Hong Kong - January 2004

Monday, January 5
Ok, whoa... I'm just a *little* overwhelmed right now. Ok, how about a lot. And I've only been at school for less than 4 hours! Which seems impossible, considering I feel like I've been here for days already. Our plane left LAX at 10:30 on Saturday night, and we landed this morning (Monday) at 6:00. I only got 3 hours of sleep on the entire 15-hour plane ride, so right now I feel like the walking dead, kinda tired and cranky and shit. For me (and all of you in CA) it's 9:00 Sunday night but in reality it's 1:00 Monday afternoon. I have never had my concept of time screwed up this badly, I feel like it's just been one hellishly long day that isn't even close to being finished yet, and NOBODY here seems to speak English even though everyone and their mother told me that everybody in Hong Kong speaks English. Plus, the mattresses are like ROCKS (you have to feel it to believe it... I can't believe I have to sleep on it for 4 1/2 months). And Pepperdine in its typical fashion told us that there were all these things that would be taken care of for us when we got here, and we arrive to find that NOTHING has been done. We can't get food money, we don't have bed linens, and the Hong Kong Baptist University people told us we have to pay HK$550 which is like $80-85 as a damn room deposit. Does Dean Phillips sit with his thumb up his ass all day??? Honestly. Plus, I'm almost out of money in my bank account already. ???? How? I'm not sure.



Anyway, ok, I'm gonna stop bitching now cuz I'm sure no one wants to hear about it. I'm just cranky and I know it. I just didn't expect to be so overwhelmed SO quickly. This has been like the fastest culture shock ever. There are some nice things though. The city *looks* really cool. It's nothing but green mountains, water, and huge skyscrapers. It's like a huge city but with vegetation, with actual green everywhere! It's a nice mix. And the skyscrapers are literally EVERYWHERE. I mean, EVERYWHERE. You'd be hard-pressed to find a single apartment building that is smaller than 15 floors (that's the floor I live on in my dorm, by the way), and usually they're probably closer to 30 or 40. All. Over. The. Place. So yeah, the city looks cool. Plus, I got my class schedule and I only have class Tuesday through Thursday. 4-day weekends! It's my best semester ever!! Now if only I had any of my friends with me... maybe this wouldn't all be quite so... well, I don't want to use the word overwhelming again, but yeah, you get the picture. I need to sleep!!!

Monday, January 12
Can I think clearly enough to type right now? I'm not so sure about that. I am so completely exhausted that my brain feels just about ready to turn off, so I figured I better shoot this out before my mind turns to mush entirely. Well, let's just say that the past week made up for that crappy first day about 500 times over. I am having such a great time here, it is just freaking unbelievable. Everyone here, local students and international students both, are so cool and all friendly. I have gone out drinking every single night since getting here and, besides the first two nights, have gone dancing every night as well. There are some damn awesome people here, like this girl Khara from San Jose who goes to an all-girls college and can't seem to ever stop talking about sex; Jeanne, who easily takes the title of coolest Canadian ever; Cathrin, the most un-Kappa Kappa at Pepperdine; Anders, the Norwegian who looks like Chandler from "Friends". There are a ton of other people too... suffice to say they all rock and we have been up nearly every night until 6 AM, bcuz the local Hong Kong students love taking us out.

Something strange about Hong Kong girls though. They are all practically anorexic, have the worst self-image, have major issues and insecurities and they always have drama going on. It's like an across-the-board thing. I have heard the tiniest little girls bitching about being fat... it's really annoying.

Anyway, I've done a lot in the past week... We toured Hong Kong Island on Saturday, and I took pictures like crazy. I learned how to play mah jongg and it's the most strangely addictive game. I've also hung out at 7-11 more than you could imagine. There is literally a 7-11 on every freaking block here, and it's where everybody goes to buy the cheapest alcohol and then just sit on stoops outside the nearby stores and get drunk cuz it's ok to drink in public. I have gotten drunk outside of 7-11 just about every night. Some might say that's ghetto, but hey, it's fun. Most of the Pepperdine kids are too good for 7-11... that's why, besides Cathrin, I have barely even seen any of them since we got here. The majority of kids here from Pepperdine have a lot of money and like to go to nice expensive clubs where models hang out, etc... Everyone here HATES Pepperdine. I'm actually embarrassed to be from this school. The other American students here had an image of Pepperdine as being an exclusive, elitist, bratty university and so far the other kids have played right into their stereotypes. It's kind of pathetic actually. Plus, Dr. Reilly, the professor who came with us, has made a number of really rude, disrespectful, and ignorant comments in front of other people and I think he is more hated than anybody. He gets bashed constantly.

Hong Kong is unlike any other city I've ever seen. There's nothing but high-rise buildings EVERYWHERE, and yet it's all surrounded by green. There's SO much green here, it was a very pleasant surprise. The best mix of city and nature you could hope for. Besides that first day, I have not had the tiniest bit of culture shock and I feel right at home here. It really is incredible. I also got a cell phone today (cuz literally every single resident here seems to have one). [Ahh, the days when ubiquitous cell phone use seemed like something noteworthy. If we only knew...] The international rates are amazing!! Anyway, my first day of class is tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

Tuesday, January 20
So it's time for me to write once again, and I sat down and realized I don't really have a whole lot to say. So instead here are some strange little things about being here.

*There is no such thing as boneless meat (unless you get BBQ pork). Every other meat has bones all attached to it. I've practically given up on meat just bcuz it's such a chore to eat. Normally you would say, well cut the meat off the bone. Unfortunately I'm not too good yet at severing with only chopsticks!!!

*Chopsticks... I'm good at using them! Maybe not the cutting, but with just the regular old eating, I have become pretty good with them. I prefer wooden ones, cuz the plastic ones can be really slippery sometimes. But it's all good... I feel accomplished. :)

*The rules are strangely enforced here. The people here are naturally unconfrontational so nobody ever wants to get you in trouble for anything! The only rule I have seen enforced is the "no visitors after 11" rule, meaning you can't bring non-HKBU students in the dorms after 11 PM. Otherwise, you can pretty much do whatever. Students walk up and down the halls smoking cigarettes!!! My roommate is also a smoker apparently, which I wouldn't really know because...

*MY ROOMMATE WON'T TALK TO ME! It's bizarre! He's talked to everyone else BUT me. The first day I got here, he took me and Cathrin to the cheap shopping centre nearby but we couldn't really get him to say anything. His name is Louis, by the way, really it's Leung Chun Ho or something, but he goes by Louis. Anyway, on day 2 he disappeared, didn't give me any indication he was leaving. Well, he was gone for *a week.* Then he comes back and is like, "Oh yeah I went to China" and then refuses to speak to me again for 3 days and then leaves again and I haven't seen him since!!! I don't really mind though, bcuz my room has become the central hang-out of the 15th floor since it may as well be a single. One night me and 2 others went to a pub (there are two British pubs a 5-10 minute walk away, The King's Arms and Billy Boozer) and when I came back there was a full-on party going on in my room. I love it!! There are always people in here! Plus, it's good that Louis is never around bcuz most of the international girls seem to hate sleeping in their own beds, and they all rotate between me and these other 2 guys' rooms... I don't think I've slept alone in my bed in over a week.

I personally love this semester. I am having the greatest time and have made some great friends and have managed to keep myself to the side of all the drama that inevitably goes on when a bunch of people our age live together. I'm around it all the time, but I manage to stay uninvolved, and I am enjoying myself immensely. I changed my schedule so now I only have 3-day weekends instead of 4 (I have Fridays off still) but it doesn't really matter cuz it's too expensive to travel on weekends here anyway, not like Europe. I will probably be going on only 3 trips this semester, one to Thailand (with Kari and Christine, woohoo!), one to the Philippines, and one to Beijing and Shanghai. And of course the field trip to Japan, which we leave for in 2 days. Seems weird, since we JUST got here. But on Thursday we leave for Japan and will be there for a week. It's Chinese New Year this week, so we don't have classes, and everything will be shut down anyway, so I think it is good timing for our field trip. It should be an interesting week... Cathrin and I talk to and hang out with the other international kids way more than any of the other Pepperdine kids. I barely even see them really. Who knows, maybe we'll bond in Japan. I'm kinda thinking not though.

Monday, February 2
"Why do I have all these bruises in the most random places?" "Well - that's what happens when you get drunk and keep falling down." I haven't done one of these for a while, and I was honestly about to just skip this week too, but I am sitting here with nothing to do (well really I have a shit ton to do but I am just choosing not to do it) and decided I may as well.

Anyway, Japan was OK. I wish I could say it was a blast, like our European field trips, but I'd be lying. First of all, Japan was not as impressive as I would have hoped (the majority of it is just city and suburban sprawl) and the prices were OUTRAGEOUS. I have never been to a more expensive country and that includes England. We did not go out one night because cans of beer are at least $6 and other drinks are no less than $10 and up. Second, and more important, there were only 8 of us (George was missing bcuz due to a visa mix-up, they wouldn't let him out of the country) and half of them are kids I really just can't stand. I have completely given up on the Pepperdine kids here this semester (besides Cathrin obviously). These 2 girls, Jackie and Liz, they're nice, but they're extremely shy and almost never speak. So I like em but we're not really gonna be hanging out or anything. And the rest of them, well they all just suck. After spending a week with them, I can say without a doubt that they are rude stuck-up rich spoiled brats who think the world revolves around them at all times. I honestly am so glad that the field trip was so early in the semester so that now I don't even have to waste my time pretending to try to talk to them. I only have to see them in class and convo and that is it and thank god for it. [What a shame that I was so fixated on my disdain for the other Pepperdine students that I didn't talk about Japan AT ALL. Such a waste! There were so many cool things about Japan... de-fogged bathroom mirrors, car garage carousels, bullet trains, the most insane subway system I've ever seen, sumo wrestling... Hiroshima alone was HUGE for me. This is definitely disappointing.]


It's ok though. This semester really isn't about Pepperdine at all. The other friends I've made here more than make up for the crap that Pepperdine has been giving us this semester (and trust me, there has been a lot of it. I can understand why the first Lyon group had so many complaints... being first doesn't have too many benefits). I seriously can pretend most of the time that I'm just here on normal exchange like the rest of them and we have been having the best time. I love Hong Kong, and I am damn excited for every new day here. This Saturday, it's off to see monkeys!!! Frickin monkeys!!! I have always wanted to see wild monkeys!!! Yeah I know I'm weird.