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.