Warm showers, how I miss thee

Can anyone remind me what a hot shower feels like? I haven't touched a hot water tap since I've moved here. And that's not an exaggeration! ***Edit: I should clarify - It's not that I don't have access to hot water, it's that I have no interest in turning the hot water on! It's too bloody hot to have anything but a freezing cold shower.***

Last night I discovered another amusing and interesting cultural difference between the East and West. I was talking with Pei-chin when somehow we got on to the topic of suntanning. I told her that in the west, it is very popular to go sun bathing and it's considered very pretty to have bronzed skin. I even mentioned how we have sunless tanning cream.

Well, apparently in the East it's the complete opposite! They strive to maintain very white skin. (That explains why they all use sun umbrellas!) She even showed me some popular skin products she owns that are meant to "whiten" your skin.

We were both laughing over the big difference between our cultures. It's strange how even though we're more interconnected than ever, that we can still have such different expectations.

She also went through the Mandarin lesson I had yesterday. She was laughing hysterically as I explained to her how we were learning (we just practiced the mandarin sounds that we don't have in English). I'm so looking forward to learning some new words from her!

Our other roommate/flatmate, Emily, a local from Hong Kong, came into our room last night to chat. I'm happy that she did because I got to learn a bit more about her and be less intimidated. :) She'd been to Miami on an exchange before, so she was very good with her English and seemed very Western.

She gave me some good advice on bargaining in Mong Kok (you should expect to be able to drop the price by 20%). So today I'm headed off to the markets again with some Canadians.