Great times! Great people! It's called life. I like it.

Well, now I can revert back to detailing the goings-on of my semester in Hong Kong. I think I have been sedated at some point, because I looked at my calendar and today is April 26th. This means a couple things. First, I have been living in Hong Kong for 113 days. This also means that I am far closer than I thought or desire to be to coming back to the States. Family and friends, please don’t be insulted by this. It is not that I don’t want to see you – this is certainly not the case. It is more so that I feel like I cannot leave this awesome place, these awesome people and this awesome environment I have been accustomed to for nearly four months now. It is sad that even though I have more than a month before I return to the US, that this journey is quickly approaching its end.  What follows is a bit of an update without any real theme of the last couple weeks since my return from Cambodia.

Toastmasters - April 14

About a month ago I had come up with the idea to start a small side-business here at CUHK by offering editing and proof-reading services to local students especially with regard to cover letter and graduate school applications etc. I talked with a local friend about it and he suggested that I attend a Toastmasters event to sell the idea to people who are already interested in English and improving their English. Their next meeting wasn’t until mid-April, so the idea kind of died since there isn’t much time left, but I still went to their meeting just to check it out.

For those of you like me who don’t know what Toastmasters is, I will give a brief explanation. It is a worldwide organization based in cities, universities, companies etc where each meeting people give prepared speeches of varying lengths on different topics. Then the rest of the group listens and there are rotating evaluators for grammar, content, counting of “um’s” and “uh’s”, and an overall evaluation of the speaker. It is to help you become better at giving speeches and be more comfortable with public speaking. I thought this was such a cool idea and was surprised to find out that of the 200+ student groups at WashU, we don’t have one – thinking about starting one maybe.

It was really cool to see these local HK students get up and give really interesting and engaging speeches in English. My local friend Edward had invited me to be the Grammarian for the night, essentially giving me the job of evaluating the use of English and everyday phrasing etc. I was supremely impressed with their vocabulary and their general enthusiasm for learning and using English, along with some pretty cool stories that they told as part of their speeches.

Temple Street Night Market - April 16

Last Friday night we ventured over to the Temple Street Night Market in Yau Ma Tei in Kowloon. Alex and I went for dinner at a side-of-the-road seafood restaurant. We chose it based on the idea that crowded restaurants were good ones and were not disappointed. It was so crowded in fact that we got seated at a table with a random couple, kind of funny to just sit down with them. Dinner was very Chinese with some fried noodles along with an oyster pancake and frog with rice. Yes, that’s right, I chose to eat frog. It is delicious. Don’t hate it until you’ve tried it. It tastes like really good chicken.  Then, we met up with Toni, Niclas and Kent to wander around the night market and buy up some chotchkas as gifts and such.

(Kind of like a huge potato pancake... with seafood. It's about the size of a personal pizza)

(Frog = delicious)

(This is a pretty typical offerring)

(Hundreds of stalls along this street - pedestrians only)

(Alex, Toni and Niclas - I smell a trip to Europe in my future)

(These were pretty popular)

(This was just bizarre. There were probably 20 of these stalls that we saw selling sex items. Especially weird was that the stall owners were mostly 70+ year-old women)

(Kent... representing it well)

(Not sure about this one... would've bought these if we hadn't found out that she was scamming everyone by having the writing be on a piece of paper, and then a separate piece of aluminum not attached. Also, thanks to Monatrice we have the direct translation "Who's house's chimney does not have smoke")

Overall it was a really fun night with really great people, something that seems to be turning into a trend. I noticed that this is sort of what I view as the nightlife for most HK’ers. It is not centered on partying and going out, but rather being with friends, going out to dinner and just wandering around. This is just as if not more enjoyable, and I’m glad that I’ve come to understand this, even if it’s a bit late in the game.

The title of this blog is a quote from Niclas after this night. I think it pretty much sums up what I’ve been feeling and experiencing here, and couldn’t have said it better myself.

International Pub Crawl - April 17

Saturday night was a really fun one down on LKF. While the massive beach party was postponed due to rain, the same group of organizers planned the third version of the International Pub Crawl. Basically, lots of students getting great deals at a bunch of different bars around LKF while we dress like idiots from the 80s. Unfortunately, because it was thrown together so last minute, and because it was raining a bit, not many people showed. However, again, it was the good ones who did, and the time was amazing. There were only about 15 of us, but we were all dressed in sports clothes and sweatbands and colorful sunglasses looking about as obnoxious as one could. Then we had a lot of drinks since it was planned for about 5 times as many people and enjoyed a night wandering from bar to bar on our own. Sadly, I don’t have any pictures of this, and I think it might be better that way.  Overall, it’s a fantastic idea and would love to do something like this back at school next year.

Classes … or not

Basically, at this point, I’ve completely checked out from whatever work I was doing before. I just can’t get started on things, because I just don’t care enough, and feel pretty good about it – especially since I’ve been able to get pretty decent grades considering how little effort I put in. Being a native English speaker (writer) has been a huge advantage that I’ve capitalized on. Over Easter, my Accounting class was completed, and so I now only have classes on Tuesday and Thursday, which is wonderful.

My film class has become better and better each week throughout the semester, as opposed to my other which have at best remained the same or deteriorated. This past week (April 20), a Chinese-born, German-educated director came to our campus. Monday night his second film Blind Mountain was shown and then we had a Q&A with him for about an hour, and then Tuesday in class did the same thing with his first film Blind Shaft. Even though he doesn’t speak English, I was able to get a lot out of it because of good translation. I had never seen a movie and then met with its creator before and it is an incredible experience.  Being able to ask him about his concepts for films and how he perceives his role as a director was amazing.

Some quick fun facts: he makes his films with mostly non-professional actors. For instance, one of his films is based on the mining industry in China, and for it, he only had one professional actor – the rest were just people from the mine he shot at. The coolest part there is that you cannot tell at all – makes me really think about the role of the director and how maybe actors are really put on a large pedestal for little reason.  I’d advise you take a look at one of his movies.

Also, his first movie was censored by China. Hearing about this process and the bearing on the director was really interesting. Chinese films are highly censored and created under the direct supervision of the Chinese government. Given that he made this film out of their realm, they censored it, and it cannot be shown in China. It also gave him a 3-year suspension from making movies in China.

Other than that, my classes have been pretty unexciting. I have a project, two papers and two exams before the end of the year, but I don’t foresee too much effort being put in, especially as it will be a part of my last weeks in Hong Kong. My priorities are very much in order I think.

Dinner With Gary & Judy - April 20

About two weeks ago, I got an email forwarded from my dad, that two family friend of my parents were traveling through China for three weeks and would be leaving out of HK the next week. I quickly contacted them and we set a date for dinner on Wednesday.

Thanks and props to Monatrice for recommending a really great restaurant in TST! I felt weird that I didn’t really know the name of a good, semi-nice Chinese restaurant. I realized this is mostly because I eat very cheaply, and if not, then with locals who lead the way.

Anyway, considering that I haven’t seen Gary and Judy since my Bar Mitzvah nearly exactly 9 years ago (by the way, how did THAT happen?!), I was a bit nervous about how the meal would work out. To my delight, this was a wonderful experience. It was so great to actually develop some kind of relationship with them after so long and really hit it off.

We ate and talked for a couple hours, and even stayed for a while after paying the check. It seems like we covered everything – family, my experiences in HK and WashU, traveling, politics and more. They are such dynamic people, and I hope that I have such a seemingly fulfilling life when I’m their age (A little more vintage than my parents). They told me about their incredible three-week trip through China and gave me a lot of tips for my own time there, as we overlapped in a lot of places.  The experience that stood out the most to me, and which I plan on duplicating, is that they did a 2-day hike of the Great Wall to a much more isolated part of the wall, far away from the tourist busses and tour guides with flags. I was sold when I saw a picture of the Wall they took, where they were the only people in sight as far as the eye could see. Incredible, and I can’t wait to do it myself.

Gary and Judy, thank you so much for taking me out to a lovely dinner, and for sharing all that you did with me.  I really loved hearing your stories, and I look forward to seeing you sometime soon either in MA or NV!

(Judy and me)

(Gary and me)

Miscellaneous

I registered for classes for next fall at WashU on Tuesday. This was a surreal experience on multiple levels. First, it is just another reference for how freakishly fast this semester has gone, that I am already at this point of the year. Second, that I’m talking about classes for my senior year. That might be even more bizarre, as I still remember so vividly this month three years ago, making stressful decisions about college. Northwestern? University of Michigan? Go Wolverines right? Deposit sent into Michigan, t-shirt and bumper sticker purchased. And then, that first week in May I received the waitlist call from WashU. It’s crazy how these moments stick in your memory and how they play out years later. I can’t believe that I’m almost through with these college years, as it feels like they’ve just begun!

On a more logistical note here’s my lineup for next semester, most of which won’t be official until after shopping around. Let me know if you match up with any of these, slash have any advice on which of the shopping classes to take.

1. Music of The Beatles: T 7-9:30pm

2. Finance - Options, Futures and Derivative Securities – Cuny – T/Th 2:30-4

3a. Organizational Behavior – Baer – M/W 2:30-4

3b. Operations 356 – Zhang – T/R 10-11:30

4. Operations 230 – Turcic – M/W 11:30-1

5a. Terrorists and Terrorism – Le Vine – T/R 11:30-1

5b. Modern South Asian Politics – Parikh – M/W – 1-2:30

Also this past week I went with Niclas to get suits made for us in Shenzhen. This is a pretty popular idea given how cheap it is, and comparatively cheaper than Hong Kong. Thanks to my newly minted multi-entry Chinese visa, I was able to take advantage of it. We went Monday to select fabrics, styles and get measured, Wednesday to get the first fitting, and Friday to pick up. It was a really cool experience given that I know nothing about suits and styles, but they turned out great. All in all, I bought two new suits (blue pinstripe and charcoal), three new shirts, and got my old suit and one shirt retrofitted. All that for under $300 US. I can’t imagine getting a better deal with such good quality. We went to a place recommended to us by another exchange student, and the woman who owned the shop spoke really good English, which made the whole process a lot easier, as well as more confident that we’d get good stuff.

(Two letters: G. Q.)

(Not looking too shabby himself)

(With our new friend Jessica, the sister of the owner - very helpful and great)

I’m growing my beard out. It’s been about 4 weeks to date, and it’s growing in pretty evenly for the first time. We’ll see how long I keep this, and if I can’t find a decent trimmer soon, it will probably get chopped off before I leave on my trip. Otherwise, I’ve been getting some compliments, so look out for it when you see me next!

The last thing is more of a personal note-to-self. I decided I want to turn this blog into a tangible memory by making it into a coffee-table-book type thing. Anybody who has ideas of how to best accomplish this in terms of both quality and price would be greatly appreciated.  

This brings me up to this past weekend, which will get its own post for sure. To say the least, it was epic and I can’t wait to take some time to sit down and write it.