Time is sure flying here in Hong Kong - we have successfully finished our first week of school and are beginning to love the city even more than before! Here's what we've been up to...
Wednesday -
Traditional Cantonese Wedding Dinner -
A student here in Hong Kong organized a dinner with exchange students from all universities in Hong Kong. There were over 300 students in a Greek Decorated, Chinese food restaurant. The decor didn't quite match the food, but it was still an unforgettable experience.
There were 10 courses served at the dinner including:
1. Spring Rolls
2. Pig Feet, Pork and Jellyfish
3. Squid and Celery
4. Mushrooms and Cabbage
5. Duck Feet and Mushrooms (we are not sure)
6. Chicken + Chicken Head
7. An Entire Fish
8. Fried Rice and Noodles
9. Shrimp Jelly Soup
10. Dessert - Cold Bean Soup
Needless to say, it was a very interesting meal. None of the students wanted to touch the food, but most of us were courageous enough to at least try the food. Someone at our table even ate the chicken head! What an experience!
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| Cold, sweet, bean soup dessert. |
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| The Decor |
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| Would anyone like a chicken head? |
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| Duck Foot |
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| Our Favorite Course! |
Ladies Night -
Ladies night is pretty big here in HK. After our horrible dinner on Wednesday night, we decided to head out to Wan Chai to forget about what we had just eaten. It was quite fun, but the club was packed. I guess you can't beat free drinks/entry on a weekday! What a fun night!
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| Amanda, Ben, Kathrin, and Caitlin at Ladies Night! |
We went to class and rested up for the rest of the weekend!
Friday -
The Hong Kong Museum of History -
A group of us decided to dodge the rain and head to the HK Museum of History. For only HKD 5 (less than one US dollar) we toured the museum. They had really done a great job on the museum and we learned so much about Chinese Fashion, History of HK, the Opium War and so much more...
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| Chinese Qipao |
Kareoke -
Friday night we had our first experience with Asian style Karaoke. Our
German friends Kathrin & Katharina invited us to meet up with some of
their friends who had planned the Kareoke night. After meeting up with
everyone for a delicious Thai dinner, we took an elevator down to an
underground Karaoke club where we weaved through a labyrinth of dark
hallways filled with private karaoke rooms. Our room was large with
several couches and a big TV screen for the Karaoke music videos.
There were around 15-20 people from all around the world with us who
all sang at the same time. The combination of off key singing and
accents from Germany, Japan, Australia, England and other places
resulted in a sound that was far from harmonious. Favorite bands/songs
of the night were Ghostbusters, Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Queen
and the Beach Boys. After a few drinks of green tea mixed with whiskey
the guys put on toilet seat covers as necklaces and danced around. We
had a blast singing with everyone belting out tunes and dancing until
3AM. Hopefully there will be much more Karaoke in our futures, even if
it was a little pricey!
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| Seat cover necklace anyone? |
Saturday -
Ferry Trip to Hong Kong Island -
There is a ferry that takes travelers from Tsim Shaw Tsui to Hong Kong Island. For just a couple HK dollars, we took an 8 minute ride across the channel to the IFC building. After some shopping, we took a break to grab some delicious coffee and danish.
After this, Amanda and myself decided to be courageous and take the MTR (subway) to a random stop, get off, and explore. Don't worry, Mom, we knew where we were.... kinda. We got off in East Kowloon which is approximately 15 miles from our dorm room. This part of the city is much more family oriented and slower paced than other parts of the city. After taking a stroll in a park and around the area, we decided to grab a bite to eat before heading back home. We stopped in a little restaurant in a mall that looked OK from the window - nice, clean, full of customers. We thought, "Hey, it can't be THAT bad, right?" Wrong.
The menu was completely in Chinese, which is okay. There were pictures and we decided it would be exciting to try the "pick and pray" method. We ordered soup, noodles, and dim sum (dumpling type food).
First, out comes the soup... it's disgusting. The soup is similar consistency to Egg Drop Soup and is filled with tentacle-like long, black strings. There were definitely feelers on these things. The soup also had tofu and something similar to tofu, but black. It was horrible!!!!
We pushed the bowl to the side and waited for the next course. Out comes the noodles which was an even larger bowl of this tentacle-soup that simply included noodles. Our jaw dropped in shock - how could a picture look so unlike the food? The dim sum arrived and turned out to be OK. They were chicken wrapped in a green, rice-like coating... we hope it was chicken.
We have decided that Thai food > Cantonese food... looking forward to our trip to Thailand in the winter!!
Sunday -
Today we headed to Lamma Island with two of our friends from Germany. It was about a 30 minute ferry ride to the island. After arriving, we walked through the small beach town to the beach. We laid on the beach for about an hour and a half before hiking 5K through the island to the other side. The island was absolutely beautiful! Full of greenery and a view for miles. It was really an awesome and relaxing day.
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| Egg Tart |
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| Welcome to Lamma Island |
Well, we are done for the night! What an exhausting, yet exciting, few days - back to school tomorrow. Talk to you all soon!
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