and culture at HKUST and they were trying get recognized by the student body...or something like that, I couldn't exactly understand him. But anyway, it is easy to tell the students are very into the houses they live in and was quite a sight!



I had noticed changes in the dorm though, kind of a changing of the guard from the old cabinet to the new one. On each door, they have a sign with the name of the cabinet. But sometime sunday night, it changed from "Visitory" to "Fourster". They also changed signs around the dorm, including this funny one in each bathroom stall. I'm not sure if the translation is literal, or just meant to be off.

Here are some pictures of my dorm. It is actually a decent size for a double (maybe since the bed is slightly narrower than a real twin bed), but the furniture doesn't move which limits feng shui creativity! There is a triple across the hall which seems awful, as it is exactly the same size as my room, but with 3 people in it in bunk beds. I think they may even have a 4th person living in the room too. My roommate is another exchange student, which is nice and we get along great, but then I'm kind of missing part of the cultural immersion I was looking for. But talking to our neighbor as she moved back in for the semester, students seem to have the same room all three years they are here, so they really accumulate a lot of stuff! My room is so bare...its kind of depressing compared to the regular students' rooms.


From what I've tried so far, the dining halls aren't awful. There are basically 3 canteens, as they call them here. They are kind of confusing to use at first and each has its own system and because of the limited english, I am wary of trying to venture into new ones because I know how to "work" the one I keep going too. Some have western style food (I actually had a good turkey sandwich at one) but I have mostly been eating Chinese food so far. I've gotten really good at using chopsticks, especially with rice (a very important skill to have)!

adventures before school starts :(

So I have been trying to cram a few explorations in this weekend before I have to face the responsibility of school. Things started off a little rough...I was planning on taking a bus to a trains station on the green line. From the directions I had in my orientation packet, the bus I got on would go there and the sign on the bus said it would go there too. So I had no reason to believe I would end up somewhere else. When the bus stopped at the end of the purple line and all the passengers were getting off, I figured something went wrong. But after a little damage control and extension to my excursion, I made it to where I wanted to be.

That night, I went out to dinner with my buddy to a thai restaurant in Sai Kung that could give Taste of Thai a run for its money (although I'm sure Taste of Thai needs its money anyway after the little problem it has now...). Following dinner, we went to this chinese dessert place. They had things like ice cream and smoothie like things, but the majority of their desserts are kind of sweet, cold soups with bean pastes, fruit and jellies. I tried the Mango Glass Jelly. Here is a picture of one I found online (I need to start taking pictures of my food like somebody I know...), but it was basically a sweet, creamy milk with ice chips, a chunk of fresh mango, and flavorless, gelatinous black cubes called "grass jelly". Overall, was surprisingly good!

Today, couple of people I have metand I headed across all of Hong Kong to the Po Lin Monastery and "Big Buddha" on Lantau Island. It took about an hour to get there, but after a bus, 3 different train lines and a cable car ride up to the top of the mountain, we made it. It was quite busy since it was Sunday and part of the new year, there were many people who made the trek for religious reasons as well as many tourists. The cable car ride, while comparatively expensive (107 HKD! or approx 14 USD) showcased wonderful vistas.

The Buddha itself was pretty neat, as was the monastery. The incense at the monestary was so thick it was hard to breathe! It was kind of weird to be taking pictures while many people around us were praying to the Buddha. Another strange thing about this place is that it is relatively new...its only been around about 30 years, even the Buddha and parts of the monasteries Parts of this place seemed akin to Disney World or Six Flags...toursity and ridiculously over priced and complete with a Starbucks. All in all a good and tiring day.





More pictures of Po Lin will soon be posted on facebook albums. Due to poor lighting, the pictures are kind of yucky. Maybe I will photoshop a few of them when I have the time. I also recently posted a few more pictures of campus that I took with my phone.

First days in pictures

As promised, here some pictures.

View of the Harbor early in the morning. Due to jet lag, I woke up around 7....But this was my first view of Hong Kong in daylight.


View from campus. I told you it looks like a resort!


Basically the whole campus my dorm is the building in the foreground on the left. All of my classes are in the long building at the very top of the picture. most of the other buildings are dorms.


Hong Kong skyline at night from Victoria Peak.

View more pictures on facebook (a public link so you don't need an account or need to sign in).

First Impressions

So after a 13 hour flight to Narita, followed by another 4 hour flight to Hong Kong (in which I got sick and threw up on the plane), I finally arrived in Hong Kong. Good riddance, I say. 6 weeks of doing little to nothing does take its toll on oneself. I hope I remember how to function once school starts on Monday.

Here are some impressions I have on this city and on The Hong Kong University of Science and technology (HKUST)...in no particular order

1. It is extremely cheap to live here. My dorm for this semester cost the equivalent of about $750. That is about the same price as my collegetown apartment for a month! Granted, it is a double room with a skinnier version of a twin bed but still, it shows how outrageous collegetown living is.
   
2. It is pretty extremely cheap to eat here. Lunch today of a sandwich and tea cost about 3 dollars. A whole bowl of noodle soup with dumplings was 3 dollars as well.
3. This university is like a resort/little city. There is a supermarket on campus, 3 different banks, a souvenir shop, post office, 4 or 5 different eating options (I haven't explored them all yet), a campus bar, a mini office store, an indoor and outdoor pool, and a beach!
4. I have to take 5 different elevators to get to class. 5!!!!! Maybe Cornell should devise a system of escalators and elevators too...
5. Hong Kong is much more diverse than I thought it would be. Having gone to China where I was stared at walking down the street, I was expecting my red hair to do something similar here. But not so much. Dinner in central tonight, there were almost more non-asians than asians at the various bars and pubs. However, English is not as widespread as I thought it would be.
   
6. They have this thing called an Octopus card which is like a CTA train card, but can be used to pay for all sorts of things around the city. It's like a universal Hong Kong gift card! In the day I've had mine, I've used it for the transportation (a train, bus and ferry), printing in the library, and buying a pastry.
   
7. speaking of trains...the system here is very clean and easy to use. There re no dividors between the cars so you can stand at on end of the car and look down all the way to the other end. Kind of mind boggling when the train is moving!
8. The weather is magnificant! The few days I have been here have been 65 and sunny. It won't get much warmer than 80 until May when it will get humid with occasional rain, and perhaps a typhoon. The ironic thing is,60-65 is freezing for hong kongers, so everybody is out in their heavy jackets and boots, but they still have the air conditioning on in taxis and buildings.
   

Overall, I'm just really excited to explore and get acquainted with this area. My roomate has told me that she and her friends are planning to visit China, Vietnam and Thailand and invited me to tag a long. When else will I get to experience South East asia in such a carefree way!

Pictures to come...when I'm not so tired.