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Home and Birthday
5/18 Birthday Home Home sweet home. Wednesday after Macau, we were tired but I managed to persuade Alvin and Marie to sing karaoke with me one last time, this time at Sha Tin cuz it was closer. Walked around a bit before coming home. I watched with them a movie but I don¡¦t remember what. Thursday I was supposed to go to Ocean Park but Alan canceled. It was for the better I guess since I was still too damn tired. So Thursday, I relaxed and watched another movie. I don¡¦t really remember exactly what happened. But it was a good day. I had dinner with Marie and this pretty expensive restaurant. At ShaTin I bought a few more movies with my remaining HK dollars. Oh yeah, I played pingpong with Alvin for the last time. At night on Thursday, I worked all night on the project. Friday, I finished my project and turned it in. In the morning I did my laundry and watched the Lakers lose. Hell yeah. Then in the afternoon I got a cake from Cynthia even though she canceled on karaoke. But Annka, Yvonne, and Crystal were still there. It was a fun day. Tiring though. Then went back to go home to my relatives. Alvin bought me a birthday cake and Marie brought my tennis coach, Bobby, Chi to eat cake with me. I went home with my relatives. I played MAGIC with my cousin, Mou Mou. The flight went well as planned. Got back. My brother and mom went to my aunts house to live to protect themselves. Only dad¡¦s at home with me. Saturday I watched a bunch of tv but not the MAVs game. But go Mavs. Damn right. My birthday is being spent alone. I¡¦m not sad. I sneaked out to play basketball and gave Mike his stuff. Watched Pistons/Nets game. (@)~~Ok. Time to talk about Hong Kong. A thousand words to say. Fell in love, made great friends, ate good food, got part of my education, shopped, and traveled. A thousand stories to tell. I just want say, see you later Hong Kong. I shall return.

Macau
Woke up at 6 to go to Macau. Waited until 8:30 to board the ferry and got there at around 10am. We went to a temple, this stupid bike sculpture which we had to hike uphill, and something. Damn I can¡¦t remember the first thing we went to. Ah yes, We went to the University of Macau¡Ktiny place. But I saw the most attractive bunch of girls there. Ate lunch at this little restaurant. Shopped around in the downtown area. Visited the famous burnt down church and checked out the Macau Museum. Took pictures with the damn cannons. BTW, Alvin kept taking us in the wrong direction. O yeah, we went with Alvin, Alvin¡¦s exgirlfriend Sandy, and Alvin¡¦s sister. So I went with 2 of the most important women in his life. Let¡¦s see, then off to another temple and another museum. Then we went to buy egg tart and some badass jerky. Dinner was ok and cheap at this little tea shop. Then home. I couldn¡¦t go to the casino cuz I was wearing shorts. Motherfuckers. O well. Home now. Relaxing. (@)~~After my long day in Macau, I saw her for probably the final time. (I wonder if I specifically say who she is throughout my journal, o well). Even with her glasses, uncombed hair, and after shower look, she was still beautiful. You can really tell how beautiful someone is right after they shower. No makeup, them wearing their comfy t-shirt and shorts. They are at their ¡§purest¡¨ stage. I¡¦ve found the perfect word for her: sweetheart. Although I¡¦m a bit sad that nothing happened, I¡¦m still glad to have met her. I hadn¡¦t found anyone worth pursuing for almost three years. She gives me hope and strength for the future. She gives me faith in searching. Just knowing someone like that is out there brings a smile to my heart. I hope for the best for her. She¡¦s such a good girl. Now I leave her behind. I truly look forward to the future, to someone else. (maybe someone who¡¦s English is better =P, I¡¦d probably get smacked for that). Today, I raise my glass ¡§To future loves¡¨ then. $$$Definitely we¡¦re playing some hardcore mahjong once my isolation period is over$$$

Sick night
Ok, I spent the night either on the toilet on in my bedroom in pain. Damn diarrhea. I watched 3 quarters of Game 4 between Spurs and Lakers before collapsing. Went my one makeup class for MGT and then checked into the clinic. Got some good drugs and my stomach feels a lot better. Napped and ate congee. At night, Marie and her boyfriend came to my room (and Alvin) to play Mahjong. We had this tiny set. No table. So we found 4 stools, a cardboard box and a wooden board as our makeshift mahjong table. Damn that was fun even though I lost again. I should sleep soon as I have to get up before 6 am to catch a ferry to Macau. 5 days

MAVs and mothers day
Great game today. But damn. 4 minutes into OT, the HK channel that was broadcasting the game switched to NEWS!!! Fucking 6 minutes of OT I missed. Damn damn. At least I got to update with Flora and espn online. I don¡¦t know what the hell I ate but I¡¦m bloated as a motherfucker. I mean my stomach feels awful. Gaseous. I bet you wanted to know that huh? Watched a great episode of 24. I can¡¦t believe that there are only 3 episodes left. I really don¡¦t know how the show is going to end. Napped for a long time. Woke up and worked on my MGT project before heading to Mongkok for dinner with Kris and her friend Maggie. Shopped around, headed back and then watched this supper sad Cantonese movie about AIDS. Damn me for watching it. I¡¦m so tired now. I don¡¦t know who still reads this but thanks. For keeping in touch with me though I¡¦m thousands of miles away. I¡¦m afraid that my writing will get a bit sappy in the coming days as I prepare to leave. For now, I¡¦m sleeping and dreaming of MAVS winning with me watching the game in front of a big ass TV with a beautiful girl sitting beside cheering. A man can dream. I know you don¡¦t read this mom, but Happy Mother¡¦s Day.

Countdown
Morning I had karaoke lunch with Marie. Damn that’s fun and costs less than $4 US. Gotta love Neway. Shopped around for a while before eating at this little café. I had a great shaved ice red bean thingy and shared this great fattening buttered, honeyed bread with Marie. Crashed when I got back before going to BBQ with Annka, Crystal, Yvonne and her boyfriend. Lazy ass Cyn didn’t want to come. Ate so much. So damn full. The whole experience was fun though. The Hong Kong laughed at my inability to correctly bbq and place the meat on the stick… It’s an art I must say. However, I showed them with my marshmallow skills. Afterwards, we went to the famous dessert place…Honeymoon snacks? I forgot the name already but the mango “pancakes”—delicious. Back home now. (@)~~ I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. I wrote 3 poems a while back for my 2 friends and her. I’m going to definitely give the first 2 to my two friends including a letter of infinite thanks. About her, I was going to give her a letter with the poem but now I’m not so sure. It would just be weird now. Plus totally inappropriate. Ah timing. Slowly preparing for the transition back. 8 days

A great wasted day
Damn. Why did the Mavs have to suck today? Can I pray that Dirk will learn how to play man up D? O well, I think they¡¦ll take the 2nd game but it¡¦ll be close. Ate lunch, slept and played pingpong with Alvin. I also turned in my stupid paper. Went to a nice Japanese resturant at night and decided to treat Alvin and Marie. Shopped around, came back and did nothing for the rest of the night. Is it ironic for me to give advice about relationships and love to someone I truly had a thing for? I think so. What a strange world I live it. She even considered me an expert. I¡¦m touched but damn me. She¡¦s such a good, innocent, kind girl. God I hope she doesn¡¦t end up with an asshole. I hope none of you do. In fact, if one of you guys do, I¡¦m going to kick his ass. If it¡¦s a girl, ummm, I¡¦ll find someone to deal with that. Really, I¡¦m serious. A bit bitter tasting feeling I have in my mouth. Anyways, only a few more entries left. I sure as hell ain¡¦t writing this when I go home. Why not? Cuz most of you see me enough. Those who can¡¦t get enough of me (haha, I can¡¦t keep a straight face typing this) can always find me on aol. As for me, semi-cryptically pour my soul out, no mas. Maybe an occasional poem but that takes time and effort. Something must be truly important and be bugging the living shit out of me before I write something in 14 lines. For now, I¡¦m in a good mood. I see myself having a great summer. I¡¦m glad to have loved her for a while. Fun and painful but it¡¦s good to know my heart¡¦s still ticking. It¡¦s been too long since I¡¦ve felt anything and at least I felt human and alive, even if only for a few weeks. You have no idea what you meant to me dear girl. You showed me that there are others out there, if only in a world thousands of miles away. My good friend put it into perspective. I come to CU, meet maybe 100 girls, get to know maybe 15, and fall in love with one. Maybe the odds aren¡¦t so stacked against me. I always thought I was picky but his logic seems good. Maybe it¡¦s fucking flawed but I realized beauty and heart aren¡¦t enough. There¡¦s a third item, more important than the other 2 combined. It¡¦s quite simple. Of course there are a billion other things to consider but everything can be simplified to these 3. When I find the third, to go along with the first 2, words will fail me again. I hope to find it again soon. Damn me drinking cold coffee so late. I know that caffeine keeps me up. My mind is going in a thousand directions. You know why I think I¡¦ll have a good summer? As Yoda said (paraphrased cuz I can¡¦t remember the exact wording) ¡§There is another hope¡¨

It's takes 2 to Karaoke
so I got up early today¡K not too early, just around 9. Jacked around until I met Alvin on the bus to go Karaoke. That¡¦s right we got to the Karaoke place, Neway, at 11 am and sang until 1 costing each of us just $30 HK (less than 4 bucks) which included a meal and a drink. Yum and fun. Tried to shop in Mongkok afterwards for gifts but damn people, some of you have some hard stuff to find. Tea was good and cheap at Fairwood. Bought two movies and watched them both when we returned back to dorm. One of them, everyone must watch as it pertains to Mahjong and it actually has a good moral story behind. The other, just has some lesbians and doesn¡¦t really make any sense. (damn you, not a porno). It was a good day. Nothing great was done and I spent less than $10 US dollars for a day of good fun. Now I¡¦m preparing to sleep early so I can catch the MAVs own up on the stupid Kings at 9 am in the morning. Yes 9 am. At least it¡¦s live. Nothing to vent today. Add oil to your exams (only those truly Asian will understand). For those of you not, I believe in all of you.

Still bored
5/3-5/5 I¡¦ve noticed that I only write when I¡¦m bored. Really, utterly bored. Still been working on my stupid paper. With the rain, it feels as if I have no energy to leave campus. Now I can¡¦t wait to go back. Nothing to do here. People busy with exams. If they are done, they go home. Exchange students gone too. Now it¡¦s time for me to talk about my ever present and ever profound thoughts. Can¡¦t get over someone? Wow, it¡¦s damn easy. Find someone else. It does really work. You here it in movies, you tell your friends the same trite statements and patronizing words but in the end, the truth will set you free. Speaking of truth, I just watched the newest episode of Smallville. Whatever attraction I had for her is gone. It¡¦s just sad. Sorry Colin. Still love the show but Alias and 24 kick much more ass. Of those 2, I¡¦ll take superagent Jack over the beautiful and sexy Jennifer Gardner anyday. The man is just a pimp. A man¡¦s man. Back to my life. I can¡¦t wait to meet Alvin¡¦s past flame. It should be very interesting and fun (for me). Yes, I live a sad life through others. O, GO MAVS. Fucking Portland thought that they really had a fighting chance? I think not. Damn Hong Kong for not showing any of game 7s. If the game were live, it would¡¦ve been at 3 am Monday morning. I couldn¡¦t stay up to read box scores so I slept. I slept really really bad. When I woke up, I couldn¡¦t bare to get on my computer and see the results. Praise the lord though. Now on to the dreaded Kings. What else here? O yes, people have different priorities. Sometimes they conflict but you just gotta accept it sometimes. Others really have to put their priorities straight. Stupid people. Venting again. I gotta thank my CUHK international office advisors. They really are a caring bunch of hardworking people. They do a thankless task and have helped us exchange students more times than I can say. The days are slipping away. Cya all soon.

BORED
There is no other word other than bored. Never try to write a government paper on the state of Chinese State-owned enterprise for a term paper. Nothing really happened the past couple of days. Ate my food, went to buy fruit at Sha Tin. Most everyone is done and those who haven¡¦t left are slowly leaving. I feel sad finishing my paper knowing that after that, it¡¦s over. My stay here is done. Gone are the school days in Hong Kong. I¡¦m writing right now and it¡¦s Saturday night. I like watching soccer now that I appreciate the damn skills those men have. O yeah, damn Mavericks better win game 7 or else¡K I dunno. But right now, I¡¦m very awake, very bored, with nothing to do. My file awaits to be opened for me to start working but I will not and shall not work anymore on a Saturday night. It sucks knowing things will end. What¡¦s worse is me having countless time thinking about it. I wonder if this is how I will feel when I¡¦m old waiting on my deathbed. No, I¡¦m not depressed. I¡¦m in a state of insomnia and not wanting to sleep, not wanting to do anything. I guess the only thing I want is the company of my friends. Today, the rain was crazy. So much that I couldn¡¦t see out my window. I¡¦ve started packing, just my winter clothes and watched vcds and dvds. I miss home and I already miss Hong Kong. I guess a place you call home for 5 months really gets to you. When I return home, I¡¦ll do as I did last time. The pictures will be in my drawer. I won¡¦t forget but the constant reminders, o those constant reminders, just make me think too much. Spending time here just reminds me how I can never call this place home, my true home. Home is where family is, where your old friends are just a phone call away, where you grew up. Someday soon, hopefully after I graduate, I¡¦m going to make sure I can read a Chinese newspaper without anyone¡¦s help. Until you experience it, language is the greatest tool of communication. I feel a bit sorry for those exchange students who couldn¡¦t truly understand the local students. I am glad that I befriended Alvin and Marie. As friendly and nice the exchange students are, I felt as if coming here and making friends with them would as if a waste of energy. That sounds bad. Always hanging out with exchange students just isn¡¦t the same. Damn SARS. Damn it. Next time. I won¡¦t write in this anymore once I return home. I don¡¦t think I¡¦ll ever read the 40 pages that I ¡§wrote¡¨. This was just a place to vent, to release thoughts. And I appreciate the ones who do what they say. It¡¦s harder to find than you think. Good luck on exams guys.

The beginning of the end
I don¡¦t really remember the last few days. I¡¦ve been watching a lot of Meteor Garden 2. yes I know, I¡¦m watching it again but this time it¡¦s in mandarin and I have the whole series and then I can finally know the god damn ending. The past few days have been spent mostly studying stupid ass Finance. From Saturday until Monday morning, the only fun I had was eating with my friends and watching soccer. Then Monday afternoon, I spent the 4 hours or more doing the stupid take home Finance test. Whee, lots of bloody fun. I hate that I don¡¦t know what grade I will make. You know those classes where you know it¡¦s easy so an A. The class sucks and you suck at it so you know a B is a coming. But then there are the border ones where everything depends on the final. That is what I¡¦m talking about. DAMN. Why do I care. It¡¦s over. After the test, Marie took me and Alvin to eat Indian food. Yummy and currilious. Man I paid for the curry the next morning by spending time with a good friend, mr. Toilet. Tuesday I did nothing but watch Meteor Garden 2, play gameboy advance, pingpong, eat, and play basketball. I feel as if my life today was completely meaningless. Actually, I watched ¡§About Schmidt¡¨ Monday night after food and damn, it¡¦s depressing. It makes you think what your life means when everyone is gone. Your friends and your loved ones all gone. Alone¡K what would you do? Today was actually a good day but it was still sad. I think I¡¦m just not in a good mood and I don¡¦t know why. Maybe too much Meteor Garden and stupid love plots. Julie was right. Having a crush on someone can be fun. When she first brought it up, I completely disagreed with her. But now, no one for me. No one to dream of. No one for friends to make fun of and joke around with. No one to mess with my head when playing basketball¡Kwhere¡¦s the fun in basketball without the joy of trashtalking. That feeling compounded with the feeling about uselessness makes things unsettling. I really had a good day and yet I can¡¦t seem to enjoy the damn thing. I need to get back to work. Maybe that will take the focus off things. BTW, fadeaway shots are hard to hit when the game gets long. Damn shot falls short everytime. Grrr. Just needed to vent. So many things I¡¦ll miss here. So many things I miss back home. The best of both worlds can never be achieved. What¡¦s worse? Knowing things will be gone or just having things be gone immediately. I guess if you know, then you can enjoy it while it lasts. Coming back May 25th. I doubt my flight plans will change. Dad¡¦s orders. Everyone stay safe.

UST and "relationships"
Good god I forgot what I did the past couple of days. I know I played pingpong. I know I watched some movies. Tuesday I think I went to Sha Tin to eat but even that I¡¦m not too sure. I know I watched the Lakers lose game 2 and the Mavericks win game 1. Tuesday I think I went to Mongkok again with Marie and hung out. Or was that Wednesday? No Wednesday, Alvin and I ate at a nice teaplace. I know on Wednesday I watched Manchester United versus Real Madrid at 2:45 am. I went to UST Thursday to visit Annka and Yvonne. UST is beautiful. Went to Annka¡¦s Economic class which was one of the boringest things ever. Ever. When Annka was taking graduation photos, Yvonne was nice enough to be tour guide for the rest of the campus. We hung out a long time sitting by the sea and just enjoying the breeze and we just ¡§blew water¡¨. Cynthia came later, ate dinner, and we all watched Annka play volleyball. ***Poor Alvin broke up with his girlfriend the other day. Tis a shame. You know what I mean when you see a good guy not have a girlfriend. A travesty. I offered to help but haha, that was a terrible plan. When I saw him with his ex, I didn¡¦t see anything special. They looked alright terrible but something didn¡¦t feel right. So when they broke up, I didn¡¦t feel shocked. I think my good friend doesn¡¦t look for love when he finds a girlfriend. I think the man is so focused on the future and possible marriage that he overlooks one of the most simple facts of life. I believe that his next girlfriend will be a beautiful girl, absolutely stunning¡K I don¡¦t know why. Another friend, she says her long relationship has no passion left. even when another guy approached her, she still stays with the current boyfriend. And yet another friend is in her first relationship and she keeps thinking it¡¦s a learning experience, willing to experiment with different ¡§ideas¡¨ shall I dare say. I tell her to dump the guy but she seems unwilling until another one shows up. Ah the complexities of life. For me, it¡¦s hard to give up on a girl who¡¦s beautiful and kind hearted. It¡¦s hard for me to give up because searching takes so long that once your target is set, it¡¦s set for a long time. What¡¦s worse is that I haven¡¦t found someone like her in a long time. I like to think that I am a good judge of character. It¡¦s important for everything from your friends to your coworkers to your lover. One tragic error will ruin you. Yet not all is bad in the world. I believe people are good in nature. Yvonne gave me a little UST pin which was just the kindest gift. I really didn¡¦t expect it and she was so happy to give it to me. In the end, we are all the same, emotional humans.

Easter Weekend
Saturday, me and Alvin went to Sha Tin for afternoon dim sum. Then we went to the park and just hung out there for a bit. The weather was nice and it was good to see families out enjoying their easter weekend even though SARS was everywhere around. Saw Peggie at work and then left to watch soccer match. Then did nothing. Sunday was uneventful. Did my laundry, did my finance hw, slept. Ate noodles for lunch because the canteen was closed. Mcdonald¡¦s for dinner. Watched 1 hour photo and about a boy with Alvin. Because of my long ass nap in the afternoon, I couldn¡¦t bloody sleep. I wanted to watch an 8 am NBA playoff game but I couldn¡¦t get up. When I slept at around 4 am, I kept waking up in 2 hour shifts. Then on Monday I went to Sha Tin and had lunch with Peggie during her work break. Walked around in the plaza before coming back and chatting with Alvin and Annie while they were doing their project in the computer lab. Watched 2 episodes of friends (courtesy of Kris) and then went to eat dinner with Alvin and Marie at central campus. Now going to watch movie. Monday was a good day.

Photo Day
No class Friday—Easter Holiday. This just means that for the past 4 weeks, I’ve been to 1 day of class. I to class only on Monday. Tues, Wed, Thurs, all skipped. Friday morning was crazy. I woke up at around noon. Then I started taking pictures with the Shaw college graduating seniors. I took 30 pictures with them. Different people, just wandering around campus find people to take pictures with. 3 hours. If you want the pictures, just ask me. You’ll find nothing like this in the US. Grown men bringing their favorite teddy bears, hello kitties and take graduation pictures with them. But watching them take pictures and being a part of it makes me feel as people are defiant of SARS. People here are getting used to life with masks. It seems as Hong Kong is back to normal, if only for an afternoon. After picture taking, Marie and I headed to Sha Tin again to shop. I bought some cds, a mahjong gameboy game, and ate food of course. O yeah, I purchased a new pair of glasses so when I get back, you’ll see another different part of me. Alvin joined us later to eat and he, me, and Gloria chilled for a little while at the poolside café, just to enjoy the view and weather. Saturday—don’t know what I’m doing. The weather is HK is getting better. No more bloody rains. But then it’s getting hot, but nothing compared to Texas. I can’t think of anything else to write. Until next time then

one week at a time
The situation is resolved. All I had to do was sign a little letter saying that UT isn¡¦t responsible if something happens to me. I¡¦m staying until May 25th but my mom wants me back earlier. I¡¦m deciding whether or not to spend my birthday here in Hong Kong or at home, I¡¦m leaning towards the former. Let¡¦s see on Monday on went to Cantonese and MGT. Since then, I haven¡¦t been to class. FIN was cancelled on Tuesday so I can¡¦t remember what the hell I did. I did learn that my FIN exam is replaced with a take home exam which I¡¦m afraid will rape me. Wednesday was fun. I skipped Cantonese. I figure why go to a class with which I already have an A. plus there are only 4 people and wearing a damn mask for 2 hours sucks. And I didn¡¦t want to go to Business and Politics and sit in class for 3 hours in a mask. So I went to play some tennis and then at 6 pm, I went to Mong Kok with Marie. We shopped for 4 hours. I got a haircut, bought some things, ate¡Kit was fun. Marie is the best, always free and willing to take me out. At 3 am at night, I watched an exciting soccer game, Manchester United vs Arsenal. Went to sleep at 5 and skipped my MGT class which I didn¡¦t want to skip but I was a bit sleepy at 8 am in the morning. At school, I¡¦m a bit lonely..mostly bored. Just sometimes I feel as if no one is around¡Kwhich is creepily true. No one wants to do anything because of SARS. The last few days were bad because I didn¡¦t know when I was going home. I hate not having any control over my life. But at least that¡¦s resolved. Sometimes I wonder why I¡¦m still remaining in Hong Kong. At home I may be just as bored but at least there¡¦s family. I think the reason I¡¦m still here is because I have no idea when I will be back. I want to do everything that¡¦s fun in Hong Kong. Experience everything. If I leave now, I feel as if I¡¦ve wasted my chance. I just hope that I won¡¦t be stuck here forever. All in all, I¡¦m doing okay now. Slowly working on FIN and preparing for its ambush. I got your BoA poster pham, not a good one but I¡¦ll keep trying. Now for a nap and back to work on FIN. I the AC on. Wow, how I love air conditioning. This only the 2nd time its been on in my room since I¡¦ve been here. I can¡¦t believe I haven¡¦t had AC on my room all semester. Its feels blissfully relaxing in here. Woke up¡Kbored again. What to do tomorrow?

Busted
So in Cantonese class, there are only 4 students. I already have an A but I feel obligated to go. Then I worked a bit on projects before MGT class. Did nothing in that class but I learned that my project was extended til May 16th. Crazy. Talked to my groupmates and ate dinner with some Shaw friends. Then played pingpong with Marie. While playing with Marie, we figured to play some Mahjong. We found Gloria to play and then off we went. We played mahjong for an hour or two and then ¡§knock knock¡¨. The Hostel association comes and takes our Mahjong away L What am I going to do? We all got in trouble so now I¡¦m back in my room watching ¡§bring the house down¡¨ Something to keep my mood up I guess. I have to do my project but I¡¦m sick at looking at the same damn report. How gay. I can¡¦t believe we got busted for Mahjong¡K of all things. 7 people¡K 7 frickin¡¦ people to come get us. Somehow I always get in trouble in foreign countries. Anyways¡KI may have to come home early. I¡¦m still seeing how things are going. I am not in a particularly good mood. BAHHHHH

School... or what's left and me bitching about life
Let¡¦s see. Tuesday, I think I played some tennis in the morning. Was in a bad mood but felt better later. Played pingpong but the highlight of the day was sleeping at 5 am to watch a soccer match between Manchester United and Real Madrid. Wednesday, did nothing again. Went to Sha Tin for dinner with Alvin everyday til Friday. Thursday¡Kwas supposed to go to Ocean park but I didn¡¦t because the weather was god awful. Friday, tennis in the morning. Wet balls, wet court¡Kboring day. Bought some movies at Sha Tin. Then Saturday¡Kplayed tennis, at dinner with Gloria and Marie and Sha Tin again. 4 days in a row. Sunday¡Kit¡¦s about to dawn that my projects are acoming. My mom just called. The US economy is just as bad. I feel awful knowing how hard my parents are trying to earn money¡Ketc. I¡¦m glad that I don¡¦t have to see it but then everytime I buy something here in HK, it eats me inside. Yet all this that¡¦s happening around me must make me stronger, for my future, for my family¡¦s future. For me, I believe in securing my future somehow economically, never to allow my children to be not poor, but able to do the trivial things in life. Yet if I do become financially set, my children will not live a life a luxury for that will only hurt their future. Anyways, enough blabbering. Not to insult my dear friends, but they can never be family¡Xmy mom and dad. But I love all you guys. Don¡¦t get me wrong. Each time I talk on the phone with my mom, I just feel like I haven¡¦t done enough¡Kthat I could¡¦ve done something to help. All I am is using money. I try to justify this by saying that the education I receive will no doubt help me in the future. But right now, its hard to say. I see my friends here¡K most if not all of them have parents who make far less than what my parents use to make. Yet they have all done so well for themselves. They make their own money, pay most of their own bills and whatnot. I feel as I¡¦ve done nothing. Absolutely nothing useful for this world. I think this is my most serious fear. Doing nothing good for society. I just can¡¦t imagine myself being failure in a career. I don¡¦t want to but its something I hope to god won¡¦t happen. I don¡¦t see myself not in love though. It¡¦s something I believe will happen. Not really confidence but just a belief. Damn money¡Kdamn its virtues and vices. You know what show everyone should watch? Star Trek Next Generation. Not for its science fiction¡K I don¡¦t remember all its mumble jumble. It¡¦s the way the captain and the other leaders act that I remember the most. The character¡¦s traits. Anyways I think I¡¦ve aged too much. I feel old. It¡¦s the pretty girls that keep me young. Why do people always want me to shave? I think girls are angry that they have to shave and in turn force it upon the other sex (am I serious about this thought?). =) It feels good to vent. Feel great to write. Until next time then, good night. I¡¦ll be pretty fucking busy this coming week so don¡¦t expect me to post anything. But please, talk to me on aim or icq. You have no clue how happy it makes me, hearing stories, and whatnot.

SARS week
I had tea with my aunt. Good cheap food. Rested at her house before meeting up with Peggie at Kwai Fong. No doubt my last chance. Shopped around for a bit before going to her home to eat dinner. Met her mom and her lil bro and sis. Dinner was good and then afterwards, I played mahjong (tiny mahjong tiles) with her family. Went home and did nothing on Wednesday. Absolutely nothing. Bored out of my mind. Thursday¡KI don¡¦t remember what the hell I did. I know on Friday I went to Festival Wok with Marie and ate the worst HK food of my life. Ah, this is too hard. I strongly considered this to be my last post. O yeah, went to Mong Kok with Alvin and Marie. Bought some $10 HK shirts. Saturday went to Yuen Long and Tsuen Wan with Alvin and stayed at Alvin¡¦s home. Sunday I went to Sha Tin to gamble on horses. I won $18.5 yeah. Played some mahjong on Sunday night and I have another week off. I don¡¦t know what to write. I¡¦m too lazy. I¡¦m too bored to write anything brilliant. I really want to go home and drive. Just listen to the radio and drive. I miss school. This no school stuff is actually quite boring. Plus I know I¡¦m going to eat it once school starts again. The exams are still on schedule. Alvin is the man. I owe him too much. My luck, my ¡§foo chi¡¨ I also want to get away from her. I need to focus on other things. It¡¦s not so bad if I don¡¦t see her but when I do and then afterwards¡Kdamn. It¡¦s too hard. Too damn hard. Time time time is an ally and enemy at the same time. It¡¦s 5 am right now. I should sleep. I¡¦m too old for this.

Doing too much
Sunday was fun. Me, Alvin and Gloria ran off to Lantau Island to see the Big Buddha. The trip from my school to see the Buddha took more than 2 hours. When we got there, the air was fresh and we didn¡¦t need to wear our stupid surgical masks. The breeze was heavenly. The view, wonderfully peaceful. Inside the big monument, there is a relic of the real Buddha¡¦s teeth, the size of a rice grain. I found that interesting because I remember reading it in my Asian studies class from Freshmen year. We ate the vegetarian meal there and had some sweet tofu thing. Not bad for a veggie meal. Then off we went to Causway Bay to have dinner. I learned that Alvin¡¦s family had lived and grown up in Indonesia so that he was an expert on Indonesian food so that¡¦s what we had for dinner. I had this badass Indonesian salad and coconut drink. Then we walked to Times Square and walked to the ferry to get across from Hong Kong island to Kowloon. TST at night is beautiful along the bay. You can see all the neon lights from the skyscrapers all lined up. From there we slowly walked to the KCR station and back to school. That night we were going to watch a movie that Alvin had bought but we were exhausted. The next morning we got up to go to Gloria¡¦s house to play mahjong and badminton. Went to Sha Tin with Gloria, Alvin and bobby and met up with Peggie there. We got some Mcdonalds and blockbuster movies and went to her parent¡¦s house. There I got my ass kicked in Mahjong¡Kbad. We had a badminton break and also killed some time playing some pingpong. Afterward mahjong, the girls left and the guys went to go eat at Shatin. I was too tired really to do anything else. Ate some decently priced Japanese food and I had mango drink smoothie before dragging my body back to the dorm. I went to bed quite early, before 11 pm and slept until 10 in the morning. Going to visit my aunt in the afternoon and eat dinner at Peggie¡¦s home. Resting is good. Wearing masks everywhere sucks

Coaches crib
At around 7, me, Gloria, Alvin, Marie, and Bobby, Cecelia, and Peggie went to our tennis coaches house for an overnighter. We bought some food at Park N Shop and then Alvin cooked his famous rice dish. We watched ¡§my lucky star¡¨ and Chicago (but I was playing mahjong while they were watching). Raided coach¡¦s fridge for what little food he had. The man lives alone and has three rooms in his ¡§big¡¨ apt (HK standards). Mahjong of course was good as usual. PS2 action was fun. Later on, the girls went to sleep so me Alvin and marie ended up trying to play Powersmash 2 on PS2 on hard mode but damn that game is hard. Slept at 7 am in the morning. Woke up at 2 to go play some tennis. Really was too tired to play. Hit around for a while had ¡§tea time¡¨ with Alvin. About to sleep and figure out what the hell to do in this week off. Most of my local friends have returned home (not to their dorm) so I¡¦m really really bored. Also if I want to call them, most of them live like an hour away so that¡¦s not fun either. Eh, I guess I shouldn¡¦t be bitching about what to do on my week off. Just don¡¦t visit me cuz I really don¡¦t know how bad this SARS is.

SARS scare
In the afternoon on Thursday, me, Gloria, and Marie went to go buy Alvin and Alan¡¦s graduation gift. We bought ¡§t bags¡¨. If you don¡¦t know, it¡¦s probably for the better. I also bought some DVDS and came back for FIN class. I played some tennis at night and ate dinner with some guys. Came back, played some more PS2¡Kgot owned in NBA live 2003. Went to sleep kinda early at about 2 am. Skipped Cantonese class again and then went to play tennis until 2:30. Ate lunch with the tennis guys and watched Alias (old episode). I hear the school is cancelled for 1 week because of the SARS. Whee!!!! (@)~~The things you see everyday, all have a hidden world. I¡¦ve really lost the will to update this journal just as I've lost the will to go to Cantonese class. If you have ICQ, you'll probably have better luck finding me online on that. ICQ number is 237766883.

No more MKT soon...
Tuesday night¡Kplayed mahjong again haha. Met one of Gloria¡¦s friends, Kandy. FIN grade..eh whatever, we live to fight another day huh? Right after FIN, I balled a bit, then played pingpong with Alvin and balled again. Then Mahjong. It was a good Tuesday night. However, I ended skipping Wednesday morning Cantonese again =) Went to Business and Politics and afterwards ate dinner with Alvin, Gloria, Peggie, Marie and Bobby. All of us went the University singing contest with special guest Joey Yung. BTW, she is much cuter in person. Even though I was sitting on the upper deck, I had binoculars to see yeah!!! Came back and busted out some PS2 action. Went to MGT in the morning and had a short MKT meeting. I don¡¦t know if you guys know this but the pneumonia scare here is pretty bad. The school has suggested that everyone wear masks everywhere they travel. That¡¦s about it. Too much to talk about, too much to write, not enough time.

Work hard, play hard
Let¡¦s see Sunday. What a great weekend I had. In the afternoon I played basketball with Alvin. It was fun trying to trashtalk to him because every other line, I had explain what I was saying. (you know you miss it Pham). As usual, I picked on his girlfriend and little sister. I really schooled him, winning 7-1. 7-2. Me, Alvin, Marie went to Sha Tin to meet Peggie and Gloria to buy food for our dinner. We spent almost $40 on all this crap. Came back and then cooked. Actually we bought most of the food. Alvin made this sparerib rice dish. Peggie just cooked some fish balls with lettuce soup. Gloria just cooked some mushrooms. Me? I washed dishes haha. The food was great. We had sweet soy bean drink. Then afterwards, MAHJONG again. Yeah. Man, I played as good as I could but still lost. I¡¦m serious. The only way I lost was to ¡§zhi mou¡¨ (drawing and winning by yourself). Peggie, the beginner, won by 100 points and made about $1.20 US dollars haha. I¡¦ve gambled many times in my life and the beginner always wins!!! So we played until like 3 am on Sunday. I skipped Cantonese class on Monday and worked on my MKT project. Went to MGT class and worked on the MKT project afterwards until 10 pm. After that, me, marie, and Gloria, and Alvin went to play pingpong until midnight. This morning, I finished up my project and presented. MKT is officially over. That¡¦s right. No more classes. Came back to my room, watched an Alias episode and about to go to FIN to get my midterm grade back =( (@)~~ Side note, my stomach has really not been kind to me this couple of days. Going to the doctor tomorrow morning. Hopefully, I¡¦ll feel better soon. There¡¦s really too much write. O the stories. So many stories.

Out with the locals
I shouldn¡¦t have gone to Cantonese. A bit waste of time but at least tennis was fun with the Shaw team. I played until around 2, ate a bit of lunch and at 4 went to go film an ad for my MKT project. After 4 hours of filming around the school, we finished around 3 and a half minutes of video. I crashed for about 30 minutes before going to Karaoke. Wow, try singing for 9 hours in the same room for Karaoke. Fun as a mother. I sang a my duets with Alvin, Gloria, and Peggie (all in Cantonese of course). I also sang an Andy Hui song in Cantonese too. O yeah, the Eminem song ¡§Without Me¡¨¡Xhard as a motherfucker to sing. Fun but hard. At 6 in the morning, we left and I got back to Shaw and slept until 2:00. Then at 4¡KCantonese Mahjong. Damn, I lost by 238 points. But I only lost 3 US dollars. Watched a movie with Gloria and Alvin. So far, what a great and fun weekend. There¡¦s actually lot more shit that happens but I¡¦ve lost my will to write on such trivial matters.

Regular days
Damn I felt bad on Wednesday morning. I spent most of the morning split between my bed and the bathroom. Went to Business and Politics refreshed because of the ton of sleep I got. Hung out with Cynthia for a while after class before spending an hour with my MKT for a meeting. Did some work and talked until 2 am and slept. Woke up early to interview my uncle at Sha Tin. It was fun setting up the camera and everything in the mall. However, the Cantonese people were very mean and we had to three different locations before people would stop hassling us to move. It was good seeing my uncle again. My family is too kind to me. Went to just an hour of MKT before eating lunch with Alvin and sleeping until FIN. FIN¡Xthe mean average of the midterm was a 78, Damn, I hope I beat that score. I really don¡¦t know how well I did for I fear my grade. Played pingpong with Alvin for about 2 hours and ate dinner with him again. Helped Kris with your study abroad summer essay and I worked on my MKT project. Stupid MKT, no insult to all you MKT majors, but wow, so boring. I¡¦d take my shitty FIN classes over the boring MKT anyday. Yup that was my 2 days. O yeah, War today. The last time I spent time watching the news like this was right after 9/11. Let¡¦s hope it¡¦s short and the deaths are low. I still remember when Bush Sr. attacked Iraq 12 years ago. I was in class and my teacher told me. Tsk, I¡¦m not a praying man, but tonight, I pray for the safety of humanity.

Holy shit, I can't speak Cantonese
Watching Golden Chicken kept me awake until at least 3 am. The movie was about a Cantonese Hooker and her stories until the present. It was funny trying to understand all the Cantonese slang for sex. Then I got up for stupid MKT and watched 3 presentations. I was tired and I grabbed a quick lunch before napping. Dallied through FIN before going to Cantonese Tutorial. Came back, Peggie picked up her photos and I went to my MGT meeting. Came back afterwards and ate dinner with Peggie and her friends one of her friend¡¦s room. Then hung out with in her room and she picked out a song for us to sing for Karaoke on Friday. Did my work, Marie came to my room to help me with my lyrics but I left it at Peggie¡¦s room so we went to visit Kelvin. The man has a lot of Twins posters and we played some virtual tennis (me getting my ass kicked). Got back the lyrics sheet and Alvin helped me with the words. I owe that man some bad ass graduation gift. Shit, I gotta practice my songs

Mondays seem like nothing
Went to Cantonese class. Ate alone for lunch cuz I had to work on MKT report. I watched 3 of the newest episodes of The West Wing. Went to MGT, went to the MKT meeting and then played some tennis. Ate at a nice on campus restaurant for dinner with Alan. Finished a chapter of FIN reading and I¡¦m going to watch a Cantonese movie (Golden Chicken I think) soon with some friends. It was a good day. Kind of humid but sunny. Yup, that was my day. Nothing much to do. I should focus but I can¡¦t. I am trying to get ready for singing. I have all the songs on MP3 and I¡¦m going to burn a cd.

Biking day
Let¡¦s see, I didn¡¦t do really anything in the morning. Saw Gloria reading the newspaper so I bought lunch and sat around in the common area. Then Bobby came and he and she went to go play pingpong. I played a bit and then I went off to biking. On the way down to the KCR station, I met Alan¡¦s girlfriend. Peggie was right when she said that Alan¡¦s gf was pretty. I got the crappiest bike ever. I had to rent one. The chain on the bike would come apart and my bike was so damn slow. Wow, could my ass hurt anymore? I can¡¦t even remember the last time I went biking. The weather was wonderful¡K60-70s, nice breeze. We must¡¦ve biked 25 kilometers in the three hours. In the old Chinese movies, people would go on dates and go biking so all my Cantonese friends joked around how Alan was taking me on a date¡Kthose bastards. On the way back, my pedal broke off so we had to walk all the way back to the bike shop. Alan bought a long sleeved shirt and we ate dinner at this small place. Then went back to my dorm. I asked Alvin to pick some Cantonese Karaoke songs to sing. He printed out the lyrics and helped me ¡§translate¡¨ so that I can sing this Friday. God I hope I don¡¦t embarrass this shit out of myself this Friday trying to sing in Cantonese. Better start practicing.

Concert Day
Let¡¦s see, I got up at around 11 am and eat some ice cream for brunch. Then at 1:30 Gloria and I went to Sha Tin to go see Peggie at her work. I bought this little teddy bear key chain at the store. Peggie works at a Chinese Christian Book Store so if any of yall need to get anything Chinese and Christian, just let me know and I¡¦ll see what I can find, especially books for your parents, etc. Then we meet the rest of the group at Mong Kok at around 2:30. Alvin, me, Gloria, Marie, and Bobby then went to DeliFrance to meet Alan because he ended up at the wrong place. It was funny watching him stand there like a hooker waiting on a street (love them prostitute jokes). So we shopped and ate at Mong Kok all afternoon. I ate so much crap and was so damn full. I bought this totally misspelled anti war t shirt and a $10 US fake Lobor watch. We went to a famous center that sells tons and I mean tons of porno vcds and dvds. We played arcade games for an hour too right before dinner. We had sushi when Alvin¡¦s girlfriend arrived. After sushi, Gloria, Alvin, Alza (avlin¡¦s gf) and me went to the concert. The hall was not too big, seating about 10000. The concert was great. She sang a lot better than I expected. The cool part was that there was 3 special guests: Eason Chan, Hacken Lee, and Kelly. I even got free thunderstix to play with. The concert lasted until 11 pm and Gloria and I went back to the Shaw while Alvin took his gf home. What a fun day. $10 US tickets¡Ktotally worth it. Maybe next time, I¡¦ll get the $50 tickets to sit closer and be actually able to see GiGi¡¦s face. Alvin and his gf just look right together. Not the prettiest couple, but just right. Marie, damn, you got fast reaction times. Alan, your horndog smile will get you in trouble someday =) Plus, I want to see your girlfriend. Alan left early to go on a date.

Long week is over
Got an A on my Cantonese quiz. Yeah! After class I went back to my dorm and ate and studied for MKT midterm on Thursday. I went to Business and Politics and enjoyed the lecture on Business and Finance by the old professor. Afterwards I went to Cynthia¡¦s room and we went to go play squash. Actually, we tried to play squash but there weren¡¦t any courts so we ended playing pingpong for an hour. Came back and then played basketball for about 2 hours. My left index finger is really jammed bad. It looks like my left index finger is twice as large as my right one. My chin also hurts like a mother cuz some guy¡¦s head ran into my chin. Played with Alan and he hooked me up with some blank cds. Then I finally started studying again. I helped Kris with her English presentation and then slept. Woke up early for my Thursday classes. MGT had a good presentation by another group and then I took the stupid MKT. I think I did well but I don¡¦t really know. Ate lunch with Ah To and Kidd and then came back and ate my store bought ice cream. Took a nap and woke up to go to FIN lab and then went to play tennis. Me and bobby lost all three matches to the staff and depressed me like hell. Playing and losing to the Shaw Professors had a feeling worse than taking both exams. However, afterwards, a bunch of us went to Sha Tin to eat midnight snack. We had a good time telling jokes and just talking until about 1:30 am. Then we came back to our hostel and me, Alvin, Peggie, Marie, and Gloria chatted for a while before Peggie left and the remaining four of us played big 2 until 4 am in the morning. I went to bed at about 5 am and woke up at 9 am to get some damn files. Then I couldn¡¦t go to sleep so I finished my FIN homework and played tennis with the Shaw college girls from 11:30 am until 3 pm. Ate lunch with Marie, Peggie, Gloria and Bobby until around 4 and then I slept until 6. I¡¦m eating and watching movies tonight. My sleep schedule is all fucked up right now so I need to go to sleep at a reasonable hour tonight. Can¡¦t wait until tomorrow for the Gigi Leung concert and shopping!

Finance Midterm
Monday morning I went to Cantonese class but I didn¡¦t have lunch with anyone as I scurried back to my room and studied. I actually spent 3 hours doing Finance homework to prepare me for the test. Then I went to MGT. Our MGT seems to be falling apart. The group doesn¡¦t seem to get along with Mason. Mason doesn¡¦t get along with Jean. Things are not looking good right now but I¡¦m letting it pass until next week. I figure that since Mason won¡¦t be as busy, things will look up. Afterwards, I had a fish burger and fries before playing tennis. I met Kelvin, a 33 yr old CUHK graduate who came to hit with us. Then I went back to my room but I couldn¡¦t find the will to study. I jacked around for a while before going to Hostel 2 to study with Gloria. She helped me print out papers and I kind of glanced the Finance Powerpoint slides. I wanted to wake up at 8 am to study but that didn¡¦t work. I got up at 10 am and started writing my allowed one page cheat sheet. At 12:30 I had a MGT meeting and things are starting to look bad for our group. I don¡¦t think it¡¦s that bad because the project isn¡¦t due until late April, but some people in our group are worried. Went back and crammed before the Test. The FIN was odd. It focused more on gay ass accounting than Finance. The last problem, worth 36 points was on making a depreciation chart and stuff not related to anything. I really don¡¦t know how well I¡¦m going to do. I might eat it because I think I studied the wrong thing. O well, I came back after that and ate some Koala chocolate biscuits and watched 24. Then I went to play basketball, ate, and then I went to the Shaw Karoake Contest. It was great. 10 wonderful singers. 2 pop stars¡XAndy Hu (Jimmy Fallon look alike) and Juno. The real singers are totally different. There was this one guy who wasn¡¦t a contestant but did this wonderful skit/singing. My friend Remiel sang a duet. The whole experience was great. This guy that I thought would win ended up fourth and then girl I thought was 2nd ended up first. I¡¦m glad I went and I spent only $3. Going to finish ¡§Catch me if you can¡¨ and then go to sleep.

Zeng Cheng Trip
3/8-3/9 Zeng Cheng Trip I woke up at 6 am on a freezing cold Saturday morning and walked 30 minutes to the train station so that we could catch the bus. There were I think 14 of us going with a local girl, Eva who was our escort. (Thanks Eva, you’re a lifesaver). I slept through most of the bus ride of about 3 hours. We got there and a teacher met us and took us to eat a very nice 10 course meal at a Chinese restaurant. After eating, I went to go teacher the most adorable middle school students. The bus ride through China was dangerous and scary as hell but I got used to it in the end. The mainland people love to honk. Also at some intersections of large roads, there are no stoplights. The kids were wonderful. This middle school was huge. The kids came on Saturday just to listen to us speak English and meet us. My “class” had 7 girls and 4 boys. They were a most attentive bunch. I know I’d be bored to death if I was in their chair. They asked me all sorts of questions in English. You’ll be amazed in a couple of years at how good Chinese people can speak English. The kids love Twins and F4 (especially the quiet guy in the series). This guy was waiting right by the door after class. The students told me that he was their classmate and then one of the girls left and went to talk to him. I asked the kids if he was her boyfriend and they responded that he was her brother. I was like, wow, brother in the same class. And then they clarified it. I learned that kids don’t date this young. If they want to, the girl usually ends up calling the guy, his brother, so to learn more about him. I talked to them for 2 hours and then we went to go play some basketball. The kids in China don’t have much opportunity to use a computer. I was so nervous at first but then I got comfortable and tried my best to be a friend. I wish all the students in the US could be as good as these kids. Afterwards, I ate another good dinner and off we went to the best high school in Zeng Cheng. I talked with a group of seniors preparing for the National College Entrance Exam. The students were all studying at 8 pm at night on Saturday…makes me feel ashamed and lucky that I wasn’t that busy during high school. We talked about all different topics and then this girl entered and dominated the conversation. She wanted to discuss politics, culture and everything. I felt bad that I couldn’t get the others to talk as much. Before going back to the hotel, we went to go see a dorm at the high school. If you think Jester is bad, you have to had seen this. There were 10 guys sharing a room about 3 times as big as a Jester room. It mainly consisted of beds, no place to study. The bathroom had no cold water so if they wanted to bathe, they had to go somewhere else, another building to get hot water. Of course some of the braver, stronger guys and girls just took cold showers in the winter…brrrrr. I went back to my room and was tired but I ended up watching half an hour of the Michael Jackson interview special. I don’t even really like the guy but the tv special was fascinating. I fell asleep before midnight but I woke up in the middle of the night freezing my ass off. I didn’t where the extra blankets and I didn’t want to get out of bed and look for it so I just put on a sweater, sweat pants, and socks and slept the rest of the night cold, in a fetal position. It felt like I didn’t sleep at all. Even in my dreams, I dreamt of freezing in the bed. The next morning I learned that the blankets were only a few steps away in the closet. Bah humbug. We had dim sum in the morning for breakfast and then we went to another school. I had a group of first year high school students 14-15 year olds. They sat around me in a semicircle and we chatted about random stuff. Before we went to class, the students showed me the guy dorm and this one had 6 bunk beds with 12 guys sharing a room. I learned that some of the very poor, but very bright kids couldn’t go to college because of money issues. It’s quite sad to here. I look at these students and I miss high school and middle school. Less worries. We talked for a while and then we went to go play pingpong and basketball. That was the last class I “taught”. We went back to the hotel to eat lunch. I sat by the teacher who picked us up and learned that she had started teaching Kindergarten at age 17. She had to support her 2 little brothers through college, in essence, sacrificed her studies. We shopped around and I bought the movie Hero and some music cds. Damn it was cheap. The Hero dvd was 15 RMB (less than 2 US) and the cds were all less than 10 RMB. Then we took the bus back and got home at around 8 pm. This was a great trip. It’s sad that I’ll probably never see these wonderful kids again. I hope that someday I’ll be a super rich guy and be able to send all these kids to college. It costs around 10000 RMB to send the kids to college a year. Going on this trip shows you how lucky you are to be an American. Not that these kids don’t have a good life. To the 2 lovely kindergarten teachers, I hope you two find a good husband and wish yall good fortune. It’s hard to complain about schoolwork when you see how hard the students in China study to compete with millions of other students for precious spots in top high schools and colleges. In the future, the best of best of China will surprise you with their English capabilities. A truly eye opening trip. I really hope to teach someday and give back to society. I feel especially bad for the poor sons and daughters of farmers. Man, this trip gave me so much happiness and so much sadness at the same time. Humility is word.

A friday that should've been for studying
Finance Midterm looms in the horizon and I have done nothing. well, I checked my FIN hw assignment 1. That's about it. Man, I went to sleep early on Thursday...before 1 am after sleeping 4 hours in the afternoon. I woke up at 8:30 to attend a 9 am MKT meeting. We ended having the meeting over breakfast. Afterwards, I went to Cantonese class and took a very easy Quiz. Then ate at Maxim's fastfood resturant which I don't want to eat there ever again. Then I ended playing tennis for 3 hours with Kim, 2 Korean professors, bobby, and raita. I saw Ian hit with Maggie there later on. Then came back and ate dinner with Ah To, my MKT group mate, to just talk to him in english and help him for his English exam tommorrow. Then did nothing for a while before playing basketball for almost 2 hours. All this time I should've at least cracked open my FIN book. O well. Chatting with Eva who played tennis for Shaw. I'm probably going to sleep early so that I can wake up at 6 am to go to China tommorrow. (@)~~O yeah, I saw this girl at the bus stop today waiting to go to Cantonese class. Pretty much stared at her for about 10 minutes. She epitomized the cute Chinese girl with that perfect smile. wow. May have changed the course of my day. Even the light glasses on her face added to her beauty. I really like seeing random cute Asian girls. Nothing against Americans of course. It's just that I don't see enough =P Going to China tommorrow so I won't post til maybe Sunday night. You lucky bastards enjoy your spring break while I suffer through 2 midterms and 2 major projects.

Preparing for midterms
Ok starting wednesday--I think I went to cantonese class, certain I did. I ate lunch with Mike, Linda and Remeil (local guy). At the lunch canteen, there was an Irish traitional band playing music which was quite good.I know I went to Business and Politics because the lecturer spoke about Counterfeiting in China and its laws and regulations. That was actually really fascinating. After class I went to Cynthia's room and hung out there before we went to go play squash. I had to borrow one of her shorts to play...thankfully it fit. It was fun playing squash. I would love to take a class on it. Let's see, I went back and ate dinner with Alvin. O yeah, Alvin, Alvin's girlfriend, Gloria, and me are going to the GiGi Leung Concert next saturday night. Yeah!. Ate dinner with Alvin and we had a good conversation, serious conversation. I love eating and discussing. One of my most favorite things to do. Afterwards, I studied and then I happened to see Gloria and tell her the news about tickets. I studied alone before going to Hostel 2 to study with Gloria. This was around 11 pm. Studied MKT for about 2 hours and then we went to go visit Alan's room and then Peggie's room cuz they both lived in Hostel 2. Alan is going to take me bike riding next Sunday =). Alan didn't believe that Alvin had a girlfriend so I took him to Alvin's room and look at Alvin's pictures. Alvin wasn't in his room so his roommate let us in and we "secretly" looked. Came back and slept at around 3 or 4. I woke up at 8 am to go to a MGT meeting and then class until 12:30 Thursday. After eating lunch with Kris, I slept until 6 pm, skipping my Finance class, about 4 hours. I was so tired. I've been studying since. I also watched Smallville--Rosetta. Wow great episode. I can't remember an episode that good since probably the premiere. I'm about to eat dinner with Kris because she's going to help me out with Cantonese for my "quiz" tomorrow. Probably just going to keep studying tonight on Finance.

Computer's back online yeah!
Did my MKT presentation today... not bad. I think my classmates really enjoyed the commericals (new jordan commerical, old nike one, and the my sassy girl commerical about the sam sung printer). At lunch with Bobby's mkt group and then went back to dorm to nap. Went the finance class, barely survived though that. Came back to my room and napped again. It's been raining all day. Woke up and went to help with pictures with the Shaw Girl's tennis team. Came back, ate dinner with Peggie and Gloria. After dinner then came back to dorm to finally study..fin =(. I got my friend Kelvin to make me a cantonese CD and fix my internet. Stupid CUHK cut off my IP # for some gay reason. (@)~~ Right now I feel good. To pham, No I don't have a girlfriend. What are you thinking and reading into man? But damn, FIN and MKT midterm on the same day next tuesday. I'm screwed if I don't start behaving like a good boy. I really like eating lunch with locals. I learn a lot of stuff, especially listening. I learned another bad word--Ding. Like shit or something. I think I feel good cuz I took two 30 minute naps. I also watched 24 today. I totally forgot about that. good episode. Need to find time to watch Smallville though.

Rain rain rain
Gay, my computer crashed, erasing the priceless words I had written before =p. Ok, I went to Cantonese and right after, I went to get my passport and photos. At mongkok, I had Delifrance for lunch spending HK $41 on a smoked salmon sandwich, bowl of soup, small piece of bread, coffee, and peach/mango tart. Totally worth it. I love the tart the most. O yeah, I also bought this jello type thingy and ate that too. 3 for $5 HK. Came back to my room with everyone asking for pics online. Then I went to my MGT meeting at 4:30. After the meeting at 5:30 it started raining lightly. I went to another meeting, MKT, in the library and stayed there until 9:30. I had a dinner break in between but we finished up our MKT presentation for tomorrow. Came back, watched 24, ate my mango in the fridge. My internet is not working so I won¡¦t post this until later. (@)~~ This is odd trying to write the same thing again. I haven¡¦t really thought about her. I¡¦m glad I asked and tried. At least now my mind isn¡¦t so focused on her and I can concentrate on school more. I never see her around school anyways. I didn¡¦t even think about her at all, all day, until my friend brought it up¡Kbastard. I think I¡¦m already over her. I guess there was nothing there to begin with except the crazy thoughts in my head. Now that reality has slapped me upside the head, I¡¦m back to my old self. [-o-] (TIE figher?) I¡¦ve had mixed reviews about my hair. I don¡¦t know what you guys think. I do know that my hair feels odd now. It¡¦s not as smooth as it used to be. One thing you have to remember when you¡¦re in HK is to always be willing to talk about price. If you buy something or even get a haircut, people will ask you where and how much. It¡¦s like they are gathering information. Julie was right about one thing, daydreaming can be fun. I do miss that. However, I am a realistic guy and living in dreams isn¡¦t my way to go. I feel like I¡¦m always so busy here. I never felt this busy in UT.

My hair, what have I done?
I went to sleep late last night after chatting with Kris till 3 am. I woke up at 10:30am to go to a MKT meeting. That was interesting, ate some lunch. Then I went to Mong KoK with Annka to my hair cut and dyed. Damn, took 3 and a half hours. Of course, I have pictures. Then I went to BBQ at the Shaw guest house. I ate too much and came home. It was a long day doing nothing. So much work and I haven't done shit.

Saturday fun day
Got up early to view some sets for a HK Channel TVB. It was kinda fun runnning around on their old sets. Ate some KFC, before heading back. Waited to go biking but there ended up being not enough people. I went to go play tennis instead, hitting for about 2 hours in the hot sun. Then I showered and met up with Annka for dinner. We went to Temple Street and ate with me paying her back for the cell phone bill. Shopped a bit and then ate some desserts. CAme back and hung out with Kris for a while. O yeah, on the bus ride back I saw Denise and Amy. Wow, Amy looked so familar without the makeup. Reminded me of someone iimportant. Feeling better. Going to get a haircut and dye my hair tommorrow. Wish me luck.

It's over before it begins
It was a gloomy morning. I should've known what was to come. Cantonese class blah. At lunch before going to Fin meeting to finish up our FIN project. Then an hour after that, went to MKT meeting. CAme back. Talked to her on icq. It's over before it begins. I take some consolation that for the first time I can say I tried. Tried valliantly, failed burning in flames. I actually don't feel as bad as I did a couple of days ago. I'll come back to this. Went to go buy Digital Camera!!!! yeah... still sad though, but DC is awesome. Went with my cousin and then came back to campus to see Rina blow out the candles off her birthday cake. Hung out at the dinner for a while before coming back. I'm so tired. Not sleepy tired but emotionally I think. At least she was honest and didn't play me like a cheap fiddle. I always believe that sleep can cure many things. I think this will take at least 3 days of good sleep. I should be a lot happier with my camera but this day was blah. Not in a mood for talking now. maybe tommorrow

Life's a bit more normal now
Ok, I had to check my last entry to see when I wrote. I don't remember much from Wednesday. I went to CAntonese class, had Business and Politics--kinda of boring. I find some of the exchange students annoying, more so that the local students. I went to the mandarin table, good as always. Came back and shot around some basketball with Kris. O yeah, I went to Alvin's room and borrowed some cds. Slept at midnight. This morning I had my 4 hours of MGT and MKT. Damn, I'm a busy mofo with my three business classes--each with a project. At lunch with Bobby, Raita, Lucy, and June before sleeping a much needed and much beloved 2 and a half hours. I walked to FIN with Rina who I haven't seen in forever. Had FIN and then rushed back to my dorm to go to a MGT meeting. Afterwards, I went to Cynthia's room and she cooked me some dinner, noodles. Then we went to go play squash but we were too late. I kinda learned the rules to the game. Then we went to watch the Chung Chi Dorm Basketball competition. It's amazing how many people went to watch. The atmosphere is just crazy. Hong Kong people love doing their activities and thats why they never sleep. Came back and showered before going downstairs to Shaw and listen to Karoake. Bobby, I'm going to kill him, got the people there to make me sing YMCA. wow, I suck at singing. I used to be better, but blah. Ok. that was my day. I have a busy Saturday coming up. (@)~~ Ok, I'm willing to spend 2 months with someone before never seeing her again. But I didn't even consider how they would think. Cynthia told that her friends went on an exchange and started dating. When they came back, they cried everynight. Damn. I don't want that. Not that I'm going to cry everynight. I don't want the girl to feel that. I'm been thru this before. No regrets here. In this situation, it's better to have tried and failed, than to have never tried at all. Man, I felt awful two days ago. Now, not so much. After putting things into perspective, I feel better. Empathy--good word. Why can't I find girls like this where I live? My friend Kris believe that God is just. When something bad happens, something good will too. I want to believe this. I hope that Cyn, too, is going to be alright. I don't want her hurt. This is probably gibberish to all you guys.

A roller coaster ride ending badly
Went to MKT. Actually I woke up early at 9 and went downstairs to read the newspaper. Then went to MKT. Boring as usual. Met my FIN group for lunch. Worked an hr on my fin project before going to FIN class. It was hard staying awake there. AFterclass, I went to sleep before going to play my tennis match. I lost my doubles match and it completely pissed me off. I can't believe how bad I played. Damn double faults. Damn our lobbing strategy. I sulked all night. But afterwards, we (tennis ppls) went to this place on campus to sing Karoke. That was fun. It made me forget for a little while. Got back at 1:30 am at night. There's a lot of stuff I left out that I would rather not talk about. Not as depressed as I thought. Maybe a little. I should focus my energies on work. Blah. A day of highs and lows. I don't like these type of days. (@)~~ I want to sleep this thought away. I need to remember this thought so I will use a metaphor. Hopefully I can figure this out later. Fortune favors the bold. Fortune doesn't favor me today. This feeling sucks. It's like rolling dice. You've rolled 4 straight sevens. You think you have a good chance for sevens right? 1/6 ain't that bad. In fact, you're feeling good and think the odds are probably 50/50. The roll the dice and the end up being hard eights. Sucks but there's the next roll. But your confidence isn't there anymore. You don't have that same feeling of feeling lucky. But the compulsive gamble trys again. For he must. Until he's completely broke.

Monday one day
I think this was the first time I actually slept later than my roomie. Anyways, got up in the mornning and had a decent Cantonese lesson. Ate lunch with Linda and a Korean Profesor. That was interesting. I feel extremely intimidated by Korean adults. I don't know why. I went to Da Wai to get my visa done for my trip to China in a couple of weeks. On the way back I went to Sha Tin and picked up a gift for lucy who was so kind to let me borrow the entire series of Meteor Garden. Talked to my MGT prof, not as fun as I accepted but still good. Talked Cynthia right before MGT class. Joe...talk to her about her valentine date :) Bond, a MGT group member taught me how to say "You love to watch porn everyday" Grabbed a club sandwich before practicing tennis. Met Cynthia again at the bus stop and me and bobby went to go see her sing Karoake. The girl before her was great, singing a sun yanzi song. Cynthia was good but was nervous... I hope she makes it to the next round. Came back, watched 24 and did hw. [0-0] Oh yeah, on the way back from the karoke singing competition, I saw this exchange student I met with his local cantonese girlfriend. They were sitting together no the bus seats and he had his arm over her shoulders. That image...ew I just keep imagining this subserviant nice Asian girl satsifying his every whim. Now I just grossed myself out. Seeing happy couples usually makes me feel all nice inside but this, I never want to see again. First impressions are hard to destroy, hard to change.

Another Sunday
Wow, 12 hours of sleep is good for the body. I got up and read the newspaper before eating lunch. Read, goofed around on the computer, watched some downloaded episodes of i know smallville. maybe 24, i forget.. Played some ball before going to work on my MKT project. Came back read, did nothing whatnot...going to sleep soon. Really boring day. [0-0] I have a joke. I have translated it from Chinese but it's still good. So a mom and dad have a 10 year old son but they want to still have sex once in a while without their son knowing. They come up with a phrase "doing laundry". One day the couple got into a really big fight with both sides not talking to one another. The dad wanted to make up so he told his son to tell mom that he had some laundry to do for her. The son told mom and she, still angry replied, NO. and the son messaged it back. After while the wife decided it was time. She wasn't angry anymore so she told the son that she was willing to do laundry now. The son immediately went to dad but dad said, I already did the laundry with my own hands. Ok... if you thought it was bad, it's really really funny in Mandarin. so blah to yall

Visiting Uncle
What a nice day. did nothing really. I was woken up by my mom at 9 am after finishing meteor garden at like 3 am. It was good to hear from my parents. I couldn't go back to sleep so I did my laundry. I watched the Mavs own the Rockets and watched an episode of star trek. Shot some hoops and then showered before meeting up with my uncle. It was good to hear from him and talk business. Bought some food, ate sushi for dinner, and had some starbucks afterwards. Nothing much today. I can't wait to buy this 1000 digital phone next weekend my cousin found for me. Tommorrow, hw. doh (@)~~ I need to visit more places

A good Friday
For the first time in a week I finally got a good nights sleep. Went to Cantonese class, good and then ate lunch with my friends. Bah, got back and tried to fucking calculate Free cash flow. I found some number but I'm almost certain it was wrong. O well, turned it in and then went to my Teaching-in-China Program trip meeting. I went to Chi's room for about an hour while waiting for more people to show up for tennis. It was fun having a bunch of peple watch and play tennis. I really like all my teammates at Shaw college. I always joke around with them. Ian is a great actor. Alan is quite a silent funny man. I really need to get a camera. My uncle contacted me so tomorrow I can meet him. Yeah, mo money. Bobby and I dominated the tennis match winning 6-0. Afterwards, a bunch of us went to go get a midnight snack at Fo Tan. It was pretty yummy and the atmosphere was very night like. Ian said that bobby was "kau-ing" this Japanese girl, meaning flirting, chasing, and hitting on her. Of course, bobby and the girl he was with didn't understand the Cantonese so it was a funny joke all night long. Meteor Garden will soon be finished. What a good, relaxing day. O yeah, 24 still wows me. (@)~~ Let's see what happens this weekend. Maybe I'll get that same feeling. Which is worse, regret or heartbreak? tough one huh?

A long week
I've been uber busy the past week cuz of my MGT project. However, I just read about Cindy's grandfather. I don't know what to say. Her grandfather's death made me realize how much I miss my family. I can't imagine what I would feel if something happened to my family. There is this striking image in my mind when I think of death. I remember when I was very young, 5 years old I think, when my mom's dad passed away. I had just come back from a trip to Taiwan and we went back again. At home, I don't remember my mom showing anything different on her face. However, at the funeral in Taiwan, I can still see my mom's face, covered in tears as they cremated the body. That's all I remember. Then when my friend Sam got killed too, in a freak car accident. Mortality...we are but mortal. It seems trivial to talk of other matters but I need to remember what happened this week. I can't remember the last time I posted something. I've beeen working my ass off on this 45 minute MGT presentation. I have to say that working with Cantonese people is something. It makes me realize how good and bright UT business students are. Mason, an exchange from UC San Diego, was also in my group but he, an economics major, didn't really know the first thing about group projects. It sounds like I'm bitching, which I kind of am. But it was been definitely a learning experience. (@)~~Now good news. My friend bobby's "date" with a Japanese girl is something I wish I was there to see. The whole episode was some good entertain and good shit. Kim cracks me up. Kris is a smart girl with intution like no other. Something about Peggy that makes me smile. I'm almost done w/ Meteor Garden I. It's weird playing tennis with 2 Korean professors. My sleep schedule is all fucked up. Is it worth 2 months to have my heart broken? Mortality is too short.

O dear
Holy crap, this is bad. Why did I get "Meteor Garden" from a friend??? Wow, addicting. wow sometimes its so good, sometimes so bad. But can't argue with the addiction. Bah, I spent the rest of Sunday working on Finance. I hate it. Could I hate it anymore? It's almost as bad as accounting. So my bad was spent between finance and meteor garden. I also spent some time doing laundry. Then I also I have do MGT project but my internet is damn slow. I guess I'll have to do it in the morning. (@)~~ I hope all yall had a good valentines day. The week begins again. doh. Lots of stuff this week. Time is of the essence. and I really have to find a way off Meteor Garden. It's worse than crack.

A day out
Today, I woke up early (8am) to discuss my MGT project. We figured out a nice way to presentation. Then I took a nap and ate some lunch. At 2 I went with steph to go watch a movie. Rina, me, mike, steph, and bobby went to go watch "Love for all seasons." Afterwards we ate at a Taiwanese resturant and then afterwards, we went to Wellcome (a supermarket) to grab some sushi. We wanted to go karoke but it was way way too expensive. So we went to place by some river and just talked and drank a bit. I am a weak man when it comes to drinking. Its quite sad. It was a fun day.

Valentines Day
Happy Valentines day. Let's see, what did I do yesterday. I played some tennis, met Kris, a tennis player. Helped her with editing a paper. Today, went to class watched Meteor Garden. It's actually not bad. Better than the first second one. Played me some more tennis today and ate some Thai food with Bobby, Kim, and Raita. I did some work today...working on my MGT project. I couldn't even tell today was valentines day. O well, at least I had a good day and I hope everyone else did, does too.

Civ 3
Class as usual. Ate lunch, met Jeremy, a 35 year old MBA student. It was cool meeting him. I never get to meet this many people back at UT...even though the population size is at least 15 times that of CUHK. I'll change that when I get back. Business and Politics was interesting...talked about water politics. The old man is a fun guy to listen to. Hung out at Cynthia's room before going to Mandarin table. I met Gunnther (asian guy) at the table and he talked about all this stragety about Civ 3. The man can beat it on Emperor mode so wow. yeah, I didn't really eat enough but I guess its for the better. I learned that Koreans, on every 14th day of every month of the year, they celebrate "valentines day"--like different versions. It's odd, truly weird. Came back, balled a bit. Pulled off a wrap the ball around the back shot. Came back. I need to go to sleep. (@)~~ Park Yi Joon is Sau. Sadly enough I didn't learn any new words today. O yeah, last night, when I was trying to sleep, my roomie started playing Japanese music. Not really Japanese music but Japanese people trying to sing in English. It was so awful, Like I understood sometimes what they were saying and then the rest of gibberish. I didn't sleep well at all.

Long time no see
I can see why people write in their live journals less and less. People get tired and tests arrive, etc. Plus it's a bit of a hassle. Let's see, Monday I had class. had another class and then went to go play tennis. I was really tired yesterday from (gasp) too much sleep I think. I studied a bit at night and then the next morning I took my MKT test. Not bad. I should get an A. I ate lunch at the Staff canteen with Bobby's MKT group. Went to Finance and learned me some finance i guess. After writing this, there's less and less things to say. I went to English table and that was good as usual. I am indeed a creature of habit. o yeah, I missed the last episode of MG II so I'm a bit disappointed. Disappointed that I don't know what happened and disappointed that I know longer have an excuse to watch Cantonese TV any more. At least someone will hook me up with MG I =) thanks to some girl in Bobby's group. I met Cindy at the English Table and afterwards, I went to her dorm. It's not fair that their room is so much bigger than mine. The only consolation I have is that my room's view is far better. It was really fun hanging out with and her roomie, ivy. I hope to visit them again. Came back. That was my two days. (@)~~ Learning Cantonese is fucking hard. I keep forgetting phrases and bah.

MKT studying
Bah, spent most of the day studying MKT. Took an hour nap. O, I did find out that BoA sings English and Chinese songs but they aren't as good. I watched 3 episodes of Alias today but I shouldn't tommorrow cuz of studying. At night I played basketball with benny and "huang bing". Probably the highlight of the day. I also talked to some ppl back home. Boring day it was. I also watched mtv for a while. Love me some mtv and channel V (@)~~ I really need to find me a BoA poster.

Mong Kok again?
Man, I woke up way too early on a Saturday morning...fricking 10 am. My roomie was dead asleep so I went downstairs to watch the nba allstar game but I soon figured out the game is on Monday morning here. So I took over the tv and watched MTV for 3 hours =) MTV most had Japense music, especially Ayumi Hamasaki. I got to read 2 newspapers in the my very relaxing morning. I played pingpong with benny who wasn't bad. Then I went to Mong Kok again to meet up with my cousin to search for a digital camera. Theres this tiny ass sony u20 cybershot thats 2300 HK dollars. I really want that one but I have to figure out a way to ask more money from my parents =P I just looked it up on ebay and its actually really expensive to buy it here. I saw an arcade and went in and saw this awesome mahjong game. I didn't play but it looked fun. I had a deep fried oysters for dinner with a mango drink. Then I went to Shatin where this nice girl took me to where I needed to take pictures. I have to say, Cantonese girls are really nice. Yesterday, also at Mongkok, Linda asked where the posters were and theses 2 middle school girls actually lead us there. It's strange how people do that but god bless them. I took my pictures and then got a call from Kim to play tennis so I went back to school. I shoot around in the basketball court before Kim, Bobby, and Trevor. We couldn't play tennis but badminton was avaiable. Wow, Trevor was really good at badminton. Damn, I didn't know how tiring hitting that damn shuttlecock could be. Came back and finished watching the first episode of Alias. O yeah, On my way back from Shatin to school, I saw this beautiful Cantonese girl on the KCR train. Right now, I'm tired as hell. I'm researching digital cameras now and I think I'm going to buy just a 1 megapixel camera cuz I don't really want huge photos. (@)~~ I just watched this new BoA video called Jewel song. Damn, that's one beautiful Korean. And yeah, Ayumi looks like a Japanese Madonna. really. I don't want to sleep cuz I have to study tommorrow :( [0-0] Today, I had to explain what "o yeah, boy scouts could've camped under there" meant (from an episode of Friends). Funny stuff. Hard to explain though.

A good friday
Cantonese class was a surprise as the teacher brought food for all of our birthdays. In old Cantonese tradition, the 7th day of the new year is a birthday for everyone. Class was good and then afterwards, Linda, me, Trevor and Mike went off to Mongkok. Linda had to go buy a lan card and I wanted posters. We ate some good Korean bbq and I only bought two posters..One of Sun yanzi and one of Twins (Cantonese girl band). The afternoon in Mongkok was fun. I love conversing with Linda and Mike. There just so funny. Came back and was gonna play tennis but it rained =( so I just watched a movie and ate leftovers. I watched MGII and then met Kelvin. He lives on my floor and is from China. Bought to sleep now. (@)~~ For the first time, it felt like I knew my hallmates. Of course it helped that they could speak mandarin instead of Cantonese. I really like my sun yan zi poster in my room. I can't wait to listen to the new cd I bought. Nothing else today. It was a good day. relaxing. No worries until Sunday. MKT looms

What nap will do
Yeah, I love 2 hours naps. Every Thursday I try for just an hour but it always doubles it. This morning I felt like crap. 2 specific things went wrong but then I felt better like hitting a single off a 0-2 pitch. My nap made me awake for Fin. It was alright and then ate a quick dinner with Bobby Linda and Kim before heading off the tennis. I feel like me game is improving each time I play. Came back watched some MG II in mandarin before showering. I have containers for posters!!! meaning that this time Joe, your Edison poster won't be all scrunched up. I haven't written down everything that happened today. Today was blah. I watched the downloaded Alias. Good but not great. It was hard to compete with last episode though. I'm listening to Cantonese radio online. I don't really pay attention to it but once in a while I'll understand a line and I'll be like, yeah. But usually, it just goes blur. (@)~~ The girls I love the most aren't the prettiest ones in everyone's eyes. The have to make me smile. I think that's it, simple. And when they make me smile, they are the most beautiful. Just a thought that's been running through my mind.

School starts again
Man, I was so tired that I didn't have the energy to post something last night. Wednesday flew by. Woke up, watched an old (early 90s) Cantonese love movie and then went to tennis. I almost missed out on tennis cuz my coach came more than 30 minutes late. But afterwarsd, I was pooped. Thursday--school again...doh MGT in the morning, MKT in the morning. I'm sleepy now. I have a MKT test next Tuesday!!!! holy shit. 30 questions multiple choice over 6 chapters>???? that sucks. Just ate lunch with Raita, Cherry, Bobby and Mason. Bought some stuff and came back. I'm going to nap soon and then watch downloaded Alias!!!

A day in me hostel
Before I slept last night, I watched a tv concert of Jacky Cheung. man that guy loves to smile. I don't remember when I woke up this morning but I had to wait a while to go to brush my teeth cuz the cleaning ladies were doing their jobs. I even went down to the 5th floor but alas, there was a person cleaning. doh. I did my laundry and while it was tossing and turning my clothes, I watched this Cantonese movie my cousin gave me (he let me borrow a stack of cds and vcds). "Help!" was pretty good. It poked fun at a corrupt hospital and I think at "ER" too. I had baked rice with beef for lunch and later ate the rest for dinner. Then I went for a walk. The weather was bloody good today, great bright sunny spring weather. I put in a random cd my cousin gave me and I plan on doing this for while. Cd for tommorrow is an old Sammi cd. I came back and worked on Finance. What a terrible hw. I have to say that excel is my good good friend. I had the opportunity to chat online today with a bunch of people so that was fun and entertaining. It's great to hear of news from friends. During the afternoon I also listened to the radio from my computer, a cantonese station. Ate dinner and watched smallville. I'm still waiting for the newest Alias episode :( It's not the same watching smallville alone. Even Kristin Kruek isn't that attractive anymore...maybe it was just this episode. maybe it's from the endless marketing of famous beautiful asian people. I have Meteor Garden I, but it won't work on my computer!!!! argh I also downloaded some asian music videos and cantonese songs. Remember that basketball hoop you gave me Joe? I found a prefect place for it and now I need to find some more tape. I can't believe I spent a whole day pretty much alone and I didn't play any computer games. I don't even miss it. I'm going to watch my meteor garden II and go to sleep before midnight today. (@)~~Ever wonder how a guy can end up with a girl so much more attractive? My friend Benny, (the guy who hooked me up with the MG I), has a pretty cute girlfriend. Benny. just the name, sounds honest and naive. You have to wonder how he ended up with this girl. Sometimes it boggles the mind. Sometimes, I'm just happy to see it. In HK, girls outnumber guys but in China, its the opposite. Both Benny and his gf are from China so Benny is like a super pimp or something =) One more free day before school starts again for moi. [0-0] I read somewhere in Taiwan and Asia, where music piracy is so prevalent, that the only way singers make money is through endorsements. It's sad and yes, I know I am a hypicrite. What is to happen to the future of the music industry? If I can figure it out, I'd be rich.

Lunar New Years In HK
So it's the year of the sheep, lamb, goat, whatever you like. Thursday night, I got some dinner with Linda before heading off to my aunt's for another meal of Nihn Gau--It's a traditional chi xan province food. I watched some tv before sleeping. Friday (New Years Eve) was uneventful in the morning & afternoon. The dinner and lunch I had for the last two meals would be eaten for the next 3 days :( I played Sim 4 on my cousin's computer in the afternoon. Damn, what a hard game. Before I quit, I owed the bank at least a million dollars. It's so hard to make money on the game. At night, my aunt took me to the Kwai Fong flower market. It's a tradition for people in HK to buy flowers right before New Years Day. (I guess the word flower sounds a lot like prosperity in Chinese, Fa) The government takes over a large field of land like a soccer field and people set up shop there. There are tons of beautiful flowers at very cheap prices. My aunt got 6 stems, 3 yellow and 3 red. Saturday (New Years) was fun. The there of us went to visit my grandmother's "ex-husband". When my grandmother was trying to escape to Taiwan, she fled into HK first as this old man's wife. Then when she was in HK, she was able to flee to Taiwan and find my grandfather. When we got to the home, the first thing that popped up into my head was that this Apt complex reminded of those homes in the "young and dangerous" I didn't get to meet the old man but I met the man's wife, children and grandchildren. One of the granddaughters, Amy, also goes to CUHK as nursing major. Lunch was yummy, traditional food. I had a beer that had .5% alchol level and tasted more like apple juice than beer. In the afternoon, one of the aunts took the children to go to Lantau Peak, Yuen Long, Mongkok, and Temple St. Lantau peak is a place where you can see new airport and sea--quite pretty. Yuen Long peak shows a lovely view of the ShenZhen/HK border. There's a designated protected area for the wetlands. There's a special bird that lives in that region, more than anyother place in the world. But I didn't get to see any. We then went to Mong Kok for some snacks before heading off to Temple St. Temple St is just a tourist attraction kind of like a Taiwan Night Mkt but not as cool. Note to self..I need to start buying cool gifts for everyone. Came back to the apt and ate good food before going to the Winter Festival at the old airport. Because of the new HK airpot, the old one is abandoned so the gov't let the Carnival come. I went on my first ferris wheel ride but I didn't win any prizes. Still, a great Lunar New Years. Chu Yi (second day of the Lunar near year), I woke up with my aunt gone to the airport. My cousin made me some ramen for breakfast. We watched "Friends", a Korean movie about 4 guys and their lives in Korea. Pretty good movie. Then I played Medal of Honor, not as good as CS but still fun. I especially like the storming of Normandy on D-day. At night, my cousin, Mou, Mou and I went off to Tsim Sha Tsui for fireworks. Wow. Beautiful. Magnificent. Breathtaking. I love that feeling of "boom" felt against my clothes after a large firework goes off. I really thought it was cool to see fireworks explode into red "8s". Prosperity and lots of it. I watched a Korean movie, "Be my valentine" with the same girl from "my sassy girl" I don't know what the hell was going on. I still don't. I need to watch it from the begining next time. chu saam (3rd day), I ate and got to my Cantonese Mahjong!!! on a computer program though. Still, if you want to learn how to play mahjong, the computer game is the way to go. I can't wait to actually play Canto style mahjong on a real table with real tiles. That pretty much took up my afternoon other than the shopping for food. I came back to my dorm tonight. (@)~~ My aunt only finished primary school. I really feel bad for her, not only because of the money. She's not poor but certainly far from rich. I think the thing I feel bad for her the most is that her husband is always gone (works on a boat). Sometimes I can see it in her eyes, the sadness. I really can't stand living with them. The apt is way too small. There's nothing to do all day. No internet. Showering is like bathing in the 19 century. She boils hot water and puts it into a bucket. Why am I bitching? I should be happy. But I am truly grateful for everything she's done. Mou Mou's a good guy and I hope I can help him out someday in the future. In the Korean movie, the girl says that you can't hide three things, coughing, povery, and love. You can hide love, not easily but it can be done. But coughing and poverty, impossible. Back to my aunt's education. When I talk to her I can tell that she hasn't had the education. She's a good person but sometimes talking to her is like talking to a child. I guess I'm just grateful for my home and my family situation. I think her financial situation is worsened by her aura. If she was a happy content person, the lack of money wouldn't matter. Tsk to me. Poor people and rich people differ in one manner...time. Poor people have too much and rich people don't have enough. Sounds like being poor is better. Who am I to judge. This experience has been most educational. [0-0] I hope all you guys had a great Lunar New Years. Class starts in 2 days for me. I got a lot of work to do before then.

Mandarin Table
Learned me some mo Cantonese today. I ate lunch with Calder and Mike. I didn't Calder could speak that fluently in Japanese. I ate fried chicken wings, plural meaning 2, and I have to say that I was disappointed. Afterwards we went to play some ping pong. Both Mike and Calder aren't the best to play with but I had a good time, especially just watching them two duking it out. I went to my once a week Business and Politics class. It felt way too long but the Prof is cool and I find whatever he says very interesting. I think this course should be required at UT for business students because politics or gov't and business is very interrelated. I went back to my room after classa, chilled for a while and then went off the Mandarin Table. I sat in a table with a teacher who really dominated the table conversation. It felt like she was lecturing everyone. I really didn't like her method but it seemed to work. I prefer just talking about different subjects. I met Chi, who plays tennis, and he's a good guy. I talked to him the most during the dinner. I really like Mandarin and English table--good people to talk to and a free meal...can't really beat that (unless it's a table full of beautiful cantonese girls). I also learned that girls outnumber guys by alot in CUHK and in HK in general. So to my Cantonese friends, odds are good for yall. I came back and played some ball. Man, I was on today but I had to be because I was guarding a guy who has at least 4 inches taller than me and had great post up moves. I hit alot of open jumpers and (I love this part) I got him to respect my jumper enough to drive into the basketb for an easy point. Came back, packed for my weekend with my relatives and watche some MG II. I don't know when my next post will be because my relatives don't have internet access. So today I leave you with a poem. Not a really good one but I wrote in MKT a couple days ago and kind of put the finishing touches on it yesterday. (@)~~Seated across the dimly lit classroom/ My happiest feeling in a long day/ A tiny speck of hope in what is doom/ Doomed to wasting my precious life away/ Unnoticed, reality wanders by/ Diverting attention from the speaker/ Mostly as a muse, probably a lie/ The golden snitch for a frozen seeker/ The orator is finished, the crowd freed/ A chance daring for that limitless joy/ Risking all for today's defying deed/ Scrutinizing much, though not at all coy/ For this simple approach, forget the dream/ Bite into the idea like sweet ice cream/

Enligh Table
MKT, same old boring stuff. A group did a presentation today on a Yahoo case. God damn they were boring. It was weird how they were all completely dressed up. I had lunch with my MKT group members. I had this rice bowl for lunch and it was pretty damn good. I bought instant congee bowls for breakfast tommorrow. I also had this "bigfoot" ice cream, yummy. Took a quick ass nap and then went to FIN. Hard but at least somewhat interesting. Kim came over and suggested some Korean music. Park Yi Joon is very popular here and she's "sau" (hot). I went to the English Table but before, I watched this old man play pingpong with a middle aged guy. It was great seeing that old man smile genuinely each time a good point occurred. Dinner was good and I met some pretty cool Locals. We talked about Cantonese girls and they told me some terms related to it. I really like English Table and I plan to go to it every week. Came back and watched Smallville where Clark leaps a building. Studied a bit today. (@)~~ I am more and more amazed at the power of the Korean Pop machine. Those old men controlling the media in Korea sure know what the fuck they are doing. Kudos to them and congrats. Nothing more here today. I'm a bit sleepy. Plus I'm trying to watch Park Yi Joon's video, Adult Ceremony and I can't concentrate. [0-0] Speaking on Concentrating, I'm glad I can concnetrate well. My poor friend loses focus everytime he's around a girl. Yet I still envy him for he hasn't been in love yet. Someday for him, maybe he won't be as annoying anymore =p

New place
Cantonese class good, only 6 people in class today because some of my lucky classmates went off to travel. I ate lunch with mike and linda. Ah how I love a good breakfast, lunch of dinner conversation. Although I had to play translator, the conversation was good. I got some $ and studied awhile before meeting up with Linda again to do stupid finance hw. After finishing that up, she showed me the Independent Learning Center. It had a ton of tvs and vcds and all sorts of fun stuff. I saw some Cantonese people watching Friends. I plan to visit that place someday. I went to MGT and got a new member to my project group, another exchange student. Then I grabbed a club sandwich and went straight to tennis. I played 3 hours and got back to watch some tv. My parents called today and I talked to them for a little while. Not a bad day at all. I'm very tired though. 3 hours of tennis will do that to you. (@)~~ Any tennis fan will know that Steffi Graf might play in the French open. I remember Agassi saying that he always loses to her because he can't keep his eye on the ball. I say this because girls playing tennis is never a bad view, especially with good female tennis players. [0-0] Ever met a guy who talked, a good guy, but just babbled on about the boringest of all topics. And then to matters worse, he says just a bit too much. Some people just never learn. I don't like to end on a bad note but I missed the Super Bowl. For some reason I always miss the Super Bowl from extenuating circumstances. Something good, I get school off from 1/30-2/5 for Lunar New Years. =)

Shen Zhen II
So the "God of Cookery" is playing right now on tv but there are no subtitles and it's in Cantonese. I think I'll leave it on and watch it. I've noticed that many students here are great cooks, especially the women. Every night, I see girls, who don't live on my floor, cook for, I think for guys (lucky bastards). I got up early to go to Shen Zhen to leave HK and return so that my student visa could get stamped. I met up w/ Trevor, Stephanie, Rina, and Bobby. When we get to the border, we have to pay $100 to enter Shen Zhen. We can't just leave and come back. We have to depart, enter Shen Zhen and then come back. With the $100 down the toilet (sunk cost for you Accounting Majors), we still decided to look at the sunk cost and shop in Shen Zhen. We ate some good dim sum and shopped around. Bobby and I got foot massages and I got the added bonus of a manicure. that's right, a manicure. My nails have never looked better. On the train ride back, this old man and fat woman were arguing loud as hell on the train. It was odd but too bad I didn't understand a frickin' word. I got back and slept, ate and did some hw. I also downloaded Trillian so that I can simaltaneously (sp) use both ICQ and Aol. I don't like it but it's probably necessary. Damn, I had some good things to say when I was showering but now I forgot. Oh, I also did laundry. I want to write more because I'm not tired like the two previous days. And god damn the MKT book is so boring. It's the worse thing I have to read. At least FIN is hard and useful but MKT is like reguratation mostly. (@)~~Evlis Costello, She. good song. Funny tidbit. Mula Mula in Korean is like "I don't know"--said playfully, usually by girls to their boyfriends. BUT mula mula in Japanese is horny. haha that's one word I won't forget. I love Japanese and Koreans =) my new ICQ number is 237766883 so if any of you have it, please icq me so I can start using it.

Trip Day
Got up early to go to the trip. We first went to this place with an awesome temple. It was a good experience remiding me of ancestral pasts. I met some new people whic is always fun. We went the the border of Shenzhen, the natural water border and tried to look across into Shenzhen. Lunch was pretty good at "Happy Seafood Restaurant". Then we went to the Gold coast which was way too short. Overall the trip was kinda of a disappointment but then 5 of us went to Sha Tin. We went there so Linda and Rina could get boat tickets to go to Macau with their boyfriends and also so we could go watch "Hero." We ended up buying tickets to go see "my lucky star," a new movie which was a funny ass comedy. We ate at some Japanese restaurant. Lunch then Bobby wanted to get some Starbucks Frappachino. I hope I can get this movie and show it to everyone. I missed at least half the jokes because it was in Cantonese. Overall it was a good day. I got to learn more about Raita and Rina, good people. Now I'm back at home watching Young and Dangerous II. I think I've seen it before but I know this one is good. Oh yeah, I bought two Korean moviews recommended to me by Rina and Linda. I also can't wait to watch this movie that's supposed to be the Korean American Pie. O do I love movies. (@)~~ Again nothing else to say.

Young and Dangerous
Good ole Cantonese class, 4 people left after 1st period to go to Thailand, Singapore, and Cambodia. Those lucky people left and will miss alot of class and have lots of fun during Lunar New Years. I ate at Maxim's today (chinese fast food) and then played some pingpong with Bobby before napping. I ate a quick dinner and then I played doubles with Kim, Bobby, and Raita. It's fun as hell playing with friends. Came back and I'm watching Young and the Dangerous, one of the ones I haven't seen before. Tommorrow, its the trip so I need to get up early. I also saw an episode of Meteor Garden II in Mandarin and I actually bloody understood it. (@)~~ I'm too tired to write anything good.

Tiring day
4 hours of classes in the morning takes so much energy out of me. MGT was ok because it was mostly a discussion over a case. MKT = me sleepy. I had lunch with Cherry, Bobby, and Raitu. I got invited to a Japanese birthday party for Cherry on Sunday =) I had one of the worst fried rice ever today. Paid another bill at the International office today. damn I went back to my room and slept for 2 hours and I'm still tired right now. Finance went right by and then I went to go play tennis for 3 1/2 hours which has completely drained me. At least my serve is coming back to me now. That was pretty much my day. (@)~~ I'm listening to randomly downloaded Cantonese music. I don't understand a word except the English. Today went by really fast and I don't have anything profound to say today. Nothing beats a good sleep and I definitely need one tonight

Mixed Blessing
Cantonese class good as usual and then for lunch I met up with my MKT group. It was a fun lunch/discussion about what our group project was going to be for the semester. I like my group but I still feel lost when the other group members chat away in Cantonese and I'm like "huh?". I went to Business and Politics and it was awesome. Some people in my class are going to Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia for Lunar New Year so the teacher talked about food and stories about those places for 2 hours. Then we had an interesting hour of real class. I got my visa today finally but I have to exit HK and then return with it. I hit some pingpong with some random local guy for 20 minutes and then played some basketball. I was supposed to go to the Mandarin today but I played bball too long so they ran out of seats and I left. I ate dinner with Linda and learned new things about Korean culture. They are quite conservative and the men all want to believe that they girl they marry is the girl's first love (It was weird when Linda tried to explain it to me and it took stick figures on paper for me to finally understand). Came back but didn't do any work again but I watched some Meteor Garden II. Maybe I'll understand it soon but not today, I was totally lost. I love the smell of my hall, always of cooking, makes me too hungry. (@)~~Lyrics from Chinese songs--Even when I breathe, I'm happy. bah, that sounds stupid. I did buy some snacks--oranges, crispy fruit slices, and also crackers with chocolate between them.

A Manipulator's victim
Nothing really happened today until the afternoon. I went to class for MKT and then ate some lunch. O, I did spend 90 minutes on 2 FIN hw problems which was bundles of fun. Then finance came. My friend really got fucked over today. The story begins like this. I go to class and sit down and soon thereafter, Linda and Kim sit down behind me. Moments later, a guy and girl comes in and talks to the person in front of me. Linda immediately tells me to come over and I listen to her tell me about how that they (kim and Linda) just saw the couple fight before coming to class. Just then, the girl gets angry and storms off with the guy chasing her. My friend Bobby comes in after all this and sits behind me as usual. Later on, the same girl who stormed off, comes back to class and sits right next to Bobby. I look back and see them and look for the boyfriend who's missing. Bobby and the girl are getting kind of friendly but not too friendly and class goes on. I'm bored out of my mind so I turn to look back and then I see the boyfriend, angry and jealous, staring at Bobby and the girl all the way at the back of the classroom. I wanted to say something to Bobby who was completely ignorant of the situation. Bobby and the girl keep exchanging pleasantries for the entire class. Then after class ends, me linda and kim tell Bobby about what happened. That girl probably used Bobby to get back at the jealous boyfriend. So that was quite entertaining =) Then I played some pingpong with bobby. At 6 we went to go to a free dinner. All we had to do was go there and talk to the local students at our dinner table in English and get a free meal out of it. I met Archie and Annie, two local students, one to my left and one to my right. It was a good meal and we talked about mahjong, Infernal affairs, and stuff. After the dinner, I saw kim do his infamous hiphop dance which was funny as hell. I got back and I plan to watch some tv and then hopefully start studying. (@)~~Rough draft of something I wrote during the boring ass MKT class. Seated just across the room/ My brightest part of the day/ A speck of hope in doom/ Wasting my life away. Unnoticed my thoughts go by/ Diverting attention from the speaker/ Mostly just a muse, probably just a lie/ Like a frozen Golden snitch for a frozen seeker. The orator is finished, the crowd freed/ A chance for limitless joy/ Risking tommorrow for today's deed/ Analyzing, thinking too much though not coy. For this simple approach, forget the dream/ Live for now as the theme. Obviously I was quite bored and uninterested in class. [0-0] I hear there's alot of mahjong action going on at Shaw College. Maybe I'll play soon

Sheraton Hotel
On my way to the Sheraton Hotel, I met Ben, one of the IAS students (not an exchange guy but a local who's interested in exchange..kind of a helper). He was on his way home and we traveled together until Mong Kok. When I got to the Sheraton I was early so I left to get some food and I ended up getting some Indian snack--Spicy and good. I went back to wait and then they arrived. The room was very nice. It had a big ass tv (damn right) and it had a bad ass sink. My aunt and cousin and I went to go to "Tong Tsau" and ate some dim sum like food but not. It was delicious and dessert was this the sweet white tofu with fruit with dried ice underneath the bowl to make it look cool. My aunt shopped a little that night and we ended up back the hotel early and watched "Courage Under Fire." The Sunday morning my cousin and I went to the HK Space Museum, toured for an hour and watched a 40 minute Imax about space. I also got to quickly visit the Harbor View before that but I hear that at night, it's magnificent. Breakfast was a bowl of noodles with dumplings. Lunch was some good shit. We had bbq pork, roasted duck, and a lot of other stuff. During the afternoon my aunt shopped some more. She spent at least $3000 US on clothes and bags. It was crazy. At night we went back to the same resturant we had for lunch and ate shrimp and roasted goose and some other food. I also got "young and dangerous" movies I and II I think. Got to bed early and woke up monday morning. We went to the same place yesterday for breakfast and I had the exact same thing. I did go to the bank and deposited my 1000+ money. yeah, not poor anymore. I went straight to class. My aunt and cousin came with me and visited the campus before leaving. Cantonese class was good as usual. Lunch was with my buddies from cantonese class. Got back to my room and slept a bit before MGT. I finally got the finalized groups for that class. Right before class, I paid my dorm fee for the semester (HK 4109) and bought 2 oranges, pockiy and Honey Stars cereal (I haven't tried it yet but it looks yummy). I went to play tennis from 6-10 and I'm so damn tired. Watched Meteor Garden II and hopefully I'll read some MKT tonight. I think I have some finance hw but I haven't done it yet =(. I dont' know when it's due but I need to do it or else I'll never understand. I'm hoping to go to Macao for Chinese New Years with my uncle and gamble the week away. [0-0] If anyone knows Joy Lu, there's a girl on the tennis team that looks exactly like her mom. I swear, uncanny. I can't believe I missed the AFC and NFC championship games. (@)~~ I want to write a book. I'm a terrible writer but when I was awake on the floor of the Sheraton hotel, I thought about a story--about me but fictional of course. Not that I want me to be uber rich, I just think my life isn't that breathtaking for people to read. My grandfather wrote his memoirs and I hope someday I'll be able to read it in Chinese. I'm definitely going to do that when I'm his age.

Doubles
Well today I finally learned the numbers in Cantonese. Yat, yh, saam, sei, ngh, luhk, chat, baat, gao, sahp. =) I actually used sahp today when I ordered lunch. I had some chicken fried rice and ate half of it so I would have some food for tommorrow. I think I have less than $10 US on me. Soon my money supply will be replenished. I watched downloaded 24, smallville, and Alias today. They were all good but Alias had the best ending. (right Joe?) I took a nap and shot some ball after I woke up. Then I ate my leftover spicy ass noodles before going to play Doubles. We ended up with six people playing: me, Bobby, Kim, Raitu, Linda, and Nick. It was funny when Linda didn't have tennis shoes so the counter guy there lent him his shoes for her. Doubles Tennis was fun. It didn't cost too much and it was good exercise. I liked tonight alot. Good friends hanging out on the tennis court. After getting to know these guys better, my view about them has changed (for the good). I really shouldn't be so quick to judge someone. Came back and watched some tv and I'm gonna shower soon. [0-0] It's great to see how much a man will change his behavior when a pretty girl is around. For some, it is so extreme that you just want to laugh or maybe cry. For others, there behavior is the same (I think I'm leaning toward the latter end). Personally I like it when guys change because it's usually towards the nicer more civilized behavior. (@)~~ Isn't it sad when people tell a bad joke? Or they kid around and you're like "huh?". I not talking about people trying to tell a bad joke on purpose. I'm talking about people actually trying and failing. I say everyone should watch some BET comic view =) You'll learn from some of the best. [0!0] I found it funny that pham and flo both told me about their social dance class. But Flo, you forgot to mention about that lopsided ratio of guys to girls (4 to 1 I think?) =P And Pam, so many girls, so much opportunity. You gotta impressive them man. And Flo, watch out for my boy and make sure he ain't making a fool out of himself.

http://donfattony.pitas.com
The day began too early for Thursday. 8:30 to 12:15, 4 hours of straight classes. MGT was good today because we got into our groups and I'm with three girls =) I really like the Prof and the class got a lot better as time progressed. I guess none of us were awake. It was fun explaning what a hayloader was and what "lean" is (all vocabulary in our case). MKT was boring as usual. Afterwards was fun though. I ate lunch with Bobby's MKT group and that was a good lunch. Bobby joked about that Raitu (this Japanese guy) was horny. Raitu laughed and while we were talking about something else, that fool busted out a electronic dictionary. He was like, "Horn?" I told him that it was with a "y" and then we got sexual excited as the definition. The conversation then transcended into porn and AV (adult video) and how to say it in Cantonese. I forgot but I bet some of you guys (ahem, Deran or Julie?) would know hehe. I watched an episode of downloaded friends and slept before finance. Finance is a hard ass class and afterwards, I had dinner with Kim (Korean guy) and Linda. It was fun and I learned that South Koreans have to join the military for 2 years. Then I played some tennis and got back in time to watch Meteor Garden II. I shouldn't have taken that nap cuz now I'm not tired but I have to get up at 8 to go to a meeting. I have about HK $110 left on me to last me for 2 days. Hopefully I'll make it. I really like talking in conversation especially if food is involved. I got that definitely from my dad. (@)~~I can't believe I can't think of anything to comment on today. It's bugging me. I'm sitting here for 10 minutes with nothing. I guess I'm getting more used to the school. I understand the buses (finally) and oh yeah, I know what I'm going to write about. It's getting warmer here and when spring comes, we all know about the love in the air. So this is for my friends: ~As the last grasping leaves fall off and new ones are born, so to does man's affection return after winter. Go forth, focus, never waver. When the eyes diverge, the target, lost, and you will be left with nothing from both. Persistance and patience are your ally; igorance and indifference, your foe. Only the heart can choose in matters of such great importance. The heart never lies so trust it as you would trust the sun rising each day. [0-0] How would you feel if someone said there was a girl on campus who looked like you? (not me) I also hope to start doing stuff with my roomie. That man is a busy mofo. and one last thing, Damn Webber. We'll see what happens during playoff time.

Another day
I think classes are finally starting to stablize as Add/Dropping comes to an end this friday. Wednesday means Cantonese class and that was fun as usual. I'm starting to dread the 2 hour classes but I better get used to it or else I'm going to have a long semester ahead. I ate lunch with 2 friends from my Cantonese class, Trevor and Mike, at the Medical building canteen. The food there is pretty cheap and not too shabby. It was a sad moment today when I tried to pay the lunch lady $100 in Zen Ming Bi. I had to borrow money for lunch from Mike. Afterwards, I went to the bank and paid him back. My account in my HK bank is $144 HK and I probably have to withdraw another $100 before the end of the week. I can't wait until Saturday when I get some money from my aunt. Mike and I went to this free concert which had students playing traditional Chinese instruments. I don't know what they names are but if You've seen them, you know what I'm talking about. They weren't great but it was good seeing and hearing that type of music. Then I went to my once a week, 3 hour, Business & Politics class. It's interesting hearing the old Prof talk and tell stories. I find it so funny when he starts a story or thought with "I tell you". He told this story about how a young lady brought her baby into the library to read. Then the baby became hungry so she began breast feeding. Of course people around her felt uncomfortable and the Librarian approached her. Do you know what was his reason for her to stop the breast feeding? Not indecent exposure. He was smart enough to say that no food was allowed in the library. He brought up this point for business and I think cultural differences. I don't think this kind of thing would happen in the US but HK is different. He also told all these horror stories of Chinese people in China cheating visitors and each other. I think the worst one was about a police officer. After getting off the Beijing train station, a police officer offered to help the old prof move his luggage. After a while, the police officer disappeared with it. The prof went to the police station to see what could be done. He even gave the station the officer's name and they even recognized it. The officers there told him not to stay to ID him because it could cost him his life. Scary. I ate some spicy ass noodles and shot some ball afterwards. I read a little for tomorrow's lesson. I plan to sleep early for my 8:30 am class on Thursday. I'm watchin Meteor Garden right now and I think I'm actually learning Cantonese watching it. Of course most of the time I'm completely lost. The show is completely pointless and so exagerrated sometimes but it entertains my Cantonese will to learn. It's weird that the more I watch, the less I think those F4 guys suck. Damn soap operas. I want to d/l smallville and 24 but it's sooooo slow here. Also, I'm hungry but I don't have any money for food. I have to eat half my meals at night and then half the next day to save money. This is definitely the poorest I've ever been in my entire life. (@)~~I've noticed that I don't have that many friend who aren't Asian. I don't really like hanging out with the white guys here at campus. I think they love to drink too much. I guess the cultural differences are a bit much. I dunno really. I guess I really wanna discuss drinking. Why drink away your sorrows, only to have them return in a hangover? Why must we be a bit tipsy to have a good conversation? O yeah, being poor sucks. On a bit of a side note, a lot of the exchange students have a boyfriend or girlfriend at home. It must take a lot of effort to keep that relationship going. I truly believe that in such a long time apart, if you can survive it, it shows commitment. So to all you guys in this boat, I applaud your affection. [0-0] I hope not to be slapped to find that special sassy girl pham. Man, I wish I could watch the Mavs v Kings..Go Mavs.

Laundry Day
I have to say that my marketing class is quite boring. It being an hour and 45 minutes straight doesn't help either. The only fascinating thing worth going to class for is learning about HK marketing. Everything else she says seems so damn easy. After saying that, now I'm probably going to bomb the tests. It's hard for me to concentrate reading a book with all ideas and theories that seem to be so easy. For lunch, I ate some weird ass ox noodle soup or something--It wasn't awful. I bought my laundry card for $130 dollars leaving me with exactly $1 HK dollar for dinner. Good thing I had leftovers or else, I would be starving. Finance seems to be more interesting than I thought. My teacher seems to be excited about the lesson and even made the boring Acc (looking at BS--balance sheets, IS income statements, Retained earnings, and cashflows) finance seem worthwhile to learn. But two hours is a long ass time for class. I shot some ball alone after class but I seem to have lost my shot. Right now I see people playing outside at 9:30 pm so maybe I'll wait to play later in the night from now one. I ate my leftover fried rice from last night and started doing laundry. It's weird how they make us buy a damn laundry card but at least it's a bit cheaper than the US. Also, the card is for air conditioning but I haven't figured out how to work that shit out yet. Nothing exciting today really. O, I did watch a "Twins" vcd--they are 2 girls who sing but aren't twins, and I couldn't stop smiling. I didn't understand what the hell they were singing about but the early 20 year olds were just so jumpy and happy during the video. If I hadn't known that they were 20 something, they could've passed off as little freshmen in high school. I had some popcorn, the chinese kind that's sweet with a bit a caramel I think. I need to buy a case of that shit before I return to home to the US. Laundry took frickin' forver because I didn't know about how the dryer worked. If it opened cuz my shoe kicked the thing open, the time limit would still run. So I ended up spending about $2 US drying my clothes. Then the gay elevator stopped so I had to walk up 6 flights of stairs with my clothes back to my room. There aren't laundry rooms on every floor, just on the ground floor. The ground floor here in HK is called 0, and the second floor is called 1. Odd. (@)~~Why is that some people cannot be alone? I don't necessarily mean in a relationship sense. I love my time alone to read or listen to music. Some must always go out with someone to have a fun time. Also, there is nothing wrong with watching a movie by yourself. I do it all the time. I don't have to answer questions like "what just happened" etc. This need to be in the presence of another is something I don't understand Enough ranting about that. Before I forget, Pham, there's a girl in my Cantonese class that reminds me of "the sassy girl", looks wise. Fortunately, she's not mean at all. Speaking of girls, it's a sad sight to see a man gone girl crazy. There's more to life to talk about than this girl or that girl. Once in a while, sure. But everyday, everytime we meet... sad and a bit annoying. Would any of you not be able to concentrate on a class because of a girl? Be forced to drop it? maybe if it was Kristen Kruek. Even then, I'd like to believe that my will could overcome it and let me finish my required course. I guess it all lies in your sense of priority. Failing a class over a girl is just unacceptable to me. Not to be completely unempathetic, I guess to that person, the girl is far more important than the class. What I'm talking about is daydreaming and not being able to sleep girl crazy. I think I'm exagerrating bit but you should get the picture. Personally, I don't like discussing randomly about girls with people. What the hell does it matter if I think she's beautiful. All that matters is that you think she is. We all have different opinions, different tastes. I could think that girl is the most unattractive person but you could love her to death. I do, however, love talking about sports. How to end? I miss my big tv and US shows. I have all this extra time, usually spent reading now. I guess that's a good thing.

Beautiful Weather
I woke up and my roomie wasn't back yet. Didn't really phase me so I went to my Cantonese class. It's really funny in class because we've only learned 3 adjectives--big, pretty, and something else. So when we make sentences, it's always "You are so pretty" or everyone is pretty. I've been told to try this phrase out on some Cantonese girls...but I really don't think it'll work. After class I was supposed to meet with my MKT group but I couldn't find them in the crowded canteen so I ended up eating a club sandwich and eating with Linda. I can't believe how warm it was, eating outside, in this miniature amphitheater type place. It's weird eating with a girl so attractive yet having no intentions of asking more of her than simple friendship. I like this weather around 60-70 degrees F. I went to the bank and got me some cash. My HK dollar supply is now below $50 US. I am soooo damn poor. I went back to my room and got online talking to some people and took a 20 nap before heading off to MGT. I like this prof and I like learning about the cultural differences concerning busines. What would you do in this situation? You're only business contact asks you (for Lunar New Year) to pay for his son's education in the US. Because of the contact, you've made a small fortune. For the Chinese man (and for me too probably) I would give him the money. Of course, it's a bit shady in the legal sense. Grabbed some dinner and watched Capriati lose in the first round of the Austrailian Open. Then I played some tennis. I wish I could find my serve. 3 hours later, I am back but missed the first 20 minutes of Meteor Garden. Back in my room I figure out that I need to desperately do laundry. I'm actually out of t-shirts and not underwear or socks. Not an eventful day like the weekend but a good day nonetheless. @~~What to rant about today (I'm great admirer of Dennis Miller and his rants on his HBO show)? First off, I would love to own my own business. Something that I love and find personal in my life. Something that brightens the day of my customers. However, after a class in MGT, it doesn't sound totally awful being an executive. Here's my dream plan. Work hard and make enough money to retire by the time I'm 40 (30 if possible, but I think by the time I'm 40, I should have enough money). Hopefully I'll be married by then with a couple of kids. Then take care of the kids and when they're old enough in school, I want to teach. At a college, preferably, educating the young minds of the future, haha. My room smells weird (random comment). ***My oldest friend, we've been through alot and when I don't care about something, it's usually cuz its too trivial compared to the crazy stuff we've been through. Of course I care about what you have to say but sometimes I'm just too tired. [0-0] The view from my dorm room gives me a wonderful ocean horizon. I really should look at it more.

Shen Zhen
The day once again began quite early. All of the people going met at the KCR (train station). I changed my money to Zen min Bi (China Money) and we went to Lo Wu (border between HK and Shen Zhen) Getting the visa done and going between the two borders took fucking forever. It's funny hearing the overhead speakers warning visitors about Pick-pockets. All the local students warned us about people losing money and Shen Zhen cutting your backpack open and stealing. We hear all these horror stories but fortunately, nothing bad happened from what I've heard. I brought my bag for shit that I was gonna buy. All I brought from HK was toilet paper and water. I was going to stay the day and leave and go back to HK on the same day. In Shen Zhen (sz from now on), we dropped off our bags at a massage parlor. I had heard how good that shit was so I promised myself I would get a cheap ass, but wonderful message. Dropping the bags off, Steven, a good local guy, took us around the East Gate shopping. We first looked for food and ended up eating good shit on sticks, meatballs, Chinese Sausage and octopus for me and pork buns total meal= less than $2 dollars. 2 pork buns cost just 25 cents. The only thing I got during that shopping period was Infernal Affairs which I just finished watching. What a great movie. Great plot, great ensemble of actors, I think everyone would like it. Then o god, we went to get a message. Damn, that is some good shit. For 25 zen ming bi (hk dollars are almost exactly worth zen ming bi, Hk worth maybe 4-5% more), I got a bad ass one hour massage. I had never had one before but wow. After a long morning and early afternoon, that massage was definitely THE shit. Afterwards, I felt sooooooo relaxed. We then went to a Chinese army base. The first thing we did was shot hand guns (5 shots). Holy shit it was loud. After the first shot, all you hear is ringing. Then we got to shot Chinese AK-47s--two different versions, one automatic, one semi automatic at 100 meters. Most every one shot and it was probably the coolst army base I've ever been to. Then we ate dinner and played some basketball. After that, I was supposed to go home but the ones that were going to, already left me. So decided to stay the night. We went back to the shooting range and had a bonfire and fireworks and of course, "Chinese wine tasting." The evening was fun with people drinking and everything. I had half a beer (I can no longer drink that shit) and 2 different hard liquors. I don't really know how to describe the evening but it was cold and quite fun. That night I slept in the nicest army barracks ever. Once again, my back broke out into hives or something and itched like a fucker. I woke up at 4 am, 6 am, and 8 am. Got back up at nine to leave the base. We went back to the East Gate and ate first at dim sum. That was some good shit and it costs me less than $3 US and I was fucking full. We got some more shopping and this time I bought "Band of Brothers" dvd set, socks, and undies. I wanted to get the entire young and dangerous set but the locals didn't have it =( We trekked back and finally got back. All of us were afraid that our newly bought illegal cds would be consificated but nothing like that happened. I got a nice ass shower and brushed my teeth. I hadn't brought anything that saturday night to shower or change so I stunk and felt so dirty, especially after lying on the shooting range, staring at the stars. I didn't have any HK money so I had to borrow 100 HK from my roomie. He doesn't know yet, but I left an IOU (thanks Anthony--roomie has same name as me). I watched Infernal Affairs. good stuff. O yeah, I got it for $15 Chinese which is like less than $2 US and I got the DVDS for $17 each. There are different levels of DVDS ranging from DVD5-DVD9, 9 being the best. Infernal Affairs' quality was quite good and I was not disappointed. I may read a bit but I'm quite tired from a great trip to Shen Zhen. Our two leaders, Frank and Sam, are great people and this trip wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for them. Note to self, Sam got fucking wasted at the bonfire but still managed to talk to the barracks lady and get me and my friend an extra room. @~~I think I saw 2 shooting stars yesterday at the base. Although I didn't make a wish, my thoughts are as simple as the day I was born. The more I think about it, the less I see myself in the business school. About half the exchange students here are business majors and by talking to them, I looks inside myself. I don't want to spend my life studying the the markets, funds, equities, whatever, making rich people richer. In essence, I would be selling my soul to something uncontrollable, perhaps of the devil. It is no longer fascinating to me anymore. Whatever happened to doing a job that you love? I know some of the people here actually do like it. They are in it for the money and I guess, so am I. I was talking to someone and I said that money wasn't the most important thing in life and he answered, well, you're in the wrong major. Money dominates our capitalist system and the globe. I want to make enough money for my future children so that they will not have to make the sacrifices that I make today. I hope that they may do whatever they wish in benefiting society, free of monetary worries. This is what I want and hope but not my wish. ***Good to hear from you Joe, miss you too old man. and Deran, words failed me and fail me now when it comes to your glasses =)

1st weekend 10/1
Cantonese ppl write the date first, followed by the month. It still messes me up. I had only 1 class today, Cantonese =) I like how relaxed that class is and how fun it can be. I think I'm learning more and more. I hope that by the end of the semester, I can understand enough 80% of Cantonese. Of course I've been watching my meteor garden at night to learn. It's such a stupid show yet it ends each night with a cliff hanger. Had lunch with some of my fellow Cantonese classmates. The food in this canteen is quite good and reasonably priced. After lunch, I went to go check out the ping pong place. They actually have double happiness ping pong paddles you can borrow. I didn't get to play cuz I didn't wear shoes with socks, only sandals =(. But as MacArthur said as he left the Phillipines, "I shall return." I went back to my dorm, watched my downloaded episode of Alias which took my frickin' 5 days to download. I went to the "tea Party" which was a gathering of the exchange students. It was aiite, I got to talk to this Anthropology professor and we ended up talking about Harry Potter. I was gonna go Karoking tonight but Cynthia said that they were going after midnight so I decided to pass (tommorrow, 9 am to go to Shen Zhen). So sadly, I came back and watched another movie. I can't wait to go tomorrow and by a stack of illegal movies (vcds). Did some reading and watched some tv and going to sleep soon. I also found this guy on Kazaa with a couple of good Chinese MTVS, yeah! Kinda sleep so let's see what brilliant thing do I have to say today. Take the first step, the initiative and see what it offers. I stole that from the Anthropology Prof. He was talking about meeting local students. But I think it has it uses anywhere. I used it the other day eating lunch, striking up a conversation with a student. I want to try it more.

Long time no tennis
Good god this day began way too early. I had a 8:30 class and that lasted till 10:15. Then in the room, I had class 10:30-12:15...meaning I hate my life on Thursdays. MGT (my first class) was pretty boring cuz we spent all this time discussing. I'm the only exchange student in that class so when we discuss stuff in English, no one speaks. Then we spent way too much time reading this article and talking about it. MKT was the same except we got into groups of seven for a project. I had lunch and ended up talking to this local psy major student. It was interesting to learn that Hong Kong ppl don't go to school until they're 19 (a year later than us) and only attend 3 years of undergrad. Then I went to the clinic and the doctor gave me some free drugs for my itching and throat =) I was tired and came back to the dorms and napped til my 5:15 finance class. That class is boring but hard. The book sucks. Damn accounting is back to haunt me. After finance I went to go play tennis!!! I'm going to join the team and hit every Monday and Thursday. I played for 2 hours and got my strokes back but I still can't volley worth shit. I started eating dinner at nine and then was interrupted by 2 Christians trying to "preach the word of Jesus" to me I guess. I was a bit angry cuz they interrupted my dinner but then as it progressed, I thought it got interesting. So nothing too exciting happening today. I'm going to watch my Meteor Garden II in Cantonese and then studying before I sleep. I apologize to Pham for yesterday's post. I made him look like he has bad luck with women. Perhaps he does =P but I shouldn't have said that, j/k Pham is the man at Baylor. Go badgers, I mean Bears =) Isn't it sad when men go women crazy? Too much focus on them can destroy a man's life. I hope I'm not like that. It's awful to just dismiss girls that have a boyfriend and not give them a chance. So the attractive girl has a boyfriend, no big deal. Is it so wrong to have lunch or dinner with a pretty girl? I didn't think so =P Meeting people is a great feeling and a great opportunity. Of course, if you had a chance, fortune favors the bold huh? A friend today is better than no friend at all. My words of wisdom for the day. Don'f forget to email me at donfattony@hotmail.com or leave me messages on aim!!!!!!!

Half the week is over
Man do I need to start learning my cantonese. I think the classes help alot but right after class, I start losing all that I've learned. I had lunch w/ Linda and learned alot about her, most importantly that she's 24 and has a boyfriend =( I couldn't believe that she was that much older than moi. I'm one of the youngest exchang students and she, one of the oldest. But really, its fascinating to see how someone can still be in school. She's already graduated but is here at CUHK just to learn and study. I don't know if I could do that. It seems to me that 4 years of college is enough for me. I set up an appt at the clinic for tommorrow to figure out why my back is itching. Then I went to "Business and Politics" taught by this old retired prof. I really like him and him lecturing so I may take the class even thought it puts me at 18 hrs and it probably won't count for any credit but upper Business elective. I love listening to non-Americans and their views about US and especially Bush. Shot a little basketball after class and then watched "Marry a Rich Man." Cute little movie and I really like Sammi as an actress. She reminds me alot of Julia Roberts--the cantonese one. Read some fun finance and then watched some tv and my daily dosage of Meteor Garden 2. I got a frickin' 8:30 class tommorrow so I need to sleep early. O yeah Pham, I pity you and your experiences with Korean women in real life. Maybe your fortunes will turn for the better as the new year has begun. I haven't heard from a bunch of you guys...maybe when the school year starts I guess. As we take the leap forward and distance ourselves from the last step, the moment in the air leads us either crashing down or landing perfectly. How we land is how we prepare and how we judge the risk. (damn, already finance influencing me). Like throwing darts, sure the darts fly all around the board, the lucky one hits that bulleyes. But for the best, its all skill. (what the hell am I talking about and ranting about here?)

Class 2
Before I begin my daily exploits, I must say that Korean girls are all beautiful (as my friend bobby so nicely put it). There are three Korean exchange students and they are attractive. There's this one Korean girl, Linda, who actually speaks fluent mandarin and that completely shocked me [in a good way] =) Ok so my marketing class is really boring. 4 hours a week is alot but the cool part is that since it's really a 3 hour a week class, we finish by the end of March... odd huh? I met up with Cynthia and she took me to one of the better canteens at school. Then I found my finance class with the prof who speaks pretty bad english. I got him to sign my registration sheet so right now I'm ready for 15 hours of classes. After finance, me and bobby (from LSU) and his roomie and this guy, Yellow Ice (my wonderful chinese translation) went to play bball near my dorm. Yellow Ice is really good, we want to call him Yao Ming. My face got cut a little but basketball was fun. I was a bit disappointed at my skills--they a bit rusty. Ate some dinner, and watched "my wife is a gangster" --a Korean movie on my comp. Not too bad, I heard it was good but I didn't think it was all that fabulous. I guess hyped up too much. I'm going to start watching Meteor Garden II each day at 10 to learn cantonese.

1st day of classes
The day began too damn early and too damn cold. I woke up at 9 am and quickly went to go catch my bus. Throughout the day I kept fogetting that classes start at every half hour instead of on the hour. So I arrived at my cantonese class super early and then my teacher didn't show up. 5 students came and we waited and waited until finally I got the number to call someone (using my new cell phone) and we discovered that the class had been moved. So the five of us hauled ass to the bus stop and finally got to class an hour late. My cantonese instructor, Prof Man, is really cool. I think I'll learn alot from her, yes her. She reminds me alot of my mom teaching at Chinese school. For lunch, I ate curry chicken with corn in it which I thought was weird. I scarfed down lunch cuz my Cantonese class ended at 12:15 and my management class starts in an hour. During lunch, someone called me but I didn't get the message. I had set my phone on vibrate (cuz of class) so during lunch, I felt vibrations in my right leg. I was like wtf was that and by the time I had figured it out, I missed my first call!!! I had to buy my cantonese packet after class and by the time I finished lunch, I had 10 minutes to get to class. When I get to the room, I see a sign posted that says that the class has been moved to a completely different building 3 hours later. So wasting time 3 hours later I go to my MGT class. The prof and I are the only ones there for 25 minutes. I think I'll learn a shit load in that class. My prof's profile/resume is quite impressive--BS Cornell, Masters Harvard,Ph.d Cambridge. He doesn't speak cantonese either. The class doesn't have a test or exam--just projects. I bought the textbook right (paperback for less than $20 =P). This girl, Lindsey, took me to the store, making sure I didn't get lost. I got food and watched The ConMan 2002--It wasn't too bad, it had its moments. I have three more to watch so I plan to do it this week. Whoever reads this please email me and tell me what's up with you guys at donfattony@hotmail.com I wanna know what's going in the US. I can't believe I missed the Fiesta Bowl and Cotton Bowl. All people watch here is English Premier League soccer which isn't bad but not as good as football. OH man, fucking playoffs!!!! Its the price I pay i guess. Also, god damn its cold here. Not Freezing yet, but almost there especially on the mountians here. And my room has no heater :(

Cell Phone
The internet here is so damn fucking slow. During peak hours, since we all share the broadband, its slower than dial-up. Back to my day—I woke up around lunch and finished my pockiy for brunch. I did some crap and then went to Mong Kok again to meet up with Annka. Annka took me cell phone shopping and I finally have a cell phone. Hell yeah!!! Man, if it wasn’t for her, I don’t know how badly I would’ve been ripped off. My new phone costs $700 ($88 US) and for less than $20 US a month, I get 600 basic minutes and 600 minutes with people with the Orange service. I thought I would be more excited to get it but right now no one knows my phone number so damn. But hell, I do have one now. O yeah, before that, Annka took me to this bad ass noodle place. I had fish balls, meat balls, cuttlefish balls, and something else all in a bowl. What was especially cool were the noodles. They weren’t noodles. They were made of fish but tasted like noodles. The food was good but I think the damn soup had tons of MSG cuz I was feeling a bit bloated afterwards. We shopped around, looking at different stores before I went to Annka’s home to eat dinner. Dinner was good. I had some more Heinken with dinner but I believe it is what’s making me itch so no more booze for me. When I came back, I finally met my roomie. It’s sad that I’ve only said like 2 words to him since I’ve met him. He had a friend here watching tv and then left to go walking. Hopefully, he’ll be a cool guy. School starts tomorrow (*tear). Annka doesn’t have school till after Chinese New Year which is like February (dang her). I can’t thank her enough for her help in my cell phone shopping experience.

Tour guide Deran
So I finally met up with Deran at Mong Kok station and he took me around to see all the commerce. I believe we circled or "eighted" a select couple of blocks at three times. If any guy wants to buy bargain but nice suits, hollywood plaza (or something like that) is the place to go. We just walked around and talked. It was quite relaxing. He and I had a mango slushie with slimy jello stuff on the bottom--good shit. We took a picture together after I went through the turnstiles. I'll miss my friends at UT. I took the KCR (train) the wrong fucking way costing me precious minutes. By the time I got back to CUHK, I missed the bus. So I walked, 45 minutes, alone, up the treacherous mountain, not knowing when I would be attacked in the dimly lit streets. This campus is so beautiful but a pain in the ass to walk. It didn't help that my feet hurt and I walked the wrong route twice. When I got back to the room, I itched above my stomach to my neck towards the top of my back. The shower helped but I hope it'll get me through the night. Tommorrow will hopefully be relaxing. I plan on calling Cynthia and get her to go cell phone shopping w/ me =)

HK Tour
I was supposed to go out with Deran in the afternoon but that bastard ditched me for a woman!!!!! After my aunt woke me up, I got my desperately needed hot shower. I did alot of crap in the morning and got ready for the HK Tour. We went to Repulse Beach. This place was fucking gorgeous on fucking january 4th. Although the sand was probably imported, the ocean view was awesome. Then we went to this something that started with an S shopping center. I got a holder for showering (shampoo, soap), egg tart, and a thai pizza. I walked alone in the shopping center. Before we left for another place, I just kept gazing into the ocean horizon. It was quite peaceful. The last stop was the peak of the mountain. You could see the entire city. It was breathtaking. I think I'm all caught up now. I'm going to go out with Deran now

Clubbing in HK
After a very nice chinese round table banquet dinner, 30 Study abroad students decided to go Clubbing. I had this really large bottle of Heinken before we went in. First we went to Mad Dog, a hip hop club. The clubs were packed to the max. I guess that it being Friday night didn't hurt either. I was so frickin' tired but I had my fun on the floor with people I meet just hours ago. We left there and went to C-club. This techno place didn't suit to my taste in music dancing so I danced a bit before sitting down with some IAS (International Asian Studies or the exchange students) at a table. We started talking with this old guy and young lady (late 20s). The man bought the four of us drinks =) After that we went to a bar but I left with 3 other people to go home. O yeah, 18 is the legal drinking age. I fell asleep on the Taxi ride. All I remember is the fare began at 15 and when I woke up, it had a zero on the end of it (150). After the taxi ride/sleep, I felt awful and threw up a bit but then after that, it was all good. This was around 4 am. At 7, I woke up itching like no other. I found some anti-itch stuff and went to sleep. At 9 am, my aunt woke me up and I couldn't sleep again.

Orientation day
We begin the day with fun filled walking and orientation in the morning. I begin meeting tons and tons of people and I'm starting to forget names. Orientation was uneventful. It was the afternoon registration that was fun meaning hell. We all love online registration. We don't have it here. All the classes must be registered on a piece of paper and need a professor signature to enroll in it. My finance class I need is completely full. I have cantonese 6 hours a week, MWF 10-12. There are only 2 english taught finance classes and 1 is conflicting with the cantonese class. I'm fucked with this class. At least I got my other 2 bus classes--management and marketing. I wanted to take translation but after reading up on some more, I decided against it. It would be too fucking hard and the translation would be from English to Cantonese, not mandarin. coming next, Clubbing

CUHK
After lunch on 1/2/03, we began our journey to CUHK. My aunt, cousin and I are taking 1 monitor, 1 carry on, 2 large suitcases, and my backpack. We take a bus to the subway station, then change at least 3 trains underground, before taking a train above ground and then when we get to CUHK, we take another bus to my dorm. That was a fun filled afternoon. CUHK is on a mountain so if you walk anywhere its always uber steep and waiting for the buses suck cuz it takes a long time. Before I forget, I just need to thank my cousin and aunt for all their help. They are hardworking, honest people and I will never forget their help. That night I began meeting people, first Zach, Jewish UC riverside guy who lived in my dorm. We had dinner at the Shaw (where I live) canteen. I met Mike, University of Illionas (however the the hell you spell that). I went to sleep at 10 that night cuz orientation would begin at 8 am tommorrow. I know I've left out tons of shit and I hate myself for forgetting it.

Pre CUHK
I stayed at my aunts for 2 days. Waking up on New Years, she cooked me "nian gao". I don't remember much about these two days. I do know we went to the city and shopped for the beautiful monitor that I'm looking at right now. I looked for the cheapest one out there and this bad boy cost me $600 HK dollars or about $75 US--a new one, 15 inch. I can't wait to go look for a digital camera. I do remember playing this typing computer game, like word practice typing but what was cool was that it used the House of the Dead shooting game. So everytime I typed a sentence I would kill a monster. If only we had this game when we were kids, who knows how badly it would've jacked us up. I met this old guy in my aunt's apt who graduated from Chinese University of Hong Kong. He kept asking me about famous people with my last name and family. I didn't know anything but I want someday to be that famous man people ask about.

Starting a few days back
Yeah, it works. Lets start Dec 30th with the flight. I left DFW at 8 am in the morning meaning I woke up at 5:30 am. When I'm trying to get my boarding pass, the guy at the counter says I can't enter the country w/o a visa. Hong Kong allows US passports to enter Hong KOng for 3 months w/o a visa but the counter bastard wouldn't believe me. He wasted at least 20 minutes calling some guy. Then because of the my visa 3 month stay, he changes the damn date. If the representative guy on the phone didn't know what he was doing, I wouldn't be in China right now. Right before Liftoff, Chicago tells us that the weather is bad and we have to sit on the DFW runway for more than an hour. When I get in Chicago, I barely make catch my next flight with less than 20 minutes to spare. I don't remember much of the shorter flight but the long ass 14 hour flight from Chicago was not too fun. I sat by this old man who I believe was sick and dying? The food was not good and btw, I was flying with bankrupt United Airlines. The movies shown were on tape and when a tape wouldn't work, even with a simple tracking error, they would stop the showing and go on with another movie. What sucked is my projector wasn't "aligned" on the left side so the color was jacked. I did however watch Lilo & Stitch and Bloodwork (odd ass movie). I made it to Hong Kong at around 6 pm Hong Kong time on the 12/31. My distant aunt picked me up and we rode the bus back to her tiny, crowded apt. I was so exhausted. At 8 pm on New Years Eve, I just slept.

Hong Kong
Hey everyone I just wanted to save information about my trip to Hong Kong so I decided to copy Cindy and use this cuz I like the posting thingy. If this entry works, I'm going to start remembering the past couple of days

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