Bangkok

Jasmine, Sophia, and I took a weekend trip to Bangkok, Thailand, and it was absolutely fantastic. I love Bangkok. We spent 4 days there and fit in a lot of sight-seeing and a LOT of shopping. The Thailand Baht is about 35 to 1 usd, so everything was ridiculously cheap.

We stayed in a nice little hostel that was pretty close to everything, although we had trouble getting a room for 3 people, so we ended up getting a 2 person room and all 3 of us ladies slept sideways on the bed with our feet dangling off!

Some of the sights we saw were the giant reclining budda.. which was ENORMOUS. It took up a whole length of a building.
They made me wear this shirt in the building because we weren't allow to have bare shoulders.. gross.

The coolest part of our weekend was going to the Floating Market! We got to hire a little motor boat that takes you down this narrow channel of water, and all along the route there are little vendors on the banks and in boats floating around too trying to sell you trinkets and fruit and coconut drinks! SO incredible. This video is a little sample of what it was like!


Here are some pictures from the floating market. Sophia and I were drinking our coconut water! Mmm.



From the Floating Market, our boat driver took us to this remote area where we got off the boat and walked into this jungle-esque area. It was pretty shady. But we were going to see elephants! Another huge highlight of the trip. We got to ride elephants for only 600 Baht and they took us around this trail ... just like a horseback riding trail where all the elephants just walk and follow each other along the loop. So neat. We even went through water, which was scary cause I almost slipped out of the seat!

eXL Dance Performance

My friends and I, but mostly thanks to Harley (extreme heart in planning anything and everything) organized a hip hop dance group of local and exchange students at the beginning of the semester. We practiced 2 nights a week, sometimes on weekends too, for the whole semester to prepare for our performance on this past Friday, May 8th at the Cultural Exchange Showcase (a variety of talents from around the world)... which was a 2-hour show also organized by Harley! Haha.

Here is the video from our show! Hope you like it! (If you watch carefully at 5:48, I got kicked in the face going up into the freeze.. hard hahah)

SB: 1st Stop, Xi'an, China

I had never really heard of Xi'an before this trip, so I had no idea what to expect. Our flight from Shenzhen took about 2 hours (with a meal). It wasn't too painful to find out youth hostel in the city, and we were happy to see that it was a lot nicer and cooler than we expected. It was a really old building and it was intensely decorated on the inside. We slept in the basement, and I shared a room with 2 other girls, Hawra and Jasmine. Everything about the hostel was great, except one MAJOR problem.

There was a cat (or 2 at one point) living in the vents above all of our rooms. Every night, the cats would run, fight, scream (have you ever heard a cat scream?? Well I have now.), hiss, tumble, screech ALL night long. It was the worst thing of my life. The cat was mostly above our room the whole time, but all the other people down the hall said they heard it all night too. Hawra was using the bathroom earlier in the evening when suddenly the ceiling light fixture was kicked out by this devil-cat, and it almost fell on her. So now we had a wide opening for any rabid animal to come tumbling down into our room. Great.

After the first sleepless night, we informed the front desk staff of the hostel, but our attempts to clearly convey "cat in ceiling" failed. And I'm sure it would have been an unbelievable story to someone who COULD understand English. So of course, it was still there the next night, screaming and wailing its face off. Jasmine and I decided to booby-trap our vent and see if we could get the cat to fall through when it stepped on the vent covering (and yes, then releasing this wild and furious lion into our room..).
After setting up a camera to film the room while we left for dinner, we came back terrified of the possibility of this thing being in or room or having torn apart our stuff in its rage. But no, it was still in the ceiling. Every night we stayed in Xi'an.

Despite all the drama with the cat, Xi'an was fun. There were night markets and day markets, and the main site we visited was the Army of Terracotta Warriors. There are over 6000 life-size soldiers and horses that guard the tomb of the first emperor Qin Shi Huang
Another touristy attraction we saw in Xi-an was the Huaqing Pool, or ancient natural hot springs. The pools served as private hot baths for emperors during the Tang dynasty. This area was really pretty and we enjoyed walking around the gardens and pools. I may or may not have received a curse from ancient emperors from climbing over the barrier fence and climbing down into the hot spring pool to collect as many Chinese coins as I could. There's a video.



We also saw the Banpo Neolithic Village, which is remains from supposedly 6000 years ago.. I don't know.. but it was still pretty neat. We traveled about 2 hours out of the civilized city into the much more shady and underdeveloped areas... where the stares from the locals quickly changed from ones of facination to ones of sheer surprise that we were spotted in such an area. That was a bad sign right away. But we ended up being safe, and by the time we got to the village site, it had actually just closed. Harley used his average Mandarin skills and above-average persuasive skills to get us all in. So we had the whole park/museum to ourselves. We saw old mud huts and burial sites. More interesting than it sounds though!


We also went up in the Bell Tower and Drum Tower, which each had a great view of the traffic down below. Others got a much better video than I did.. but here's just a sample:



In the Bell Tower, we by chance caught the musical show they do every day.

Spring Break - China

I just returned from an incredible 11-day spring break tour of mainland China. 1200 pictures and videos later, I have a million stories to tell. First of all, a group of 12 exchange students (10 Americans, 1 Swedish, and 1 Finnish) went on the trip. Our itinerary looked like this: MTR from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, China, flight to Xian, flight to Hefei, 7-hour train to Huang Shan, 3-hour bus to Shanghai, flight back to Shenzhen.

Each city we traveled too was completely different from the others, so it was really neat to see a bunch of different places.

Here is a picture of almost all of our group in front of our hostel in Xian! (minus Ari and Sophia)

Just for Mamita :)

List of Foods I Have Eaten in the Past Week:

• Cow Stomach
• Ox Tail
  
• Chicken Feet
• Pork Cartilage
• Pig Ear
• Goose
• Duck
• Oyster Omelets
  
• Beef Tendons
• Prawn Chips
• Red Bean Soup
• Eel
• Tapioca soup with coconut milk
• Ramen Noodles
  

Mosquito Pond

There have been construction crews right outside of the dorms every morning (VERY early) working to clean out the entire pond that sits between Hall IV and Hall VI.. a pond that the locals call "Mosquito Pond" and other names that embody its grossness and smell. Apparently. I didn't notice if it smelled or not before they started draining it, but it was definitely solid brown. On good days you could see the poor koi fish in it. A local told me they didn't take the fish out before they drained it either :(

So after the pond was completely drained, they brought in dump trucks and loaders to shovel out all the muck and mud that was at the bottom. I think the whole project took about 3 weeks but was still not quite finished.

We enjoyed a monsoon today, all day.

I Need to Learn to Bring My Camera Everywhere

So of all the bizarre things that happen on campus at the most obscure times, yesterday there was a full-out fashion show with a runway and wedding gowns and evening gowns in the middle of campus. I stood and watched about 15 minutes of the elaborate display of tiny models (which were students) carefully walking in these enormous dresses and then as soon as they stepped backstage we could see them sprint off to go change, heels and all, with someone carrying their train behind them.

My friend Harley and I stood in disbelief at the whole ordeal, and we were both angry we didn't have cameras or something because how could we even explain this to friends back home?? Still not completely sure of the whole purpose of the show, but it was put on by the Accounting Society Cabinet called "Accent," so I think all the models were accounting students and all the dresses were sponsored by different companies and there was a vote for the best one at the end of the show. I had to go to class...

So after a month into the semester, I am still unable to completely explain or understand the extent of student involvement here. So I will do my best to explain what I got the privilege to experience (and if it sounds weird or confusing, then it was to me as well.. but I promise I am not exagerrating anything).

There are a ton of student organizations that do so much work for their groups. The first weeks of school were called "Promotion Period," where each "nominated cabinet" of the groups built enormous displays (practically parade floats) at which they stood every day to promote their group. For the Fourster Army (Hall IV's student cabinet), they built a huge army tank and marched all around campus in their green suits, rubber boots, guns, and helmets, chanting different things.

Rosa, Yi, and me with two of the 20 Fourster members. One of their many green outfits (green plastic pants). The best was big furry green onesies decorated to the Fourster theme. Again, so much time involved in making these costumes for each day.

Every other student group had something similar or even more ridiculous. The atrium of campus was filled with screaming and chanting every single day from these students passing out free food and prizes and folders and promoting their group. Every day it got more and more ridiculous as it got closer to the "polling dates" where students voted for the groups? Still don't fully understand how the polling worked.. but okay.



One day that I actually had my camera on me but I didn't take nearly enough pictures to do the whole scene justice.



Here is one of the chants going. Still have no idea of what Chinese words are being yelled out, but I got the hand motions down:
I found out from various sources that these students neither sleep nor go to any of their classes for at least the first 2-3 weeks because they are up all night either making crazy supplies for the next day, or having meetings, or practicing their cheers and chants outside.. it usually STARTS at midnight and goes well into the night.. 3 or 4am. I have learned every night to fall asleep to the soothing Cantonese shouts. They also get up well before 6am, if they even slept at all, to get back onto campus for the next day's festivities of promoting. And there was never a lull in the day where the groups weren't out there. Someone also told me that they rotated shifts of guarding the tank, so it was never left unattended throughout the day and night.

They organize all this events like hall breakfasts, vodka nights, pub nights.... I have no idea. So talk about something consuming your life! I thought my job this summer with Orientation was tough!

Just when we thought it was winding down about the 3rd week in, the yelling in the atrium was a constant roar of battling violently choerographed cheers and stomping back and forth among the groups, and then suddenly all at the same time. I took a video on my phone of it as I dodged through the madness on my effort to get to class.. but I think others got much better video of it.
Here are just a couple that I found from this year that are pretty good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXMUQTSZOjM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDyNTbZFX3Q&feature=related

What they say, I will probably never know, but it is so unbelievable how intense it was.

Although some of the groups are past their polling dates and have begun coming to class, Fourster and the Accounting Society are still at it every night and day. So fun, but I have talked to many of the local students about and they are absolutely exhausted and they are all sick. :( Then they ask us if we do anything like this at our schools.. lol.

UST Track

I have make a good group of local friends on the HKUST track team, and they gave me the Chinese name Yan once they found out my last name is Young. Yan means happy.

This is really the only place I have made good friends with the locals. They don't seem to like to talk to the exchange students because they think we are lazy when it comes to schoolwork. So I haven't met too many locals in my classes.

But track has been going great here. The coach is fantastic and he coaches both the men's and women's teams. At our last meet he yelled at me every time I tried to talk to him and told me that I was wasting his time. So when I needed to ask him a question about my race, he would just ask if I was going to continue wasting his time. I stood up to him (perhaps sassed) and the rest of the team got a great kick out of watching it.

At the meet I learned that to cheer the runners on you have to yell "Gai yau Sarah!" which literally translates to "add oil" .... so get moving!! The locals think it is hilarious when I start yelling this to people during their races. :)

Our 4x4 team!

Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year started on Jan 26, and it was such a sweet thing to experience. The first day of the Lunar New Year was the "World's Happiest Party" celebration... basically a 3-hour parade.


We went with a huge group of exchange students to see the parade in Tsim Sha Tsui, but we only went 2 hours early.. which was not early enough to get a decent spot to see from. I actually had more fun mingling around with all the exchange students since I really couldn't see much of the parade anyway. I got a few good pictures of it though. There were a lot of dancers and dragons and not too many large floats.

They passed out these disco ball globes that say "The World's Happiest Party 2009" on them.

The crowd at the parade definitely made it a little frustrating to be there, but at least now I can say I experienced it!!

The next day of the new year brought on the greatest fireworks presentation I have ever seen in my life. My new group of Norwegian friends and I returned to TST on Jan 27 to see the show. We got to the city pretty early so we ate dinner first at Fridays.

Dinner took a lot longer than expected, and it was cutting it close to the time the fireworks were starting. Suddenly as we were scrambling to figure out the bill, we heard a big boom and everyone in the restaurant rushed out onto the convenient balcony that no one knew was there. So we actually ended up watching the half-hour long show from way up off the side of a skyscraper, avoiding the millions of cramped people down below. The only disadvantage of our spot was that we missed the syncronized music that went along perfectly with the fireworks (I watched someone's video of it later), and some of it was hidden behind buildings. But it was still GREAT! After the show we were fascinated by watching the floods of people streaming all towards the MTR station down below, and watched them for a good 20 minutes. So then we were really glad we avoided that.

Looking at the crowd below!

Another Chinese tradition for the new year is to give out "Red Pockets" with money in them. I got one from the track coach with $20 HKD! Woohoo!

Sik Sik Yuen Temple and the Avenue of Stars

Sik Sik Yuen Temple in Wong Tai Sin

On January 24th, two friends--Tor (from Norway) and Sally (from Virginia)--and I took a tourist visit to see the big Sik Sik Yuen Temple. This is a major temple that the Hong Kongers travel to seek good fortune before the Lunar New Year (which was on the 26th). The main religions housed there are Taoist, Buddhist, and Confucianist.



We had to curve through this elaborate maze of gates and crowds of people to get to the temple, each curve asking for a $2 donation. All the while we had to hold our breath because of the thick clouds of incense smoke EVERYWHERE. People would carry a clump of 50 incense sticks to bring up to the troughs to place them. They had workers constantly sweeping up all the ashes on the ground. You could definitely tell who was a tourist because there would be a random person in the line who was carrying one lonely stick of incense. We did NOT buy any. Maybe if they had been sparklers I would have been persuaded to join in.



Pictures weren't allowed inside the temple, but there was a large "display" of statues and tons of flowers and fruits. It was really noisy because the people knelt on cushions and vigorously shaking out chim from a can and the rattling sound echoed ridiculously loud through the hall. The chim are wooden sticks with fortunes on them, and whichever one drops out from the bottom slot is your fortune. BUT the catch is that you have to pay a fortune teller or "interpreters" to explain the fortune for you. All of them are apparently bad fortunes, so people have to try for hours. We didn't try.


Behind the temple is the Good Wish Garden, which we liked a lot better than the temple (Much clearer air). There was a koi pond and a waterfall. So pretty!

Avenue of the Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui

Our next touristy destination was the Avenue of the Stars in TST. So we had to take the MTR (train/subway) from Wong Tai Sin to TST. The Avenue was right near the Peninsula Hotel (super expensive, luxury area of TST)... there are Rolls-Royce taxis in front. The Ave was pretty fun, although we were pretty cold walking near the bay. There are tons of stars for local film stars. We found Jackie Chan's and Bruce Lee's handprints.. but didn't recognize any of the other names. (Except there were two Hui stars.. so I told Alyssa Hui I found her famous relatives!) There were also gift shops dedicated to both Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee.

Had to take the cheesy tourist photo!

Michael has been tagged on Facebook as the Bruce Lee statue.

An Indian guy approached Tor and read his mind for like 5 minutes. Sally and I stood uncomfortable watching this guy guess how many siblings Tor has and what he wrote on a piece of paper. Then when he was finished, he gave him a "lucky bead" and then asked for some "lucky money" for his wallet. When Tor said no, sorry, and we started walking away, the guy followed us and kept saying it was "Good money..It's good!" Tor continued saying no, sorry, no... and then suddenly the money became a charity for children.. and then for homeless children, and then for handicapped children. Yeah. We quickened our pace and he ran after us yelling to give him his lucky bead back!! It was awful!

After we escaped the crazy man, we met up with Alex and his friend and decided to go to an Irish Pub for dinner. Of all the strange, new things I could have had for a meal in Hong Kong, I ordered an appetizer of garlic cheese bread in an Irish Pub. It was pretty good and greasy cheese bread, and we were all having good conversations when suddenly I noticed my neck and face to be really itchy. After an abnormal amount of scratching my neck and face, I went to the bathroom to find I had broken out in huge, welty hives all over. I have NEVER had allergic reactions to food before (except apparently pineapple when I was 3)... so this was ridiculous! Maybe if I had eaten some exotic, authentic seafood dish with a million foreign animals and plants all thrown together, an allergic reaction would have been a little bit more understandable. But no, garlic cheese bread. I figured maybe it was time to go home.

1003 more years on my life? Good deal..?

On Friday we took an 8 hour tour of Hong Kong as a part of the exchange student orientation activities. Our first stop was Repulse Bay (Cheen Soy Wan), named after a British warship, on the south side of Hong Kong Island, where we got off to explore the statues and interesting touristy areas. This sign kind of explains the area better:

The first statue our tour guide told, or "warned" rather, us about was the white Buddha statue on the left of this picture. If you touch the male baby that means you will have a boy, and if you touch the female baby, then you will have a girl. If you want twins you can put both your hands on at once. We steered clear. The other two to the left of that one were for good luck and money. As we were looking at them, some guy came up and got all up on the statue on the right.. It was a little intense. And then we learned that you were supposed to rub it from the head to the toes for good luck and then touch the gold one in the middle for money. Okay..


Here you can see our tour guide who led us around by waving a big red flag. Embarrassing. Ahead on the trail is the archway that increases your life by 1000 years if you walk under it. A little much?


Here are some more statues and the entrance of a temple.






"He's throwing the shock!" Yelled one student in our group about this statue. Way to go.




The beach was very nice, although it was too cold to think about swimming or tanning or anything. They have a big sign posted on the beach with the water temperature. I think it was about 66 degrees that day. There is also a famous apartment building on the bay that was built with a large hole cut out from the center. The hole was cut so the dragon could fly down from the top of the mountain to get a drink of water from the bay and then fly back up to its home on the mountainside.




As soon as we saw a local family throwing coins to attempt to land them in the fish's mouth, of course we ALL had to try. So of course 30 students swarm around this giant fish statue launching their coins in the air and pelting innocents as they bounced off of its face. It didn't get old until about 15 minutes later. Then our tour guide told us that the statue didn't mean anything, that it was just decoration, but tourists wanted to believe otherwise. We looked around for a door at the base where the daily earnings could be collected each day from all the suckers like us.




We don't know what the rams meant or if it was unlucky to stand on them. I suppose we would have tumbled into the water below us if we did something wrong..

This red bridge adds 3 years to your life when you cross it. But if you walk back the opposite way then it takes 3 years off. So you cancel out unless you go back a different way. The sign posted on the bridge stated 3 days, so you may have to do a lot more laps then..

I clearly added 3 years.



Next we went to the Jumbo Kingdom floating restaurant in Wong Chuk Hang.


This is the ferry that carted people across to the restaurant.






The outside view of the restaurant from the ferry.

There was a seat for the dragon, or the king.

No one could translate "Lazy Susan" for me. I don't know what else to call it, but that's what our food was served on so you could grab whatever was in front of you until someone turned it.

The dinner was really good (soup, shrimp, main courses of pork, chicken, and fish, and oranges for dessert) and it was a lot of fun! They served us all courses and took our chopsticks out of the sleeves and folded our napkins onto our laps for us. It was pretty neat.


After dinner we went to Wan Chai to watch the nightly 8:00 Symphony of Lights, where the entire skyline lights up in time with music. There are 33 skyscrapers that participate, and many of them are additionally decorated for the new year. I didn't get the best night pictures but it was still neat to see! And this is only one side of Victoria's Harbour. The skyline arced around to the right twice as far as this picture shows.