My First Week!

Hello All!

In the past few days I have been VERY VERY busy! I have now been in Hong Kong for a little over a week and I have definitely “experienced” Hong Kong. On Wednesday a very large group of exchange students (about 60 or so) all met up and went out for a very traditional Chinese supper. It was pretty tasty. I’m not quite sure what I all at though…. Some of it I did not like. They serve the chicken with a thick skin on it and most of the meat comes with many bones. I like to stick to veggies and rice. After dinner the entire group went to Happy Valley to watch the horse races. Horse racing is very big in Hong Kong and Happy Valley was very crowded. It is a beautiful track and the horses were gorgeous! A number of exchange students placed bets and a few even won! After the horse races we all went out on the town.

On Thursday, we (Eric, Lauren, Laura, and I) got up pretty early and headed to Lantau Island. It takes just a short bit on the MTR and then a cable car ride or bus ride to get there. We took the cable cars. The cable cars are similar to the rides at a state fair that go over the entire fair grounds. Same concept except larger and completely enclosed… You get in the cable car and then go up on a wire and then cross the water and go over the mountains and through valleys. The ride was about 20 minutes. It was very beautiful. At some parts we were entirely in the clouds and you couldn’t see ahead of you or behind you… I don’t think I have ever been so high up in my life except for when I am in an airplane! It was very neat.

On Lantau Island is the world’s largest outdoor Buddha. There is also a little village that we walked through and a few market shops and a number of monasteries. To get up to the Buddha you have to climb up a TON of steps. It was worth it though once we got to the top.

They had some evergreen trees up there and they looked very different from the evergreen trees in WI (you will have to check out a picture). The view from the top of the Buddha was amazing!

The monasteries were very neat. Many people still practice their religion and burn incense to praise their gods. The monasteries were very beautiful—very ornate and colorful buildings. We took a bus back to the MTR and on the bus ride back we actually had to stop for some cows that were wandering about in the road… It almost felt like home for a moment. (hehe)

On Friday we (a bunch of exchange students) all got together and went to Hong Kong Island. We went to a revolving restaurant for lunch. It was on the 64th floor! You could see out over all of Hong Kong and Kowloon. It was very neat. The food was pretty good too—they had an impressive dessert section. After lunch we took a tram up to Victoria’s Peak. You get into a little red trolley and it takes you straight up into the mountains and up to the peak. It was a very steep ride. The peak was beautiful. You could see everything! On the tram ride down you ride down backwards… It was almost a little scary! On Friday night we all got together and went out for sushi. After 10 at night there is a place that has half off sushi. For only $5 USD I was able to get 8 pieces of wonderful sushi and a strawberry daiquiri. I was quite pleased.

On Saturday I went on a cultural tour. We (a bunch of exchange students) all loaded onto a coach bus and went to a number of places in the New Territories. We saw a few monasteries, the Wishing Tree, the oldest and only traditional pagoda in HK, and the Yuen Yuen Institute. It was a great day for sight seeing and I learned a lot about the Hong Kong Culture. We also had Dim Sung for lunch. It was rather quite interesting. Some of it was not good at all and some of it was pretty tasty. I liked the barbeque chicken one best ;)

On Saturday night my friend Jess and I cooked dinner and then we (Jess, Andrew, Lewis, and I) all headed out for the night. We had SO much fun out and about!

On Sunday, we all took the day to sleep in a bit and then later in the evening Jess and I headed to Mong Kok to go to the ladies market. I really enjoy Mong Kok and the ladies market has pretty much every random thing you could ever want. We also hit up a tea house while we were in Mong Kok. I got the coconut milk tea with tapioca jelly balls in it (not as gross as it sounds) and Jess got an amazing passion fruit jasmine tea. We also got an order of “supreme toast.” It is basically toast with coconut butter and almonds on it. It was really good.

Today was my first day of class. It went pretty well. I have class from 3:30 to 6:30 on Mondays. My professor is interesting… Very nice guy. I think I will enjoy the class quite a bit.

Overall I really like it here a lot. Sometimes I get a little tired of Chinese food so it is nice to make my own dinners. I miss really random things like having and oven (they don’t really cook with ovens or stoves sooo we just have a hot plate)… microwavable popcorn would be nice… And it would be great to get American football. But.. all things I can do without. I’m making do. I have met some wonderful people. I hang out with Jess and Andrew from England quite often and a guy named Lewis who is from Chicago. We have a lot of fun together… and at that, I am just about to head off to dinner with Jess.

I will post again soon. I miss everyone very much and I would love to hear from you!

XOXO
Cassie