Love, love, love!

With John Mayer blasting in my ears I thought I'd take some time to write... I want to use this opportunity to blab about something I've grown to love in Hong Kong.

Kowloon Tong, Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok, Central, Shatin and University are many of the MTR stops that I have become quite familiar with during travelling in HK. Living in LA I don't use the subway, and the times I have used public transportation I was left disappointed. Hong Kong is pretty small, but big at the same time. There are a lot of places I haven't been, but I've been to just about every "main" neighborhood. But there are somehow about 200 outlying islands that are HK territory, or so I think.. so of course I haven't dropped by ALL of them :)  Here is what the train map looks like in the HK MTR(which is what the train system is called here). Looks pretty standard right? The difference is, instead of these trains coming every 10 or even 5 minutes they come about every 2 minutes. Funny thing is, the MTR is one of the best places to see that overpopulation that everyone talks about.. One minute the train will look like this

 

Then..........

BAM!!! 

It feels like all these people just appear out of no where. I mean it when I say that, so let me say it again, they appear out of NO WHERE! It's moments like these that you just gotta love Hong Kong, otherwise you will not last. I've had to get used to holding my breathe to avoid smelling the frequently awful breathe of the men (and women) standing half an inch away from.. oh and of course rubbing butts with the creepy Chinese men, cause that's always the highlight of my day ;) lol. It may come as a surprise, but this is actually one of the many things I love about HK, good ol' reliable public transportation.

Oh yea.. I wanted to mention a little about how most people pay for the MTR, including myself. Hong Kong has this awesome card or system, not sure how to describe it, but it's similar to most city metro cards that are reusable. The difference is this card is accepted in majority of stores, vending machines, 7-Eleven and sometimes restaurants. This infamous card is called an Octopus Card. Its basically like a credit card, or prepaid one, that I can use just about everywhere in Hong Kong. Just recently I got my permanent one! Another picture :)











As seen in the picture below:

 1: Tap

2: Push 

3: Go! 

This picture was not planned :) Just luck! 

Now, for my next post, I want to introduce you to Macau. It's an island near HK and quite frankly the only place to legally gamble, it like another version of Las Vegas! Oh and I fell in love with this Portuguese Chinese mix of awesomeness! A sneak peak....

Good night XOXO
Courtney

Foreigners!

Gosh, it's a lot harder than I thought to keep up with posting every week. Especially since I am not just here enjoying the city, I am also in school. As far as school goes, I still like my professors and I am meeting more local students in my classes also. One thing I have started to dislike is the group project element of my classes... this is mostly because I chose to work with other exchange students. My idea was, it will be easier to work together since their English should be good. WRONG! Not only does one of Austrian partners not understand what I say at times, he also has no idea of how to write a college paper! I get so frustrated. Oh, but wait, he also expects we should rearrange our project schedule around him travelling to China. Uggghhh! But as angry as I get, it has really helped my patience and ability to be more understanding sometimes.

Lesson learned: Don't work with foreign students just because they speak better English; because IT WILL backfire on you!

XOXO
Courtney

Honeymoon phase might be over...

I think I have come to that point where all the glitz and glam of being abroad is starting to fade... I miss home. I went to a dinner here, which they call English Table. It is designed so that native English speakers can help local students perfect there conversational English. I loved the concept of it, and also dinner is free! I met some pretty cool people- locals and other foreign students. It was another American that said he also was in the "bottom phase" as he called it. I guess he's started to miss the things in the U.S. that we take for granted, like paper towels for him haha. I miss... hmm... only thing really is Justin and my fam/friends. I guess I'm still intrigued with Hong Kong, but I will say I freaking miss Mexican food the most :-(

Ok well back to the English Table dinner, I had the most funny/awkward/kinda racist experience there. I'll give a little background story: So at the table we played a game with song lyrics and my group within the table won. For the prize they gave us chocolate. People were talking around the table about liking chocolate, and who likes dark chocolate etc... So I mentioned that I kind of hate dark chocolate. This girl, a local student of Hong Kong,  kinda giggles and says "my friends and I kinda have a joke about black people and dark chocolate." She kinda hesitated to say it at first, then some insists she does. So she proceeds to say "we say black people don't eat dark chocolate because they're afraid they might bite off their own finger (hehe) cause they're dark." .......... I WAS NOT expecting this. I think that's what made it so funny to me. I of course, don't think this girl was being intentionally racist, but if I were anyone else that could have been interpreted differently. After the dinner, the girl seen me walking and we ended up having a great conversation. She was really eager to get to know me and take me around Hong Kong some more, but man she really caught me off guard with that joke LOL. I guess I'd expect that from an obnoxious American, but I didn't think Chinese people here even made/ knew jokes like that. Man, what a night... and goodnight for me.

Courtney

Rainy day...

It has been raining all day today and still is very warm. I got a little taste of what cool weather feels like in Hong Kong, and now I want more! I am tired of being sweaty all day- yuck! Other than that I never really got to tell any of you about my living situation or what the city has been like for me...

First off I live in a dorm, which they call a hostel. I have a roommate, here name is Lydia, she is from Mainland China. It is a standard dorm with two beds, desks and small cabinets for closets. She is a very nice girl, her English is good, so I can talk to her about things I don't know about campus- she is also very helpful when I am practicing my Mandarin! I think we are a pretty good match, both pretty quiet and to ourselves, but also kind and respectful.There are 4 floors in my hostel and no elevators! Luckily I only live on the second floor :) But move-in day was a pain because I had to carry my 50lb suitcase up the stairs... yay me! It is also very hot in my hostel, so most of the day I have the AC on, which for some STRANGE reason my roommate likes to randomly turn off =/ We had an orientation camp for our hostel, which consisted of icebreaker games and other activities to get to know other girls in the dorm- yes I am in an all girl dorm- and no, not all the dorms are unisex. I have met a lot of nice girls... I've been trying to come out my shell =)  There is this one girl I met, Rachel, she is from Hong Kong and I just love her personality! She, and many other locals, has a British accent when she speaks English!!! That is probably one of my favorite things to do- speak in a wanna be British accent, which ends up sounding Australian haha! She also is IN LOVE with Brittany Spears, so I get a kick out of that also.

Ok so I'll stop blabbing about that... As for the city, I have been to Central, which is where the beautiful Victoria Harbour is. All the skyscrapers light up at night and it's just beautiful! They have a laser light show with music, called Symphony of Lights, but I have not been able to see it yet :( But I still have plenty of time... People don't make me feel uncomfortable here... Sometimes I will see someone staring a bit, but nothing too awkward. Hong Kong is a very unique place... There is culture here don't get me wrong, but it's not like a slap in the face cultural shock. I have learned that personal space does NOT exist here lol. In America, if a table with four seats only has two people, it stays that way... We don't usually have to worry about someone inviting themselves to join our intimate dinner. Here, if the seat is open, it is up for grabs! It took me day or two to get used to what I felt like was intruding on someone's personal space.

I am excited because a traditional Chinese festival called the Mid-Autumn Festival is coming up, it is a big celebration! The festival involves lanterns, food and moon cakes  :) I am eager to see what a traditional celebration is like for Chinese. My roommate, Lydia, tells me its a time for families to get together and celebrate especially since the weather is great. Also celebrate the full moon, which is what the moon cakes represent :) I will be sure to take lots of pictures!!!

Click the link below to see photos I have taken so far!!
 Link to my pics! :-)


With love,
Courtney

Bring on the change...!

I have attended my first week of classes already and I love them! All my professors are so eager and excited to teach us, it's comforting! There's something about each of my classes that interest me, but my two favorites are Putonghua (Mandarin) and Tourism Planning and Management... actually three- also Population and Migration.. The Tourism and Population classes both involve resource management, which I've become very interested in =) As for the Mandarin courses, I am so intrigued with this language!! I will admit it's definitely complex, but I didn't know there was so much culture and history behind writing the characters! My mind was kinda blown... I also had my first taste of the city on Thursday night, and it is so lively. People in Hong Kong seem like they know how to have a good time, and I can relate to that! 

While touring the city today I realized something about myself, I am not very outgoing or talkative... I know I can be a little shy or I guess reserved. But it has really been a little challenging for me to be the to strike up conversations and just meet new people. I guess the whole idea of it is a little intimidating... I don't think I am a hard person to like once you know me, but I think people often think I'm mean or unapproachable because I have a little bit of a serious look on my face lol. I'm working on it... I hope throughout this experience that I learn or can change things about myself to make me a better sister, friend, girlfriend, daughter and person all around... 

Pics from airport & campus!

TO SEE PHOTOS.. I GOING TO ADD A LINK TO MY PICASA ALBUM! 

I'm here....

Well I'm here! So far I have had to hike up stairs, walk up and down hills to get my ID card and speak with an academic adviser all in FREAKISHLY hot weather!!! No, but in all seriousness within these few hours I've been here, I have already almost cried... I didn't think this was going to be easy but I didn't know I would feel like such.... an outsider. I feel alone, scared, nervous, anxious and still excited. Being here alone is what's really challenging for me. It wasn't until I talked my mom and Justin that I actually started feeling better. Even that almost wasn't possible, because I thought I lost my password to get Internet access here... but as you can see I didn't! Well I'm gonna try and upload some pics I took of the campus and ride here :)

Saying goodbye to Justin was definitely the hardest part of all this... But I am so grateful that he is supporting me through all this :-) I love you, baby! <3

Just boarded my flight to SFO!... Can someone say anxiety! Lol.. No I'm starting to get really excited :-D

Got my Hong Kong dollars! They dont even look real!!! But they're cool because the size of the money gets bigger for each increase in the bill.. Crazy beans

Now that my departure is approaching I'm getting more nervous by the minute... I've never been so far away from everyone I love, but I know this feeling of fear will or should pass once I'm there. I haven't shared all the stress I've been under these past few weeks but I literally was almost forced to have to drop out of LMU. God has really been watching over me, not only am I able to go forth and study in Hong Kong I will be able to stay at LMU! I thought everything I'd worked so hard for was gone. I have to say I didn't realize how badly I wanted to go to HK until it was almost taken away from me. Well I fly out tomorrow, Tuesday.... And I pray that I have safe travels. See you soon Hong Kong

Check out this cool video!!!

So why Hong Kong?

Okay so I thought I'd use this time to become familiar with this blog site, as well as get use to talking to anyone that might be reading this. I appreciate all my family and great friends that asked me to keep a blog because I want a way to remember this exciting experience as I am sure it WILL change my life, and me as a person. Some of you may think you are getting the opportunity to live vicariously through me ;) but honestly I am the one gaining the most out of having my friends and family on this journey with me. I know that this experience would be a lot less fun if I didn't have anyone to share it with, so thank you guys!

As for why I chose Hong Kong.... hmmm... for so many reasons, the first being that I wanted an opportunity to truly understand a completely different culture. I want to eat like Chinese do, speak like them, live like them and hopefully retain knowledge like they do :) hehe. When I look back on the way I've grown up and the things I have been faced with in life, I don't even know how I have been able to dream so big. Going to Hong Kong for me is taking my future into my own hands, and not allowing my shortcomings to overcome me. I can't begin to describe how truly blessed I am and thankful that I've been given this opportunity. When I was 13 and living in a motel, the idea of me being a junior in college and on my way to study in Hong Kong for 4 months would have been unimaginable. Not everyone who comes from a past like mine makes it out with so many accomplishments. I have something to be proud of. I am someone  to be proud of. I don't acknowledge often enough how far I've come. I promise all of you I will  get all I can get from this experience. I promise I will enjoy this journey not as the girl from a bad background or the girl who's lucky to have made it out, but as the woman who isn't afraid to go after what I believe in.

Courtney