Approximately 90 days

So out of curiousity, I just did a rough calculation of how many days I have left here in Hong Kong. Only 90??? I've been here for around 140 days thus far. Those numbers sound so surreal and unrealistic. I've actually been here for a lifetime - wait, no make that a few mere seconds.

Nothing terribly exciting has happened lately, but a lot of small things seem to have occurred. In the past week I've gone to the I-house welcoming dinner, a new random temple (not the one I wanted to go to though), gone shopping crazy, went for a special Hong Kong dinner, skating, and went for a chinese BBQ.

The I-house welcoming party was an event so we could welcome all the new students living here this term. It was fun, but in the end, you didn't actually meet that many new people because there were too many. I met lots of people, and remember lots of names, but I can't put the them together. The party planners also produced ink and red paper for the upcoming Chinese New Year. Apparently it's tradition (or at least fun) for people to write down good wishes on paper and hang them on their doors until the New Year. Right now Peggy and I have "Good luck" and something else written (in Chinese of course) and hanging upside down on our door. (It gets turned right side up on the first day of New Year.)

The next day, Peggy and I joined some new girls (Allison, Paige, and Brianne from an earlier post) in attempting to find the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas in Shatin. We found a temple, but it wasn't the right one. (And of course, Peggy and I left before we found out it wasn't the right one.) It was pretty, but otherwise not terribly interesting. I've reached the point where a temple is a temple. I don't go out of my way to seek one unless it's super famous.

Peggy and I left earlier than the others because it turns out that it wasn't really a temple after all - it was a place where people went to pray to their ancestors. (Where they keep their ashes - do they keep their ashes here in China?) We weren't too comfortable walking around there while there were people praying to their departed ones. (The others students did end up finding the real Temple of 10,000 Buddhas after awhile.)

Peggy and I ended up going to the Shatin mall. She wanted to buy a nice winter jacket... And thus commenced our 10 hour shopping ordeal. We went through EVERY single floor of the Shatin Mall (6 floors - each floor bigger than the Heritage Place mall and with mostly clothing stores). NEVER AGAIN I tell you! After the first 7 hours, we couldn't find anything in Shatin, so we went to Mong Kok and found another upscale mall. Queue another 3 hours of shopping with no results.

The following morning, we met up with Limin and went skating in Kowloon Tong. Peggy had never skated before, and Limin hadn't skated in like, 10 years. It was fun, and Peggy tried her best to learn, but even I have to admit, it wasn't that much fun. The rink was over crowded, the skates so dull that they probably wouldn't even be considered a weapon on an airplane, and the ice was terribly rutted. We ended up leaving after only like 90 minutes.

The most amusing thing about the skating rink was watching a bunch of little Kung Fu kids trying to skate. (There had been a demonstration earlier that day in the mall and I guess they decided to go skating as a treat.) None of these kids knew how to skate, and you could tell. Despite all the falling they were doing, they all wore happy little grins. I guess they truly do know how to put mind over matter. (Cue the groans. :))

We ended up continuing our search for Peggy's coat afterwards. I felt bad for Limin, because she didn't realize what a mission we had embarked on. You could tell she was kinda bored. Once again we went back to Mong Kok (to finish off the mall we didn't finish the evening before). I could weep now when I think of all the fruitless walking we did. One of the real aims of our expedition this time though was to waste time - we were waiting till 8pm so we could meet up with Jen and go for dinner.

Thankfully the time finally came, and we went over to Fo Tan to meet up with Jen, her boyfriend Bryan, and lo and behold - Allison, Paige, and Brianne! (Random meetup, but a fun result.) We then headed out to have "Dai Pai Dong."

Dai Pai Dong is supposed to be a special way of having dinner in Hong Kong... I don't know why it was so special though. It was like eating in China. In the middle of a road there were a bunch of tents set up with tables and stools... Despite being located on a closed down road, it was a generic chinese meal. We ate soooo much. Oh, and there's that favourite photo of mine again! :) That's me with squid hanging out of my mouth. Mwahahahaha.

On Sunday I had made plans with the "Dim Sum Club" (a group of people I go for lunch with once a week) to go bicycling and for a BBQ. More fun ensued.

We took a bus out into the New Territories and found a nice little area on the waterfront where we could rent bikes for $10HKD for the day. I felt bad for the American guy in our group - he's over 6 feet tall and had a hard time finding a bike that would fit him. We ended up going biking for about 2 hours. One of the trails was along a rock barricade connecting the mainland to an island - it was pretty, but filled with bugs.

After biking, we walked over to our BBQ site... I swear, the Chinese are masters at wasting time. After my hot pot experience, and now this BBQ, I'm certain they've perfected the ability to prolong things.

The BBQ was fun, but terribly inefficient. You know how we roast marshmellows back in North America? Well, instead of spearing a marshmellow or hotdog, these guys will toss an entire steak on their stick and roast it for half an hour before eating. It was fun, but infuriating to have to wait for eat piece of meat! It was interesting to see just what you COULD BBQ though - I toasted everything from streak and chicken wings to octopus. (I droped my octopus on the ground though half way through - 20 minutes of roasting - wasted! :( ) We even toasted our own bread. Yeesh. Crazy man.

Thus ended my evening of procrastination. I have class in an hour and haven't eaten, so I shall go now. Toodles!