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Now that finals are over (yes my last final EVER as a college student...undergrad that is) I have some time to update you all quickly on our trip to South Korea. I went with Matt, my roommate Vishaal, and Kevin (an American guy from U Illinois who insists on giving me endless amounts of crap about USC going down in the Rose Bowl but doesn't seem to want to put his money where his mouth is). It's the first trip I've done with my roommate, a great pleasure because he makes ridiculously hilarious comments only strengthened in hilarity by his "propa" British accent. For example, one morning he started off the day with the following comment: "Listen sorry lads but I've got a nob-on right now so just look away while I get out of bed, ... read more

Matt and I had been planning on doing Cambodia and Laos at sometime and with time in the semester winding down (can't believe its almost December!) we had to book them as one solid trip. I was swamped with mid-terms but luckily Matt had time to book the trip for the both of us. This ended up being a much harder task than he'd imagined as there were so many factors involved to make all the flights and trekking work out within a schedule that didn't involve missing too much school. First thing on the agenda before the trip was cutting off the squirell-tail mullet I have been rockin for the past couple months at my mother's request. Wednesday night we arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia to see the famous temples of Angkor Wat. We rode ... read more

I made a spur of the moment, last minute decision to head to the Philippines this past weekend. A couple of friends, including two other exchange students from USC, were in Cebu City staying on the beach and told us flights were cheap so we booked without knowing much of where we were going or what we were going to do. I finished an exam late Thursday night and hussled to catch my midnight plane to Cebu. I went with Matt and two other American guys at our school and we barely escaped missing yet another flight. God knows when my luck's gonna run out with this but we successfully boarded our late flight on Cebu Pacific Air. For the record, Cebu Pacific Air is the least shady sounding airline company I've used after Air China ... read more

Last Thursday I left after my last class for the airport to squeeze in a weekend tour of mainland China's two biggest cities, Shanghai and Beijing. I went with my friend Matt, a Canadian also studying business at HKUST and a guy who shares my interest in traveling as much as possible for as long as our bank accounts can keep us above water. SHANGHAI We arrived in Shanghai Thursday night and checked into our hostel close to midnight which gave us limited time to get ready for a night out (Shanghai's nightlife is some of the best in Asia and we only had two nights here so rest wasn't an option). After a rushed night at Bar Rouge, a rooftop bar that had promise as a venue but was just dead on this particular night, ... read more

Dear All, I've gotten some complaints/concerns about my whereabouts these last couple of weeks so I thought rather than try to get a hold of you individually I thought I'd just start a travel blog and hope somebody finds entertainment (and comfort in the case of my family who hasn't heard much from me in the past two months) in reading it. I've been here in Hong Kong studying at the Hong Kong Univ of Science and Technology doing a concentration in International Business through the Marshall IEP program. I don't know if any of you have studied abroad before, but its indescribable. I studied in Rome the fall of my freshman year, so I've been lucky enough to begin and finish my college career in another country. The classes here are fairly difficult. My favorite ... read more