Week 4

Yes, I realize that it has almost 2 weeks since I've updated my blog. I'm sorry, but hopefully this will be interesting enough to make up for it.

I've officially been here for a month. It feels like I've been here much longer. I'm having a good time though. My classes are pretty boring, but at least they're not too hard. My roommate is awesome, and I'm really glad I didn't get a crazy roommate. Too bad I live in the crazy building.

Last week, I got a card from Rachel, and a package from my parents all in the same day. It was awesome. I have my Camp Rock card from Rachel, my dog-shaped card from Belle, and my flipping sweet Napoleon Dynamite card from my family all displayed in my room. I also got candy and much-coveted Easy Mac in my package. Plus a stuffed dog that looks like Belle. I was really excited. Currently, about a third of the Easy Mac is gone. There is no macaroni and cheese to be found anywhere on this continent, I'm pretty sure, so the Easy Mac was very exciting. I also got something called Easy Italia, which is alfredo Easy Mac. It's actually pretty good. So, thanks to Rachel and my family!

The cabinet of my hall, who call themselves the Fourster Army, ditched the army attire and the lime green duct tape outfits, and are now wearing furry pale green onesies. I've been trying really hard to get a picture, but I can't find a way to do that without offending them.

Last Wednesday, I went to my first ever horse racing track. It wasn't what I expected. There were little booths where people did your nails for free (unless you were at the bottom of the waiting list like us :P) or told your fortune with tarot cards. It was interesting. I only bet twice, and only $10 HKD. My first horse came in 3rd. I bet on him because his name, Happee Gift, was spelled wrong. My second horse, Wait For Me, didn't place. I was really hoping that they named him that to lull his competition into a false sense of security, but apparently that wasn't the reason. It's ok though, I only lost 50 cents. Which is a little more than a nickel. We also went to California Pizza Kitchen before the races, which was amazing. I love CPK.

This weekend, my roommate and I went to Sha Tin to shop. I finally got another pillow, so that was good. And I got some shorts to take to the Philippines. After that, we met up with a big group of exchange students and went to Pizza Hut. In case you didn't know, Pizza Hut is about a 5 star restaurant here. And of course, we forgot it was Valentines Day, so it was packed. It was so worth it though. Afterwards, we went "out." I'm not the biggest fan of going out, but I figured I should just go along with it. The club ended up not letting my roommate in because she had on sandals, so I just went back with her. Which was fine with me.

On Sunday, my roommate and I went to a Chinese ballet. There were four parts to the ballet. The first part was normal, classical ballet. The next 3 parts, however, were just plain weird. In one of them, about 3/4 of the ballet was in silence, and the music would just randomly come in short bursts. The others were more like interpretive dance. It was just really strange. But at least it was entertaining.

On Monday, I decided that I should probably go find some dance shoes, since my musical theater dance class was starting on Tuesday. I found a store online that was in Tsim Sha Tsui, so I went down there after class to find it. I find the place just fine, which is a miracle given my horrible sense of direction. Unfortunately, I found out that the dancewear store closed last week. A new restaurant had just opened there that day. That was so my luck.

I had my first dance class yesterday. I just danced in my converses. There's one other exchange student in the class from the Czech Republic. She's really cool. We started off singing a song from Mamma Mia called "I Have a Dream." The instructor was trying to tell us to sing it softly, and told the class, "It's not like Martin Luther King!" Now, I laughed really hard when she said this, because to me, that was hilarious. Of course, it's not funny to all of the non-American people in the room. After that, I found out that we were learning the "Ladies' Choice" dance from Hairspray. Which would've been a lot more exciting if I didn't already know it. The DVD teaches you how to do it. We also got to watch part of Hairspray, so the class could see what the dance looked like. She tried to explain the plot, which didn't go very well. She never mentioned the whole integration thing, you know, the whole premise of the movie. She let the movie keep going after the dance a little bit, and we got to watch the part where Tracy's mom (John Travolta) is saying "It's a big fake Hollywood set, all of it! You want me to believe he's really up there?!" and Penny (Amanda Bynes) says, "It's not John Glenn, Mrs. Turnblad!" This is one of my favorite lines in the movie, so I laughed. And of course, no one else does, because they have no idea who John Glenn is. Oh well, at least the class will be fun. And entertaining.

Today, they split my Chinese class in half, and let some people on the waiting list into my old class. Now 10 of us are in another class with a different teacher. She seems nice, but she's a little confused because she just found out she was teaching this class on Monday. She also informed us that we have a test next Friday. Apparently the other teacher neglected to tell us this. Great.

Last night, at approximately 11:30, we had a Chinese fire drill. Literally. Unfortunately, there was no running in a circle around the building. I was disappointed. Why 11:30, you ask? Apparently because the library closes at 11, and they want to make sure that everyone participates in the fire drill. It makes me appreciate Tech so much more. Who has fire drills at 11:30?! As were waiting outside, the crazy Fourster Army in their furry onesies climb this hill and start they're creepy, Hitler Youth-esque chants. They are SO weird.

Tomorrow night, I'm leaving for the Philippines. We're spending the night and half of the day in Manila, and then we're flying to Virac and staying in a resort on the beach until Sunday. For $5 USD a night. I'm really excited. Apparently it's a really good place to surf, so hopefully I'll be learning to do that this weekend. If I can get over my whole shark-phobia. We'll see.

Well, I'll probably be MIA until I get back from the Philippines, and I'll try to update as soon as I get back, so you know I made it back alive. I miss you all! Leave comments, they make me happy :)

Oh, and here are my quotes for the week (and a half):
"Love Boat Save The Girl" - on a girl's shirt
"Let me get that information correct later." - my Contemporary Issues of East Asia professor