Day 28: Hong Kong

OK. Hall Welcoming Party.

Oh. My.

So much fun, but so much…..I don’t even know how to describe XD

Anyway, went to my classes, yada yada, then met up with Joanna to grab something to eat. We went to Central and did some shopping at H&M where I got sweatpants for dance. Then we got dessert at LKF, shaved snow like at Balcony, but the ice was Yakult flavored. Ohh sooo goooodddd. With Coco Pebbles, yakult balls, and rice ball toppings. Then we went to get snacks AGAIN at a fast food place near LKF. I got the famous bread with butter and milk tea. I mainly got the milk tea for the packaging XD I love it when they come in ice buckets…

We then rushed to the bus stop to get home in time for the party, but couldn’t resist the Sasa next door so we popped in for a quick look. Ended up just getting these eye-makeup instant wipe cotton bud things XD

Got home just in time for the party, though Joanna snuck off into her room to avoid it XD

The first task for the new floormates was to clean the fridge and freezer from all of last year’s stuff =”= lovely. We threw away so much food =( though most of it was expired…and cleaned the fridge inside out. Then our seniors came back in, dressed in the most ridiculous outfits, and ordered us to run and get dressed in the ugliest stuff we could find in 10 minutes XD

Lots of eyeliner mustaches and bras…

We paid a visit to the 6th floor, showing off our attire and then we were ordered to go to Ho Tim Hall and buy ice cream =”= after dashing in and out of the canteen in our weird clothes, we had to share the one ice cream cone between the 7 of us. Soooo messy.

With our chocolatey, sticky hands, we went back up to 7/F lift lobby and played another…game. The seniors didn’t let us go in and wash up =( The game was, to peel and eat a banana without using our hands or teeth to hold it. ;_; Good thing our team was smart, and used Yipkaki’s knees to hold the banana and Charmaine’s knees to snap it in half. Then, we almost started eating it from Kaki’s knees but that looked so wrong XD So we dropped it onto Charmaine’s back and proceeded to eat from there. Not bad, not bad. Pretty clean =P

Thenn, we had to come up with a floor cheer. Sara was genius XD She came up with the whole thing. It was something like,

1 2 3, 3 2 1

yat yee sam, sam yee yat

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

yat yee sam se ng lok chaat

We are 7/F, the ugliest

ngo dei chat lou hai something chaat

All around seven can do anything

All around seven mat dou dak

(Cuss words)

Chat chat chat chat chat chat chat

Yeahhhh~

We had a dance and everything XD

Then we did a fashion show catwalk down our corridor. Lots of interesting moves and poses XD

After that, we awaited the visit from 10/F who had to come down and do our tasks. They had to do the banana task too, but unfortunately they decided to use their toes. Soooo gross. And they dropped a lot on the floor, which they then had to eat the banana off of. Ugh.

Then the 7/F and 10/F freshmen had to compete in our pantry. A plastic sheet was laid out with splatters of chocolate, whipped cream, banana and cookie bits all over. We had to race and finish what was on our side. This is where things got so gross. Of course we couldn’t use our hands so we were basically vacuuming up everything with our mouths. Not too bad. But when we finished the banana and cookie, we were told that we had to lick it clean. I started gagging =”= All that saliva from other people on the table. Ughhhhhhh even now I’m gagging. And the other team would push our heads so our faces would hit the table. I think Sara got a nosebleed. Chocolate smears all over our face, hair and clothes. T_T We lost this one cuz it was just too gross.

After that visit, we went up to 11/F to do their tasks. The first was, we stood in a circle with our floor and had our wrists tied to the person next to us. Then we had to peel and eat 8 oranges like that. This one wasn’t bad. We had some peelers, though by the end we were pretty much grabbing and tearing at the fruit. I think I ate a couple of seeds =”=

The second task was one team would be given 3 glasses of water, one glass with a secret ingredient. By drinking one glass each, the OTHER team had to figure out who got the secret ingredient by facial expression. Lots of spitting and stuff XD I didn’t play though.

Whew. That was the last task. Such a fun night XD It went from around 8-12? XD Classic Asian hazing, though a lot more fun-oriented than frats or sororites XD

Sometimes I feel like LHT is a bit of a sorority XD

The rest of the photos from that night are on Shirley’s camera, as I was too busy to document myself xD

Day 27: Hong Kong

Day off againn XD

Went to cheer on the Table Tennis Team (TTT) in the Interhall competition with R.C. Lee hall. We demolished them XD It was fun cheering for the teammates. Learned “ga yau” (jia you or +oil) and “bok jun” (something like, do the best?) and “yau dat hou” (great job! though I’m not sure of the jyutping for that…)

Left: LHT TM, I believe her name is Chan Po.

Good thing I went to non-local orientation and learned the hall cheers XD

Met Iris, PIC of Debate Team, who’s going to study abroad in UCLA next semester ^^

Judy, ChunKaKi & Iris

Right after the previous picture, my new earring got caught in ChunKaki’s hair T_T Ouchhh.

Afterwards, I went on campus to attend my Dance Society (Danso) class. Contemporary Jazz. Ah so hard XD I don’t have the flexibility or grace for it =( lots of turns and rolling on the floor. I wish I could do it though, I think it’s one of the prettiest and most moving dance forms.

Anyway, after that fail, I went with Joanna H. and Ethan to Circle K and got some curry fish balls. Ethan says they’re better than the ones at Causeway Bay but I don’t think so =”=

Day 26: Hong Kong

First High Table Dinner tonight!

Didn’t do much in the daytime, had History, Cantonese, then went to Digital Media for 15 minutes. Ended up leaving early because we were having a guest speaker and I’d rather go get ready for the first High Table. Digital Media ends at 7 and High Table started at 7 so I had to compromise XD

Took a quick nap, was woken up by Shirley, got dressed in a flash, and stumbled down to Ho Tim Hall. 7/F was the first to arrive XD so we got to take photos on the stage

Eating with the 7/F girls was a little scary and intense XD Judy and Twiggy are super fast and attack the food as soon as it’s set down. By the end of the meal it had turned into a fight to get a piece of the dish. The servers kept laughing whenever they set something down because it would be cleaned in a matter of seconds. So much for ladylike mannerisms XD

The two MCs from 7/F Kinsey + Sara ^^

After the dinner, we had a floor meeting in the pantry where we celebrated Sara’s and Flora’s birthdays again. 7/F photo! :D + 2 turtles…ChuChun + SingSing XD

Ended the night with a Dance Team meeting =)

Day 25: Hong Kong / Day 1: Macau

Heheheheheh

Yay for impromptu Macau trip!

We had nothing planned except a meeting time that changed the night before we left XD

We met up at 9:30 (T_T), took the bus to Sheung Wan HK-Macau Ferry Pier, and bought tickets for the 11:30 AM TurboJet to Macau!

A quick breakfast at Mei Xin and a 1-hr ride later and we were in Macau!

Easier said than experienced =”=

Immigration into Macau was awful. People EVERYWHERE. And of course with all of these Asians, there HAD to be line cutting and merging and pushing and shoving. Sigh. Immigration took one hour so by the time we could start exploring, half the day was gone. Aish.

We took a free shuttle to the Grand Lisboa hotel and wow, it was very Lady Gaga-esque, as said by Charlotte XD Looked like a perfume bottle. We walked around looking for a Portuguese bakery but instead we found a little egg tart shop that was super crowded so we decided to join the mob mentality and try it XD We had a snack of delicious egg tarts, nice and heavy with filling and with a flaky crust, and I tried their chocolate coffee. Nommmmm. 

Then it started raining =( So we wandered around looking for a traditional market from the guidebook but of course we kept on going the wrong way and never found it XD

We did find our way to the St. Paul ruins without trying though XD So we got to take lots of pictures at the cathedral ruins. Thennnn we wandered around lost on a local street with lots of antique shops before finding a taxi to take us to Taipa Island.

Gordon, Ethan and Charlotte wanted to see the House of Dancing Water in the City of Dreams, as recommended by Claudia, but tickets were sold out =( So instead, we spent some time at the City of Dreams casino XD Charlotte and I lost HK$ 10 on a 2 cents slot machine….so much for beginner’s luck XD Then Ethan and I played HK$100 at a roulette table. Won $100 then lost it T_T meh.

Then we took a shuttle to the Venetian, which was of course very nice and really big. We didn’t have time for a gondola ride (which would have been weird because all of the gondola people were Asian..) or to see the Ice World expo because we were in a hurry to get back to the Grand Lisboa for the buffet!

saw my floormate joyce at the venetian!

We hopped on a free shuttle to a different casino near the Lisboa and took a taxi after. Heheh cheap transportation ftw. Inside the Lisboa, everything is very gold and Ethan said all of it was planned very strictly with feng shui XD Not surprising.

The 200 ft. buffet line, the Grand Buffet, had a huge line waiting in front of it and we didn’t know that we had to make reservations, so we were stuck in the standby line =( It only took 15 minutes or so because it wasn’t busy. Let the eating commence!

Ohhhhh my. Sooo muchhhh fooooood. Deliciously tender prime rib, Thai style mussels, dim sum, Cantonese BBQ, sashimi and rolls, abalone, chocolate fountain, MACARONS, and COTTON CANDY. All you can eat. Oh my.

The food was amazing, but of course I ate just as much dessert. 2 plates of each… heheh I must have had like 7 macarons, but too bad there were only 2 flavors and the mint one was weird so I had a lottt of lemon macarons XD So worth it. I also had and enjoyed some sashimi hehehe and of course some strawberry cotton candy. Oh everything was just so goodddd. And it was only HK$288! Barely over US$ 30

But when the bill came it was really weird. This one Chinese guy came up to us and offered us a stack of $100 vouchers for the buffet. Apparently he was a high roller and he automatically gets 1% of the money he plays back in vouchers so he had a lot of these things and he’d rather have cash. It was really shady so we asked the waitress if we could use these vouchers and she went to check. Meanwhile, the guy went back to his table to eat and Ethan followed him to make sure he didn’t run away XD Well, it was all legit and he really was a high roller although he didn’t look like it…

Anyway, after we ate we went to the casino but all of the tables had really high minimum bids, almost US$50, so we went out to find a cheaper casino XD ahh college kids.

We went to…Imperial Hotel? something like that, and Ethan and I did some playing while Gordon and Charlotte walked around. She didn’t like all the cigarette smells in the casino. In total, I lost HK$ 170 =( Around US$ 21. not bad but meh.

We got on the 1 AM ferry back to HK and finally arrived back at HKU at around 2:30. Sooo tired but it was a lot of fun. :D

Photos to come!

Day 24: Hong Kong

Dim sum?!?!

Met up with my cousin P’Mai’s friends from NorCal today.

I only knew Larry through Facebook but I got to meet a lot of exchange students from CUHK too. We were going to get dim sum at a really famous restaurant near LKF but we got there too early, before dim sum was available, so we went to another restaurant down the road.

The restaurant was really nice but alas, it wasn’t for dim sum, as we found out. There WAS a dim sum menu that we ordered from but the portions were way too small and the taste was just alright. We looked around the restaurant at the other tables with local people and I guess the place was more famous for their noodles and main dishes rather than dim sum. Oh well, now we know XD

No Stabbing!

Then Larry’s friend who’s an international student at HKU came and so she went to eat at a restaurant across the road that was pretty popular for LKF partiers XD I had mint coffee, which was pretty good. Interesting, but good XD

THEN we took the MTR to Mongkok because people were craving street food. After lots of wandering around, we visited like 4 street vendors for skewers and pancake things and stuff.

I found Crystal at an Adidas store and finally talked to Jenny, who didn’t quite remember me from middle school XD

Then the CUHK people left to go back to school, which was pretty far away, and I stayed in Mongkok for a while to do some shopping. I got 3 pairs of shoes ;_; I really only needed one for high table dinner, but they were having a buy one get one free sandal sale so I got two pairs of sandal wedge heels XD the total was around HK$ 400 >.<

Then I went to get my two top piercings changed. Ouchhhhh =”= And finally went home, cleaned, and did laundry. El fin. XD

Day 23: Hong Kong

Free dayyyy

Started off with some currency exchange at Westwood, then took a bus to Admiralty MTR to take the train to Sheung Wan. Arrived too early and walked around, stumbling across a boba place:

Dude. The size is freaking huge. For 2 US dollars, I got milk tea, boba and egg pudding. It was really good for the price too. The cup was as long as my hand plus like 4 inches! I was so full halfway through XD

Then I met up with Nico ^^ and we went off to search for the lomo store. Apparently there was a worldwide lomo sale going on and today was the last day. After around 15 minutes of walking around Hollywood Road where they sell antiques, we finally found it XD

There were a lot of cool cameras that I wanted to buy, but even with the discount, they were still pricey T_T So I settled for a Diana keychain instead XD

Then we walked around a little more before going to the MTR to Causeway Bay to meet up with Gladys.

Such a contrast…

While waiting for Gladys, who was half an hour late due to a haircut in TST, Nico showed me some good Canto / Mandarin music on her phone ^^ Can’t remember the names of the artists right now, but I’ll post them later XD

After Gladys arrived, we went to the cat cafe! Ahh so cuteee. This little cozy cafe on the 3rd floor somewhere in Causeway Bay was all cat themed XD from the food to dessert to decorations, and of course the highlight, live cats lounging about the store XD

The food was pretty bad XD But I didn’t get a chance to try the dessert. Maybe that’ll be better XD But the cats were really cute. Lots of them were really furry and fat, and there was a little kitten too. One black cat decided that the backrest of our seat was his spot of the day and sat there for the entire duration of our meal without moving. Serious meditation going on there XD Eyes half open and everything. I had to resist the urge to tip him off of the sofa back XD

I took the bus back to the hall where I was just in time to witness the traditional Gong Fight between Lady Ho Tung vs. Ricci.

Dang, intense! The heavy metal gong was tied up on a rope between a tree and the roof of the nearby cafeteria. The objective was for the Ricci boys to somehow steal the gong from the Ho Tung girls. With weapons of hoses, plastic bags filled with water, and sheer strength, the 40+ freshman girls were able to hold out against the 60+ freshman boys for a good hour :D The boys got a table from their hall, lifted it up, and two brave guys climbed up to untie the gong from the rope. It was so knotted up that that itself took almost 30 minutes. In the process, the girls tried to drag the boys away from the foundation of the table, ripping shirts and literally tearing off the soles of the boys’ shoes. Props to the guys for not slipping on the wet floor or off of the wet table!

When they finally got the gong down, they had to make their way past the wall of girls back to their own hall XD I didn’t stay to watch the very end and instead went to get dinner with Ethan.

We tried out Freshness Burger, which was kind of a Mos Burger imitation, but not as good =( And I got a mint chocolate ice cream bar from Circle K XD Haven’t had ice cream in a while….

Chilled in my room for a while and talked to my roommate, making some plans to explore HK XD Then at midnight, the Student Association office opened and I went to go buy my stuff T_T

Today’s haul:

High Table Dinner outfit: Ankle length black dress, long sleeved white shirt, green gown

Merchandise: Hall shirt, Winter jacket, sports shorts

Day 22: Hong Kong

Could -not- stay awake in photo class today. It’s the earliest class in my entire schedule at 9:30 XD But it IS a 3 hour class so cut me some slack T_T

Then I had a 3 1/2 hour gap so I grabbed a sandwich from Starbucks and hung out with Ethan and Joanna before going to the library to do some reading with Charlotte.

Yay for Canto for an hour =”= I wish I could retain the stuff I was learning…Though it would probably help if I did the advised out-of-class studying…

Then it was back to the library to kill some more time before going to the dance team trial practice. So I guess the sessioning / dance class spot in HKU is at K.K. Leung building, right in the middle of where people pass through xD Anyway, one of the PICs started teaching us a simple routine to “Teenage Dream” and I left after 30 minutes because I was 15 minutes late to class XD

Sat through 2 1/2 hours of Covering China. Interesting, about blogrolls on China, but the lecture is just so looooong T_T

Check out this site though: Ministry of Tofu

They have some really funny stuff, along with good stories on China too, like their

Picture of the Day: No backdrop for ID photo?

No problem!

Source: http://www.ministryoftofu.com/2011/03/picture-of-the-day-have-no-blue-backdrop-for-diy-an-id-photo/

I was so hungry after class but since everyone already ate by 9 pm, I just went back to my hall T_T

Day 21: Hong Kong

Only 1 class today, hooray!

My roommate finally moved in! She’s a grad student and a friend of our floor’s tutor, or RA. Her name is Charmaine, I think that’s how you spell it XD and she’s studying social work. Good thing her English is really good =)

In Sexuality and Gender, we watched some really sad video clips, one of a transgender being beaten up by some girls for using the girls’ restroom at McDonald’s. It was both really saddening and angering to see this group of girls brutally beating up someone who didn’t even once try to fight back. And the McDonald’s employees just stood around and took videos. The manager, who was trying to break up the fighting, was only doing it out of concern for his store and not for the victim. What kind of freedom and human rights does a country like the US really have?

Afterwards, I went to chill at the library for 4 hours to wait for the popping class taught by Dance Society XD

Yay for libraries with ocean views :3

Newport Beach library:

HKU library:

Met up with Joanna and proceeded with a slightly awkward dance class with much failing and flailing XD Learned grooving, waving, rolling, and muscle popping. All of which I am unable to do. XD sigh I should just give up on popping. Too bad the guy teaching the class wasn’t as cool as Casey XD

Had a quick dinner at SU canteen and went back to the hall to attend the forum meetings =”= For 3 nights, each of the hall teams get a 45 minute window to form a panel and answer questions about their teams and hallmates are required to attend for at least 3 hours. Too bad it was all in Canto XD Though there was a projected MW translation transcription XD I gave up after an hour, and if I get penalized for it, well, they can kick me out in the middle of the year hahah

Day 20: Hong Kong

Day off today for Mid Autumn, although I normally don’t have class on Tuesday anyway XD

Had lunch with Charlotte by HKU East Gate. We wandered into a local restaurant that didn’t seem to have any English until they gave us one of their delivery menus XD Even then, we had to take a guess as to what we were ordering and could only hope that it was what we had in mind. Unfortunately Charlotte’s was not what she had expected and mine, well, it was close enough.

I spent the rest of the afternoon lolling around in my room before going out to Admiralty to meet up with Ethan and do some studying/reading XD

Pacific Place closed too early so we stayed at IFC Mall in Central and I had some tea and amazing macarons. Raspberry and caramel. Ohhhh so good….Around $2 US each

Nommm

Back at the hall, we celebrated Flora and Sara’s birthdays. The floormates sang happy birthday followed by a 10 second countdown to the instant demolition of the cake XD

BTW TK has 3 turtles in her room XD One is named P2, after the building near where he/she was found (is this abduction?), one is named Clever and the other is Stupid, after their abilities to turn themselves back over when flipped on their shells xD NamNam, our floor RA, turns a blind eye to these pets XD

Day 19: Hong Kong

Mid Autumn Festival!

So I’m confused as to whether it’s today or if it’s tomorrow and people just celebrate today like Christmas and Christmas Eve…

Anyway,

I met up with Tiffany, my buddy, at Global Lounge and attempted to have lunch but the lines were so long so I settled for Pacific Coffee. We met one of Tiffany’s friends, Rem, and Jonathan joined us after a bit. Also met Evelyn who’s a full time student from London, with the accent and all XD

I only got to eat yogurt cuz Pacific Coffee ran out of food and they didn’t restock =”= We were waiting for Cameron to arrive so we sat on the floor in the Global Lounge and chatted. By 1:45 I gave up waiting for him and left to go to class. Yay for history.

Yet another hideously boring lecture although it started off nice with a talk about 9/11. Today’s lecture was on the Russo-Japanese war. Lovely.

Continued on to Cantonese, where we learned some more useful phrases like hoei, bin dou, and gau long XD

Then I went over to Digital Media and learned about the newspaper and how it’s splitting itself up. Meh interesting enough but I left at the break to be on time for the Mid Autumn BBQ at Lady Ho Tung ^^

The non-local students assembled on the first floor and played some icebreakers, starting with that “Hit the Watermelon” game I played at Photosoc but this time using hands instead of newspaper XD Then we played Actionary, or Action Telephone, the one where you pass on a word by doing charades in a line where only the person in front of you can see. We won the first round, with “lantern” but that was it XD

We finally got to go and have a BBQ on the “lawn” which is like a hidden patio on the ground floor XD There were three BBQs and we each got a skewer to roast beef balls, hot dogs, chicken wings, marshmallows, etc. on XD Though most of the students were from Mainland and they kept burning the marshmallows because they would put them on the tip of the stick and stick them into the fire =”=

Of course there were some mooncakes and after dessert, we went back inside for some Hall Education, where we learned the hall history and all of the hall songs and cheers. One of them was:

With our hearts and spirits united,

We will overcome and overcome.

Never say die never fall apart,

Go forward strive for you LHT.

And so on XD I left right before I got to learn the last song because Ethan, Gordon and I were gonna meet up with Claudia and Charlotte at Causeway Bay to see the Lantern Festival and Fire Dragon at Victoria Park. We took some more photos, though it was pretty much the same as on Saturday, and we tried to watch the Fire Dragon Dance but there were just too many people. It was a thin dragon with incense sticking out of it. Pretty interesting but Ethan was the only one who got a good photo, since he was the tallest XD

We met up with William and after the festival, we went over to McDonald’s to have a midnight snack XD After some fries, we went back to the halls and called it a night XD (except Gordon who went to LKF =”=)