Saturday. A day to be outdone only by Sunday

Saturday- slept in, had breakfast with the girls.

Went shopping with Beth. Bought the prettiest dress ever and some long shorts. I'm so HongKong-kanese. Tragically got rained on on the way home :(

But then I put on my new dress and fixed my hair and Kelly, Hannah, Virginia and I went to Fringe Club and listened to a jazz band. We're so cultured.

After the club got really crowded and smokey we went down the hill to LKF. We hung out a while at Club 7 and did the atm/bathroom loop. Near 2 or so we went to the Bollywood party.

Holy Crap. This huge Indian party was going on in this club in LKF and Zyra invited us. Basically the whole international crowd turned out for the amazingly good Indian techno and we took over the back room that had dice games and karaoke. And how we did karaoke.

Lets not forget that it was Anna and Mary's birthdays come midnight either. We bought the girls drinks and danced and it was loverly. Eventually we left and a rather intoxicated Hannah led us straight to the Flying Pan so I even got to end the night (or, let's face it- it was 5am, end the morning) with grits and coffee. Heaven!

The time of death for the night was officially called at 6:06am as we walked into Wei Lun. Breakfast on Sunday was bound to be a bit later than originally planned.

Belated Friday

I realized I never did Friday coverage. How slacker-esque of me.

Friday I was up at the crack of 9am for class (attended, took notes and everything) and then went to the grocery store (got nutella, nachos and cheese n' salsa, ate the entire bag of chips in less than 24 hrs). From their the day slowed down a bit- mostly because I took a 4 hour nap. :) Yay for naps!

So the singing contest was Friday evening, and that was pretty much the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. We only went to the floor competition (there were individual and group contests too, but we cared not for these things). Each floor assembled a team and chose what seemed to be somewhere between 1 and 15 song snippets which they performed in costumes, sometimes strung together and acted out like a play, sometimes just sang and danced to. Some were weird, others very amusing, all in Cantonese.

Ali's was hilarious though. Apparently his floormates wanted to embarrass him, but no. He has no shame. He got up with the rest of them, then tried to steal the show by running up to the front and screaming a solo at the top of his lungs in a very steven tyler fashion. Again, in cantonese. After being stopped, he offered to direct the rest of the boys, which he did with flourish, lemme tell ya. We couldn't have been prouder.

After the contest it was goin' out time. I wore the pink top I wore to New Years and Hannah wore by black corset. We were the hotness. We went to Carnegie's in the knick of time to get a pile of $10 Coronas (which in poor planning we later realized only Alli and I were drinking, and 8 was probably more than we needed). There was a ridiculous crowd there, a large group of Scottish Firemen were in town, drunk, dancing on the bar in kilts, and removing their clothes. Not pretty. Not at all. No pictures were taken for this very reason.

There was one young pretty one though (and we were very grateful to see him sans shirt). Hannah and I danced with him and found out he's not really a scot, but an aussie. Go Figure.

From Carnegies we headed to Soho, to this little restaurant called The Peak Cafe. Cheap drinks late in the evening and fairly quiet. The main excitement there was the presence of games. Thus Johannes became the Jenga King.

After Peak, Hannah, her local boy Ken, Michael from Seattle and Alli and I went for kebabs (mmmmmm kebabs. food of the gods.) and then hung at 'club 7' (7-11) for a good long time. Cuz we're awesome like that. And around 4 we called it a night.

Johannes- "It isn't Jenga, man"

-abby-

Happy Birthday Anna

And Mary. Its both their bdays today (sunday) its nearly 7am and I haven't seen any sleep, so I'll do the play-by-play on the other side of 5 hrs of sleep. For now, just happy birthday loves.

Cause for Exhaustion

Ok, Abby was very very tired last night because she went to her first rehearsal for the Wei Lun Interhall Dance Club. Her brain was very tired because she had two of the most intense classes ever. Industrial Automation was 2 jam-packed hours of insane time-to-frequency conversions that involved us being asked to just memorize 12 graphs for next time-- because then everything will be very simple. That was followed by a very grammar and vocab heavy Cantonese class. From which I still can recall nothing. Whatever, dance.

Yay for clubs in HK! It looks like the only dance-clubbers are going to be Alli and me (the only girls with dance experience). Hannah tried it out the first day, but does not feel that her skill level will progress to handle the routine by our performance in April. This may seem a bit negative but I will say that the routine is wicked hard.

They have a professional choreographer who does hip-hop dances and after 2 hours of practice I was pretty sure I'd die. Actually die. Now granted I'm horribly out of shape and I don't really do hip-hop (oh how I long for ballet!) but even so. This was crazy. Awesome, but crazy. We must have spent 25 minutes trying to really get the first move. Most people's rib cages are attached.

Anyway, it is super fun, the choreographer speaks primarily in Cantonese (not that important in dance though- who hasn't been shouted at in Russian and understood perfectly?) There were between 15 and 20 students I'd guesstimate and almost half were boys, which is fun. Besides Alli and Hannah the only person I really knew was this girl, Chris, that lives on our hall. She's really cute, and has green streaks in the bottom layers of her hair. She says that there were only 3 boys last year and the routine was about a hundred times easier.

About the choreographer- I don't know his name, he wasn't really introduced. We're going to call him DancIzzle. Dance for his unbelievable dancing ability, Izzle for his gangsterness and cizzle because he is really really really ridiculously good-looking. Dancizzle is this young Chinese guy with corn-rows and looooong braids, who was wearing oversized white sean combs sweats and air force ones. He has the prettiest face. Hannah claims he's the most beautiful man she's seen in her entire life. Ever. So to make a long story short, we're in love.

Another long story I'll spare you the details of is how much I hurt today. You can imagine.

Tonight is the Hall Singing Competition, which is very hyped here at Wei Lun. Our boy Ali is singing, so that'll be fun. Speaking of Ali, he claims you can shout almost anything in English at bus drivers and they will interpret that as "Please stop at the next bus-stop, sir". Yesterday we were on the bus together and he called up "My shoes smell, thank you!" It totally worked. Hi-lar-ious.

Ok, I'm about to go vegitate with some chips and cheese, have you all a lovely day.
Abby

not happening

too tired to post. will have something up in 12 hrs, promise. much love!

About Last Night...

Pictures speak louder than words.

I'm a Joiner. When In Rome, eh?

Kids here are alllll about their clubs. So we decided to do like the locals and bravely wrote our names (Alli, Anna, Hannah and I) on the sign-up for the Interhall Dance Club.

Serves us right. The first meeting was last night (Monday) at midnight. AT midNIGHT. I seriously thought we might dance naked in front of the moon. But no such luck. Just the basics, when and where practices, rules etc.

So every Thursday at 8:30 and every Monday at 10 we'll be dancing. I'm a bit scared. Everything is so intense.

On another topic entirely, I want everyone to know there is no EasyMac in HK. There is Ramen though. Instant Noodle Soup has its own aisle in the grocery store. Its odd. Or intimidating.

I did my laundry. Its amazing. Otherwise its been a very quiet Tuesday thusfar (and by quiet I mean sunny, 70 and beautiful). Of course, its a Carnegie's night again. Already. I'm within inches of being tired of having fun. Actually thats a complete lie. I'm just tired of Carnegie's. If we could get cheap drinks at Fringe or Tribeca or someplace awesome like that I'd be way more enthusiastic. An entire wardrobe of clean clothes to choose from is pretty exciting though.... :) Yay for options.

Finally, I'm chatting with Nadaddy of Family Force 5 on AIM right now. How lovely! I've become such a stalker.

You Could Be Next-
Abby "Stalky McGee"

Endless Semantics

A quick note over breakfast. This is probably an experience everyone in an international environment has, but lately its been so exhausting that we've actually discussed whether or not it will ever end.

We never stop talking semantics. Specifically about food. To illustrate here is an example of conversations I've had in the last 48hrs.

US1: What did you have for breakfast?
AUS: Porridge and coffee.
US1: Porridge? What's porridge?
US2: She means oatmeal.
AUS: You call it oatmeal?
US1: Yeah, you call it porridge? This is like the biscuits all over again.
AUS: Wait you call biscuits 'cookies' right?
US1: Mostly.
US2: If your biscuits are cookies, what do you call what I'd call a biscuit?
AUS: Scones.
US2: Then what do you call scones?
CAN: What's the difference in a biscuit and a scone?
US2: Hang on. What are biscuits in Australia?
US1: Crackers. Or cookies.
AUS: Aren't crackers and cookies the same?
US1: No. You put cheese on crackers. You don't put cheese on a cookie.
CAN: That's true. But you can eat a cracker without cheese.
US1: Of course you can. Its just a way to define what is or isn't a cracker.
CAN: Oh yeah. That makes sense.
etc etc etc etc

It goes on like that forever. And don't get us started on the different names of fruits and veggies. We have to stop the conversation by conscious choice. Its so much worse if there is a Brit there too. We need charts and pictures to even begin to sort things out. And eventually I have to try and explain what a grit is and that never really works.

My Brain is Tired.
Abby

Happiest Girl In the Entire World

Its been a pretty lazy Sunday, and at 3:25 I wandered into the pantry for some coffee. CNN was on (its one of the only channels that airs in English and doesn't play movies like Rambo III all the time) and its showing the 'Coming Up Next' screen. What is coming on next? Can you guess? Can you imagine? Could you even dare to hope?

THE DAILY SHOW: GLOBAL EDITION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Really the only thing my life has been missing here is Jon Stewart. And I've found him!!!! Every Sunday at 3:30pm he'll be on CNN-I. The Global Edition is actually just a half hour of the best segments from the past week. Alli and I were crying we were laughing so hard.

I want to go back and count how many times they repeated some form of 'VP Cheney shot a 78 year old man in what can only be described as his face'. Because it was a lot. It was funny every time. Hannah didn't get it. She wanted to know why there was a studio audience on a news show. Poor sheltered Aussie.

Ok so I'm happy about that. :) :) :) :) :) :) :) Very Happy.

In other events in my life- We went to Fringe again last night, then to Drop (one more exclusive HK club that's way too crowded and has awful music). We got kebabs and were home by 4. My girls have been much better behaved as of late. No puking, no embarrassing incidents, everyone walks home upright. Poor Virginia's birthday was today (and therefore last night as well) and Kelly really pushed her to the limit on drinks. It was her 21st. It had to be that way.

Oh, I did get to see all my favorite boys last night, Fritz was there, Mike the TV reporter met up with us, Theric showed up for a few minutes and my new boy Avi (one of Shahar's friends) hung with us all night. Avi might be drama. Alli seems to like him, but I don't know if that's a mutual thing. Shahar is trying to set all of Beth's friends up with all of his. I guess we'll see how that all works out. Drama.

Quotes for the day:

Beth: [about smoking] You only live once.
Hannah: You only get lung cancer once.

Beth: How's your black coffee?
Alli: It's stout. Its like the Guinness of coffee.

Jon Stewart: Cheney's Got A Gun

Love Love!
Abby

Tequila Shots

NOT!!!! My mommy taught me that those are a bad idea. These are bar shots. As in, a few pics I stole from Kelly that were taken in a bar. Carnegie's most probably.

This is Fritz, Kelly and Me. Me and Fritz sort of smothered Kelly. Smother, present tense actually. We Love Her. Can't get enough of her.

Fritz and Anna, resident Austrians. Anna is so pretty. Especially her hair. Don't you want to be her? I do.

Ok- Alli, Harj and Jessie. Alli, I think we know and love. Jessie is our HKU girl that is like a tour guide and shepherd for us, only she's awesome. Later the night this was taken she danced on the bar. We're a bad influence on her. Finally, Harj....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Could he be cuter? I mean he's Zoolander ridiculously good-looking. Tragedy: Harj has a girlfriend. Back home. He's so off limits. And to make things worse, he is super nice, great personality. He breaks a heart a night, at least.

About Food

Its Saturday Evening and I've had about 26 straight hours of gooood fooood. Grab a snack, because this will make you hungry.

Yesterday evening Kelly and I went in search of dinner, sans veggies. Sometimes you just need meat. Guiltless meat. Meat without disapproving glances. We went down to Kennedytown and wandered until we found a little Malaysian restaurant. We didn't know if we liked Malaysian food, but the menu outside was advertising honey-roasted pork. Seemed like a winner.

Holy my goodness. First of all, we each ordered a 19-peso can of San Miguel (very cheap for beer in a restaurant). They brought us jars to drink it from. Mason jars with handles that said 'drinking jar' right on the side. It was bloody brilliant.

The food? I got the roasted pork with giant shrimp. The shrimp being so giant that there was only one and it basically covered my pork. Which was juicy and crispy and sitting on a pile of sauteed onions. Onions sitting on a pile of peas, carrots, corn and french fries. Yup, under all that yummy meat and veggies was a pile of fries. I mean come on. How can it get better than that? It can't. Thats the answer. It can't. Plus of course there was rice. Kelly's was tomato baked rice.

So after all that deliciousness we headed to the pastry shop across the street. Where I got some sort of cake that was chocolate on top of mousse on top of chocolate and chocolate. Kelly got something cakey with fruit in it. Both were described as [explicit content coming] a triple orgasm happening in your mouth.

And then we went straight from there to Wan Chai (Carnegie's of course, like always) to meet the entire HKU Exchange world for $10 Coronas. Post-Corona's we went to LKF where we went to the Fringe Club (finally!) and sat on the roofgarten with a bunch of crazy folks. We had picked up Shahar and his very cute friend Avi on the way, as well as Will and his buddy Chris who's from (.........!) Atlanta!!!! Yay for hometown bonding. "Hometown" meaning within the same region as a place you have lived more than 1 month. After all, Hannah lived a semester in Germany and feels like family with Germans.

Ok, so eventually H led us to this crazy club we've never been to before that was very local-hole-in-the-wall-ish aside from the fact that it was full of white folks. But the music was crazy good and there was no cover charge, no pushy waitresses, lots of dancing and they let you smoke inside. So everyone (except Alli who hates loud music) was happy as clams. We didn't stay out too late (3:30ish) because I don't know why. No eligible men around I suppose.

So today we all slept in and then Beth, Hannah, Alli and I went out for lunch. We headed to SoHo (the place for good food) and wound up at this adorable Greek restaurant. Hello. Can we talk about salmon and couscous? Four appetizers and two entrees between us. Eggplant, feta, spinach, beets. Veggie heaven.

We spent about 15 minutes walking that off and then went for cheesecake and lattes. More specifically white chocolate cheesecake and caramel vanilla lattes. I'm moving to Soho and never cooking again. Between lunch and lattes we wrote down a mexican, two italian and one thai restaurant to come back and investigate. We also made plans to make Sangria. But that's a whole other thing.

So 7:20 Saturday finds me still stuffed and questioning whether or not I'll ever eat again. But I'm so Happy!

I guess we're doing a very light dinner in, and then...? No real plans, but TV Mike (who still is Ron Burgandy to me) called earlier and wants me to come out. So I suppose I'll wind up in LKF. Its just my style.

FoodFanatic
Abby

Turn Your Bones to Glass

Thanks Jean! She sent me the card pictured. Its brilliant.

Today was pretty dull thusfar, all Supply Chain Management and Cantonese. Which I'm still pretty awful at. Ngoh haih Meih Gwok yahn. I think I'm going to learn this and that's all. It means I'm an American. That's an excuse for everything else.

I did have lunch at the canteen (which is pretty horrible) with Alli, Kelly and Tiffany. After Tiffany and I went to the Wellcome together and found out we're soul sisters. Neither of us like to cook or think that HK has any crime. Of course she's a midwesterner. Because I immediately identify with all midwesterners.

Ok so below is posted a rather long sentiment dealing with transexualism. My Gender Diversity class is getting in my head and I needed to write some to sort things out. If you are brave, read and comment. I'm really eager to have some conversation on the topic, but its tricky. Mostly because I don't know where I stand.

More tomorrow, I have early class on Fridays so I'm going to be spending a quiet evening in with Leonard Piekoff and some nail polish and if I feel crazy I might have sushi. Who knows, I'm a wild woman.

Love!
Abby

P.S. I'm listening to Cold Blooded Old Times by Smog, hence the title of this entry.

What is Gender Afterall?

Ok, I’m in this Sexual and Gender Diversity class, and I consider myself to be a fairly open-minded, accepting type of person. However, I am having trouble wrapping my mind around this transgendered business.

I understand feeling like you were born the wrong gender. Kind of. But what is gender? Are there really only male and female? Does being male really mean being masculine and if you are a woman do you have to play with dolls as a child and want long feminine hair? I guess my real issue is that when a person feels they are the wrong gender, gender becomes so black and white and stereotyped. Why does being a man (physically or psychologically) mean you favor a masculine appearance and are interested in sports and are career-oriented?

My other huge issue: Sex Confirmation Surgery. Why would anyone ever want to, essentially, mutilate their genitalia to ‘confirm’ their gender? If gender is more about what is between your ears than what’s between your legs (as activists and promoters chant endlessly) why should you change the latter? If your physical sex isn’t important why would you undergo an expensive, dangerous medical procedure to alter it?

If the goal is getting the acknowledgement of your preferred gender, why are we not lobbying to make gender identity a choice, instead of an assumed state? Why do transgendered persons feel uncomfortable with their bodies if your body isn’t who you are? At the end of the day aren’t they just trying to make their body conform to their idea of gender? To me it seems like the exact opposite of the idea that gender is a mental state.

I have seen so much unhappiness in the teen-angst, females in America way- girls hating their bodies. They have eating disorders or cut themselves or hide themselves because they don’t look like they think a woman should (aka like a supermodel). But these women are beautiful just as they are, and we don’t tell them to have surgery so their body matches what their mind tells them is right, we tell them to learn to love their bodies. How is this different from a transgendered person? Can they not learn to love their body? Is there no chance of seeing a penis as a body part and not a label?

I can be on board (mostly) for hormone therapy- have your most superficial appearance portray the gender you want to be perceived as. I dye my hair and wear ungodly amounts of eyeliner. Sometimes I wear a corset and I’m never without high heels. This is how I see myself, its an image I’m happy with. But the fact that I feel happier with my waist cinched a bit doesn’t mean I need to have some ribs removed or go on a diet. What is under all the clothes and makeup is something I have learned to love, and I’d hope everyone could feel that way.

In the most idealistic fashion- Can’t we teach people that being physically male or female shouldn’t dictate the femininity or masculinity we project, and similarly, the gender we present is unrelated to the interests and actions of an individual. Playing with Barbie doesn’t make you a girl, and neither does wearing a skirt or having breasts.

I think I hate the idea of gender. Its stupid. Labels divide us. Its like race or religion. Giving it a name makes it something people can hate or misconstrue. Because people suck and they love to ruin things that ought to be simple and harmless.

Johari Window Nonsense

Here's something interesting Miranda directed me to, click here and tell me about me. Thanks kids!

Culture, Ritual and Literature

High Table Dinner #2 was today. Similar to the first. As a courtesy to the veggies they had the restaurant make them salads- fruit salad with some sort of dressing that was almost definitely mayonnaise (which Alli can't eat). Aside from the dietary issues with that, watermelon, honeydew and strawberries in mayo just isn't that good. The rest of the food was sort of so-so, but nothing with its heads still attached, so that was nice.

We were once again excused from the hall meeting as our hall leader (Chloe) is apparently incapable of holding the meeting in english. All in all better than on Anna's floor though, where they require her to attend and still speak in Cantonese.

I totally forgot to tell the story of Valentine's amusement the other day so I'll tell you now. The other night we were chillin’ on the roof and heard some ruckus in the street below. We observed from the roof the most horrifying ritualistic events ever. There were two groups, one boys, one girls, gathered together. The boys were in wide circle, kneeling on the ground and all holding bouquets of flowers. The girls were standing a few feet off.

The guys would come to the center of the circle one at a time, take a knee and offer the flowers to one of the girls (or so it seemed, we couldn’t really hear from 15 floors up). The girls would then all squeal and sometimes jump up and down and one would come forward and either accept or reject the man. It was hilarious. It seemed very dramatic and also it seemed if the guy was rejected he’d try again.

So this excitement went on for about 10 minutes when two cops show up on motorcycles (which seems to be the primary cop transportation round these parts) and broke up the party. We are assuming there was a noise complaint or something. After all offering yourself to women in the most humiliating, ritualistic way possible isn’t illegal.

Finally, I’d like to mention that I finished Vanity Fair today. I’ve been working on that bad boy since before Christmas with a relatively small level of commitment- despite the fact that I utterly loved it. I can now say with authority that the movie starring Reese Witherspoon butchered the spirit of the novel (in the most Hollywood way possible). Also that Thackeray may be my new favorite author. The book is written with such informality and honesty. Even the rambling, ranting bits are sort of heart-felt in their bitterness and they are so logical in a stream-of-consciousness way.

Well, I guess what I’m getting at is you should all read it. It’d be like Abby’s Book Club. I’d be bigger than Oprah in the reading club department. To keep you on track I’m starting Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand by Leonard Peikoff tomorrow.

That is All. Go Away.
Abby

Valentines continues

Valentine's Day. Free vodka drinks from 10 to 11. Every international student was at Carnegies. And thats sort of all I have to say about it. Everyone was up to their usual shenanigans, dancing, drinking, vomiting, flirting. It exhausts me to even think about.

Oh but earlier yesterday Kelly, Fritz and I went to The Fringe club and got memberships. We're gonna be hitting jazz concerts in no time. Unfortunately the Vagina Monologues is already sold out. Sadness! The club is so cute though. Very bohemian hole in the wall, concrete floors and ultra modern minimalistic motif. The guy behind the counter with gelled hair wearing a woman's shirt? Too gay for words and crazy adorable. I need to import him a boyfriend he's so cute.

Speaking of adorable, Fritz is too much. Have I mentioned the Austrian? He's so ginger and super enthusiastic. I've never seen him sans grin and he's a great time to go out with. Loves to dance like a fool, take pics, and knock back the cheap drinks. He's a planner, which is beyond useful. He's always orchestrating something (like Fringe Club) so I might start calling him Fearless Leader.... :)

Finally- Thanks to my momma for my VDay package. The chocolates were a nice breakfast, and I'm already wearing my socks. I'm so stylish in my Valentine's socks and pjs with my clemson mardi gras necklace, you guys just don't even know. Anyway- thank you mom!

later-
Abby

Valentines and Randomness

I'd like to start out today by sending a big thank you to Gina and Grace. I got you girls' Valentine's package when I got back from class today (Valentine's Day!) Perfect timing! I love my shoe pin, it's going to look fabulous with my black sweater I'm wearing today. I'm also pretty excited about the candy. 7-11 candy really just isn't the same. Oh and I'm hanging up my new picture as soon as I find some tape. So Thank You Thank You girls!

In more news, a congratulations to Nate and JayJay on their engagement!

And now a story about Industrial Automation. This class only has 7 students, 5 HongKongenese boys and Kelly and me- two white girls from the midwest. Our professor is this very enthusiastic young HK guy who finds differential equations and systems modeling to be crazy-fun. He knows us all by name and is pretty interactive for a mathy class.

We normally meet on Mondays and Thursdays, but Dr. Ng (my Supply Chain prof) is out of town now, so our thursday class got switched with his tuesday. Its a morning class, and people are notoriously late here, especially in the mornings. About 15 minutes into the lecture this guy who isn't in our class wanders it. As he starts to sit (apparently unphased by the fact that there are only 6 students present in a class that usually has about 60 and the presence of an unfamiliar instructor) my prof tells him that the usual class has been switched, this is industrial automation, but of course if you like that, you are welcome to stay. A bit of sarcasm on that last part.

The guy stayed. For an hour and a half. He took notes and a handout. He did examples. It was weird. And then a mere 10 minutes before the class ended he picked up his bag and walked out. The prof cracked up and made fun of him in Cantonese. I dont' know what he said, but I assume it was along the lines of "that kid is a freak. who does that?"

Oh and can I just brag? Who do you think dominated the LaPlace Unit Step Functions and Heaviside functions? The smart HKer boy? Nope, me. Cuz I'm awesome and LaPlace rocks my world.

On a whole other subject, I'm going to this place called The Fringe Club this afternoon with some internationals (led by Fritz) to buy memberships. I'm pretty psyched. This place has a few different venues, one is like an art exhibit, one has live music and the other I think is a theater. There are events there almost every night and often free for members. Thursday a bunch of us are going to see the Vagina Monologues there. An excellent Valentines tradition. If you've never seen it, you should. Immediately. Its amazing.

OK, more later- its VDay and there are free drinks at Carnegie's so I'm sure there will be stories to tell.
-Abby-

Sleep is for the Weak

All of last night’s excitement actually happened this morning. Ow. Totally not my fault though.

Saturday Night

8:00- Pasta and Wine with Beth and Alli at Wei Lun

9:00- Party disbands to get prettied up

9:45- Beth shows up, announces that Alli is still in her pj’s and Hannah just arrived home from Macau so they are to be at least another half hour. We take a walk to the gas station

10:10- Beth and I buy 4 cans of Carlesburg and a bottle of gas station wine. Because we’re classy chicks like that.

10:45- Back on 4/F Wei Lun, Ally is ready but we’re waiting for Hannah. H went to bed at 2am Fri, and was up for Macau at 6am Sat, so we are willing to cut slack. And to pop open that second bottle of wine.

11:30- Somehow I’m suddenly in B’s room with Alli listening to ‘spoken word’. I’m not really a cultural bohemian like those two. In my mind I consider it freestyle rap. Or just rap. Apparently if you don’t talk about skanks and hoes then its poetry, performance art. Although in some parts of the world, rap is performance art. Like all music. Whatever, we all know Abby isn’t into all the touchy-feely nonsense that gets vegans and Californians excited.

12:00 We’ve finally managed to finish all the beer and wine and exit Wei Lun. We dawdle around long enough for the girls to have a smoke and catch a cab.

Sunday Morning (see? I was ready to head out at 9:30)

12:45- Arrive in LKF having picked up our Aussie lover Derek and quest for a short time after this jazz bar Kurt told us about. Kurt turns out to be a dirty liar and we end up at Finds (Do we recall the night Ab and H. went to 19 different bars? Finds is the swanky place we met Anshel.) Anshel and his buddy from Perth and their entire entourage are there again and in no time at all Theric shows up with his own crew of miscreants.

Finds makes it onto my top 5 list because they make a killer whiskey sour. Lots of places here don’t do sours. I share mine around a bit and become Beth’s drink guru because it turns out I drink all sorts of exotic things she’s never heard of, and they have cherries in them. Finds has very decent music and a lovely terrace, aside from Hei Hei it’s the only

1:30- Everyone decides its time to upgrade to a different venue. People start to scatter, I end up with Theric and 2 of his boys at this very fancy exclusive place called Dragon Eye in LKF. It was way too classy for me. All of the people there were models, young playboy millionaires and HK celebs. So basically what I’m saying is I was the shortest white girl there, the only girl who wasn’t anorexic, and the only non-blonde. Not exactly my scene.

2:00- Convince Theric that he is much to ill to stay out much longer and drag him to Tribeca in Wan Chai. He really was sick, he looked like he’d been recently hit by a train and wasn’t drinking because he’d been prescribed some serious antibiotics.

Anshel, Derek, H and their assorted crew are at Tribeca, which is on the same level of swanky as Finds, but with louder music, big circular couches and free vodka drinks.
4:15- Having thinned out the crowd significantly, D, H, Mike and I head out in search of food. Mike is a contemporary Ron Burgundy. He is a reporter, works for TVB, and really tried to make H and I understand that he was shall I say ‘kind of a big deal’. He gave me his card. Hannah tried to eat it. I found it in my purse just now, all impressive and with H’s dental imprints on it. We end up in that dangerous situation of going somewhere local. Fantastic hole in the wall place full of natives, music videos and a wireless mic that just got passed around a lot, fish balls and dice. The boys taught H and I how to play the Chinese dice game. Its sort of like a mix between Yahtzee and the card game Bullsh*t, but with betting and drinking. Lots of Americans vs. Australian competitions are held, as Mike is a Cali boy and D and H are aussies.

6:00- H and I realize we still haven’t been fed. The boys take us back to the Flying Pan, the same waffle-housesque eatery Theric took me to last week. I order grits and horrify everyone. Mike could not get over it. H and D were fascinated. Everyone tried them, questioned their content. I practically licked the bowl clean they were so fricking fantastic.

7:30- Time to head home. Tearful goodbyes. Derek is headed back to the outback first thing on Tuesday. We shall miss him greatly.

7:45- Abby and H crawl back into Wei Lun and crash. Hannah gets the prize for the evening, her final score was 26hrs awake on no more than 4hrs of sleep.

You stay classy San Francisco-

Abby

good morning vietnam

you know its been a good night when you creep into your room at 7:45am. more later, after this girl has had some zzzz's.

Love!!!!

Friday Night- 6.8 USA

Time for our weekly Friday night Recap-

Excitement was late in starting this Friday. We made it to Carnegie's in Wan Chai around 9:45, in plenty of time to take advantage of $10 Coronas (a deal that lasts until 11). There was some international crowd there, not the most usual crowd, but the ladies' man Jesse was there as well as the triangle of the guy that seems to like Alli and the guy with a gf that Alli likes. Drama. My Seattle boy Michael was there so it was cool. The music in Carnegie's is awful. Its like they have one person's IPod on shuffle every night. Same songs every time. And whoever's IPod this is they have an affinity for Shania Twain and cliche American pop circa 1970-1985. So you know all the words, and you can certainly dance to it, but after about an hour you start wanting to bore holes in your eardrums.

On this note though I'd like to make a statement about elitism. I used to think I was sort of an elitist about my music, or film and my fashion. I'm giving it up. Its what makes college students pretentious and annoying. I now aspire to have decent taste. I want to know what's good and what's crap, but never have to complain about it. Since I've been here I've not been in a single bar, club or restaurant where the music or atmosphere wasn't lamented and its irritating. At some point we have to admit that we're in HK where an appreciation for contemporary American music may not exist. So just be happy you aren't listening to canto-pop.

Anyway, after the cheap drinks were gone, around 12, a change of venue was neccessary. This caused a big split because the laid-back intellectual types wanted to go to Old China Hand which is sort of a English pub type of place, very dim and quiet with big tables and huge glasses of beer. Those of us who feel ourselves too young and beautiful to hang out in the same place as 50-year-old visiting businessmen and a plethora of philippino hookers were left to find somewhere else to go. There was a lot of dawdling but Anna, her Austrian buddy Michael, Hannah and I managed to get back to Lan Kwai Fong.

There I finally met Bed, the South Carolinian! It was amazing. He's the exact definition of Southern Cute and was wearing boat shoes and a Rusty Wallace baseball cap. He said y'all and asked what we were fixin' to do. He picked me out for a yankee immediately. (The canadians think I have a southern accent... who knows.) Anyway Ben and I are family now, because I love him for being so southern.

So after some touring and some kebabs, I ended up at Lux with the Canadian Law boys who I've named Big-E, Mikey, and Jimbo. They were with this girl, Jennie, they picked up a few days ago who speaks Cantonese. So we hung at Lux, danced a bit (Jimbo is quite the dancer for a funky white boy), drank a bit, and I impressed the boys with my ability to regurgitate lines from Anchorman. We stayed until we were asked to leave (apparently on Fridays they close at 3:30 and if you are still sipping your drinks at 4 they get snippy. Its that kind of place. The guy who asked us to leave was 5'6", 130lbs and wearing a pink pinstriped shirt. There was really no way he was getting the respect of 3 sizable mounties.)

Eventually we left and went somewhere for fishballs and wantons then headed home. Not the most fun I've ever had, but I didn't have to see anyone throw up and I got to wear my fishnet stockings and sleeves all over Wan Chai and Lan Kwai Fong. Plus I'm now in with the Canadians who seem like a fun crowd.

On a whole other topic, this afternoon Alli and I were making lunch and found Bend It Like Beckham on TV in english. Made my whole afternoon.

Fishballs for all-
Abby

HK Cast List

Ok, I've started a new page for profiles of my HK peeps. Its obviously far from completion and I haven't got a lot of pictures at this point. But you get the idea. Suggestions for information desired are welcome.

Also I've inserted a quick pic here for the sake of sympathy. Look what my brooch did to my thumb! Having stairs is a bad idea. I sort of stumbled on my way in the other night and mashed the brooch against my hand. If I see you sometime I can do a wicked reinactment.

Ok, thats all for now, expect more tomorrow- tonight we have a hall dinner and its *Friday* so we girls will be hitting the town I'm sure.

//Abby\\

Class and Clubs

Ugh Thursdays are the worst. I have a two-hr long Industrial Automation lecture, which is just way to long to sit around talking about differential equations and systems modeling. The Prof is really enthusiastic though. There are only like 8 people in the class and my new best friend Kelly the IE from Wisconsin is in there with me so we struggle through together. Then we go to Starbucks and kill a half hour before Cantonese.

Cantonese- the hardest language ever. Six tones. A crazy little Chinese woman. I feel like I haven't learned anything in there but its because the first 4 lectures focused on how to read the Romanization of the words and how to pronounce them. Also we learned our numbers and how to greet people. But no real vocabulary or grammar. Although I heard a rumor that there is no grammar in Chinese. Throw the words together in any order, there is no tense on verbs, no feminine or masculine or plural on nouns. So everything that is hard about Spanish doesn't exist in Cantonese. That's kind of sweet. But I still can barely say any of the words properly. Tracy is gonna be my awesome tutor. :)

At 6 tonight I went to a meeting held by this guy Will that's starting a new club on campus. Will is this excessively ambitious guy from Berkley who is the leader of this group called Berkley Innovation. They're basically all about creative problem solving and being Berkley-ish. Apparently last year they got a $20 thousand grant to implement a GPS internet tracking system for their shuttle buses. They installed GPS locators and Wi-Fi's into the buses so students can go online and find out how far away a bus is. That's freakin' useful.

So being all hard-core, Will is trying to start the same type of group here. I'm totally into it. He came off pretty intense and geeky when he first pitched it, but I felt bad about making fun of him so I went to the first meeting tonight. Guess who wishes he was an IE? Will. Cuz IE's rock. Anyway I'm going to spend the rest of this blog breaking down the group. Stop reading now if you are not interested.

The goals of the group seem three-fold. One is Will's goal, one is Sasha's and the other is the finance people. Will's major plan is he'd like to start a world-wide innovation website for college students. Somewhere to post problems, solutions, creativity methods and innovation news. I think it started as an easy way to link the HK and CA groups, but then why not take it worldwide?

The second, which I think is Sasha's champion is having innovation workshops where we tackle different problems each time just to practice creative thinking and creativity techniques. This is something Will's group already does, but Sasha is all for having fun and clearly this is what he loves. I think its brilliant.

Finally, there are several business and finance people in the group (mostly from Canada) and they are lame. They are such yuppie, brainwashed college student types that are ridiculously goal-oriented and focused on their own interests. Abby got totally psyched that there were Soc and Engineering and Business and Science majors, because having tons of perspectives and different pools of knowledge is so important in product design. These finance geeks got a little righteous about doing something finance related. But its ok. They are the heads of a case-study finance group at their uni so its clearly what they are good at. And business majors hate to look like they don't know whats up. Anyway for them they seem really bent on doing a big project and were already trying to come up with ways to get business contacts or financial backing. We don't even have a problem to solve and they are trying to get it sponsored. Figures.

I feel like maybe Will and I will be on the level though. His main focus is doing something that will benefit HKU students and getting locals involved in the group. I think he'd like to leave an operating club on this campus and have them be close with the group in CA. More power to him. The website (which is both a tangible achievement and something cool to use) got really downplayed at this meeting, but I think it will come around to something people want to contribute to.

Anyway I'm pretty pleased with the whole thing and now you know that.

-Abby

I ate an Eggshell

So I started the day off in my new boots with the beadwork and embroidery topped the my pink H&M skirt. Its a pencil skirt with a long kick and the bottom that ends just above midcalf. Huge mistake. The hem of my skirt kept getting caught in the beads and sequins threatening to rip both as I walked. Totally tragic.

I come home after class and change into my brown (new years '05) skirt with my shorter brown boots. Then the wind picks up and I nearly flash everyone between Sassoon and Pokfield Rds. Finally I ghetto-rig it to stay down by tying two of the long bits of the hem together in front of me. Worked well, but looked atrocious.

Tracy took me to the canteen for lunch today and got me something that in English was called 'Mixed meats, salted eggs, and rice'. It had barbequed pork, ham, and beef in it with some veggies and rice and hard boiled, salted eggs sawed in half. The eggs still had the shells on. They were thin, like they'd been boiled in vinegar for a while but it was still a bit odd.

Tuesdays at Carnegie's in Wan Chai (red light district) is $10 vodka drinks night. All my girls and I went down and lived it up. Did Abby get tipsy for less than 10 american dollars? Yes, yes she did.
Did Ally buy herself 8 drinks and then throw up in our floor's kitchen? Yep she did.
Did Abby find someone to dance on the bar with her? Nope, luckily my friends are good enough to not allow me to dance on the bar. Although I would want to even if I wasn't drinking.
Did Hannah ditch Beth, Ally and me to fool with the boy upstairs? Yep. Not cool.
Did Abby injure herself brutally on her way back into the dorm? Sure did. Somehow I mashed my thumb against my brooch and tore a gash in it thats 3/4ths of an inch long. Yuck.
Did Abby meet the other IE girl, Kelly? Yeah baby, she rocks. She was wearing a 'Gettin Lucky in Kentucky' shirt.
Was it a night that shall be repeated every Tuesday? Probably.

Until next my life is eventful-
Abby

Priest Wanted

I think Blogger has been possessed by the demon spirit of lost posts. I don't know why my Feb posts keep vanishing, but they've now been posted a 3rd time, and seem to be sticking... for now. If they disappear again, I'm calling that guy from The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

Apologies for making some of you think you imagined up events in my life. And I recieved emails from a number of readers thinking they'd lost their marbles. Found!

How To Earn the Respect of an American Man

Its quite simple really. Be the only girl to show up to watch the Super Bowl. At 6:30am.

The showing was arranged by the Office of International Student Affairs and they offered to show it on the 12-ft screen in the Global Lounge. There were some technical difficulties at first, for instance they couldn't get the sound to route through the speakers so we had to listen to the first third of the game on headphones. Not terribly tragic. Except that they couldn't get the English feed until the beginning of the second quarter so it was all being simultaneously translated into Cantonese. Which was really annoying.

So other ways to earn brownie pts with the menfolk- cheer loudly in a silent room. Without the speakers the room was akwardly silent- didn't matter, Abby cheers.
-Trashtalk the guys who leave when they can't hear the commentary in English. There is no translation for 'touchback', 'field goal', or 'Randel El'. So the Cantonese was totally legit.
-When another girl does show up late in the second quarter, do not abandon your front row seat to sit and chat with her. Briefly aknowledge her arrival and then ignore her until half-time. A girl who shows up late and stops at Starbucks on her way in clearly has her priorities all wrong.
-Say you are a fan of a team that's not playing, choose a team to favor in this game and don't switch sides. I was a Seahawks fan right to the end. I lamented their loss.
-Show knowledge of the game when the Brits who show ask silly questions like "why are the linebackers so fat?" or "What is illegal touching?"
-Be upset that you have to watch the game without barbeque or beer. No, 7am isn't too early for beer! The super bowl comes but once a year!
-Be a hometown girl. Compare any and all coaches present or mentioned to Mike Ditka.

I haven't really been chumming up with the American boys here, I think my fabulous wardrobe and veggie friends frightened them. After the game today I got a wink, three nods of approval and a 'peace out playa'. I'm in like Flynn baby.

-Abby

P.S. Eating macaroni and cheese with chopsticks is hard.

Saturday Nights All Right for Fighting

Well, I didn't do any fighting, nor did I hear any Elton John songs, but nevertheless it was a pretty enjoyable evening- our last night of partying before its back to school.

I had dinner at this little Indian Restaurant just above Lan Kwai Fong with Hannah, Ally, Beth, Kurt from NY and Carmine from Cali. First time meeting those two, they were pretty cool, didn't seem too offput by the endless loud banter of the girls, although Kurt did have to admit he was never going to get into a cab with 4 women again, following a discussion about how girls always think they are pregnant.

Ok, so start the night off with Garlic Prawn Curry and lively educated (for once) dinner conversation. After that we walked down to Lan Kwai Fong and found ourselves at Insomnia. To spare you of the minute details of the entire night, we hit Insomnia, some Russian bar with amazing vodka drinks, Post 97, and eventually the Volar. Along the way we lost Kurt and Carmine, picked up Derrick and Shahar, dropped Beth and Shahar and found Theric and his friends Jen and Jen.

Ok, so The Volar is the most exclusive club in Lan Kwai Fong (which doesn't really mean much) but Theric knew the bouncer and was making a big effort to get us in, but our group was a bit to large. Hannah and I have decided we're not the kind of girls who wait in line hoping to get into a club so we grabbed Derrick and one of the Jens and headed over to some swanky 4th floor bar up the block. Some Brits were there, the most important of which was Anchel who was buying everyone's drinks. Apparently his father is part owner of Hei Hei and Anchel is quite the spoiled little playboy. No complaints about that.

Eventually we went back down to the Volar where the addition of Anchel was enough of a name to get our entire party in. The music was pretty decent, it wasn't too crowded and the atmosphere was tremendous, but at the end of the night it was clear that the bartenders at Post 97 were significantly hotter than at the Volar, so H and I may not be back. The fun wound down here too and apparently its tradition to and teh night at Hei Hei, so once again there was a lot of name-dropping and noise so we could skip the line and head up.

About an hour at Hei Hei (which was ridiculously crowded) was enough to call it a night, so Hannah and I started walking home at about 4:30. The whole night was tremendous good fun and I am officially in love with Derrick and Anchel who are both so funny and adorable with their making fun of one another's accents in a mix of English and Cantonese. Crazy.

Oh and because I know you are in suspense- Yes we saw the creepy guy from the bathroom incident again, but we all carefully avoided eye contact and weren't in the same places as him at the same time. Except Hei Hei. Everyone was at Hei Hei, but it was too crowded to matter much.

-Peace Love and Rock 'n Roll
Abby

Shopaholic Saturday

I didn't go out on Friday night, so I was up pretty early this morning and by 10am I found myself in Central with a full pocketbook and a latte.

What did I find myself? Boots!!! That's right, I've finally purchased my much-longed-for boots. They are perfection. Brown, soft, flat boots. They lace up the back and are super-casual and super-cute. And if I bought a second pair I could get them for $150HK each. So I also got black 1" heel boots with a butterfly embroidered on them with sequined wings and a beaded body.

Then I found a shop with tops on sale for $60HK so I picked up a brown, teal and orange striped top with long sleeves and gold on the brown spots.

Then I went to Wanko and got two more tops. Both long-sleeved black T's, one with a sequined hat on the front and the other with a neon green design that's going to look wicked good with my bright green skirt.

After that I called it a day and just picked up some food at the deli and came home to find my power cord had arrived! So after a brief victory dance I was up and running once again and since then I've been blogging my little fingers to the bone. Cuz I hate to be behind.

Now I'm off to iron the aforementioned green skirt and show off my new things to the girls on the hall.

Hope you are having a day as full of new things and happy surprises as me!
Happy Abby

Thursday Night: Free Cosmos

Its true. There's this phenomenal little bar in Lan Kwai Fong called Post 97 and Thursday nights, girls can drink cosmpolitans for free. Endless cosmos. As many as you can ingest while remaining relatively upright.

A few pretty noteworthy events took place during cosmo night that I'd like to share. The first is we got to meet Beth's man, Shahar. (not actually sure of the spelling there) Shar is an Israeli Jew, here managing a kosher grocery store to earn brownie points with some religious and business contacts back home. His new athiest gf here won't earn him any points at all, so we're going to keep this on the DL.

What we're not afraid to share is that he is so cute, so sweet, so smitten with Beth. And they would have BEAUTIFUL children. y'know if they ever reproduced. So the poor man was a bit scared to meet us, because even though we've only known Beth 2 weeks, we are her girls and there are 4 of us and that can be a little intimidating. But he had no cause to worry because he bought us a round of kamikazis and danced akwardly whenever Beth wanted so we loved him. And he invited us to a barbeque in a few weeks. Yay!!!

Next thing- Abby gets picked up in a men's room. UGH! Most akward, embarassing moment of my life. Here's the situation. Post 97 has but two bathrooms, so the line is everlastingly long for the ladies room all the time. I've been standing in line awhile, and when I get to the front I see a girl come out of the men's room. A woman who worked at the club went in and restocked the toilet paper and then told me to go in. I'm like 'really?' and she's indicates that there are no men waiting for the bathroom so I jump in. Now there is a urinal and a sink and then another door into the real toilet. So I go through the second door, lock it behind me, pee, straighten up my outfit and walk out. Or rather walk in on a man using the urinal.

Oh the horror. I jump back into the little room and slam the door shut shouting apologies. The guy looked so startled, the door is sort of camoflaged and looks like another wall. And he got walked in on. So a few seconds later the door between us is pulled open and we're both quite red-faced and he asks if he's in the wrong place. No, this is the men's room. But some lady told me to come in here. He's incredulous. What woman. I swear a lady who works here, there were no guys in line.
'Oh, I thought it was open'
'Yeah I'm really really sorry.'
'You're an American aren't you?'
'Yeah...'
'Where are you from?'
'Chicago'
'Oh really? I'm from England (duh, accent makes that pretty obvious) but I studied at Northwestern.'
'No kidding.' Abby tries to edge out the other door as the bathroom guy is smiling at her and begins to lean.
'I'm [random name], what's your name?' Extends hand.
'Um, Abby' Abby tries desperately to figure out a way to not shake hands. I know for a fact neither of us has washed and we're in a bathroom in a bar. 'Well, fancy meeting you here... ok, see you later.' Abby exits in horror, embarassment, and disgust.

Of course, like any self-respecting person I run to my friends (disinfect first thing) and tell the entire story, with much enthusiasm and feeling. Quite entertained they ask which guy it is. I notice him standing not too far away and gesture towards him and as the 6 of us look up at him in unison he looks at us! So then I had to admit that I told my friends. He turned bright red and shook his head.

Later he sidled up to Ally and she found out he's 35, wears suits to bars, hits on 20-yr-olds (apparently) and drinks wine. In bars. Creepy guy. Epic story though.

So as the night wore on, the girls dropped off one by one until it was just me and Hannah and we then found a huge group of Internationals in line at The Edge and eventually we all ended up back at 97. Hannah left with another Aussie girl and a guy they like, Jesse. Abby found her old friend Theric and he found her somewhere you can get eggs at 3:30am. Everyone eventually found their way to that diner and it was just like the Waffle House in Clemson, all full of drunks at 4am.

:)Abby(:

Thursday: Stanley Market

Thursday the girls (Anna, Hannah, Ally and Beth) and I all went down to Stanley Market. Its on the South side of HK Island and can be reached by bus. Wildly good shopping here. They have clothing, jewelry, purses, scarves, artwork, toys, and did I mention jewelry?

Back up. From the beginning. Let's start with Wednesday night. Wednesday being Ladies' Night, we girls (minus Beth who was out with her man) decided to chill at Club Hei Hei. It's a swanky bar in Lan Kwai Fong on the third floor of a building just off the main drag. Hei Hei is no cover for ladies on Wed and Thurs and the first drink is free. Its a very posh-looking modern place with low light, really loud music, wide couches and lots of room to stand and drink or dance near the bar. Best of all it has a patio with lovely fountains, tables, benches and a fantastic view of the most happening place in town.

So we had a great time at Hei Hei, but Hannah had the most fun as she met a french guy who kept her glass full. By the end of the night we nearly had to carry her out and I thought the manager might ask us not to come back. But I gave him my word as a lady that I wouldn't let Hannah drink anymore or let her swim in the fountains and he let us stay awhile.

While my girl was considering a late-night swim, I met Derrick and Theric, an Aussie friend of Hannah's and his New Yorker buddy. These guys are my new heroes because they were so funny and unphased by our nonsense. Ok so we called it a night at about quarter of three.

Following a night like Wednesday, we didn't really make the blazing early start Thursday we might have hoped for. We rolled out of Wei Lun around 12:30, unbreakfasted. We picked up coffee first thing in Stanley and then headed to a restaurant Beth had been to before that was rumored to have good vegitarian pizzas. Muy importante for our vegan and veggie friends.

That was a nightmare of epic proportions. We were told there was a 10 minute wait. We were seated 45-minutes later. It took almost 30-minutes for our appetizers to come out, our pizzas were cold and one of them never did arrive. You can imagine how hungry we were as it was now close to 3. And not in the best of spirits either.

Anyway the Market did not disappoint. I controled myself and just bought one fabulous necklace with bright blue fresh-water pearls. The other girls basically broke the bank.

-still not quite in the poorhouse
Abby

Tuesday, the Races, and a Temple

Tuesday I went to the horseraces with a bunch of international students. The racetrack is in Sha Tin in the New Territories and is **gorgeous**. Well you can see for yourself, a photo here, and some more in the photo album linked on the right.

So the story is that usually the racetrack is full of creepy old white men, but during New Years they have some sort of national championship and all of Hong Kong turns out. Which I believe because it was real crowded and no one spoke english. It was good fun, I've never been to a horse race before so the whole thing was pretty novel. We placed $10 bets (about $1.50US) and Hannah the Aussia and Anna the Austrian actually won a little. According to Hannah the races in Australia are much more fun because everyone drinks heavily and gets more dressed up. But it was still a good time.

Also in Sha Tin is the Che Kung temple, so we went there when we tired of the race track. It was sooooo crowded you could barely move and the incense made it so smokey you could barely breathe and everyone there had tears streaming down their faces. There were HK police there directing traffic with megaphones which sort of distracted from the religious experience of it all but if they hadn't been there no one would have been able to find their way in or out. We bought windmills there, cuz it was the thing to do. Che Kung has tons of them, and they are believed to turn your fortune when the wind catches them. We bought small ones, but some people were carrying around 3-ft tall structures with no less than 20 windmills on them. 'Twas madness.

After all the sightseeing of the day, my international girls and I went to Lan Kwai Fong for margaritas to finish out the night. Beth the Berkley girl, Ally of Missouri and Hannah came and later Will (also of Berkley) met up with us and it was a delightful evening.

And that was Tuesday.
_abby_