Weekend in Hong Kong

*WARNING*: Lengthy post to follow.
This past weekend, I flew to Hong Kong to visit my friend Cecilia (whom I had not seen in about 13 years) and to explore the city. I have not been to the HK since I was in the second grade, so I was very excited. Again, Lydia was a really big help in helping me book my flight tickets and order a taxi.
Thursday afternoon, I left Sansia for Taoyuan International Airport. I arrived at 4 PM, and my flight was scheduled to be at 6:25 PM. We ended up departing at 8:45...over 3 hours in the airport is not fun. However, I was too excited to get to Hong Kong to let that dampen my mood. Once I arrived, I took the airport express train to Hong Kong island, where I met up with Cecilia. We had not seen each other in so long, but correspond via facebook and snail mail. It was nice to see her whole family again.
On Friday, we sat down and decided what to do for the next two days. That day, we ended up going out to lunch with the whole family at a restaurant nearby their apartment. We ate some traditional Cantonese dishes like spicy salt porkchop, stir-fried vegetable, fish fillets in corn sauce, bitter melon with beef, and shredded duck with bean sprouts. I was so very happy because I had been craving Cantonese food in Taiwan. Also, I had a Schweppes Cream Soda for the first time in many, many years. Hong Kong food=happiness. After lunch, we went to Tom Lee, a music store chain, so that I could look for some Chinese sheet music. I hit the jackpot! I got so many books...Jacky Cheung, Sam Hui, a little Jay Chou...After a little bit of shopping in Wancai, we headed up to The Peak. To get there, we had to take the Peak Tram. The line was so long, but it did not take us much time to purchase our tickets. We got into the tram a little late, so we ended up having to stand. I felt like I was going to fall backwards onto somebody because during some parts of the ascent, we went up at at 45 degree angle. It was all worth it though...even though it was a little foggy that night, the view of Victoria Harbor is still breath-taking. It was so gorgeous that we ended up staying for a couple hours up at the sky terrace. To finish off the day, we took the bus back to Cecilia's neighborhood and had a very late dinner at 11 PM.
On Saturday, I had delicious dim sum with the whole family. For those of you who do not know, dim sum is kind of like Chinese brunch. It is usually eaten in late morning, around 10 am. There are various small dishes you can order so that you get a sampling of everything. And of course, tea is served. After this, we went downstairs to the plaza to shop in Jusco, the "dollar" store. I found a lot of cute, random things there, so it was productive. After a quick rest, we went to Goldfish street (a street where they have all aquarium stores), Flower Street (they used to sell flowers here), and Toy Street (they have a lot of random little trinkets). Later, we took the MTR to Tsim Sa Tsui and saw the Peninsula hotel, Avenue of Stars, and the HK skyline in the day. Avenue of Stars is kind of like what they have in Hollywood with the stars' names and handprints on the ground. I saw the Bruce Lee statue!! Then, we met up with Cecilia's parents and had dinner at a noodle and soup place. The beef rice noodle soup was so very good and authentic. Afterward, we all went back to Tsim Sa Tsui for the laser show. Every night at 8, the HK skyline buildings light up and flash to a music program and lasers shoot out from them to make for a very pretty show. I really think Hong Kong's skyline is so beautiful and unique. Victoria Harbor is gorgeous during both the day and night. To get back to Wancai across the harbor, we took the Star Ferry. It was nice to have that breeze in such humid weather.
Sunday morning, I went to mass with the whole family since they are Catholic. It was interesting...it was all in Cantonese, but I understood what they were talking about. Afterward, we had breakfast at a VERY traditional cafe. It was made to be just like a cafe from the 50's or 60's. I had very delicious french toast and lemon tea. After a little grocery shopping, it was off to the airport to fly back to Taipei. I had a wonderful, memorable weekend, and am so thankful for the whole family's generosity and hospitality. I hope to visit this amazing city in the near future.

Short Hair!

So, I decided to get my hair cut here in Taiwan because stylists here actually know what to do with thick Asian hair. Lydia took us to a salon in new Sansia. It was only 21 USD to get my hair washed, cut, and dried. I decided to go with a shorter style because it is just way too hot to have long hair here. So much hair is gone...Overall, I am satisfied with it.

Calligraphy and Ocarinas

A few weeks ago, we had another Chinese culture class. We learned how to write Chinese calligraphy. I have done this before, but I still am pretty bad at it. I just do not know how much ink to put on my brush.
Afterward, we learned about Chinese instruments such as the erhu and pipa. I tried to play the erhu, which is a two-stringed instrument with a bow. It is harder than it looks. Later, our whole group learned to play the ocarina. I was so excited. It is actually very easy to learn, and we all played several songs, including "You are my Sunshine," "Happy Birthday," and "Amazing Grace." We make a pretty good ocarina band.

The pressure is on...

Right now, I'm taking a break from preparing for tomorrow, a big day for our whole group. Tomorrow, we are doing 10 minute individual presentations and various other group presentations for our teachers, coordinators, TAs, and the president of the university. The best part: it's all in Chinese. I have decided to do a powerpoint presentation for my individual portion. For the group part, Lily and I are doing a short dialogue and singing the chorus of a song called "Laoshu Ai Da Mi" (老鼠爱大米).
Needless to say, we're all a little stressed because there is so much to do and we don't want to let everyone down. Hopefully, I'll finish early enough to get a good night of sleep. Wish us all luck!
By the way, here's a link to that song, with pinyin and English translation.

Quest for the Elusive Durian

Last week, Stephanie, Lily, and I went out to Taipei to see a movie when the boys went hiking for 7 hours at Wulai. We found a good theatre online, and proceeded to find it. We made it to the correct MRT station, but that's when we started getting lost. After getting turned around a little, we decided to hail a cab...but the taxi took us to the wrong theatre. This one was kind of sketch and it only had old movies. So, it was back to finding another cab and we finally reached our destination. MUCH nicer, but it was a little on the pricey side for Taiwan---about 10 USD for a ticket. The three of us decided to see "Inception." It's about a man who works through dreams; it's a little strange, but it's a thinking movie. I highly recommend it. If you liked "Shutter Island," then I think you will enjoy this. Afterward, we went to Banqiao night market. This was a letdown...there really wasn't much to see, buy, or eat there.
Another good thing about that night---I finally found durian! I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but I have been looking for this fruit since I have gotten here. As we were walking to the night market, I spied the spiky fruit across the street at a Carrefour (a popular grocery chain here). I bought a small one for us to try and carried it around the night market and on the MRT. It hit my leg a few times and scratched me. I went to great lengths to try this fruit...haha. A few nights later, Jeremy and I decided to crack it open. Really, it was a bit anti-climatic because durian is known as the "king of fruits." I had heard it is supposed to be really smelly, and that Andrew Zimmern (host of "Bizarre Foods") couldn't even eat it. It turned out to be not much of a challenge at all. I would call its smell pungent, but not unpleasant. This may be due to the fact that the one I picked is not fully ripe, so it does not have that fermented odor. Also, the texture was very creamy, and when you freeze it, it is almost like ice cream. I think it is delicious.

Fun on the MRT, Indigo dyeing, and Yingge Ceramics

Now that we've figured out how to navigate the MRT relatively well, some of the boys of our group have started to play some games. It all started when we were all going somewhere, and the train was packed. Everyone was in the train except me and Lily. I ran down to the next train and jumped in right before the doors closed, thinking that Lily was right behind me. As the doors closed, we all saw her standing on the platform all by herself. It was alright, though, because we met up with her at the next station. Still, it was pretty funny. Taking inspiration from this, Daniel jumped in a train with Stephanie one time. As the doors were about to close, he jumped out, leaving her in there by all by herself. It's pretty funny, but I think I am next in line since I'm the only girl who hasn't been left behind. Haha.

One Friday, we also had a field trip to Old Sansia (Sansia Lao Jie) to learn about indigo dyeing. It's a somewhat complicated process, in which the dye is made from the woad plant. Once fabric is dipped in the dye, it is exposed to oxygen, which turns the green color to a beautiful indigo. After learning about how the dye is made, we were allowed to make our own bandanas with whatever patterns we wanted. Really, there is no way to mess up the patterns. Everyone's bandanas ended up looking really pretty. After indigo-dyeing, we went to Yingge, which is famous for its ceramics. First, we visited the Ceramics museum. It was interesting, and at the end, we all went down to work with a little clay. When I sat down and looked around the room, the average age around us was 8 years old. We just had fun messing around and making random things. Daniel C made a McDonald's french fries and Rob made a man going through mid-life crisis. We were just being silly... After this, we all headed to the streets to Yingge to buy some souvenirs. I found a nice tea set for my parents. I'll be hand-carrying this box on the plane so it doesn't shatter.

Wind-surfing, Karaoke, and Kung-fu Fighting

As I've mentioned before, we've also been taking business classes once a week in addition to our Chinese classes. For business class, we have different people come talk to us about various aspects of business in Asia. Our second speaker was a professor of Sport Management. Afterward, we all went wind-surfing. When they said "wind-surfing" on the schedule, we were all imagining going to the ocean; however, they took us to the little "lake" next to our dormitory. It was quite funny because there were signs that said "No wading or Swimming." I guess we broke the rules. Oh well. Aside from this, it was pretty fun. I guess it was for the better that we had our first wind-surfing experience at a place with minimal wind because it made it easier to learn. I was quite bad at turning directions, but I only fell into the gross water once!

Somehow, a girl named Danielle from the United States found out about us and expressed interest in meeting our group. She was really excited about meeting more Americans since she has been teaching English here for the past 4 months. We all decided to meet up with her at karaoke, a popular thing to do in Asia. Karaoke was fun, cheesy music videos and all.

One day, we had a cultural class and learned some kung-fu forms. It was more hilarious than anything...especially when we had to do pairs and perform. I'll spare you all the pictures.