Friday, September 30, 2011

Long Time No Long Post

Yeah, so it’s been a few weeks since I’ve updated my blog. My apologies, guys. Time to inform y’all of all the fun things that have, or haven’t, happened since my last post. I don’t think I remember everything that y’all might consider the most interesting aspects of my life here, but I will do my best.

Well, I drank the 24-pack of Dr Pepper in the span of two weeks. That’s about two a day. Not really all that much when you think about how at Centenary, we have access to soda every meal in the cafeteria, and pretty much at any point during the day in almost any location on campus. I’m pretty sure I drank a lot more soda there than anywhere else, even at home, and that’s saying something. So, now, I’m without Dr Pepper again, and of course, I’m craving it like crazy. Call it an addiction, if you will.

I’ve somewhat started to curb the craving, though it’s still there the majority of the time. Every now and then I’ll grab a Coke from the Circle K at Fu Tai. Now, remember, I don’t like Coke. I really don’t. But I can bear it, at least if it’s in a glass bottle. The cool thing about the Circle K is that if you bring back the empty bottle from your last purchase, they give you $1HKD back to you, or, in other words, one dollar off your next purchase. Pretty simple if you just exchange the Coke bottle for another Coke, with a little less money.

In other food-related news, I have discovered French toast that smells exactly like funnel cake. Tasted pretty good, although of course, they had no powdered sugar. Sad face. But, like any determined, desperate college student, I went in search of this powdered sugar, and after meeting up with someone who had actually graduated from Centenary last spring, I ended up finding it. Almost the very next day, I dragged my friend to the restaurant with the French toast, and we tried it together. It was amazing, and is probably now my favorite dessert here.

As the cafeteria food is concerned, I personally think it’s mostly terrible, worse than Centenary’s food, in fact, and the other person from Centenary agrees with me. Now, I know all of you are thinking I’m only saying that because I don’t very much like Chinese food, but seriously, even their own students prefer going out to eating in the canteen (what they call the cafeteria, for those of you who are unaware). I tried their rice and chicken. The rice was bland, and I don’t like soy sauce, and they had no butter, or so they said. From what I hear from students, it’s all lies. . . . The chicken was okay, but I wasn’t really fond of picking pieces of bone out of my teeth afterward.

The only time I go to the canteen now, if I go, is in the morning for breakfast. I get toast, eggs, a hash brown, and two fried fish. The eggs taste better than those at Centenary, but they’re still too undercooked. (In the words of someone I know, the eggs at Centenary are “like sponges”.) The hash browns are usually undercooked. I prefer them to be slightly crispy. The fish are also a bit undercooked. At least, they’re gooey. But there’s ketchup, so no worries! Speaking of ketchup, I’ve discovered that restaurant ketchup over here tastes horrendous!

I FINALLY have some actual work to do, work which I actually would prefer NOT to do. They usually only require a single reading per class each week, and so, being used to the busy nature of Centenary, I’ve come to feel a bit lazy with too much time on my hands, and then I don’t want to even look at the work. It makes me appreciate Centenary’s business, to tell you the truth, after experiencing how lazy I can get when I have nothing at all to do. Granted, this “nothing to do” also stems from the fact that many people I know here are usually busy, and therefore the majority of the time, I’m stuck alone in my room.

Currently I am working in a group, preparing for a presentation that is to be done within the next two weeks. At first I was completely and utterly confused about what I should research specifically. I tried to ask questions, tried to understand, but every time I thought I got it, I was told it wasn’t right! One of the girls in our group is pretty hard for me to get along with at this point, as I feel she’s essentially taking over the entire thing. While I respect her being able to do that, I feel she doesn’t really help everyone to understand what they need to do. When you lead a project, you need to make sure everyone understands the role they’re supposed to play, and in this case, that everyone’s on the same page.

However, that negative part of our classmate relationship seems to be getting better, as we’ve pretty much argued (not angrily, mind you) and discussed what we thought about the project, the direction each part should take, and the like. We started to understand each other better, I think. I’m not saying we’re the best of buds yet, and I’m not sure we ever will be, but I won’t close my mind to the idea. The worst of enemies could become the best of friends in the end.

Overall, I really, really miss home. I miss my friends and Adam back at Centenary, my parents and the rest of my family, and Louisiana in general. I’m terribly homesick right now. However, counting down the weeks has helped. A semester abroad really isn’t all that long in the scheme of things, and when you divide the school semester into weeks, time seems to go by quicker than you thought possible. Already I think we have about ten weeks left of the school semester. The past few weeks have flown by, and I feel as though I’ve been here much longer than I have.

Okay, so that was a long post. Stay tuned for more. I have lots more to say, but this post just seemed, as previously state, long.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Another Post

Okay. I saw an animal’s heart for sale when I went on the cultural tour. And bits of raw fish. And a pig hanging down while they cut the meat off of it. I felt disgusted, and the smell was horrendous. Why had I happened to see this? We were on a cultural tour of a poorer part of Hong Kong. (Granted, they do the meat thing practically everywhere.) They actually consider it to be the poorest district, and there are SO many people. I learned a lot, but at the end of the day, I was bored, tired, and hungry.

Speaking of being hungry, dinner was a no go. Ride and chicken. Seemingly an innocent dinner, right? The chicken looked like undercooked organs, and the rice was undercooked and tasted slightly burnt. Needless to say, I did not eat it. I didn’t eat the oyster cake either, or the calamari, or the cooked vegetables. I was content with going back to my room to search through my food for dinner instead. Whatever food there happened to be anyway. I have a limited supply of noodles and cereal, so you can imagine how well that’s going so far. (Fine for me!)

There are a few interesting things I previously forgot to mention. One of them is that, when traveling, you hardly ever see people without a phone or other digital device in hand, and most with earphones plugged in. But at the same time, it doesn’t seem to be an obsession, like it would probably be back in the States. It just seems to be only a way of passing time. It’s a bit strange, though, to me, to see so many people seemingly disengaged from their surroundings. Oh, and the iPhone seems quite popular here.

As for classes, things are going pretty well. They’re keeping me busy, though I must admit, two of my teachers are a bit monotone, and by that, I mean boring. I don’t mean to be rude or mean when saying it, but I just cannot hardly pay any attention to them when they speak, unless they speak directly to me with questions. The material is otherwise interesting, but that doesn’t help when you’re in the middle of the classroom and are threatened by sleep.

On to something you all might find quite entertaining. . . . Yesterday I went to go pick up some Dr Pepper that a store ordered for me. (They only had singles, so they had to order packs.) I carried a 24-pack of Dr Pepper for about an hour straight, from the store to the train (in which I stood for about half an hour, balancing without holding on to anything and unable to sit because of so many people) to the school and my hostel. I now have bruises on my hips where the cardboard crate sat, and my arms and shoulders are extremely sore. But at least now I have Dr Pepper!

Friday, September 2, 2011

Was Coming to Post

Okidokie. Time for another post. Why? I’m bored. I can’t remember half the names (plus some) of those I’ve met so far, and they all seem to be busy working or sleeping. I’ve been to the mall two or three times by myself in the past few days. Although, I do feel proud of myself for buying some shirts on my own (you know, without having others help me pick it out). It’s easy for me to pick out t-shirts alone, but since I don’t wear “nice” clothes very often, I usually need help deciding. But, this time I didn’t. I even went back to the store a second time to get other shirts.

However, the second time I went I spent about two hours trying to find the dadgum place. It was hectic, and there were tons of people crammed into tiny hallways. I think I have part of the second floor memorized now, though, at least enough for me to get to the places I want to go, which I would very much call a success for me. The shirts I bought are perhaps a bit questionable by home standards, but I may think that simply because I’m not used to them. I don’t remember if I said so before, but their styles are very different from what I’m used to in the U.S.

One shirt in particular in solid in the front but fishnet in the back, so of course you see skin. I asked the lady if people here normally wore an undershirt under this type of shirt, and she said no, though she did show me an undershirt I could wear with it if uncomfortable (which I bought for another shirt that was sheer). I feel like by the time I come back home, I’m going to be wearing a completely different wardrobe. Next on the list is actually a t-shirt or two, but those are hard to find, at least the ones I’m used to, yet again. Theirs are much longer and nicer, though somehow I keep seeing people walking around with “normal” t-shirts. . . .

Oh, and yesterday I explored a small market on the street that was on the way to the mall. (Caused me to pretty much use all my bus card credit because of me getting on the bus and off of it multiple times.) It was all very interesting, and there were a few things I wouldn’t mind going back to see, but there wasn’t something there that really caught my eye. Except where there was meet hanging on hooks. . . . I tried not to look as I passed. At least these were cooked, unlike most I’ve seen in the markets. They like everything fresh over here.

I’ll finish this later today after I’ve done whatever I’m gonna do.

Okay, so I’m finishing this later later. The above was written about two days ago. Yeah, I got distracted.

Anyway, I’ve got more to say now, or at least I thought I did, before it all went out the window. I ate at the canteen. Ate some chicken and rice, which was actually pretty good, although seeing the bones and all the places where I think there were veins and organs did throw me a little off my appetite. The rice was bland as well. I wanted to put some butter on it, but they have no butter, sadly, and I can’t stomach the soy sauce.

On a big positive side, I now know where my favorite places are in that big mall, and how to get to them. Luckily, they’re all on the same floor, and most on the same hall. How convenient. (Yes, one of the stores happens to be Pizza Hut. It’s my point of reference.)

I started classes. I have two on Monday, one on Tuesday, two on Wednesday, one on Thursday, and one on Friday. So far everything looks like it’ll be interesting. At least, the assignments and material will be. I think the professors need to step it up a little in terms of enthusiasm, though.