Day 4

January 20th, 9AM: Finally, the day you have all been waiting for because the excitement finally begins. So, the previous night I had gone to bed early due to my feeling unwell the night before. So, I woke up and emailed Ghoribet to ask what she wanted to do. She told me that she was going to lunch with a bunch of people from Singapore and they said it was fine if I came along. So, we ended up going downtown for Dim Sum. For those of you who are unaware of my culinary history and experience, Dim Sum does not bode well. I do not pretend to have a large culinary pallet or be adventurous in trying new foods. In fact, the last time I had Dim Sum I think I tried about 3 dishes in total and didn't like any of them. So me going to eat authentic Dim Sum with people who actually like it was quite brave (if I do say so myself). If I had been in the US and my friends had said they were going for Dim Sum I would have passed, but here I was in a new country and I figured I should try something new and meet these people from Singapore I had heard about.

So we went to lunch. I made an effort try all the dishes and ended up trying about 15 out of 20. The rest were seafood dishes and a single dish of chicken feet because I just couldn't bring myself to pick up a foot and start nibbling. So, everyone else was happily eating away at all the food and I will fully admit that I was more nibbling. I think that after eating Western food for my entire life it's hard for me to change my culinary habits and tastes. So, I unfortunately do not have pictures of the dishes but when i get them from my friend I will include them in a future post. So back to the food. the food was different. And sadly that's the best way for me to put it: different. I wouldn't say I particularly liked it and would go back on my own to have it again, but I did find several dishes that were at least acceptable, that is to say, I would eat them again if I find myself at another Dim Sum restaurant. the thing I found to be most interesting was the different textures. Many of the foods were smooth, which is something I'm not sure I've have before. In addition to the unique textures, they all tasted much different than anything I've ever tried before. I suppose that's why I'm finding it difficult to describe them - I do not have any frame of reference. In the end, I'm glad I tried something so new and different and proved to myself that I will not starve here and there is more to eat than McDonald's.

Now for the people. Like I said, I went with my friend Ghoribet and a bunch of people from Singapore she met on her floor. probably my favorite part of the entire trip (which is saying a lot) is the fact that I get to meet so many new people from all over the world. I already get a very broad view at USC because it is such an international school and growing up in the Bay Area also gave me a very international outlook on life, but this is a whole new level. I enjoy learning about new cultures and I particularly like to observe the differences between cultures because I want to learn all I can so i can try and see things from different perspectives. I could write essays on why I enjoy meeting new people, but right now I shall return to the topic of the people I met. So, the other three international students I met from Canada, France, and Sweeden were nice and interesting, but I found that they were similar to lots of the people from America. In other words, interesting, but not all that special because the Western world is so much alike. But, after meeting the Singapore people and getting to know them, I can tell you without a doubt that they are my favorite people I've met here. They are simply amazing people to know.

So this is how it works: there is this guy named Chorng Shin (who everyone calls CS, but he hates it because he doesn't want to be called Counter Strike) who is from Singapore, but is getting his Master's degree here at HKUST. So, he's a really nice guy and each semester he meets up with all the Singapore exchange students and shows them around the city and helps them get settled in. I've had a chance by now to do lots of stuff with this guy and he's always so nice, cheerful, and willing to take his time to help you. Knowing there are people like him out there makes me feel better about the world. I also met a girl named Wai Zin who i will talk about in a later post, as well as two guys named Ri Huang and Chang Sheng (not CS, their names are different). First off, let me say that their names were not easy for me to learn. This is for two reasons: Chorng Shin and Chang Sheng sound very, very similar when someone is speaking to you and I kept getting confused about who was who and if they were one person or two people, and secondly I'm not used to two part names. In the US you have one first name like Fred or Sally, but most of the Singaporeans I've met have a two part name, so I often find myself being able to remember the first part of their name and then completely blanking on the second part. Another thing is the accent. If any of these people I've listed above are reading this (as I know some of them are) please do not be offended by what I say, I'm merely listing my observations and intend no insult. It seems as though everyone from different parts of the world truly have different ways of speaking English and I sometimes can't understand a single word even though i know it's English. I've found that French accents are pretty bad for me to understand, but nowhere near as hard as the Singaporean accent. I'm not sure exactly what it is about it, but they tend to speak very fast and I think they do not space their words out like we do in the US, and also they speak softer much of the time. Because of this, I honestly didn't understand half the things they said over lunch. I'm writing this on day 13 and it's taken me until now to be able to hear and comprehend almost everything they say. And I feel really bad about this. I think it's more embarrassing for me than it is for them when I have to ask them to repeat something because I couldn't understand it the first time. there were a few occasions on day 4 when I had to ask then to repeat it twice, and then just gave up because I certainly was not going to ask them to say it a fourth time. Often times I just sort of laughed and smiled while nodding my head when I couldn't understand it. After 9 days, however, I think I've finally mastered the accent and am to the point where I feel comfortable speaking to them (which I do a lot).

So to recap the last paragraph, 1) Singaporeans = awesome, 2) they have very different accents than what I'm used to and it was hard to understand. Seriously though, they're really cool people and given a choice, I'll hang out with them any day. In fact, I'm really going to miss my Singapore friends when I go back to the US, so CS, Ri Huang, Chang Shen, Wai Zin, and Deborah, you have earned my respect and admiration. Also, I am aware that several of them will be reading this and my comments earlier about Dim Sum still stand, it's not my favorite, but I'll tolerate it to hang out with with them. once again, pictures from lunch will be uploaded when I get my hands on them. Oh, and the place was called Maxim's Palace for anyone who knows it. It's supposed to be among the best Dim Sum in Hong Kong. One more thing, I also realized that when i'm with the Singaporeans, I'm the only white guy in the group and i feel somewhat like I blend into the crowd better. It's just sort of a feeling I get. Oh, and another thing! Little kids always stare at me. I'm serious, children stare at me where ever I go. It's especially true on the MTR where little kids with their parents will be standing there and just look at me, which is sort of creepy but I understand that they're kids and so they're curious.

After our late lunch we made our way over to a supermarket and Ikea again. In the supermarket, Ri Huang and I were laughing at Ghoribet and Wai Zin when they were looking at sponges and smelling them, and touching them, and comparing colors and such things. We just shook our heads and talked about how silly it was. And this was after Ghoribet spent several minutes looking at shampoo and smelling many different bottles. For my female readership, forgive my ignorance of such things and for my male readership, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Anyways, back to Ikea we went where I got to act as a pillow salesman for Wai Zin (she was looking for a pillow and I had already seen the entire pillow selection so many times it seemed like a natural fit). After spending well over an hour in Ikea where I bought myself a pillow as well (because you don't sink into the mattress and therefore need two pillows) we took the MTR over to TST (it's something like Tsim Shua Tsui) where we went to Victoria Harbor to see the city at night. Again, I don't not have these pictures in my possession but will post them as soon as I do. here are the pictures from a later night so you can see what I mean.

We hung out there for about an hour or so and just admired the city lights. Hong Kong is amazing during the day, but at night it is breathtaking. I'll show you even better pictures in a future entry about the light show. After admiring the view we took a ferry across the harbor to Central (one of the MTR stations) where we walked around LKF and I got to see what that was like. As I said before, it's where all the foreigners go to party and consists mostly of bars and clubs. Also, white people make up a majority in this area and I freely admit that it was a little nice to be surrounded by white people again, if only for a few minutes. One of the many things I've learned about myself during my trip is that I can finally understand my friends from other countries better now that I know what it's like to be the minority. We literally just walked around there and then made our way back to campus.

When we got back I went strait to bed because I was completely exhausted. If you've never walked around that much during one day and then suddenly go and walk everywhere for 4 days strait you'd be exhausted to. Anyways, I have to wake up early tomorrow morning for an orientation, but I'm dedicating my day to catching up blogs when I get back. Hope you had fun reading this and I promise even better stories are yet to come.