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Published: October 16th 2007
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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 is the Art of Negotiation, taught by and MBA grad from USC, where we're basically paired up with a random student in the class and forced to negotiate over an exercise given in a sheet of paper. The language barrier makes it almost impossible, yet hilariously enjoyable, to engage in a negotiation with a local student (we've had four negotiations and I have
yet to negotiate with someone that understands the word 'bottom line'). Sometimes they look at me as if I'd come to class in women's clothing or run over their favorite Tamagachi pet with a big ole' American SUV. In the end, however, something always works its way out and you become friends.
There's a great mix of kids in the program and on any given night I'm hanging out with people from Canada, France, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, the UK (my roommate's from Manchester... I can't even begin to put this guy into words he's pure entertainment from morning to night, which is about 2pm until 4am for him), Ireland, Poland, and of course, the US and A. Oh there's also a kid from Finland whose name is too hard to pronounce so we call him... Finland. He has a habit of asking perfectly respectable girls at the perfectly worst time if they are prostitutes and gets ENRAGED if you take pictures of him and put them on facebook because his mother has an account and 'would disapprove of his behavior'. Its hard to gauge what will set him off, in fact if I stop uploading this blog its
a good chance Finland got word of it and whacked me in my sleep.
In terms of things in and around Hong Kong, I've uploaded a couple photos here of two of the most spectacular sights in HK. The images of the Hong Kong skyline were taken from on top of Victoria Peak basically looking over Victoria Harbour to the Kowloon side from the Hong Kong Island. The entire HK region is made up of three large land masses: Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and New Territories. Hong Kong Island is the home to Central Hong Kong, basically the Financial District but also the home of Lan Kwai Fong, an expat-packed debauchery fest where bars spill into the streets with lean 30+ year olds looking to nail down a wife but end up spending most of the night drinking too much and exposing their 'whiteness' on the dancefloor. Not that our actions here are any more admirable (see photo).
In the New Territories, there is an excellent beach spot called Tai Long Wan. A couple of the guys in my program are big surfers and a group of us tagged along with them on this day-long excursion to one
of Southeast China's best surf spots. We got there about four days after a typhoon had come through HK (typhoons=hurricanes=monsoons and basically low-level ones come through Hong Kong, mainland China, and Taiwan pretty regularly without much damage). Typhoons also = good surf so after about an hour and a half bus transport and a 30 minute hike through beautiful rolling green hills, we were greeted with a bright beach boasting 8 foot waves. We spent the day burning in the sun and photographing our surfer pros in the massive waves and then barbequed some pork sandwiches and hot dogs as the sun came down. An awesome day.
I also did a trip to Macau which is about an hour ferry ride from Hong Kong. Macau was originally settled by the Portugese so there's a strange mix of European back streets and Portugese cuisine with Asian culture. You can't escape Macau without understanding how huge gambling is in the Chinese culture. With dozens of casinos already up (including the Wynn and the Venetian) and more to come (MGM Grand...) Macau is teeming with cranes and is willingly striving towards becoming the Vegas of the East. When we went we got a driver to take us around the sights (museums, temples...) and of course, finishing at the Venetian which is a much nicer version of its Vegas counterpart.
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Danielle Hardie
non-member comment
I'm jealous
Seems like you're having the best time Tyler! I absolutely LOVE your blog and keep up the interesting posts. Cheers!