An Entire Chicken Hot Pot

Last night the teachers went out to a hot pot restaurant. It was different than the hot pot I've always had, which is just a pot of boiling water or broth that you throw uncooked food into to make a giant soup. Instead, half of the pot was spicy with an entire chicken and half was a soup that was unseasoned. And yes, the head and the feet were in there and all the organs. Chris tried to hack away at the feet but they were difficult to eat, and I believe someone ate some neck but no one went for the head.

 

I learned that my first vacation for National Day is coming up soon. It is 10 days from September 27-October 10th. My Bryn Mawr friend Kate is in Taiwan teaching English so I may visit or travel with her. And Caitlin is also interested in traveling, and she has never been to Asia at all so she would go anywhere. I am trying to decide if I want to visit Taiwan, travel within China or perhaps take a tropical vacation somewhere in Southeast Asia. However, I just found out that I don't get paid until October 10th, which is annoying because that is after my vacation so I am trying to get another advance on my pay so I can have a bit more pocket money. I am already excited to travel though- I love planning trips so much. The guys haven't had a long vacation yet and Chris and Gary haven't been anywhere but here so I think they are heading to Beijing.

 

 

The Chinese Man Who Played American Songs on his Harmonica

Today is Saturday, one of the long work days. I had to wake up at 8:20 so I could get all my hours in. Whenever I'm not teaching but working I'm supposed to be available to test new students, but mostly I sit around a lot reading. Caitlin and I started watching Wild China, a sort of Planet Earth like documentary on the nature of China- lots of Guizhou landscapes! Then I had a new class. I originally had 5 students on the roster, which moved up to 8, which is now 11. They are beginners, but they are older- around 9 years old. So they learn quite fast and understand things better- but there are some wild ones in the class. They seem to love games and things with teams so it should be fun.

 

After that I had nothing but TTO on my schedule so I decided to go to English Corner. English Corner is just a time when anyone can come to practice their English- so there are ages ranging from university students up to very old. It was fantastically fun! They asked us a lot of questions about ourselves. And we had everything from doctors to an engineer to young university students. There was a very old man there, who is over 80 years old- still coming to practice his English! He is amazingly interesting. He first learned English when the Americans were in China during World War II fighting the Japanese together. He remembers going to a church and learning American songs there. And guess what- he brought his harmonica along and some music. He played the Marine Corps March and Swanee River and Oh Susanna, it was great! He also told us about swimming in the lakes when he was growing up in Qingdao. I can barely imagine how different China was 50 years ago when he was at university. Another guy asked me for my opinion on the Chinese government, and we discussed our opinions on the direction the government will take. Everyone was very interested and offered to help or talk with us if we wanted to know anything about Guizhou.

Chairman Mao waves at Walmart

Today Caitlin and I ate lunch at Ajisen Ramen, a chain they have here that I knew from Hong Kong- Japanese noodles and other foods. It was good food and we even had a desert that was fried potatoes and taro ice cream- pretty yummy. We walked to People's Square which has a large chairman Mao statue and across the street, two Louvre like pyramids. Of course these are the entrance to the underground Walmart- yes, Chinese Walmart Supercenter, which is absolutely huge. They have a local specialties section and all the regular supercenter Walmart goods. And also a huge candy section. It was pretty fun to walk around and see all the products they sell. I bought some more make your own bubble tea kits and a hot water pitcher so I can have tea and instant noodles in my room.

Ping's Birthday

On Tuesday night, after Qianling Park, the Chinese girls cooked from about 4-8 at the school to prepare a feast for Ping (on of the Chinese staff). It was her birthday dinner. We had a lot of the local foods that are popular here, and lots of people came. A lot of the friends I had met when I went out with Wayne were there. I talked to Ivy, Wayne's very good local friend, a lot about her new job as an English translator. I also met Sean, this guy who used to work at the school. He spent a year in Michigan so he has very good American English. We ended up at the bar we had gone to with Wayne, where we had birthday cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday in Chinese. I enjoyed hanging out with some locals, who are all very nice and mostly know at least some English. Afterwards Caitlin, Garry, Chris, and I hung out so that was fun. Garry is from Newcastle in England and Chris is from Northern Ireland.

 

Yesterday, Wednesday, Caitlin and I got some more good snacks at the picture restaurant for lunch. I prepared for my class- my second week with the little kids. Before class I went and hung out with Chris and met his girlfriend Jolene. She is very nice- a local university student. We ate a Miao restaurant and then I had to get to class. They moved all my 5 year olds to Wayne's class and now I just have 5 4-year-olds. There might be more kids added though. So it was a bit easier but also still difficult to discipline a couple of the kids. They are smart, though, so I think they will learn everything very quickly. After class, I went to hang out with Chris and Jolene and Caitlin, Matt, and a few local Chinese girls. I took a taxi to the address they were at- a tall building with bars on many floors. Getting into the elevator was insane because it was so crowded and the building was so tall. Chris came to get me and pulled me into an elevator. And then we got to the 10th floor and it started beeping- too heavy (suddenly?). We stupidly got out and thought we might never make it to the 20th floor but we finally did. I only hung out for a little while because I was pretty tired. I am still not very good at all the dice games they like to play here- I can play in English but not yet in Chinese.

My Job

My schedule this week has only 3 more classes besides my little kids: a beginner class that is a bit older, a Dr. Seuss class, and a Passage a Week class that follows a book closely. It should not be too bad at all. The rest of the day I have to hang around for TTO, which is Teaching, Testing, or Other jobs- it probably means a lot of sitting around since several of us will be doing it. I guess I will see how I like having 12 hour days on Saturday and Sunday and the majority of the week off. So far I enjoy that I can sleep in every day except Saturday and Sunday- it's pretty nice.

 

I will write a real entry soon and try to get a few pictures on as well. Stay tuned!

Qianling Park

Today Caitlin and I went to Qianling Park. We decided to walk, something I probably wouldn't have done on my own but it was really cool actually to walk across the city. We used a map of Guiyang from my Lonely Planet and hardly got lost. By the way, I could write a better guide to Guiyang already. Although it's been somewhat helpful, one example of how it shortchanges Guiyang is that they just say there are a bunch of bars and lounges and don't list any details about the good ones, which I find strange, because the nightlife is huge here and they usually tell you things like that in these guides. I like the city more and more though. It is very modern but also very Chinese with the street food and cheap stores everywhere, and the locals are very nice. We reached a street that led up to Qianling that was pretty cool. It was lined with these huge shady trees and lots of small shops. The park itself is very big and includes trails up the mountain. There are lots of people playing music and dancing there and wild monkeys everywhere. We hiked up to the temple- apparently I am in terrible shape because Caitlin was like running up the stairs and I was huffing and puffing. It was a big temple, very beautiful. We ate at the vegetarian restaurant. There was a fake beef tofu dish that they poured sauce over and it boiled, it was very very good and different from other food I've had. At first, we weren't sure we'd be able to order but luckily there was a guy who spoke quite good English who helped us out a lot. He was nice, around our age I think, and gave us his contact information in case we had any questions about Guiyang.

 

After that we tried to find the cable car that goes up and down the mountain and hiked to the top. It almost killed me and there was a great view of the city but we couldn't find the cable car so we hiked back down. There is this lake that you get to by going through this tunnel through the mountain- it's very long.

 

We were tired- well at least I was- so we took a taxi home. Luckily we have this huge pagoda near us so we can just tell the taxi driver "wencheng da" to take us back to school.

 

I will try to post some pictures soon though my camera ran out of battery so I might have to steal Caitlin's. I still feel sort of weird just taking picture of the city since everyone is already staring at the funny-looking foreigner. But I will try to take more pictures.

Adventures in Guiyang

On Sunday night, after work, Caitlin and I went to eat some noodles cooked in clay pots with Philip. It was very good street food. Philip is middle-aged and also a new teacher- he is supposed to be starting a math program at our school that Caitlin will help with. He has lived in China for around 5 years so he has some pretty interesting stories. Then Wayne invited Caitlin and I to hang out. He gave us a little tour of some good places to go and showed us how to get to the main street and the big grocery store. Wayne has been here a year and has a lot of local friends. We met up at a bar where he knew lots of people and hung out with his friends. Everyone is very friendly and his friends mostly speak some English so it was really fun.

 

Then on Monday we slept in and Caitlin and I went back the way Wayne showed us to get to the grocery store. This sounds ridiculous but the grocery store is SO FUN! It has 3 levels with about anything you could ever need. The candy section alone is amazing- I will have to go back there and try all the different candies. They have people everywhere to help you shop and they kept talking to us in Chinese- one girl gave us a free shampoo sample so that was nice. We bought these drinks they have everywhere- it's a make your own bubble tea kit. I am having my taro flavored one right now and it is good! In your cup there is the tea powder, tapioca pearls and a straw and you just stir in hot water, it's pretty fun. Also at the store they were selling these flaky pastry roll things that were really good.

 

Later we went to dinner at the restaurant with the picture menu that Matt and I had been to. We had better food this time though I think. I had beef and broccoli and we got bao zi, Chinese buns filled with something delicious like in this case potatoes and sauce, and we had egg tarts which I had a lot in Hong Kong- they are little pie crusts filled with an egg custard. All very good.

 

Today, our other day off, we are planning to go to Qianling Park, a big park with a temple and wild monkeys. Then we are supposed to help the Chinese girls cook for Ping's birthday party tonight. Uh oh. I can't cook but hopefully I can do something.

Working and Making Friends

On Friday I had my second class, which was sort of...horrible. No, I mean 4-5 year olds are just crazy and I have a couple of kids who do almost nothing I say. It's quite hard to discipline kids who don't understand me. A few of them are very good and I think they are all learning something- even the worst kid learned that she has to say "Megan" to get my attention instead of "laoshi" which is teacher in Chinese. A lot of them speak to me in Chinese as if I understand even though every time I try to show them that I have no idea what they are saying. Friday night was Dumpling Friday so we went to the nearby dumpling restaurant and had everyone's favorite dishes.

 

All day Saturday I just observed lessons pretty much. I did some testing of kids, where you try to see what level they are at and that's when I met Amy, my new 12 year old Chinese best friend. She spoke really good English and she loves to talk to foreigners. She's pretty hilarious too so for testing I talked to her for a really long time. I also met Katelyn, the new American girl foreign teacher. It is good to have a friend, and hopefully we can explore the city together. I hung out with Katelyn and Amy for a while before Amy had her new class and Katelyn and I observed Chris's TOEFL class, which is teenagers and the highest level. It made me long for an older class because the kids loved to talk to us and they were quite good at English so it was a fun time. Tomorrow is like our Friday since Monday and Tuesday are our days off. I have some more observing classes and maybe some more testing. And I found out coming up we have one of the Chinese staff's birthdays and a big meeting/dinner with the Zunyi branch of our school so that should be fun.

My First Class

Yesterday I did some boring stuff like a physical and going to the police station for my visa and residence paperwork, and I signed my contract. I walked around a bit but I didn't do too much- I've only really walked around the streets in my area which have lots of stores and things.

 

Today I had my first class. Before that, I did some "training" with Matt, who is my supervisory teacher, and he helped with lesson planning and figuring out what the heck to do with 4-5 year olds for a first lesson. I started setting up and some of the kids were there early. Some knew quite a few words already. It was a bit hard trying to keep their attention as they all wanted to wander, and I hadn't really done any of the games I was trying before. They were pretty quick to catch on though- they could say "Hello" and "goodbye" and a lot could both say and do "sit down" and "stand up." Discipline is definitely hard at this age especially when they pretty much have no idea what you are saying. The second half of class I got to name the ones who didn't have names. I named one boy "Max" which I think is a really cute name and I named some of the girls "Emma" and "Rose" and "Kate." I made them crowns with their names, Matt's idea, and tried to teach them their names and to say "Hello Max" and that sort of thing. Luckily the class is only an hour with a 10 minute break (usually classes are an hour and a half) so we said goodbye and hopefully they had fun and learned something (I think they did).

 

After I went with Matt to a restaurant he knew that had a picture menu. We had some spicy food of course- if I haven't mentioned it Guizhou is known for spicy food- and now I don't have class until Friday. Tomorrow night I'm going to observe Matt's class, which is the second semester of the class I'm teaching so that should be helpful. This weekend I'll observe some other classes which should get me all set with some more ideas and such. It's really something you have to learn as you go though- sort of learn firsthand and improve upon your model.

Exploring

Last night I hung out with the guys at our school and got some street food-noodles which were cheap and good. Then we went out. Guiyang has a pretty happening nightlife. The locals, unlike other places in China, like to party. We played this dice game that they like to play here, and then we went to a club. It had both Western and Chinese music, flashing lights, a DJ and singers and dancers. Pretty fun for a Sunday night! (which is like the weekend to teachers who work all Saturday and Sunday). I also got to know the guys a bit, most are from the UK but one teacher is from Texas so he was excited to have another American to hang with. We were also pretty popular with random people who came to join us briefly and say "hello" and "nice to meet you."

 

Today I had totally free so I rested a bit and wandered the city. Everyone is very nice and a people will use the English they know and say "hello" or whatever. It's a modern city with lots of shopping and some Western style restaurants (including KFC, of course) as well as street food and smaller places. Very loud too with constant horn-honking and lots of traffic. Which I can of course hear from my room- on the 13th floor by the way. But I don't mind the noise because of the 30-second commute to work I get.

 

Tomorrow I have to do a physical and sign my contract, and that's all I have scheduled so I might get to do some more exploring.

Settling In

Today I woke up early to do meet with Matt, who is a teacher and a supervisor to talk about the basics of teaching and the school and stuff. Basically at our school the bulk of classes are on the weekend , so today and Saturday are very busy.  The upside to working long days on weekends is that I for sure have Mondays and Tuesdays off and the week is pretty relaxed. I learned that my first class will be 4-5 year olds who speak no English, so I am trying to get ready for that. I had to do a sample lesson for my bosses which was pretty scary, but now that's over and it was fine I think. It's still a bit intimidating but I am trying to prepare the best I can and the school has a lot of materials and everyone's friendly. I am going to go observe Matt's preschool class tonight. But I am still settling in and I haven't explored the city much yet- might do that today. I want to be sure that I can find my way back and it is very hectic out there. My room is noisy and people honk their horns pretty much nonstop when driving. I don't mind since I am a heavy sleeper and I enjoy the convenience of living in the school. For lunch I went out with Maosi and Huang Min, my bosses, again. We went to a dumpling place that is close and so apparently popular with our teachers. It was very good. The food here is generally very spicy, but it's a different kind of spice than Mexican or other kinds of food- it burns your throat on the way down. So it takes some getting used to. Hopefully I will start feeling more comfortable and making friends soon. But generally I think I landed a good school and a good city.

Moving to Guiyang

Right now I am accessing my blog by emailing in an entry. If someone could send an email to lilpinkteacup@yahoo.com (an old email that I am using) to tell me that this worked that would be great. Also, I am unable to get on Gmail or Facebook right now so that email is the best way to get in touch with me at the moment.

 

Last night I met up with an Australian guy at my hostel and invited him out with Claire and I. I was feeling like eating Indian, which I ate a lot in HK due to the immigrant population there. There was a restaurant right down stairs that we tried which was pretty good. Then we met up with Richard. He used to bartend at this one random bar so we went there to chill out. We didn't stay out too late because we were all so tired, but it was sad to say goodbye to Richard and Claire. And Hong Kong.

 

This has been quite a day. I heard there was a bus to Shenzhen airport from this hotel in Wan Chai so I took it. We got to Shenzhen though and I went into the customs line. For some reason they didn't like my passport or visa or something so they took forever to look at it. Everyone in the long line behind me was upset and yelling at them about it so I felt pretty upset even though they were just being dumb, it wasn't my fault. Then, I crossed the border and I didn't know what to do. Now I realize I was being extremely stupid because you catch the bus on the other side to the airport but was freaking out so I got in a taxi to the airport. Then I didn't have enough money I realized so when we arrived I had to get some to pay the driver. Luckily he was really nice. Then I caught my plane, which of course left an hour late. But it was all very easy, they had everything in English too and the flight attendants spoke English.

 

Maosi, the guy who runs Interlingua, my school, picked me up at the airport. The first thing I noticed is that it is much dryer and cooler here than in Hong Kong. And he said it's the hottest day of the summer so that's pretty amazing. Now when I've told people I'm teaching in Guiyang, even those who are familiar with China give me blank stares and everyone assumes I'm in some random village. But first of all, this is the capital city and it's not so different than HK. There are green mountains all around and high rise buildings. Lots of stores and everything, and a fair amount of English signs. More mainland China though, definitely a bit rougher. It was really confusing because I can usually tell the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese but here they sound Cantonese when they talk, until I start listening for the random Mandarin words I know.

 

We arrived at the school, which is on the 14th floor, and I am lucky because I basically live in the school so I will have a 30 second commute. Maosi said my apartment is small but I had seen Claire's closet in HK so I really like it. I mean this is the largest room I've had living on my room so I'm quite comfortable. Everyone's very nice and I've been meeting all the people from the school. At the moment I'm the only girl teacher (it's like the opposite of Bryn Mawr!) but there is another girl coming soon, and there is only one other American who is from Texas. I went out to eat with Maosi and his wife, who are very nice and seem fun. They wanted pizza, they wanted me to adjust before I eat the spicy food here so I went to a pretty nice pizza place, it had great food that was as good as American really.

 

I hung out a bit from some of the teachers and they seem quite cool so far; very chill. Now this week I have sort of an orientation and training so should be pretty busy.

The Under Bridge Typhoon Shelter Crab

Julia, a German girl from my hostel, and I met up with Claire last night to go to the Under Bridge Crab Restaurant, which was featured on Anthony Bourdain and is pretty well-known. We had to get the crab, of course, their specialty, and we also got some vegetables, rice, and garlic scallops with vermicelli. They brought out the live crab so we could approve of it and then when he came back, he was cooked and covered in this delicious spicy stuff. None of us had really eaten crab out of the shell before so that was interesting, haha. But it was delicious and then scallops were also amazing. Probably the most expensive meal I've had in HK but well worth it and in the States you'd pay much much more for fresh seafood that good.

I found out that my HKU friend Richard was in town which was exciting so we met up at Oysters, a favorite place of ours from HKU. We spent most of the night hanging out and reminiscing about our great HKU semester as well as eating good food. I had a chicken tikka kebab from Ebeneezer's which was delicious. It was pretty early for a HK night, we went home around 1:30. But Lan Kwai Fong, which is usually a street overflowing with people, was pretty tame last night.

Today I decided to do some of my favorite HK things so I got a chicken curry puff at Starbucks, took the ferry to TST and got Hui Lau Shan mango drink, and shopped around Mongkok. I had Gindaco, these amazing Japanese dumplings with octopus inside. Now I am resting and starting to repack my stuff, which is everywhere. I am leaving pretty early tomorrow morning and taking a bus to Shenzhen airport, where I will go on about a two hour flight to Guiyang and meet people from my school.

Back to Kennedy Town

So if you've been following along in my adventures you'd know that Claire and I were very excited to go to our favorite restaurant in Kennedy Town. We took the tram, which is slow but both cheap and fun, and open air. Kennedy Town is close to University of Hong Kong (HKU) so we would often eat there or hang out around there. It's definitely a neighborhood rather than a touristy place. We got off and tried to remember where Greenland, our favorite Taiwanese restaurant, was. We wandered around and found the corner it was on- but it was gone! All boarded up and closed. I guess it was 2 years ago but it was very sad since it was a sentimental place from our HKU days. So we had to go somewhere else and headed to the Westwood mall, which was another hangout of ours and went to Chili and Spice, a Thai restaurant. It was good, I had a favorite dish of Indonesian style noodles. Then we met up with some of Claire's friends, including Sai, a Pakistani guy who is a full-time HKU student that recognized me from study abroad, and some other people I knew from HKU days. We had a lot of fun going to Wan Chai and hanging out. Wednesday is Ladies Night in Wan Chai so it's pretty busy. We went to this place, Swindlers, we used to go to. Whenever I went there were always very few people (mostly just my friends taking the place over) and creepy old guys, but now it's young and hip and has a DJ and everything. So weird. But I love all the people you meet in Hong Kong, everyone is so diverse and interesting and fun.

Today I had to go to the American Consulate in Central to add more passport pages (I only had three left!). It only took like 10 minutes which was quite nice. I decided to look for some place to eat but it was still quite early so all I could find that looked good were places that weren't open yet. I decided to go to IFC Mall, the huge big and famous (and shiny) mall near the waterfront. I went to my favorite Starbucks with its nice view of the water and found a chicken curry puff! I used to get them all the time but I hadn't seen them anywhere. It is a flaky pastry filled with green curry and chicken, so delicious. Then I met up with Claire on her lunch break.

Coming back to Hong Kong makes me wish I was moving here. But it will be good to have a different experience, at least that's what I'm hoping. I've met some people at the hostel who've been English teachers and they enjoyed it. I love random things. Like how they actually offer to split the check if you are having trouble calculating instead of at American restaurants where they get so annoyed with a split check. Or how today at Starbucks they brought me my food and gave me a cup of water at my table.

Well I only have today and tomorrow left. Tonight Claire and I have plans to go to another Anthony Bourdain restaurant, a crab place. It smelled soooo good when we passed by that we decided we'd have to go. And it is Ladies Night in Lan Kwai Fong so we will probably go to our favorite spots later from our HKU days.

Oh, so here are the pictures I've taken so far: that link should work even if you don't have Facebook. Let me know if you have any trouble with it, and there should be more coming.

The Cloudy Peak

Well last night I made friends with an English guy at my hostel, Greg, who is on his way to move to Australia. I invited him to come to the handmade noodle restaurant in Wan Chai with Claire. It is very local and cheap but so delicious, I recommend. The noodles are a bit tougher but soooo good. We got noodles with dumplings and with wantons. Claire and I found ourselves reminiscing fondly of our HKU days. We just had such a good group of exchange students that it was perfect, so much fun. Hong Kong is still amazing but it's not the same without all of the people. I would still live here though- I love it.

Today I offered to tour Greg around a bit. We headed to Central and walked around a bit and then caught the Peak Tram, which I never took before. I have only been to the Peak at night and by bus. It was super foggy but it was a nice fast slanted ride up the mountain. We went to the top viewing deck but literally saw nothing but fog. But then, it cleared up quite a bit and we got a decent view of the skyline (pictures will follow soon). Then we headed down and I showed Greg around Central and Soho, which is where the giant escalator is. We took the ferry to TST and went to the art museum, which was free today but not all that great- I prefer the HKU museum actually. I took him to Mongkok and we ate some street food and got Hui Lau Shan mango drinks and walked around the Ladies Market a bit (the huge street market).

Tonight our plan is to go to Greenland. This is a Taiwanese restaurant near HKU in Kennedy Town which Claire and I frequented with all of our friends after school. It's really for nostalgia but they have great bubble teas and other drinks and some delicious food.

The One Where I Accidentally Went to a Cemetary

Last night I met up with Claire for dinner and we went to a noodle place. She got cold noodles and I got wonton soup. You could choose the amount of spice between little, medium, burning and very burning. I chose little and I was still choking on the spices. I like spicy but I hope I can survive the spicy food of Guizhou! We walked around Wan Chai a bit then decided to get a beer. The main two party areas of Hong Kong are Lan Kwai Fong, which often turns into a huge street party and Wan Chai, which is a bit of a more later night location (and late night in HK means like the party is getting started at 3 in Wan Chai) and a more older crowd, though it has a lot of fun places too. The beers they gave us were gigantic, it made us feel like they were giant people sized and we were tiny.

Today, I decided to try to give myself more direction so I didn't just wander and ride the MTR back and forth a lot. I slept in a bit this morning and then was starving so I just went to Yoshinoya, a Japanese fast food type restaurant. I overestimated my hunger getting a full meal though. Then I decided to go to the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas, which I'd never been to. It's in Sha Tin, so you take MTR out to New Territories, which is outside of the main city area. I just quickly looked up directions and found a couple places where it said that the temple was easy to find, that you could see it from the station and follow the signs. Well, I arrived in Sha Tin and found one lone sign. But it didn't seem obvious where it was. I saw a large white entrance way and a temple and thought that must be it, but now I know that I accidentally went to a cemetery. Oops. It was very quiet and pretty though. I tried climbing up, seeing buddhas in the distance on the mountain, but I couldn't go that far and then I felt awkward due to the fact that everyone was there to honor dead relatives so I decided to leave. I guess I could try to go back again tomorrow since now I've looked up where it is since I almost made it but just stopped too soon. It's supposed to be pretty fantastic but there are no escalators, all stairs, which in humidity and rain might not be fun. So maybe I'll find somewhere else to go that I haven't been to before.

After Sha Tin I was in TST so I decided to walk around and maybe see if I could find a new watch. The malls are so huge and so fun here. They have a great range of stuff, from Western to Asian and all price ranges, and a lot of really quirky cute things. I am trying not to buy much of anything though since I have no room in my bags. I had a snack at Hui Lau Shan and then headed back to the hostel. I pretty much always take the ferry between Central and TST because it's a really nice ride and it's super cheap. I am trying to figure out which buses can take me back to Fortress Hill because I enjoy riding the bus a lot, it's fine if you are not in hurry and you get a nice view from the double decker buses, plus I rode buses a lot when I lived here because my place wasn't near an MTR. I get nostalgic when I see good old minibus 28 or bus 40M.

Now you probably know that I am obsessed with Anthony Bourdain, who has a Travel Channel show about my two favorite things: traveling and eating. In his Hong Kong show he went to this place that serves noodles handmade the traditional way, with this guy who sits on a giant bamboo stick and flattens out the dough. So Claire and I are planning to go there tonight. We also passed another restaurant that Bourdain went to that had his photo on the front, might go there sometime too.

I made it!

My journey began early on Saturday. The flight to San Francisco went really well, but then my flight to Hong Kong didn't leave until an hour and a half later than it was supposed to, which was annoying. Everyone was crowding the terminal to board for like 2 hours, haha. Then I got on my flight, which was United. All the other international flights I have been on have had slightly larger seats and a TV for each seat, but this one didn't. So not my favorite 14 hour flight ever. And literally, they began on our shared TV with the most boring shows ever: first some kind of Discovery Channel show on building houses, and then, I am not even joking, a show about wheat. It's as if they were trying to prolong the flight. Luckily they got into movies after that, which was slightly better. Also the food was not very much. They like to give you those ramen bowls on Chinese flights but they are the least filling thing ever.

Finally I arrived in Hong Kong. It was going to a foreign country but so familiar, it felt pretty normal and comforting to be back. I took an airport bus to my hostel, which was pretty fast and efficient. Luckily this guy on the bus helped me with my bag and finding the hostel, otherwise I would have struggled a lot more. It's in Fortress Hill, which is near an MTR station. It is more local, by which I mean that you don't see tons of foreigners, but it has all the restaurants and stores, as well as lots of bus stops and a tram stop. The hostel is in a residential building though so it's kind of random and hidden. I checked in to my dorm room and met up with my friend Claire from my HKU days, who is interning here for the summer. We ate at Hui Lau Shan, my favorite place ever- it has mango drinks and dessert that are totally amazing. I've tried eating mango stuff in the states but nothing compares, this is sooo good.

I woke up early this morning and headed to Wan Chai to get my Chinese visa. I usually didn't wake up early when I studied abroad, and if I did, I headed straight to HKU and there wasn't much around where I lived. But here, I stopped at a bakery and got a fresh pastry and watched everyone buy newspapers. Literally everyone was reading a paper on the MTR, that biz does well here. The visa app was pretty quick so after I headed to TST (Tsim Sha Tsui) to walk around and then went to Mongkok. I had never been out there that early and not a lot of stuff was open at 10 am. They were just setting up the Ladies Market, which is a long market street. But everything is open so late that it makes sense, really.

Well, Claire gets off work at 6 every night so I will be hanging out with her later. For now, I took a little break from walking around and the rain. Although now it is sunny so this weather is kind of crazy.

Leaving on Saturday!

I'm almost all packed. I am limiting myself to one suitcase and one carry-on backpack, which was hard, but I know I will be thankful once I arrive to not have too much to haul around. I am having a going away party extravaganza on Thursday night with all of my friends.

Everyone always asks how long the flight will be: well, I leave here for San Francisco Saturday at 7:35 with a 2 hour flight. Then I have my flight from there direct to Hong Kong at 1:20, so I will arrive in HK one day ahead at 6 pm. The flight from SF to HK is 13 and a half hours. So my combined traveling time including the waiting at the San Fran airport is about 18 and a half hours. woo!