August 31, 2010

Hello!

Not much has happened since our last blog, however we did go to the beach today!  It was such a hot and humid day, but nice to soak up some sun for a short while until it started pouring.  There is a typhoon warning in HK at the moment, and storms are in the forecast for the next week or so.  But, the nature here is absolutely fantastic.  Most people only think of tall skyscrapers and busy streets, however much of HK is covered in green trees and many hiking trails.  More to come once we start hiking!

Buildings overlooking the beach.

We are quite surprised how easy transportation is in the city.  It only takes a few hours to get to and from each end of the city - and you can go by bus, tram, subway, foot, or ferry.  Transportation is pretty cheap, too.  It costs approximately HKD$9 (a little over $1) to take a trip across the channel from one island to the next.  Also, Hong Kong uses a card called "Octupus card" that can be used to pay for all transportation and even can be used a restaurants, grocery stores, and other miscellaneous shops.  It's quite convenient and a much easier way to pay for everything - the US should have something like this!

After lounging on the beach all day we got back and met up with 13 exchange students to go have dinner at a local restaurant. The menus were luckily in English and had some safe choices. Caitlin got diced chicken with soy sauce and Amanda got sweet & sour pork. Our other international friends did not get so lucky and ended up with fried noodles with mystery meat. Our Korean friend looked at her food, looked at us, and asked where the nearest Subway was! Caitlin and I thought we were getting pretty good with using chopsticks until both of us catapulted food onto our laps during dinner... guess we need some more practice. After the meal we got the bill in a lump sum so sorting out a bill for 13 people at 2 tables was a nightmare. We figured out a system for next time so hopefully it won't take so long. 

Chicken head soup.

There are a few things we find a little different here in HK:
-Many people here don't speak English.  We were told that it would be relatively easy to communicate here, yet even some students at PolyU aren't comfortable speaking English.  However, the university strongly emphasizes the need for students to learn speaking the language at early age.
-People drive on the left side of the road and the escalators are on the left, yet walk on the right?  We can't figure out why.
-The students here at PolyU are into many children's activities.  For instance, our room is covered with Winnie the Pooh stickers and rumor has it that they sing High School Musical songs in unison around 5pm.
-There are great beaches here in Hong Kong, but the Chinese people are afraid of being tan.
-Some buildings have holes in them so that the dragons will have a place to fly through.  Fung Shui?
-Four is a horrible number and is considered bad luck.  In fact, many of the buildings omit the fourth floor.
-Pizza Hut is a four star restaurant here.  Sit down, beautiful walls, more than pizza, sandwiches, and pasta on the menu.  It's great!
-The cashiers here grab the money out of your hand before you're done counting it... then rush you along!

Talk to you later!