monkey attack

Greetings from Hong Kong

I am now into my second week of lessons and I am finding University to be a great learning experience. I have only four classes (all of which are communications courses) and I have no lectures or lessons on Thursdays or Fridays!

My courses are challenging but not impossible and I like most of my professors. I really enjoy my multicultural communications course. The main focus of the course is on communication differences between people from Hong Kong and people from the United States. I am finding the course very helpful!

Outside of my regular course work, I have signed up to teach an English course once a week and to hold an English tutorial once a week. Those sessions will begin next week. I am looking forward to helping the locals with their English and I hope that in return, the locals can teach me some Cantonese.

Aside from University functions (courses and what not) I have been very busy. This past weekend I went to this place called Monkey Hill with some other exchange students… There were wild monkeys running around everywhere! I didn’t realize that Hong Kong had wild monkeys! But it does, and one tried to take my bag away from me. It scared the crap out of me! It was definitely an interesting experience… and of course we all ended up wandering around Monkey Hill and getting ourselves completely lost. We were lucky enough to run into a nice local man named Stanley who showed us how to get back to the main road—we had been wandering for a literal hour and a half.

Apart from the Monkey Attack, we also ventured out to go and see a film at the cinema. We say the movie Elizabeth- The Dark Ages. The movie was shown in English but had Cantonese subtitles. I went to see the movie with a number of students from England. I heart the British. It was a good experience. The movie was pretty good too… If you like any historical movies you might like it.

I have finally set up Skype and my webcam sooooo if you feel so inclined, download Skype. (It is an internet based program that allows you to talk country to country for free as long as the other person is also using Skype.) It is amazing and the quality of the voices is some times better than a cell phone connection.

Overall things are going well here. I miss a lot of the American food and it was sad that I couldn’t actually watch the Packer game (still upset that they lost…). But, they do have some amazing bakeries here and the weather is definitely a positive (it was 70 today!). I have met some really great people (locals, people from mainland, and the other exchange students). I am also learning a lot. Today I learned all about Chinese weddings—VERY different from a typical American wedding. Did you know that at a traditional Chinese wedding, the bride’s parents cannot attend the ceremony?

Tonight I am going out with some friends for sushi and then off to go to karaoke, and this weekend I am attending a Hong Kong HOBY camp!

I miss you all and I hope to hear from you… keep me posted on what is going on in America while I am half way around the world!

Cassie