Blogging Beats Studying

Alright kids, it's time to take your finals!!!!!!!!!! My enthusiasm for this test of my comprehension of the material I have been taught this semester is incredible. GFM on Thursday, the rest to follow. #Uhoh

It is slightly embarrassing how long ago the last time I blogged was... I can not stress how bad of a blogger I am. Why anyone reads this insane amount of irrelevant babbling is still a mystery to me.

I JUST GOT BACK FROM CHINA!!! I will sum my experience up in a short list for ease of reading purposes

1. Cantonese Tour Guides are the cutest people ever. 
2. TEMPLE TIME. China has a lot of Temples. Like an insane amount.
3. The escalators in the airport move really slow. Until you get on them - they sense you
4. I got through customs!! Miracle!! I was not deported!!
5. Climbing the Great Wall makes you feel like essentially the most powerful person ever
6. People will always take pictures of you when you're American. The gutsy ones will ask to take pictures with you
7. Bathrooms with a big ass glass window to the rest of your room are super cool, much cooler than those without a real toilet seat.
8. Bargaining with vendors is the single most addictive behavior in the world. 
9. I do not understand how Chinese people are not fat. RICE IS NOT THAT HEALTHY.
10. People are always trying to sell you things. Just pretend like you don't understand.
11. HK is still #winning. 

I need to post my pictures from this experience. 

The Lisheng High Table Dinner (PolyU Hall Prom) was thoroughly fun. I am going to miss my Lishenganigians. They are Precious As Hell.

Since I'm going home soon I'm starting to get really sentimental about all of things I am going to miss about Hong Kong. I don't want to make a list. It will just depress me too much. There is really nothing like living here where there is a mall every single way you turn. Yes, my room is tiny and I can't use Pandora, but in the States I can't hop on the MTR and get wherever the heck I want to go for a dollar. I wish I didn't need to study right now,because I would sincerely rather be out there appreciating everything this place has to over me than procrastinating studying by blogging. If they had Panera, I would probably never leave.

I am not looking forward to that long ass flight

I'm going to miss riding escalators all the time.... 

I have so many stories for those of you who are special enough for me to share them with when I get home. They're not for public domain.  Secrets make friends :)

The end.

Canada? What?

It's been a while hasn't it? That's because I discovered this horrid thing called schoolwork.  Presentations, PPTs, Final Reports, quizes, tests, and the whole nine yards. Conclusion: I don't want to be a buyer. The end

I survived my first international business meeting. It was exciting. Like really exciting :) Realistically, I get excited about putting on black pumps and riding the MTR, getting off and going to a building that has enough floors to require elevator dudes. Yes, I love elevator people who seem to do nothing but escort you on to the elevator as if you have no idea how to hit the button yourself. I felt quite important and had a wonderful chitter chatter. *fingers crossed* this means internship sorts for Emily



In order to avoid shopping and to accomplish something on our list of goals Caitlyn and I went for a HIKE last Saturday. While the website for this Bridal Pools place listed this as a difficulty 1 and 2-3 kilometers, they did not include the hike up and across the mountain in order to get to Bride's Pool. Now here is the thing, I'm not really a nature-y person. I pretend to enjoy hiking some times in order to not feel like an urban shopaholic, but for the most part this really does not thrill me. So, when things like this happen I tend to lose faith in my ability to be a hiker. This hiking bit ended up being quite the all day adventure as the up and across the mountain hike took about four hours and I would rank as a difficulty 8. Seriously, my quads wanted cry. But, alas, I did it & there were some spectacular views. It's so hard to believe the contrast between the New Territories and Kowloon considering they're really not that far from each other. It's really beautiful, and once again, I can say I climbed a mountain. Oh, and Bride's Pool - the anticipated destination - was quite a disappointment. The pictures probably make it look cooler than it realistically was. But, I'm still happy :) because I got peppers and Capri Sun. & discovered a really cool beach community that has rather embraced me.

I still need to ride a DingDing & buy wine in a glass to go from M&S, but I'm progressing.

I think my studying for Distribution&Logistics Midterm payed off. I anticipate not feeling like a dumbass tomorrow when I receive my grade back :) I am finished with Coloration&Finishing Lab. Praise God. Global Fashion Marketing has reached a whole new level of offering me groundbreaking information. Did you know there are different cultures around the world? The map shown of North America last week was QUITE INFOMATIVE. This class is life-changing. Retail buying will be the death of me. The end of school update.

In order to try to study for the Coloration&Finishing class. Caitlyn and I thought we might be inspired to study if we went back to our beach community that we love so much. Plus I really wanted pistachios & we discovered this grocery store there that seriously sells the most random assortment of American loot including Cheez Its, Poptarts, Dill Pickles, Popcorn, Arizona Iced Tea, etc. It's quite an incredible shack.  So, as we sat along the harbor we pondered the lecture notes, suntanned, and dug in to a fabulous meal of snacks. On the record, this harbor did not inspire me whatsoever and instead all of the little boats distracted the hell out of me. I tried moving to the rocks thinking maybe it was the people who captivated my attention, and then I was distracted by the little crabs by the water. There is always something more entertaining that chemistry. Onn the bright side, I think I still did reasonably well on the quiz today :) FTW

I finally ShamShuiPoe'd it up. This means that I went fabric hunting. SENSORY OVERLOAD. When in the States, one just pops into Jo-Anne's, looks around for a bit and picks something out. When in Hong Kong, one wanders the streets and browses the endless shops full of not bolts of fabrics, but little cards with fabric stapled to them. Nobody in Hong Kong actually has enough space to have the bolts of fabrics at the ground level for everyone to see so everyone makes their selections based on swatches of the assortment. Needless to say, selection making is not easy. But, on the plus side, you can take the swatches. They really don't care. So, I probably have enough swatches to make a blanket for a small child. I got excited. Guilty. I plan on going back soon and actually purchasing fabric when I'm ready to continuously ask what's the smallest amount I can buy since a lot of the shops have a 5-yard cut minimum. I like to have a lot of a little :)

Lisheng Badmitton. FTW. Shocker.

So much entertains me. I have so much left to do and I've recently been realizing how quickly this has all gone by. Part of me still feels like I just got here (the other part remembers how freezing it was when I got here and that clearly a substantial amount of time has passed). I have so much left to accomplish. It'll happen. Have no fear :)

Thank God the 24 hour McDonalds take Octopus Card

Because sometimes at 2 a.m. you just really need French Fries....
In case I have not made this perfectly clear - Octopus Cards = Life. They are your ticket on to the MTR (best mode of transportation ever), the bus (more accessible mode of transportation for the night owls), random restaurants such as McDonalds, random retail establishments, oh and all of the printers at school.  & mine is personalized with my picture on it :) It's fab.

I finally found the perfect crossbody bag for my hands free escapades. It is red with gold hardware because Caitlyn and I learned from WWD that navy and camel are done. Red is going to be the It color. Since this is an extremely reliable source, I decided to go against the either dark royal or camel I had planned on, and be bold and go for red. I am extremely in love with it and it makes my life every time I use it. In case you wanted to know.

H&M here is still taking over my life. Words still can't describe how amazing it is. Obsessed. Whenever I shop here I just call it "Market Research" ya know, exploring global retail operations and consumer behavior.

Can I just vent for like thirty seconds here? Yesterday was such an FML, yet not, day. I woke up at like 9:30 and decided that since I was seriously running out of pants I would finally do laundry. So I threw on my last pair of jeans that are distressed to the extreme, tossed my ID, room key, & 20HKD in my back pocket and headed down to the laundry room. Well guess what, these jeans happen to be distressed in the back pocket so I lost my room key as well as 20HKD. Emily Zero. Rest of the World One. One of the washers was apparently screwed up and did not spin so a particular load of laundry took about two hours in the dryer to actually sort of dry. Point for world. I've at this point decided since it is rainy and crappy I deserve an everything bagel and coffee on the way to class and decide to leave a bit early as to have time for such a glorious occasion. So as I'm leaving, my ID will not let me out of the halls so finally my favorite security guard that I love so much explains to me that I need to go to the ground floor desk. So I got to the ground floor desk who sends me to the sketchy carpark office where THEY HAVE MY KEY!! & the 20 HKD. I am extremely impressed by somebody's honesty :) Point for Emily. I then meander my way towards campus and make my way up to Starbucks only to find the longest line I have ever seen for coffee in my life. I decide oh I'm going to outsmart you and go to the other Starbucks that is also close to campus. Fail. The line for this one was out the door. Apparently I am not the only one believes mint mochas clear the rainy day blues. Point for rest of the world. At least after class this line insanity was gone and I got a venti mocha even though only paying for a tall and my bagel (despite the fact that they thought they were out) Point for Emily. I figure I am almost ahead for the day so I should go for a RUN outside (I was not concerned about the acid rain). But this acid rain did make for a slippery step right outside the residence halls where I promptly slid on my ass, scraped my knee, and gashed my arm. I still had a good run and probably looked like a total beast continuing to run with blood streaming down my leg. It was definitely one of the coolest runs I've ever had, since I somehow timed it right so I was running along the harbor during the skyline light show. It felt absolutely amazing. Myself FTW for the day.
I'm done venting now. For those of you who skipped ahead.

I went to a new outlet mall today. It changed my life. Calvin Klein and I have a beautiful relationship :) Burberry and I are still a little nervous around each other.

On Thursday since it was St. Patrick's Day Caitlyn and I felt it was necessary to celebrate and therefore go to the happiest celebration you can find. Hong Kong Disneyland!!! This was quite possibly the happiest day of my life. Even though this version is much smaller than Disney World in Orlando it was still such a blast. Quite possibly because we only had to wait in line for like five minutes for everything. We road Space Mountain six times. It was so freakin epic. They had a really awesome parade on Main St. and a fabulous High School Musical Show :) Caitlyn and I got our pictures with Pluto, Snow White, Buzz, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, and best of all Cinderella (who is hilllarious by the way) Ah it was so fun! The fireworks absolutely completed the evening, mainly because there was a Mulan segment  & we all know how much I am obsessed with Mulan. Since she was apparently "not there today" (yes I asked a cast member where I could find Mulan), at least the music was showcased in the evening fireworks. I guess I have still not grown up and Disney things still make me extremely happy.

After Disneyland day was Lisheng festival. I gambled with noodles..... & lost all of them. Thank god there are nice Lisheng boys to save my noodles so I can play more blackjack :) they are soo sweet.

Speaking of Lisheng, we won the Hall Basketball Competition. Shocker. This game was oober fun because they let me hold a sign that was all in Cantonese and I got to wave it around while they yelled cheers in Cantonese that I obviously did not understand. Oh yeah, and I wore my awesome hall jacket. <3 this victory was a perfect photo op. After the championship, it came time for my first "Hot Pot" experience to celebrate our winnings with the Lisheng. For those of you who do not know.... "Hot Pot" is where they fill these big bowls with hot soup broth essentially and then bring you trays full of raw meet. You then cook the meat in your choice of soup broth using this little strainer thing and chopsticks. It was quite the experience and I ate a lot of different things that I never  would have tried in the States. But, when in Hong Kong do as the Hong Kongians do. Just so you know, fish skin kind of tastes like a chip & some organs are just too damn chewy for me. I do not know if this is an experience I ever plan on having again. But, I can now tell everyone - I have had Hot Pot.

HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT THE MONKEYS!? So this was a while ago but I'm pretty sure I have not written about it yet. So Caitlyn and I found directions to this park where there are supposedly wild and free monkeys just hangin out around the nature paths that you can walk around. Why we thought this sounded cool, I do know, but we were extremely excited. Turns out, these monkeys are terrifying !!!! Upon arrival, we were a little scared but we wanted pictures with them so we figured we'd push through. The monkeys were everywhere!! Like legit everywhere. It is impossible to describe this. But anyway, Caitlyn decided it would be a good idea to get a picture with this one cool lookin monkey on a bridge. So, she postitioned herself so this said monkey would be in the background and just about to get the shot this monkey HISSES at her. SO TERRIFYING. On the way out of the park we also saw a monkey jump up on car and on the back of a lady's jacket so to say this was a very "in touch with nature" experience is such a bloody understatement.

For the most part school is still school. I've discovered that paying attention in Distribution and Logistics instead of playing angry birds is extremely helpful to my understanding of the subject. Who'da thought? The professor complimented me...I think. Or at least Caitlyn thinks so. Our dyes and finishing class has become even more terrible since we switched professors. This one is even more impossible to understand and has even less command of the lecture than the last. Thank god once again for detailed Power points. Global Fashion marketing is extremely redundant of material I have learned in the past. But, oh well. I still somewhat like the class :) Retail buying proves to still be a really cool class. The professor is pretty amazing and gave an hour lecture on the branding of Ralph Lauren. I am not half as in love with good 'ol Ralph as Caitlyn is and I was still captivated. I'm really excited to see how our final project turns out. Please pray for me. The presentation has to be 70 minutes.

I think I have managed to balance my shopping life, tourist life, academic life, social life, and relaxation life. It's not easy to buy new chinos, see a temple, write a report, eat Mr. Wong's, and watch a youtube hit all at once.  My life of spring rolls, HK waffles, coastlines, live bands, and pineapple juice never ceases to amaze me :)

If you have the chance to explore the world some time, I highly recommend it. 

Some things make your day, Others change your life.

Don't ever allow life to get ahead of you. Being left behind is boring

The length of time it took me write this doesn't necessarily make it worth reading

So, I know I basically suck at this whole blogging thing and you all are sitting on the edge of a cliff wondering what's happened to me. But, truthfully I've really just been living it up and so haven't really had the focus to write one of these in a long time so here I am back at the keys trying to remember what I've done in the past two weeks and how to write about it in an interesting manner so that this is actually enjoyable to read.


I don't have class until 4:30 today so let's see if I can do this


I've officially survived my first grade back on a presentation, my first quiz, and my first midterm. I am not failing. WOOOO :) :) But I have realized that while I am "on a holiday" as I like to call it, it does actually help when I put forth a little effort and study. My classes are still a lot of fun, and I must admit it is really really nice to not be taking gen eds. We actually got to make a water repellent finish in lab last week which in my opinion was super cool ! And my last presentation for retail buying went really awesome, so I think I'm on the right track :) Except maybe the Global Fashion marketing projects... they're just too dang vague and hard to get motivated about. I'll try to be proactive, but if I have to read one more article about Zara I will just die. For everyone in the United State who does not understand this phenomenon, just wait, this store is about to take over your life. 


Caitlyn and I have found the most wonderful sandwich place which we regularly attend on Thursday before our day of adventures. Unfortunately, the park that it is right next to where we like to ear said sandwiches is full of birds that scare the shit out of me. I literally have to have Caitlyn hold my hand when I get up to throw away my garbage. Words can not describe how much they terrify me. We also have a stalker. He is from Canada and is quite the "entrepreneur." He hosts a weekly pub crawl for international people and is always campaigning it on Wednesday nights for every one to join him on Thursday. No matter where we go on Wednesday, he is always there with his HK Pub Crawl T-shirt (that has pink silk screening and I secretly really want because I think it's the tackiest thing ever). Seriously, we were at our favorite dear Mr. Wong's hole in the wall restaurant finishing up our broccoli and spring rolls and who shows up, but HK pub crawl guy.   We think he thinks we're joking when we call him a stalker, but we're really not. It's creepy as hell. and he has seriously bad 5:00 shadow.


This week was the inter-hall festival, so therefore it was a big week for Lishung (the hall of champions as I like to call it). It started off Monday with the inter-hall video and cooking competition. I made my Hollywood debut in the Lishung video, which I did hear one first place :) but, I unfortunately missed the cooking competition due to the fact that I was preparing for other things such as my global fashion marketing midterm.  On Tuesday, the week only got better with International Culture Night! Unfortunately, due to my obsessive strive to be the center of attention, I volunteered to MC this event. Little did I know I would not see any of the performances before the show itself and was expected to somehow introduce something I knew nothing about. But I threw myself into it, and it  was actually a lot of fun and I got to crack bad jokes, pronounce every foreign language horridly because I am an American, and take photos with a bunch of awesome HongKong-ians. The show turned out to be a ton of fun too complete with French singing, Swedish flowers and dancing, and Korean abdominal muscles. Before the show each of the countries had their own booths to showcase their culture as well which I found simply amazing because I was able to supplement my lack of dinner with French wine and cheese, Canadian bagels, Swedish meatballs, and this Finnish alcohol which tasted like black licorice to me. Oh, and our very own American Mac and Cheese made by Caitlyn :) I've also discovered that I secretly totally wanna be Swedish. They wear flowers in their hair and dance in circles in the summer... this just sounds like the life to me.


The festival came to a close last night with the aforementioned tug of war competition. Thankfully, Caitlyn and I managed to remove ourselves from the pulling team and relocated to the cheering team. I never thought I would say this, but it was fun as hell. Everyone was yelling and cheering in Cantonese all of over Tug of War. In the spirit of competition, it was totally fantastic. Obviously, Lisheng won both the men's and women's division. Since we have apparently won both for now four years straight it would have been quite embarrassing if we lost. Anyway, Caitlyn and I got ourselves all jazzed out with blue ribbon head bands and arm bands and cheered them to victory :) Thank god our hall jackets are coming in soon!!


Now that it's warm I'm officially the happiest girl in the world :) I can walk to class in my flip flops, not double layer my jackets and spend a day just chilling at the beach. It might not be tanning weather yet, but I can at least roll up my jeans and stick my feet in the ocean which makes me ungodly overjoyed. I think I was actually supposed to be a beach kid.... a Swedish beach kid that is. I must admit, Caitlyn and I tried to go to a park last weekend and ended up at H&M where I proceeded to shop out my feelings and got some truly fabulous amazing clothes. And because inventory turnover here is so quick due to the billions of people who live here plus tourists, they get new stuff all the time. I'm like a freaking kid in a candy store... and I adore it so much.  I am such a shopaholic. I have by no means gone broke, but omg there is so much cute stuff here. And 
now that it's warm I am so inclined to buy more clothes and flippy floppys. Oh and just walk along water whenever the hell I feel like

Life as we know it is pretty incredible. Don't miss a second of it.

Just Say No.

To Drugs, Sex, Alcohol. And the Tug of War Team. Ok, so I have this teensy weensy problem. Whenever the hall council people from Lishung (the hall I live in) come up and talk to Caitlyn and I, I tend to volunteer us for random things. They are seriously the sweetest people in the world and they ask so nicely, I truly have no idea how to say no. I also don't understand exactly what they are asking us to do sometimes and occasionally just nod my head and blissful ignorance. Well, this time I may have accidentally signed Caitlyn and I up for the tug of war team. Yes, my winning obsessed hall has a team for this and practices. So, I have now been well versed in the art form that is tug of war. At home we just pull on the rope and go. Here in Hong Kong, this is serious business.


Today I witnessed the Hong Kong Marathon. SUPER COOL. It made me miss running like no other :( I'm not even sure if I was witnessing the half marathon or the marathon finishing, but all and all I just completely wanted to be out there. I don't know how my parents stood at the finish line for so many races for four years, seriously, it's soo loud and you just stand there. Ahh I wanted to be running. Before the race though, Caitlyn and I got to take a picture with the President of our University who was super excited to meet us :) YEY! Since PolyU had an official team for the marathon we got to stand with a bunch of the other kids from the residence halls with PolyU tambourines (which I stole one. SHHH), those little inflatable sticks, and wear really really really awesome FREE T-Shirts! Now, as an NC Student, it is obviously my goal in life to get as many free t-shirts as possible. But, this one goes beyond all expectations. It's a really nice dri-fit Nike like running shirt. I am beyond impressed. Plus, it says PolyU Running Team on it. It is probably going to be one of my best souvies


I could really use to do some homework.
Haha seriously, I actually have a lab report due on Tuesday as well as a quiz and a presentation tomorrow. It's so hard to get in the studious mode though when you basically feel like you're on vacation. More importantly, I went to some old temples yesterday! Very culturally enriching.... would have been better had it not been raining and it had been about twenty degrees warmer. Have I mentioned lately that they do not use heat in the buildings here? I think they should mention that somewhere on the application.


Since my last blog I have accomplished many things including, but not limited to,wearing eyeliner, hiked up multiple mountains, ran a mile finally in the hall gym, and had about a thousand meetings for the group projects that I am involved in. I've discovered that instead of going to class, here at PolyU we just have group meetings for all of the semester long projects that are involved in every single class. I really am capable of doing work on my own, but here it is definitely all about group work.


In my global fashion marketing lecture we talked for basically two hours straight about Chinese culture and I must say I learned a lot about why Chinese people act the way they do and why this might seem odd to those of us who aren't Chinese. They have this big thing about "face culture," meaning that it's very important to appear the status you aspire to be. Therefore in China, it's more important that everyone on the street know that you are carrying a designer bag than it is for you to actually have a good quality bag. They're also huge about gifts... apparently for every festival. Thus leading to my next subject -
It's apparently necessary for men in Hong Kong to buy their date massive flower bouquets for American Valentines Day, Chinese Valentines Day, and every day in between. It is also necessary for said date to carry these flowers around for the entire evening. Perhaps the more flowers you have the more "face" you have. Anyway, when you're trying to navigate your way through the streets and around H&M and you have to trip over all of these couples with holding the florist shop in their hands you tend to get annoyed. Especially when they walk slow.... and proceed to make out on the moving sidewalks in the MTR station. I swear I'm really not trying to whine here...but really? Valentine's Day did include a nice reception for the International Students where wine and free refreshments were included so I can not complain. 


I have so many things that I am planning to do and so many things I have already done.
The end.

Congratulations on surviving your first international medical experience

So, after being achey as hell on Saturday, having a runny nose and cough since Monday and then waking up yesterday with my eye stuck shut and it being totally red, I finally decided to haul my butt to the health services here at PolyU this morning. After being told by an Asian nurse that I was too skinny after taking my height and weight. Not to make a cultural stereotype, but seriously? look at your people. They are all WAY skinnier than me. It was an interesting experience but in the end here's the diagnosis....
I have some sort of conjunctivitis in both of my eyes. Which in case you're not a pre-med major means I have pink eye in both eyes. Seriously, that stupid ass thing that every kid picks up from kindergarten. Yeah, I got it while I'm a college sophomore studying abroad in Hong Kong. Seriously, Lame. There are about a billion things I would rather be doing than writing this blog because I'm going stir crazy sitting in bed. At least when you get it in kindergarten all you miss out on is a coloring page and how to spell "cat." I, on the other hand, could be hmm shopping right now, sitting on a beach somewhere, climbing mountains, or otherwise enjoying myself. But, no, I am typing this blog wearing one of those ridiculous masks that makes me look like I have SARS. 


I am a terrible patient. 


I have now been prescribed FIVE different medications. I swear, they hand pills out here like candy. They gave me pink ones for my cough, white ones for my fever that I don't have/acheyness, yellow ones for my cold (these ones may cause drowsiness!), as well as eyedrops obviously and eye ointment. Now, my eye ointment says to apply a thin layer to affected area. Am I seriously supposed to put ointment on my eye????? If anyone can answer this question within the next 7 hours or so, let me know....


Besides being sick, I was rather enjoying myself :) 


We're finally back in classes off CNY (Chinese New Year) break. I got to see the parade which was extremely dull. I mean, I like parades, but this was really crap. I really expected a lot more. The fireworks on the other hand were FANTASTIC. They completely smoked up the entire sky and probably caused a year's worth of air pollution, but they were soooo shiny :) Absolutely lovely


I bought an amazing pair of hot pink sunglasses last night that I absolutely adore for like 8 bucks last night (bargained down at the Temple Market). Still addictive. Yesterday, I went to the Avenue of Stars yesterday and saw a massive statue of Bruce Lee which was an extreme let-down for one) because the box holding the clue from the Amazing Race was no longer there and two) we couldn't find a statue of Jackie Chan. Not finding Jackie Chan is really depressing from an American's point of view because he's really the only star I know of from HK, but apparently all the locals basically think he's a big jerk. I got the feeling from a local that he's kind of a horrible husband and father. So, apparently, they don't really feel compelled to build a statue in his honor.


This week has actually been somewhat full of classes by HK PolyU standards. This meaning that I've actually averaged more than a class a day haha. I'm still getting used to the lack of lecture time. I turned in my first lab report for Coloration and Finishing Technologies yesterday so hopefully that get's a good grade. The teacher is very sweet and apologizes for having poor English all the time, so maybe he'll give me an A just because :) The lab was on the effect of enzymes, stone washing, de-sizing, and softening on denim so it was actually kind of a cool report. I love textile labs. I survived my first presentation here on Monday in Retail Buying tutorial. Our project was to forecast the trends, design concepts, colors/fabric, etc for Fall/Winter 2011 for the mass market segment. My group was made up of Caitlyn and I, a girl from the Netherlands, and a girl from Sweden so it was sooo cool for us to all come together with our ideas. I was really really happy how it turned out and the work we did. I forgot to take pictures of the mood boards, so hopefully I'll get mine back when she finishes grading it. I'm not sure how well that's going to go, as the teacher seemed to applaud the local students' copied and pasted from style.com work more than ours. But, we shall see.


Hopefully I will be feeling better by tomorrow and can maybe do some things then :) In the mean time, I will just be catching up on youtube hits and facebook statuses....

HK > Macau

So, after being in Macau for a few days I feel this inequality is a nice summary of how I feel. We heard that Macau was like the Las Vegas of Asia so we decided since we have the whole week off of school we should check it out for a few days. So, we booked a hotel that was very reasonably priced, booked two nights and went off to Macau.
So, nothing in Macau is in English. Also, nothing seems to open before noon. Once everything does open, nobody seems to do anything by play blackjack. Seriously, we were at a bar at a casino at like 11:30 with a totally awesome live band and everything and there was hardly anyone there. They were all out playing blackjack and slot machines. It made me so sad :( It was a really cool bar though and they sang some awesome American tunes :) which made me super happy. Too bad everybody else missed it. I've personally come to the conclusion that I would rather not gamble because that money could be spent on clothes and handbags (something I appreciate MUCH more). Cause here's the thing about shopping - even if you spend a ton, you at least get something in return. Guarantee. When you gamble, you might get something in return, but probably not. Shopping > Gambling
Caitlyn and I did manage to ride the city buses fairly well. They did stop and unload the entire bus a few times, but we just found our way to another bus. In our minds, we did pretttty dang impressively. For the most part, we just really walked around and looked at things that we could find because well that was easier said than done. We went to this really gorgeous hotel/casino that actually had a fake river running through it with GONDOLAS. On the record, I totally would rather go to Italy and ride in a real gondola, but this was pretty impressive. Oh yeah!! And we went to this random fisherman's wharf place and we were sitting there taking pictures with this MASSIVE group of Chinese people comes up and every single one of them wanted a picture with the two American girls. Seriously we probably sat there for like 10 minutes while they all came up and individually took a picture with us. It was my trial run at being famous :) Absolutely hilarious. Sweetest damn people.
So as a whole, we came, we saw, we sort of kind of conquered Macau. Or at least, we tried. 


I'm still on break from school, which feels really weird because normally on a break this long I would be totally home by now (but obviously, I am not). I've heard that a lot of things close these next couple days so pray for me that I don't die of starvation. We have some fruit, ramen, soup, and granola bars in our room so if all else fails, I think we'll be ok. Tomorrow is a huge parade for the CNY and on Friday there are FIREWORKS :) :) I super love fireworks


Happy Chinese New Year everyone!!!!!!!!

OPERATION: DeMold

Soooo it might have been successful, but we're not quite sure. Yes, people, we had mold. Bloody mold, growing all over the place in our room, which is super freakin disgusting. We tried to clean it with clorox, but then when my short midget arms couldn't reach a lot of places we decided to ask the front desk about it. They directed us to some other office who called someone else for us who said they would stop by and take a look at it. So finally some guy stops by our room yesterday and looks at the walls and tells us he will be back at 2 p.m.today. He also pointed to all of my stuff and made a motion that I needed to put it away before he came back so that he could clean the walls.  So therefore I packed up all my stuff in drawers and suitcases,etc. And he came!! Upon arrival he gave us masks which was super nice and then painted over our walls with what looked like white paint to me, but Donnie tells me is some mold killer thing that's basically white paint, but kills mold. Anyway, hopefully it won't come back. That would be awesome :)


Since it's Chinese New Year I have no classes next week. Weird right? I just got here. So Caitlyn and I are heading over to Macau tomorrow to spend a few days there, so if you don't hear from me, that's where I am and  I quite possibly don't  have wi fi. I'll let ya know how it is when I get back. I promise. We have extremely high hopes that our hotel will have heat.


This second half of the week since I last wrote has pretty mellow I must admit. I can't really remember what I've done


Went to a really crazy crowded local market yesterday with this girl that Caitlyn sort of kind of knew. It was awesome. I got these crazy amazing boots for 12 dollars. I'm still in shock of how cute they are. Plus I'm starting to trash my black suede hipster boots :(  so I needed new boots. You people all know how much I need to have my boots...especially when it's cold as hell. Must have boots. Also needed the 5 dollar jacket and 3 dollar shirt.
Shit. I'm going to go broke. Way too much cute as hell cheap stuff. ok, so maybe not broke, but certainly have no idea how I'm going to get this all back. May have to go to shopaholics anonymousness when I get home.


I live in a huge ass city. Have I mentioned how insane this place is? The signs are so helpful, since I rarely have ANY clue where I'm going. There's something extremely rewarding about having no clue where you're going and ending up somewhere awesome though... even if awesome is just finding you way back to the residence hall. I mean, we got lost on our way back to the hall the other night and I ended up getting a Hello Kitty mini cake mold for like a buck fifty. (I am secretly obsessed with Hello Kitty) It's addictive


I am so excited about it getting warm here and baking on all the beaches. I love being warm.... so much. So So so much.


That's all <3

Don't underestimate the fashion majors.

So, I tried squid today !! It was like super super chewy fish. I did not die, but I don't think I will be trying it again, but I was terrified and I did it! Woo hoo!!
We went out to dinner tonight with a bunch of local students from Hong Kong after attending a program to improve our Cantonese language skills. I learned my numbers, basic greetings, and "It's Too Expensive. Can it be cheaper?" I feel that these are Exxxxtremely practical things to know how to say *specifically the last one :)* They took us to a great restaurant that had amazing sweet and sour pork with pineapple, vegetables with garlic sauce, some good soup, oh rice (can't ever forget about rice), oh yeah, and the squid. Then we went out for desert and had some sorbet type thing and it was amazingly fresh and yummy :) YEY!

It's really hard for me to remember all of the things I've done since I last wrote... I  must admit, this is probably the worst written blog you've ever read. I have zero focus.


Last night, our "hall" meaning the fifth and sixth floor of the Residence Hall had a dinner to celebrate the new semester. There was pizza hut (fine dining here in HK) as well as rice and spaghetti. I got play a game with some of the local students that's really hard to explain. But basically you are your teammate tried to trick the other teams as to which of two drinks was the normal drink and which was the one that had salt or something like that added. My team won haha I think. If they congratulated me, it was in Cantonese, so I'm not sure. But, it was all really fun! And Caitlyn and I bought hall T-shirts for like 5 bucks because well, we thought it was super cool and we really want the jackets.


On Sunday we were supposed to go hiking, but Caitlyn and I were late (as usual) to meet up with the group of internationals that were going so no one was there so we went on our own adventure. Two of the other guys met up with us later and we ended up going to a zoo and seeing a ton of monkeys and a stuffed jaguar that apparently died a few years ago. Saddest day. We checked out some antique shops and found some cool stuff. After that, we went to the hall basketball games. SUPER ENTERTAINING!!! Apparently, competition between the halls is pretty serious, and apparently our hall is totally dominating and has won the whole kit and kaboodle like every single year :) This makes me happy haha you all know how competitive I am. Some of the girls that were at the game with us tried to ask me which boy I thought on the team was the most handsome. I guess they assumed the only reason a girl would be interested in sports is for the physical appearance of the men playing haha it was like junior high all over again, but way cooler cause it was in Hong Kong. All the local students love to show us international students what to do and take pictures with us :) they're soo sweet.


Saturday was our city tour with the other international students which was fun. We had a super hilarious tour guide for our bus and we got to get outside of the city (on the city tour ironically). We past by Jackie Chan's house which super amazed me, but I wasn't sure which one it was and I was on the wrong side of the bus to get a picture :( saddest day. We stopped for an hour in Stanley where the air was sooo incredibly fresh in comparison to the city. I'm going to appreciate the clean air soo much when I get back! But Stanley had these amazing rocks that you could climb around on and touch the water that is part of the Pacific Ocean, or at least some bay that goes in to the Pacific Ocean....I feel that's good enough :)


Other things I have done:


*Stopped at a random station off the MTR, picked a random exit of the station, picked a random place to go off that exit. Ended up buying two pairs of cords at the Apple Mall :) One pair is PINK!!!!!!!!!! I'm obsessed. I want to make them socially acceptable in the U.S.


*Went to a fashion show during HK Fashion Week. They played "Jesus Loves Me This I know" and "Amazing Grace". At fashion shows in the U.S we play hipster techno


*Explored so many random things............


On the Academic Side for all you adults reading this who want to know about my wonderful education!!
Classes I am taking:


-Coloration and Finishing Technology: We got to Stone Wash denim in the lab!!! Kind of couldn't tell you what goes on in the lecture. Everyone talks through the whole thing (HK culture) and the professor is difficult to understand.


-Fashion Retail Buying: The project for the tutorial seems super fun. I'll post pictures when it's finished (hopefully by the end of this week) But all about how to predict trends for different demographics and how retailers are buying from wholesale. Very cool.


-Fashion Distribution and Logistics:  This class is super interesting because it's all about how to keep things like transportation, handling, and inventory costs down to maximize profits and how all of the logistical things factor in to marketing. Our professor got her PHD from Duke so she must be awesome right?


-Global Fashion Marketing: This class coincidentally has about half and half international students and local so that's going to make really interesting class discussion once we really get into it. The first lecture was mostly review of things I've seen before, but I'm super excited!


I think for the most part I am starting to really get settled in here :) 


All for now <3

POST ONE!

Hello!!! I would say this greeting in Cantonese, but I still have not learned a word.... I'll get there. In fact, I am attending a program entitled "Get Fun With Cantonese" next week where I plan on learning on all of the important words on bargaining, ordering food, fashion words, Oh yeah, and Please&Thank You :)

So, I've had several requests to write a blog so I figured I would try it. It's not starting out to well, as currently I don't have a title, but we shall see. I will try to start at the beginning

Day 1/2 - Plane, Plane, Plane. First Caitlyn and I's flight from Raleigh to JFK was cancelled so we then had to fly back to Chicago ironically from Raleigh to connect in Tokyo instead of the original direct flight to HK. But, eventually, we got there. We arrived in Hong Kong International Airport and thankfully had wifi to tell everyone that we arrived safely, and also had an e-mail from my buddy informing me that she would not be able to pick me up from the airport that evening. So, we hopped on the train, followed by a taxi and were dropped outside of our residence hall all at about 11:00 at night. We dragged our luggage into the lobby, completely jet lagged having absolutely no idea what was going on - needless to say, the hall security guard's English was less than stellar. We eventually got temporarily checked in since the main desk was closed for the evening and we're escorted to the sixth floor room. After an amazing shower, Caitlyn and I discovered a fact we have been despising since arrival - There is NO HEAT in any of the buildings!!!! So despite being about 60 degrees in the middle of the afternoon and  much cooler in the evening, our room has nothing but pay-in AC. Needless to say, all we had that night was the thin blankets, we'd brought for the flight... sleep was not exactly in the cards.

Day 1 - Mission: BLANKETS. We went to an orientation that informed of us absolutely nothing like how to set up one's internet in the room. Very welcoming, very uninformative. But, we managed to get a map with a place to buy bedding. We received out PolyU ID cards which are a lifeline as you need them to swipe in and out of the dorms any time you go anywhere.  We took a nice tour and met another guy from NC State and learned a little bit about the campus from a local and had dinner in a Hong Kong mall foodcourt that was only about $3.50 (Food here is CRAZY cheap!) So, still totally jet lagged that night but at least warm!

Alright, I'm going to stop numbering days because the rest has passed in a blur...

I was determined to get my electronics set up before classes started on Monday so that meant finding a computer store with power converters (who knew?) and an Ethernet cable. I'll just google the closest Best Buy, yeah, wrong. After much spent time wandering we found this massive, stressful, but kind of awesome electronic store and I got my power converters and Ethernet cable.  So I am now wired for sound, though I can't use my power strip with the converters... it basically blows the circuit. Oh, and my hair dryer smells like it's going to blow up if I put it on the setting I do at home. It's ok, I just keep on super low :)
Caitlyn and I were determined to not spend money on clothes and generally non necessities the first week we were here so things other than window shopping were kept to a minimum. We tried to stick to things like hangers, towels, and pillows.

Classes. Well, first off, the schedules are confusing as hell. For any given class it could have any combination of a lab, lecture, seminar, and tutorial component. Most lectures seem to meet every week but tutorials and labs mostly meet every other week. The classes are about two hours long, and our lab was about three. So essentially, I'm going to have to check my weekly schedule at the beginning of the week and write down when  and where I actually have class or else I'm NEVER going to know what I'm doing.

On the record, there are more escalators here than there are in the entire U.S.

I have a lot more to write, but I'm lazy....
maybe another day :)