Trying to stop the hourglass

Time is flying by, in a mere 4 days I'll be flying home. Oh crap. So much left to do.

I've already come to the sad realization that there is no possible way to complete all my papers (hell, uh, 2 out of the 3) until AFTER I return to Canada. Heh. And the only reason the third one is getting done at all is because it's due on Monday. Otherwise I'm sure I'd find a way to put it off too.

Last night was Jen's birthday party. Happy birthday Jen! It wasn't so much as a party as a small dinner. We were going to have a potluck, but only one other person (besides Bryan, Limin, Peggy, and I) showed up, so only my little entourage cooked food. We ended up eating a lot anyways - I made a huge batch of spaghetti (actually, Peggy made it and I provided the recipe - I was busy getting my hair cut.), Peggy made some amazingly delicious coconut/bean dessert thing with sago in it, Limin provided icecream, and Bryan ordered a delicious yogurt cake!

For her birthday, Jen received a painting by and from Limin, a fake penis/boob from Peggy (you could throw them at places and they'd stick/go splat - unfortunately we found they stuck to a wall too well, and also stained it.) And yes, I did egg Peggy on to buy the items. I provided Jen with a couple of gift certificates from her favourite (expensive) mall.

Therefore our evening was spent eating food (oh my gosh, yogurt cake = FABULOUS), looking at pictures and being goofy with my camera. More pictures from her birthday can be found here.

In the days leading up to the birthday party, I had been out on a quest trying to think of something tangible to give to Jen as a gift. On Wednesday, Peggy and I ventured out to Mong Kok to see if we could find something for her in the Ladies Market. We bargained hard and feirce, but came away empty handed. (Which is probably a good thing because after we left, we realized all the stuff we had tried to buy was for ourselves instead.

I got quite a few giggles on that day too. At least 2 stalls burst into laughter when I spoke Cantonese. And even more laughed at my attempts to bargain. "$99??? How about $30?" I was too cheap to buy a lot of stuff, so I didn't bargain too hard. But I have to admit, I was pretty impressed with myself. My cantonese skills totally kicked in that day. I was able to understand most of the numbers the ladies threw at me (the number 5 still confuses me - it sounds like someone's swallowing or something).

I also finally bought my first bottle of perfume. I decided to buy it here because it was cheaper than the Canadian prices I checked out online. So I'm now the proud owner of some Christian Dior "Hypnotic Poison." Peggy doesn't like it, but it got Jen's seal of approval. I'm happy.

We finished off our night by going grocery shopping since neither of us had food due to our recent trips.

The next day, I had to venture out to Central to visit the Canadian consulate to pick up my security clearance form. Luckily, I didn't get stuck in any staircases this time.

Peggy accompanied me and we went for lunch/early dinner at a famous restaurant in Lan Kwai Fong. I can't tell you it's name, but I'll tell you it had squatting toilets. And here I thought I had left those behind in China. Curses. The restaurant was okay - not terribly exciting. Apparently it's only famous because it's really old. I ordered some kinda beef dish that was very tasty, but was served in a bowl of instant noodles. Why instant noodles??? If it had been served with nice noodles, it would have been worth the $34HKD, but as it was, it wasn't. Peggy and I ended up switching meals half way through because her French toast (they deepfry it here) was too sweet for her. Dinner and dessert! Excellent!

We were supposed to go to the Temple Street Night Market that night, but I was really tired and wanted to go home and work on an essay instead, so I bid Peggy adieu and made a not-so-quick stopover in Kowloon Tong to pick up Jen's gift. I also popped into the bookstore there to buy some reading material for the plane ride back to Canada.

The next day I went for lunch with Peggy and a couple of my flatmates. We just ate on a restaurant on campus but had fun chatting. From there I went back to Kowloon Tong to get my hair cut.

Right now I'm kind of iffy on the haircut. I had been aiming for something that looks like this but you can see how it turned out. I think I'll wait until I get back to Canada and get it recut again, but with shorter sides/more layers just like the picture SHOULD have. If that still fails to impress me, I'll just get it cut even shorter and leave it at that.

I guess that's all the news for now. My plan for today is to sit at home and work on my essay that's due on Monday. Jen's supposed to be dropping her laptop off for some TLC from me. (That girl's laptop is a terrifying pit of "I don't know what I'm doing so I'll put this file here, and that one there and oh look, what does that icon do?") She and I want to try to hit up karaoke on Monday night before she leaves for Korea and I leave for Canada.

Fare thee well y'all!

P.S.
Thanks goes out to everyone who has sent me a postcard in the past 8 months! It's made my door pretty and has made me happy to come home each evening. :)