Expo Overhead view

Latvia

Ireland

Turkey

Ukraine

Iceland Pavillion

European Union/Belgium Pavillion

Sweden Pavillion

These faces actually sang songs.

Denmark Pavillion

Thank you to the person with me that took these pictures.

Spain Pavillion

Creepy Baby

http://shanghai.cultural-china.com/html/Life-Service-Info/E/201005/02-5619.html

He's making a blog post?

China Survival: Part 1

I figured I'd start a list of interesting Chinese myths, facts, and superstitions that you should know of if you ever decide to come here.

1. Chinese people believe eight is a lucky number since it sounds like the word for wealth. If you meet someone whose phone number has a lot of eights in it, it's a sign they're very wealthy.

2. Four is an unlucky number since it sounds like the word for death.

3. Guys shouldn't wear green hats. It means your girlfriend/wife cheated on you. If you're selling hats in China, make sure they aren't green.

4. If someone calls you a 250 (pronounced er-bai-wu) they're insulting you. It basically means stupid.

5. While it is polite to refer to a woman by her last name followed by Xiaojie, never call a woman just xiaojie since in that context it's an insult.

As bad as the DMVs back home

Because we're staying in Hong Kong for so long, we're legally required to get Hong Kong ID cards. That, and we can't get cellphones without them. Oh well, it's just a government regulated center like the DMVs back in the US. I'm sure that they're just as well organized, helpful, and dedicated to making your visit as quick and efficient as possible (insert sarcasm here).

According to some of the other students who had gotten their ID's before me, it was just like a DMV. They were at the Immigration office for almost three hours. And most of that time was spent waiting for someone to take the forms they filled out. Luckily, a friend of mine also had to get an ID and discovered we could make an appointment at the Immigration office's website.

Last week we headed down to the Immigration office and it brought back all the memories of DMVs that I hoped I left in the US. We arrive at the office (which is inside a mall) and they weren't open yet. We were stuck waiting outside the office for about forty-five minutes. Once they opened, it was go to this counter, get a number, wait for your number to be called. Just like a DMV. My number gets called, and I head to a desk where a woman takes my fingerprints and photos. Then I get another number, get called to another desk, and talk to a police officer. Then I'm handed a temporary ID card and a date to go back to the office so that I can get my real ID.

We were done in about twenty minutes. I'm just glad we were able to make appointments so we were in and out quickly.

A month already?

Man where has the month gone? And why haven't I posted in so long? I'm so sorry. I kept saying I'd post something but never got to it.

Well the procrastination is over. And to celebrate, I've changed the background. What do you think?

Anyway, this was just an apology message, now onto the real post.

Hong Kong weather

I've been saying how humid it is here, but to give you a better idea this is what the weather looks like on a normal day. It's always very cloudy and humid. So humid, that when I go to the water fountain in the hallway to fill up my water bottle, it gets covered in a layer of dew.

Granted I was looking out through a window, so it's brighter than in the picture, but it's still very humid.

Nan Lian Garden

Saturday we decided to visit a local garden. Although unlike any other garden I've seen there weren't many flowers. Just bushes, trees, pagodas, and waterfalls.

The garden is basically in the middle of the city under a freeway, but it was surprisingly quiet. There was also a Buddhist temple in it as well, but I wasn't able to get any pictures of it because photography wasn't allowed.

The weather that day was even more hot and humid than usual, so we were all exhausted afterwards.

But overall it was a lot of fun, and I did get a few good photos. I chose these three because they're my favorites.

Lots to talk about

Sorry it's been so long since my last post, but now that classes have started it's getting more and more hectic. I promise I'll get better at posting regularly. But now that classes have started I'll make sure to post at least once a week.

But in the meantime I have a good bit to talk about.

Three days ago we took a tour of Shatin, a city near the university. It's known for having lots of malls and shopping centers. It's absolutely gigantic. Not only is it about seven stories tall, but there are other malls in the mall. You can find anything you'd ever need there not to mention it costs $4 HK (about fifty US cents). To make things easier I purchased an Octopus Card (pictured above). You can use it in Hong Kong as sort of a prepaid card for using the subway, taxis, and even certain stores take Octopus Cards as payment options.

But of course the relaxing days had to come to an end as classes started this week. Three hours of Mandarin in the morning, and two more in the afternoon with a two hour break in between. My first class is extremely difficult, but I know it'll help me learn more characters and words. It gets even tougher when we have to do our homework in the evening since it's all in Chinese, even the instructions. The first night everyone was working on the homework together and we had no idea what to do.

My afternoon class doesn't have as much new vocabulary, but it's more focused on speaking. The teachers only speak Chinese during class, so it's definitely hard to understand them sometimes. But in the long run it will benefit me since the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it.

Again I want to apologize for not posting in a while, and sorry for not having any pictures of Shatin. I never have my camera when I really need it. But next time I go I'll be sure to bring my camera for pictures.

And if you read what I posted on Facebook, I had a very interesting experience at breakfast today. They had French Toast on the menu, so I ordered it wondering how different it would be from the French Toast back at home. It turns out in Hong Kong French Toast is a deep-fried Peanut Butter sandwich. I think I'll stick to regular toast and butter from now on.

Chinese calligraphy

Today we met some of the Chinese IBCE students and had lunch together at the Orchid lounge. The food was delicious, especially the eggplant and their mango dessert.

Then they taught us a bit about Chinese calligraphy and we practiced writing our names in Chinese (picture in the middle). We also learned how to write the schools name in Chinese characters as well (pictured on left). As a souvenir they let us keep our writing brushes (or as they are called in Mandarin, maobi) as well as the ink cartridge.

As for my Chinese name, it's pronounced Ka-mei-rou and you read it from