First day out on the town....

I don’t really have jetlag, I think thanks to not sleeping the night before the flight, but I still woke up really early at 7:30am. Decided to just lie around in my room reading until a respectable hour and then met up with Rachel and her roommate Benil (who has an awesome British accent) to take care of registration and ID cards and what not. The campus is beautiful – so green and has a great view of the water. The only problem is that it is massive and built on a hill. Our orientation hostels are on the bottom of the hill so in order to get anywhere to eat or take care of errands, we have to climb up steep hills.

We tried to grab lunch on campus – HUGE mistake. Someone ordered a fruit salad and what they got more closely resembled potato salad. So gross. I got a ham and cheese sandwich and it was the most bland thing I’ve ever eaten, but at least it was better than that Fruit Salad.

So we took care of errands, met more people from all over the globe, and then decided we’d been in Hong Kong far too long without going shopping. So we hopped on the train to take us to Mong Kok. That….was an experience. It was hotter and way more crowded there than pretty much anywhere else I’d ever been. And this was in off peak hours! There were outdoor markets that reminded me of the Fashion District a bit, except the venders were a bit more aggressive and a lot more Asian.

Apparently, it is really common for high rise hotels to have the first few floors be a mall. And by the first few, I mean TWELVE STORIES. We went through every floor of the mall and found some interesting shops, really nice restaurants, and even an arcade! I bought some new sandals since my US$3 pair from last summer have seen their last days on the street. I bought some more essentials – towel, shampoo, toothpaste, all these things I forgot to pack. I also bought a new phone to use here and to use once I’m back in the states. It’s pretty sweet. Nokia 5000 or something. White with purple accent. I’m kind of in love with it. And, with the SIM Card minutes and everything, it only cost me US$140. All in all, I’ve spent around HK$2000 in one day. That’s about US$300. After this though, I’ll be all set up, so I shouldn’t be spending that much in one go anymore. So yeah, my number here is 95260031. I don’t know what numbers you have to punch first to call from America though…ask Izzy or google it if you want to call.

Made it back just in time to catch some night owls online. If you’re on at 12am-1am, so far its’ been a good time for me to be online too. Let’s chat!
Tonight was a tour of Sha Tin, which has a huge mall, even bigger than the 12 story one. We walked around, got some good Chinese food, and then ditched the awkward tour guide (he went back to do his laundry) and hung out at this bar called Sky Platform. Not terribly exciting at 8pm at night, but the drinks were pretty good and it gave us all a chance to get to know each other better. Yay for new friends! Exchanged digits (yay for having a phone again) and now I should head to bed. Early day tomorrow since we officially start orientation at 9:30am.