Off to the Philippines

I am going to be in the Philippines from Thursday to Monday. When I get back, I hope to post pictures of my travels. I will be in Cebu, Philippines and staying at the Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort.

Pictures

I was just able to upload my pictures to the blog, so now you can see all the pictures I have taken in Hong Kong. The application is located on the right side of the page.

Not quite Vegas

This past weekend I went to Macau. Which is located about 1 hour away from Hong Kong. Macau is considered to be Vegas in Asia, however I would have to disagree with that strong statement. With experiencing both over the last month, I would say that Macau is just a fraction of Vegas. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time. However, Macau just does not give off that vibe that Vegas is enthralled in.

This was the view from our room. We stayed at the Regency. Its amazing how hard the beds are in both hotels I have stayed at so far in Asia.


We ate a Cantonese restaurant in the MGM. I tried diced pigeon. After dinner, we walked through a couple casinos. They seemed to be smaller than the ones in Vegas, however the Wynn Casino was very large. We played some blackjack in one of the Casino's (I lost about $20), so it was similar to Vegas because most people aren't that successful. Then we went to a club called D2. I had a great time there. Eventually we were joined by many other students from the Exchange Program (there were about 200 of us there). The picture below is taken from D2.

After an eventful night, many of the exchange student took part in bungee jumping from the highest point in Macau. The jump is largest in the world and measures in at 233 meters. As you can see below, this is the tower they were jumping from. There was no way I was going to do this, but it was pretty amazing watching many of others do it.

Overall, I had a good weekend. It was interesting to see how Asia tried to imitate Vegas.

Wait! I actually have to go to school?

Well hello again! Above are the pictures from the beach trip to Discovery Bay including the dinner we had the overlooked the sea.

This week has been mostly filled with school activities. My schedule consists of Mergers and Acquisitions, Economies of Hong Kong and Mainland China, Economic Strategy and Game Theory, Introduction to Work Behavior, and Science and Technology: Past and Future. It should be an interesting semester, hopefully the classes won't be too hard. All of my professors are Asian but speak decent English. Several actually studied in the United States, one taught at Northwestern and the other went to UNC.

So the week has been fairly uneventful, however I did experience my first Chinese movie theatre. A group of us went to see Inglorious Bastards at AMC. The movie theatre was very small compared to American theatres. We actually had assigned seats. You can see below the mall that I was talking about earlier, it is amazing how big it is. This weekend we are planning on traveling to Macau. Macau is considered to be Las Vegas in Asia. It is about an hours ferry ride away from Hong Kong.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!

The last couple of days have been very eventful. A major highlight was seeing the view atop Victoria's Peak. The view may have been the most dramatic sight I have ever seen.


To get up to the peak we had to take a tram to the very top of the mountain, the whole experience was very amazing. At the top, there were many restaurants which included Bubba Gump (i thought that was pretty funny). If you look at the picture, the building closer to the front are on Hong Kong Island (Victoria) and the building in the background are in Kowloon. CityU (my university) is located in Kowloon.

Overall, the transporation is great in Hong Kong. You can get most places in Kowloon and the Island from the MTR (subway). However, the MTR stops running at 12, so most of the times going home at night everyone must take a taxi. Taxis are relatively inexpensive. To get back from Long Kwai Fong, which is popular area for night life in Hong Kong, is about $80 HK, which is around $12 US.

Yesterday was a very relaxing day. I spent most of my day on campus taking a tour and getting acquainted on where all my classes were. I met several people from Canada and spent some time with them. (Yes, they do say Ay? after some of their sentences, just not as often as expected.) Next to the university there is a HUGE mall called Festival Walk. I don't think I have been in a mall comparable to this in America. There are six floors with a many different features including a skating rink, theater, and grocery store.

Last night, most of the international students hung around the dorm playing local games to each of the countries. It was a pretty fun, relaxing night.

Today, I had a great day. Most of the international students went to a beach called Discovery Bay. (when i say most, i mean around 200 people). We taught several Europeans how to throw an American football. The whole beach area was very pretty. In Discovery Bay, there were several restaurants. The area seemed to be very Westernized, I think there were more non-locals than locals. For dinner, several students and I ate a restaurant that overlooked the ocean and beach. I ate with people from Canada, Oregon, San Fran, Germany, France, and Indiana. I will post the pictures of Discovery Bay on my next post.

Overall, I have had a great first week in Hong Kong. I have met people from all over the world. Its amazing how cultures can inter mingle together at one university across the world. Even more interesting, when all these different people from around the world meet and talk, they speak English to each other. The only downside of Hong Kong is the weather. So far this past week, most days have been around 95 F with about 189% humidity. The humidity is like nothing most Americans have ever experienced. (and I thought Evansville was bad!). I am very excited for the next 4 months and look forward to what the future will bring.

I hope all is well in America!

As many cultures merge

Hi everyone,

I hope America is treating everyone well. My first few days have been very exciting. I am not taking classes until monday, so I have been able to experience Hong Kong to its fullest. I have met so many people from all across the world. Last night I spent time with "inhabitants" (a popular European word) from Germany, France, Jersey (a country of its own), Canada, San Francisco (S.F State), England, and ofcourse Indiana. We ate a japanese restaurant where I tried eel and octupus.

I just finished getting home tonight, you can try to figure out how early in the morning I am typing this. We went to the edge of Kowloon (the penisula of hong kong) to look at all of the magnificant buildings. They had a light show that used all the building, it was very impressive to see the Hong Kong sky line in person. Pretty much speech less.


After seeing the 'light show', I went to several bars around Victoria Island (called central, its a popular place for westerners to enjoy a night on the town). The night included talks with people all over the world. I met many students traveling aboard tonight which included about 10 students I had dinner with from Denmark and one from Norway. Several from Belgium and one from England.

So far, I have had a great time.

I'm here....

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I made it into my hotel room. I got upgraded to a suite but it really doesn't matter that much, since all I will be doing is sleeping.

Hope all is well back home.