Blogging
From Abroad

Hong Kong is a city that never sleeps, or at least the local people never do. My friends from America and I constantly discuss how our roommates go to sleep at 3 or 4AM when we’ve been asleep (or trying to, over slurping noodles, Cantonese phone calls, and Taiwanese pop music) since midnight. Then, there are two scenarios: either they sleep until 1 or 2PM or they wake up at 8AM and snack on cuttlefish or pound the keyboard pretty hard. Nice people, sure, but maybe not so considerate to the sleeping patterns of us lethargic Americans. Personally, I require 7-9 hours of sleep a night and like to wake up early-ish and not waste my day in bed, but at the same time, I hate tip-toeing around trying to be quiet. I dream about having my own bedroom and bathroom just for me again! On the weekends, this isn’t as much of a problem, as most of the locals go home to be with their families.

This is the first weekend I’ve been on campus in about three weeks, which is relaxing in a sense. Last weekend my family (!!!) was here and we went to Macau, which is a former Portugese colony that was handed back to China in 1999 and the only place in China where gambling is legal. You can gamble at 18 in Macau, unless you are a citizen of Macau, and then it is 21! I did get ID-ed at the entrance of the casino of our hotel. It’s really frustrating when people think you are 16 or 17 and I’m 20! This was the second time in Hong Kong I’ve been asked for proof of my age – and the third just happened Friday! So anyway, Macau was pretty relaxing because it reminded me of Europe and we stayed in a 5 star hotel. Watching the Paris runway shows in the bathtub and reading Vanity Fair – could it get much better? I also scored a pair of real Raybans for around 70 USD, which was basically a steal and I don’t know how that happened.

The weekend before that three friends and I went to Taiwan. I previously had no interest in Taiwan and thought it was stupid, but upon more research, it looked cooler and cooler. We spent two days in Taipai, the capital, then took a train south along the coast to Taroko Gorge and went hiking. It reminded Joey (another WVU student and blogger here) and me of the New River Gorge, which is basically in our backyard in Beckley. It was insanely beautiful and a really good time.

I spent my birthday weekend, the first in March, on Lantau Island. On my actual birthday, when walking to the beach, we ran into a wild ox, which are all over the place in Lantau. (My family was pretty excited to see them when I took them to Big Buddha.) Apparently seeing the wild ox is pretty lucky on your birthday, especially because it is the year of the ox, but a) everything is considered lucky/unlucky here and b) wild animals are everywhere.

So this weekend I was sick of planes, trains, and ferries and spent the weekend on campus. Friday was Rugby Sevens, which is the world cup of Rugby (for teams of 7, at least). America lost in the first round, which was pretty depressing. Argentina played Hong Kong (and won) which is ironic, because my American roommate is currently studying abroad in Argentina.

Yesterday we went to the beach which is about a 10-15 minute bus ride away then ventured around the part of the New Territories where we live. We went to Yuen Long, a few MTR (subway) stops up, and looked for this famous desert place… it turned out to be bowls and bowls of fresh fruit with coconut milk and tapioca balls, which was exactly what we needed! We also wandered into a spa on our way back to the MTR where we booked a facial and a massage for 30 USD each. In Morgantown I have shelled out about 3 times that for a massage, so I’m pretty excited for our Monday night pampering session! When we were in the Philippines we had a half hour massage for 2 USD and in Malaysia, a 60 minute Chinese CHI massage (which was more painful than relaxing) for 15 USD or something, maybe 20, I don’t really remember. I love the cheapness of Southeast Asia, especially after the price gouging that is Europe the past two summers!

I took a break from writing a boring paper on boring wooden furniture industry in not-so-boring Thailand and Korea to write this, so I’m going to continue my productive streak and go back to it before my run and a relaxing guilty pleasure chick flick this afternoon and hopefully Italian food (after I complain how much I hate Italian food, the allure of not having it readily available makes me crave it!).