Michael Cattermole

2. Israel/Palestine It wasn’t 20 minutes into Israel (or Palestine you may contend) before I came across my first tit bit to take away with me: the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), especially female recruits. (At the age of eighteen all Israelis, unless excused, join the IDF.) Firstly, it is somewhat disconcerting walking the streets of Jerusalem to the sight of kids younger than myself carrying guns with barrels claiming diameters large enough for my fist to be adopted as munitions…should such a situation arise. The second point that quickly arose and Alex agreed with was: the female IDF recruits were often noticeably easy on the eye. Perhaps a coating of camo and semi-automatic is more alluring; whatever the reason, they also owned the fierce expression of a lover who would potentially perform a home vasectomy with ... read more

I got back from Taiwan a week ago and have finally got a free hour to smash out a blog a week later. We left on Thursday evening, Thanksgiving. Three spaniards, two Americans, two Austrians, a German, an Italian and a Brit. REPRESENT. Ten people was a huge turn off for me and i wasn't happy with it initially as i was very worried about fitting everything in but i'll come to that later. From the word go we had the hurdle of feeding the blood-born American a Thanksgiving meal. He got a turkey sub. We arrived in Taipei at 22.00, stopped by the Hostel (VJ's Hostel- which coincidentally had some of the friendliest and most helpful staff i've come across) and headed straight out to sample the nightlife of Taipei. It was late and we ... read more

Midterms done. The less about them the better. The stereotype that the Chinese are good at maths, to me at least, is all too evident and when marks are distributed on a bell curve, such a stereotype does not bode well for little old me. With midterms past i had a great few days celebrating postponed birthday celebrations and went out for a couple of good meals with close friends including a local seafood restaurant right on the harbour in Sai Kung. I couldn't have got much fresher lobster! One of my highlights of the last month was the build up and execution of the Dragon boat team's first ever night out in LKF: Halloween. No-one in the team had ever been out clubbing, and some had never been drunk. The 'heaviest' drinker on the team ... read more

So i haven't got much to share; it's midterm period so i'm a little preoccupied to go off flirting with gay men purely for your entertainment this week. Sunday i did however have one of the best days i can remember. On paper, it doesn't sound extraordinary but i think it's one of those "you had to be there" moments. Frans, a dutch friend, celebrated his 25th with a yacht party and twenty five friends. Armed with two freezers of alcohol, a hammock of cake, a desk of cheesits and all sorts of other snacks we set off from Yau Ma Tei to a quiet bay off the mainland. We had an afternoon of swimming, wakeboarding, banana boating...all activities accompanied by a can. After a very intense academic week, this my little luxury. The birthday boy ... read more

I said i'd cut down my entry size and i tried, but i haven't! Those who complained can suck it. I have a lot to say! Feel free to read as much or little as you wish. With two Swedes, a Norwegian and a French/Nicaraguan i flew to Manila and then onto Catiklan on Panay Island (the main island in the centre of the Philippines. From there we got a ferry out to Boracay Island, a much smaller island 7km in length. The first impressions of filipinos by this point were that: 1. they are a whole world nicer and friendlier than the chinese 2. they seem a little plumper, perhaps due to diet, than the chinese 3. Filipino women come caked in make up and the men can be very camp Boracay Island was beautiful. ... read more

(I realise my blogs are getting longer and longer, and this is not cool. I have started dividing the blogs into chunks, so if you start a story and get bored, you can skip to the next story in the next chunk. I will try to cut down in the future) Thursday brought about a little wind. In Hong Kong this is defined as a type 8 typhoon resulting in the closure of all transport, shops and general amenities. In all fairness we didn't feel it much in Clear Water Bay but from what i've heard Central felt it. With a type 8, comes the cancellation of all classes. We had a free day! First off i went straight back to bed. I had worked over twelve hours solidly the day before for homeworks and deadlines, ... read more

This week i had an engineering test yesterday (not so great) and Chinese listening and oral (oi oi) tests this afternoon (went well i think). This is in between classes and other odd jobs like going to the immigration office to sort out my HKID. I've been very busy, or in chinese: Wo shi hen mang! You will forgive me if i have few interesting stories to share. I have some yanks to see the HK giant Buddha and go to HK highest peak this weekend. Even these plans are in jeopardy as Typhoon Nesat sets to hamper all weekend plans. Fortunately, this news means Nesat has left the Philippines therefore when i head out there in a week they will be able to serve me a cool beer in between re-erecting their ramshackle poverty stricken ... read more