My last weekend and long due bungee photos.

Well, I now have less than a week left of my time here in Macao. I decided to spend my last weekend going to all the sights I have yet to visit and making up for the pictures I have not been taking. Saturday morning started off with a trip to A-Ma Temple, which is the oldest temple in Macao, built during the 1400's. The Buddhist temple actually played a roll in the naming of Macao. About 400 years ago when the Portugese landed
on Macao
the temple, they asked the natives the name of the land. Thinking they were asking about the temple, the natives replied "Ma Ge," which how they pronounced the name ofthe temple. The Portuguese translated it into Macau and began using Macau when referring to the land, and so Macao had been named. (You may have noticed I ended Macao with both an o and a u...well the u is how the Portuguese spelled it and the o is how the Chinese spelled it. You can find it spelled both ways, using the u is the more common spelling and I am naturally inclined to use the us as well, however the Institute for Tourism Studies (where I have my internship) spells it with the o, so I have been trying to use the o as often as possible.) The temple was small but beautiful, many of the large boulders leading up the paths had been inscribed with Chinese writing. The characters had been intricatly inscribed with hammer and chisle then painted. A beautiful sight it was. At the bottom there was a little shop I was checking out, when a couple girls next to me asked where I was from. I told them America and found out they visiting from Taiwan. We continued to talk and I found out that they were couch surfing in Macao, with a guy whom I had met earlier that week...such a small World! Since we were both sight seeing around Macao, we ended up hanging out for the rest fo the day together.

We went to Lim Lou Leoc Gardens, which was This was not as exciting as I had anticipated after reading about it in the guidebook. If I were a local, this would be a nice place to come for some R&R, but there were better things to be seen, so left after only 10 minutes or so.

From there we headed to the Guila Lighthouse. We traveled to the top of Guia Hill via a wonderful little two minute cable car ride. From there it was a short walk to Guia Fortress on top of which was the

Guia Lighthouse. (We also walked on the Guia path, saw some Guia trees and adored the Guia flowers...Guia,Guia, Guia) The fortress and lighthouse are the highest natural point on Macao, which offered an awesome view. As we headed up the lighthouse, we came accross the room where they stored the typhoon signals. Each shape represents a level of the typhoon warning system. (Speaking of which, we are currenlty at Typhoon 1 right now, it will probably be upgraded to a T3 tonight and possibly a T8 by Thursday. There is

no numerical progression, it actually goes 1,3,8,9,10. 3 means there could be some big gusts, 8 means stay in doors and all/most businesses close down for the day. The center of the typhoon is currently forecast to pass about 100km to the West of us.) And I digress, the lighthouse was cool though, got some great pictures!

From there, it was just a random evening of dodging the rain, eating some thai food and watching a movie back at my apartment. What a fun day. IT was going to be a fun day either way, but rather than spending it exploring Macao alone taking photos, I got to spend it with two wonderful Taiwanese girls. I love random!

My highlight of Sunday and the entire trip was dinner with my friend Carmen and her family. They invited me over for a traditional Chinese dinner and I was honored to have such a wonderful opportunity, as Sunday dinner is usually the biggest meal of the week. I purchased a bottle of wine to bring with as a gift for their hospitality and was on my way. They said dinner would begin around 8:30, so that would be a good time to

arrive. Carmen met me at the street and escorted me up to her Aunt's apartment where we were having dinner. We hung around and chatted for a while, then started in on dinner around 9pm. What a spread it was. They had preparred a ton of food. Soup which had been made with fish stomach's and black chicken, baked fish, broiled fish, barbecue pork, chicken, garlic stuffed prawns, Taiwanese sausage, bamboo shoots, watermelon and a small citrus like grape sized fruit. While Carmen's parents spoke little english, we still had great conversation with Carmen translating. My favorite part of the evening was when we sang songs for eachother, so much fun. I sang Friend's in Low Places by the Garth Brooke's and they sang a number of Chinese songs for me. They would usually only get through a few words before they began to giggle and laugh, it was great fun. After dinner Carmen and I went down the street to have some Chinese sweet soup for dinner. I had a mixture of greenbeans and redbeans, it was really good. By the time I got home it was 1:30, but totally worth. The Lio's are a wonderfula nd generous family. I thank them so much for the hospitality they have shown me during my stay here in Macao.

So I actually did the bungee jump one month ago, but have been waiting until I got the pictures to tell y'all about it. Maria Lobo, an exchange student from Portugal, and I had been talking about wanting to do the bungee...I mean we had to, it's the World's tallest bungee, why not?! We finally decided to do it and I spent my lunch break (and about an extra hour, ha!) experiencing the World's tallest bungee!! 233 meters/764 feet and approximately 5 seconds of free fall.

Leading up to the jump I was super excited, I look tired as hell and should probably sleep more, but I didn't come to Macao to sleep. I kinda had some butterflys but not really, just excited. Roger helped me get strapped, cool guy from Indiana actually. We were just have some good convo, prio to takeoff!

When it was time to jump, I still wasn't scared. Not even stepping onto the platform, then he said "Okay, walk you toes to the edge of the platform." ...excuse, me what, ok... now I'm scared. I'm looking straight doen 764 feet to the ground, a million thoughts went through my head. Luckily the camera guy talked to me taking my mind off it for a second, the it was back to thinking... (thoughts in 5 seconds) Holy crap what am I doing I can't do this I'm crazy this is going to be nuts I can't do it I won't go when they count down they'll have to unhook me it's going to be so emarassing is that a bird cool I can't do this are there actually butterflys in my stomach this is so high "5..4..3..2..1" Oh shoot I'm actually going no coming back now! Whooooo!

It was so cool, free falling for five seconds. I won't even try to describe it. Great day!

Enjoying life!

No super exciting stories as in the beginning of the trip, but life has been good. New activities, dinner on many various occasions trying new foods with great people and only two weeks left! I sat down to type this blog post up this morning, but had a mini case of what I am calling quasi culture shock. Culture shock is the emotional and physical

discomfort one experiences when moving into a completely new environment. I feel that my positive and adventurous outlook on life have kept culture shock at bay up until this point. However over the past week and weekend I did not have any crazy exciting adventures to keep that honeymoon stage going. This morning I felt ok, just a little out of it. I couldn’t find the words to even make complete sentences for the blog and I was feeling really groggy. That’s pretty much how I felt all day, just not my self. This was the disintegration stage

After work was over, I was headed to a coffee shop near the famous Sernado Square (beautiful Portuguese stone work, I want it for my driveway!) to attempt to write this blog again. I once again got writers block, but not because of feeling funny…because while one of my co-workers, Sophia, happened to be at the bus stop at the same time and we were both headed to the same area. On the bus she told me she knew of a better

coffee shop and wanted to take me there. This turned into an evening of dinner, coffee and great conversation! This could not have come at a better time. Sophia has a great outlook on life and has is wonderful to chat with. Guided Serendipity in it’s finest. Who is guiding it? Well I am still pondering that one as I continue to explore and get to know myself better, but a greater power was keeping an eye on me. Thanks Sophia!

So I think I went through a mini case of culture shock in one day, which is why I called it quasi-culture shock. I’m not well versed on it, so I don’t know if it usually lasts longer, but I imagine if I were to stay here longer I would experience it on a greater scale. Culture shock is nothing to deny, it is a completely healthy part of the adjustment process. I expected to experience it at one point, so now I begin to prepare for my return Next Sunday! I will probably experience some shock upon my return to the states, as it is usually experienced upon returning as well.

Culture shock aside, last week was still an enjoyable one. I had a couple great evenings at the climbing wall. On Wednesday we made some plans for my last weekend here. Since I fly out of Hong Kong on a Sunday, a group of us are going to go climbing in Shanghai the Saturday before I fly out. Perfect way to cap off a great trip. On Friday at the wall it started to rain halfway through the evening, so w few of us headed to the indoor bouldering gym. It was a great workout, and then we went to grab a late night snack across the street, as it was about 1am.

I was really hoping to get some food from the guy on the corner known as Sai Guai. (little turtle in Cantonese) He is famous for his fried noodles, which he cooks to order at his corner wok station. I have passed by there and it always smells soo good. Unfortunately we got there as he was finishing up his last order for the evening, so we had to find somewhere else to go, which turned out to still be great. I had a picture of us

hanging out waiting for the food and wanted to post it up, but I somehow managed to delete it while my camera was in Chinese. I do however still have pictures of the food. I had noodles with prawn eggs on them, the eggs looked like some kind of seasoning. They still tasted like shrimp though and were very good. My friend Kevin said it was one of two places in Macao you can get that dish. We also had fried wontons and fried fish balls (not like mountain oysters, but actual balls formed out of fish and some other items) The fish balls are one of my favorites thus far.

On another food front, I went to eat at Carmen’s parent’s café. (Carmen is a student from the Institute for Tourism Studies, which is where I am interning. She spent the last semester studying abroad at the University of South Carolina. We ran into each other quite often

at our favorite coffee shop Cool Beans) This was fun, she treated me to some truly authentic Macao cuisine. I had a fish sandwich, beef sandwich and a soup with beef tongue, chicken, pork and some time of ligaments from the stomach of a cow. The ligaments and tongue were good!

Last week was also a week full of physical activities. I started going to a yoga studio and that was a great choice. I have felt some much better after only three classes. The serenity and stretching and relaxation are so wonderful. I even felt better when I went for a run on Sunday. Yoga really does compliment overall fitness and mental well-being. Check it out. Also played some badminton with some of my co-workers today. They are intense about their badminton here. While I still need to work on my timing, I am proud to say the 20-year veteran says I have professional potential. What can I say, I just got it...but I don't really see professional badminton in my future. Ha!

I am in a good place now. Feeling good and excited for the next couple weeks!

In good health,

Brent

Ps I know I need a haircut, lol, I was compared to the likes of Ronald McDonald this week (Thanks Yuki) lol! I'm am just too afraid to get it cut here, I don't care that much about my hair, but I do care enough to not risk getting it cut when I can't communicate with the person cutting it.

So...I may have possibly lost my passport in China...

I left Macao Wednesday afternoon headed for Shanghai. Crossed the border with ease and found the bus terminal after about a good twenty minutes. After the 3 hour bus ride I arrived in Guangzhou, where my flight was delayed two hours and we didn’t leave until 11:40pm. While waiting I Dimitriev well, he’s a Russian who spent the past year studying

Chinese in Guangzhou. Finally we took off and after the to hour flight, arrived in Shanghai around 2am. I took a taxi to my hosts house, which I set up through couchsurfing.net, he let me in and I just crashed. I awoke the next morning. Began to prepare to head out and realized, uh oh, I don’t have my passport…to be continued

Shanghai was a great time, spent most of the time bouncing around on my own, and randomly meeting people here and there, doing some touristy stuff and meeting new people. My first two days were purely spent at the Shanghai 2010 Expo, better described as the World’s Fair, which was one giant cultural slap in the face. In the beginning it was rather overwhelming due to the massive size and number of pavilions one could visit. The expo site itself is actually bigger than the main island of Macao. It has 500,000 visitors everyday (give or take a few) and over 200 countries were participating. Many had their own massive pavilions, some had

smaller pavilions (which were still big) and other smaller countries shared large buildings grouped together geographically.When I arrived at the expo site, I was having trouble finding the entrance and I saw a blonde woman who looked like she spoke English. She turned out to have been from Switzerland. She pointed me in the right direction and gave me a VIP pass to the Switzerland Pavilion, as she had an extra one from volunteering there the day prior. With a VIP pass, you surpassed the line and were allowed to enter the pavilion immediate. This was very nice. Upon making through the entrance gate, which was orchestrated wonderfully by the security, it was time to begin my Expo experience.

In speaking with friends, they all prepared me for the lines, they said you could expect to wait anywhere from 30 min to 6 plus hours. So in the beginning I tended to walk around more, taking pictures of the pavilions, not willing to give up my time to wait in a huge long line. I had a lot to see only two days to do it. Finally I sat down took a breath and convinced my self to just start getting in lines and waiting it out. So I did, and the lines turned out not to be that bad, the longest wait I had was probably and hour. Now, even though I did decide to be proactive and just get in line, I was still selective. If it looked to be longer than a two-hour wait I just passed.

The pavilions I actually went in were India, Nepal, Israel, Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Slovenia, Lithuania, United States of America, Caribbean Communities, Cuba, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, African countries pavilion, South Africa and Angola. I also went to some theme pavilions, such as the Urbanian Pavilion, the Pavilion of Urban Footprint and the Pavilion of Future.

Of all the pavilions, my favorite was the Urbanian Pavilion. Here you follow the stories of six urban families from around the world. There were five sections "Family," "Work," "Contact," "Learning" and "Health.” Each section had six video screens, which would play simultaneously. You could look around and see whatwas like to go to school, or work in all the countries. They would also include various demographics and facts for the cities throughout the videos as well. It was cool to see the similarities and differences among the families.

On my first day there I grabbed lunch at the German Pavilion, because bratwurst, sauerkraut and beer sounded awesome…and they were! I ended sat with a group of Chinese who had an open seat at their table. A couple of the younger ones spoke English fairly well, so we chatted for a while. It was very enjoyable lunch.

Later that evening, I saw a few people that looked like American so I chatted them up. Sure enough they were and to my surprise the University of Southern California marching band was going to be performing at the Expo that evening how sweet! They were supporters and donors of the USC marching band and come over to check out the Expo and support the band,

that is dedication. It was fun to chat with them for a while, because I was nearly interning in USC’s development office this summer. They were never in band or any sort of music, they just really enjoy the marching band so they donate to the program. I love stories like that.

On my way to the Expo on my second day, a Chinese gentleman stopped me. He was an English teacher in Shanghai and was super excited to get the chance to talk to me. I mean really excited! His name was Mr. P. He has been teaching English for a long time and has started numerous programs in and around Shanghai. He may be a good resource when I am looking for a job next year.

My last day in a half was spent being an uber tourist. I went to the Bund, which is a huge river walk with old buildings on one side and a great view of the Shanghai skyline on the other. It is a very beautiful and distinctive skyline. I walked up and down West Nanjing Road, which is full of shops and stores, but something every tourist must do. It began to rain (actually a pretty heavy thunderstorm) around lunchtime, so I had about a three-hour

lunch. Ha. I stopped in at a Thai coffee shop. The three hours gave me time to catch up on my journal which I have somewhat neglected as well I read a bit. My waitress, Pear, was from Thailand. She is studying International business in Phuket and has come to China for the past two summers to take courses. She will be graduating in a month. She was really cool and we ended up having dinner together later that night. It was fun to learn about Thailand from a native’s perspective. When I traveled there, I was more of a tourist and did not speak with many locals. So this was a great experience.

That afternoon I spent at YuYuan Gardens, which was a beautiful area with a lot of older Chinese architecture and a ton more shopping as well. I had a blast bargaining with the vendors here. They really try to rip you off big time. So it’s fun to see how low they will go…which is pretty low. I got a cool tiger screen painting and bottle. They were asking around 600 RMB for, but I ended paying 180 for them. Sounds like a good deal and I felt good about it, but who knows, I may have still gotten ripped off. Whatever, items with tigers are priceless.

I tried stinky tofu, which I read was a favorite of many Shanghaians, so how could I pass up the opportunity. I wasn’t searching fro it, but while walking around, I smelled it. This is a smell you cannot miss. It smelled like dairy farm, which has a strong scent of cow poop. I worked on my uncle’s dairy farm for a couple years so I am familiar with this smell. It did not smell good, but from what I read is smelled bad but tasted good and the line was long so it must be good. (I experienced a similar situation in Thailand with Durian (pronounced turian…as I was corrected by Pear) Which is a fruit that seriously stinks but tastes good) After waiting aout 15 minutes it was my turn, I stepped up received my plate with the tofu and a sauce that I am pretty sure was tobacco, which is not a favorite of mine either, but when trying food I always like to have it as is. So I just popped one in my mouth…ugh! Thos articles were freaking wrong! It tasted just like it smelled. It tasted like cow shit with Tabasco sauce, I nearly threw up. I was eating the smell of a dairy farm. Gross. So I still recommend you try it if you ever have the chance. Maybe you will like the taste of dairy farm, it just wasn’t my gig.

Also while walking around that evening, I ran into a couple of girls who went to the University of Texas, while I am super competitive and don’t love Texas by any means, it was nice to talk to some Americans. One was there working with international business, while the other was teaching elementary English. We talked about the new Big XII(10) which was fun, and I am pretty sure I convinced them to take a holiday to Thailand. They will be hooking me up when I return to China as well, so more contacts! Good deal.

So overall, a wonderful trip to Shanghai; met some wonderful people, literally travelled around the world at the Expo and had a wonderful first couch surfing experience. Wish I had time to travel more, but this is what I got and I am content with the trip.

Oh yeah the whole passport deal…well I kind of freaked out…but not really, because the first thought that came to my mind was “Yes now I can spend more time in China. HA!” Anyways, the evening was rather fuzzy, as it was actually early morning, but I remembered that when I got on the plane I had put my passport in the seat pocket in front of me. I just couldn’t remember if I had taken it out or not when I got off. So it was either still there or I dropped it somewhere.

I had to keep my priorities straight, so I got breakfast before heading to the airport. It was a wonderful helping of Xiaolongbao, A soup and meat filled dumpling that was oh so good! Now that my stomach’s desire has been fulfilled I was of to the airport to find out what in the heck happened to my passport…hopefully that is. I was waiting for a taxi when a guy pulled up on a motorbike and said Taxi? I usually try to stay away from the bikes as they are pretty dangerous (actually on my second there I saw a couple on a bike get hit by a police car, haha so funny, the police hit

them…it’s okay no one was hurt, you can laugh too) However, I had been persuaded to take the bike option after reading my friend Susan’s update from Vietnam where she went on a bike tour and said she loved it. I would have to agree that the bike was much more exciting than a taxi, weaving in and out of traffic with the wind in your face, not to mention the view is far better than the backseat of a taxi.

Finally arrived at the airport and made my way to the Spring Airlines desk. I explained my situation to the attendants and I could tell they were trying not to laugh. Can’t blame them, it was pretty funny not to mention that I was laughing, but they did a pretty good job keeping a straight face. They called someone and got some info. They told me a passport had been found but it had to be brought to the desk for verification and I would have to wait for a bit. A bit ended up being 20 minutes, and I thought about a lot. If it’s mine good deal, if it’s not mine at least I’m not the only dummy who lost their passport. If It’s not mine what is the next step, maybe I could get a fake one made, who knows…Well as it turns out I WAS the only dummy to lose their passport, and they had found my wallet. What a relief! I actually wanted to blog about this the night it happened, but facebook is not the only thing blocked in the mainland. Blogging sights are blocked as well, so I could not write or read blogs, quite interesting.

I will leave you with some words from the song from one of the videos in the US pavilion.

“You’ve got a dream so plant it in you’re heart,

then you can start to make you’re garden grow.

Water it with love and lend it to the sun,

now go and be the one to make your garden grow!

“Unknown” (I think Regina Spektor)

Still in good health, (knock on wood)

Brent

Disclaimer

So while out for a run today, I was thinking about my blog. I realized that I tend to blog when I am least cognitively present…either late at night right before I go to bed or early in the morning. Neither are prime times to be recalling my adventures of the past few days let alone to be writing and tying about them, which are neither my strong points either. So I was thinking I should put up a little disclaimer for those who read through my blog, which I will get to in a second. The funny thing is that in a conversation this evening (after I had gone running and thought about this) it was brought to my attention that I constantly use the word there in place of their(probably among many other grammatical errors). While not the biggest of deals, this is still embarrassing. I mean I am in graduate school. All that being said, a disclaimer is due.

Disclaimer: When I am writing my blog posts I tend to just sit down and start typing, I don’t game plan I just spew out what comes to my mind. This combined with the late/early hours, details may be left out or stories and sentences may not be comprehensible, not to mention the poor grammar that ensues. If you are ever caught wondering what? or wishing you had more info, let me know. I am always open to criticism and advice, how else will I get better. On the same hand if you have a question or would like to know about something, just ask. I will do my best to answer. I have nothing against someone giving me a topic to blog about. Less thinking for me ha!

I saw an interesting article on CN today. It was titled “For rent in China: White People,” Click on the title for the full article. It was very interesting; they presented the importance of “face” in the Chinese culture, which I would compare to reputation in American culture. They went on to discuss how many Chinese companies will hire white people to pose as employees or friends, sometimes sit at a desk in the front window of a store appearing to workand even pretend to be the CEO of a visiting company. This is because it is believed that if a Chinese company can hire a white person, they are a successful. Neat article, you should definitely check it out.

Well I must go,as I need to pack for Shanghai, but stay tuned their should be some good stuff going up soon. I only get three days in Shanghai and the mainland, so I will be making the most of it! Little sleep and crazy adventures. This is going to be a trip!

In good health,

Brent

Can you introduce me to your school?

This is was the phrase I heard all day today. I spent this weekend on a recruitment trip to Guangzhuo, which is the second largest city in China. Nicknamed five goats city (not sure why?) it is located in southern China about a three hour bus ride from Macao.

So obviously this means that I finally was able to get a visa to the mainland this week, however...they unfortunately only granted me dual entry due to my student status and only staying in Macao two months. So this means I can only enter China twice, one being this recruitment trip (which is fine, because IFT paid for my visa which was $150US) Now I only have one chance to visit the mainland, so no Yangshuo and the awesome climbing, no Beijing and the Great Wall, and no Huashan for the world's deadliest hiking trail...those will all still be here when I come back. I will be heading for Shanghai on Wednesday for the Shanghai Expo, better known as the World's Fair! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, so I had to take advantage of it. Can't wait, but I'll discuss that more on another day.

The trip to Guangzhou was fun, there were supposed to be three of us going, however Oriana (the experienced one) fell ill, so it was just Eri and I. Eri has only been here for less than a year. So he was scrambling to ensure everything was in order and get instructions from Oriana. I am happy to report that the trip went without a hitch. There was not a lot of excitement for most of the trip, just arriving and checking in with the exhibition coordinators. After that we just grabbed some dinner and returned to the hotel to rest up and watch the world cup...why USA, why? There was not a lot of excitement for most of the trip, just arriving and checking in with the exhibition coordinators.

This was a HUGE exhibition! The hall it was held in was about the size of three football fields. I was not sure what to expect, but I was not prepared for the number of people who would actually attend. The phrase herding cattle was absolutely necessary for this event. I do not

know the exact numbers, but I will guesstimate that there was in excess of 100,000 people that came this event.

The terms helicopter parents or lawn mower parents do not even come close to describing what some of these parents were like. They came in holding their children by the elbow, leading them around asking all the questions, it was a sight to see. Many times I never even saw the students, the parents came without their students…seriously. (In a conversation last week I had found that this is common in Chinese culture, quite often the parents choose the school and the students have no say. Also, this is similar with dating. Apparently they have large dating events, except the singles do not attend, their parents do. The parents meet with other parents to decide if their children are compatible for each other.) These parent were vicious too, there was no sense of line or anything. You could be in the middle of talking to someone, when another parent would just push to the front of the line and start asking you a question while you were answering the other person. It was nuts.

Now, this was by no means every single parent. There was a good number like this, but the majority of parents were there with their child. They followed their students around to schools the student picked, let the student ask some questions, asked some good questions themselves and it was very much a mutual relationship. Overall, this was very similar to a US college fair, just on a far larger scale. Most interactions were similar to that I would expect to have had at a fair in the US.

I am pretty sure I was the only westerner in the entire exhibition; I never saw another during my time there. It was fun too. I was this goofy white guy with long blonde hair. I definitely stood out. Some people would completely ignore me, while others would approach just to say hello. Some would try to look at me or take pictures of me without making it obvious. The majority of my time was spent handing out our publications, as I did not speak Mandarin. The table constantly looked like this. Everyone was surrounding Eri, who spoke Mandarin, and I was on the side with no one to talk to…so I had time to take this picture because it was funny.

A few brave souls every so often (usually girls) would approach me, giggle a little and ask about the school. Usually phrased as “Can you introduce your school to me?” It caught me off guard the first time someone asked me and I had a little chuckle, but once I got used to it was easy and I slowly built up my sales pitch. They would come in waves; once one person began to talk to me a whole group would form to listen to my replies in English. Overall it was a great time. Towards the end as things began to quite down, there was a group of students who hung around, because they just wanted to talk. They enjoy speaking conversational English. It helps them to practice. This was great, I could tell they really enjoyed getting to have a conversation in English and I enjoyed it too!

Overall the day was a great success, but we were starving so we headed off for some food…and I finally remembered my camera so I could document what I ate. So here we go!

Corn Juice! Pretty sure they put corn through a juicer because that's exactly what it tasted like.

intestines on potatoes, a bit chewy but good.

Green beans with squid, very good.

This was a bake with tofu, tomatoes and seafood such as crab, shrimp and squid.

This was pretty much a bowl of bacon in BBQ sauce, it was amazing!

More interesting foods to come!

A few more thoughts about my Hong Kong trip...

I know a lot of people hate public transportation, but for me it was always a great way to start my day in Hong Kong. Not because of the transportation itself, but because there always seemed to be something on every ride that brought a smile to my face. The first morning I got on the subway around 7am...seriously. I was kinda tired but had the excitement of being in Hong Kong to keep me awake. Others on the subway apparently did not have that same level of excitement or energy, because when I looked around the car I was in there were about 10 other people all asleep! It was hilarious, leaning there head against a rail or wall, they were all asleep. I had a good chuckle. The other two times involved kids. One trip there were two kids, young enough they couldn't walk. They dressed in superman and batman outfits, which I was kinda jealous of, and there parents were flying them around and having a great time. Who wouldn't enjoy this. Finally on my last sub ride, there was a little girl, probably 3 or 4 and she was just dancing up a storm and swing off the handrails. It was so much fun watching. She didn't care who was watching or what was going on, she was just having a blast. I can't wait to see what's in store for me next time on the subway.

Hong Kong itself is a fast city, hustle and bustle 24/7. Very different from Macao, which is very laid back. In Macao you cross the street whenever you want, in Hong Kong it's a little more tricky. The traffic is way faster, so you pay far more attention to the crossing signals. In Macao the traffic laws seem to be more like traffic tips, you can follow them if you wish. The sidewalks are much more crowded too! It never seems like you are walking down a sidewalk, it was more like you were always in a line. Another large difference between HK and Macao, is that Macao has little to no green space, seriously, none. Hong Kong on the other hand has a ton. They have huge parks with grass and trees. There are even large national parks great for hiking and climbing. The Chinese culture is very big into outdoor activities and really love to hike.

Finally, my Hong Kong tour guides and hosts for the weekend, Robyn and her mother, were such a blessing. I literally spent the whole with them and wouldn't trade it for anything. They showed me a bit of the city, introduced me to some great people and took me climbing. Beyond that we shared many stories and experiences. I told them a lot about American culture, particularly midwestern and they shared a lot of neat stories about Hong Kong and Asia. I am very grateful for there hospitality, they did not even know me until they met me at the bus for the refugee run. I am very lucky to have had these experiences and met the people I have thus far. If the second half of my adventure is half of what the first half has been it will be a greta success!

Brent

Hong Kong, new friends and climbing

Another amazing weekend in the books. I took off Friday evening after work for Hong Kong. I took the Turbo Jet, which is a ferry that runs on hydrofoils, just like the Mach II sailboat. Once it is up to full speed it looks like it is flying. If you no me well or maybe even not that well, you know I'm not the biggest planner when it comes to things like this, I just like to go. So, the only planning I had done was book a hotel room at the YWCA Anne Black...cheapest I could find and turned out to be nice. So upon arriving at the ferry terminal I realized I did not know where I was, or where I was going. Sweet deal! I had my computer with me so I was able to pull up the address of the street for the hotel, so I was off. Luckily HK people are really nice, and the first person I asked told me which MTR (subway) station I would want to get off of. This was my first time (I think, or that I can remember now) I have ever rode on an actual subway...not including airports. I have ridden on the El in Chicago and the raised rail in Thailand, but no subway. I liked it, it was cool to see what looked like one giant hallway twisting and turning. Finally I got off and found myself a taxi. The taxi driver spoke little to no English, so I finally able to get him to understand the street name, and he dropped me off at the right street, but I had no clue where the hotel was. Fortunately, there was another hotel I popped into and they gave me directions. IT was about a fifteen minute walk down the street. I found it, checked in and crashed!

Why Hong Kong? Well, my first weekend in Macao when I went sailing at Hac Sa, I was also asking the members of the sailing group about the local climbing scene and if they were aware of how to access the local wall. Eric, one of the gentleman told me that he wasn't sure, but his daughter, Robyn, climbs in HK a lot and may know something. So, I got in touch her. She did not know about the Macao wall, but if I am ever in HK I should let her know and we could go climb. I had planned on going there at some point in time anyways, so it was a good deal. Once I figured out this weekend was going to were I let Robyn know I would be in town. She informed me that Saturday was no good, because she was participating in a refugee run, which I was welcome to join her on, but Sunday would be great and she would try to get some people together. I wasn't really sure what this refugee run was, maybe it was a fundraiser for refugees...but I though what the heck I could wander around HK, looking at touristy stuff that will always be there, or I can go do something positive and unique in the refugee run. The run it was, I wasn't too worried, I have been running a good bit in Macao and climbing is a great cardio workout too.

I was meeting her at the Central station exit D, at 9am. The bus left at 9:15 sharp. I did not have a cell phone, because my sim card only only worked in Macao. I was waiting for her at the station, and about 6 after 9 I began to get worried, and once agin a nice person of Hong Kong aided me and she let me borrow her phone. I got ahold of Robyn and she informed me that there were two parts of the station and that I was in the wrong one. So I had under ten minutes to run my but to the right one. Twice I received false information and ran down escalators only to run back up the same ones. Finally I asked an office and they walked me outside and pointed me in the right direction, and I took off, a crazy American sprinting through the blistering humidity of downtown Hong Kong. Luckily I made it in time and the bus was still there. I introduced myself to Robyn and we headed to the bus.

I had on all my running gear, compression shorts, running shorts, running shoes and mesh lightweight t. Upon getting on the bus, I found that most people had on t-shirts like I, but they were wearing jeans or cargo shorts, this is when I realized it wasn't an actual run. LOL, no one else really noticed but I had a good laugh. It turned out the refugee run was a simulation, putting the participants through an experience "similar" to that of what a refugee goes through. Now I understood. The bus ride was nice, I met some of Robyn's mother whose name slips my mind (I really cannot believe I cannot remember it, I just never used, AH! Sorry Ms. Robyn's mom, I know the next time I guarantee I won't forget) I also met some of her friends and a few other people. It was a fun ride. Chatted awhile with her friend Kaishi, who went to school at Wesleyan in Connecticut and was working in Hong Kong as a Princeton in Asia Fellow. We had some good convo.

We finally arrived at our final destination, Crossroads, which is a non-profit that serves both the HK area and the world in serving as a distributor of goods of any kind and need. This center also does simulations of a large variety from blindness to refugees, all in an effort to raise awareness. We received a brief introduction what exactly refugees are, I had a vague idea but wasn't super clear. A refugee is someone who has a real fear of human rights persecution in their country of origin because of their actual or imputed political opinion, religion, race, nationality or persecution in a particular social group. They must also show that they are outside of their country of origin and that their home government is unable to provide them protection.

After the intro I was handed a card with my new identity, my name was a Ansari Sobieho. I was a 16 year old boy from Afghanistan. . The simulation was very realistic, I could talk more about this, but would not do it justice. There were guns and explosions, death and corruption. Click here if you would like to learn a more. It was an eye opening experience into the life of a refugee and if you ever have the opportunity to participate in a refugee run, I highly recommend it.

After the run we had lunch at a Nepalese restaurant to debrief. I met a number of people here as well. One person I met, Amy, went to Stanford and is currently working at Lignan University in HK coordinating their service-learning. Service-learning an area that some student affairs professionals go into, which is what I am going to grad school for. Service learning is a teaching style and learning strategy that integrates community service with instruction and reflection to add to enhance the impact on the student, teach civiv responsibility and strengthen communities. Next semester I will be co-teaching a U101 (first year seminar) course service learning angle. It was sweet to chat with her about student affairs and more. I plan to return to HK towards the end of my trip to tour her university and chat with some student affairs peeps in HK.

After lunch (ps Nepalese food is really good, you should check it out) we walked around HK for a while trying to find a good bus to take to the beach where one of Robyn's friends was celebrating her birthday. It was a cool way to see the city and chat with Robyn. She went to the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and is headed to law school in Hong Kong in the fall. The beach was a blast, we just chilled at a restaurant and talked about all kinds of things the whole night, it was an amazing group of people. We talked about politics, many cultures, family, traveling, the state of institutional marriage, the value of job satisfaction and more. It was an interesting night and a lot of fun. I am so lucky to have these experiences and opportunities

From there I took the MTR back to my hotel, while walking through the crowded streets to downtown Hong Kong, I was rounding a corner and I heard loud screaming and I thought oh man, there's a fight or something. As I rounded the corner, I came to find it was a group of about 20 Africans (not sure if they were specifically from Ghana) watching the Ghana vs. Australia World Cup game from outside a bar. The loud yelling was their excitement and energy. I was luck to come across them right as a the Australian player had been called for a red card and Ghana Got a penalty kick. When Ghana scored they went crazy the singing, drumming and bugling was so much fun to watch, I caught some video. They were spilling out into the street and blocking traffic, it was awesome. While China is sweet, I wouldn't complain if I were in South Africa right now. After this excitement, I headed back to the hotel, cleaned up and went to bed.

It was easy to wake up the next morning, as we were going climbing and this was going to be my first time climbing real rock, aside from bouldering in

North Carolina. I've spent a lot of time at 15 meter indoor wall at USC, but never had the opportunity for the real deal. Finally I would get to climb some real stuff and it was the best first climb I could ask for. I met up with Robyn and her mother and we walked to catch the ferry that would take us to Tung Lung Chau, the island where we would be climbing. The trip there was fun, we had a great view of Hong Kong and learned a lot of history and info from Robyn's mom.

The island only has a few people living on it and is still in it's natural state for the most part. It has good hiking climbing and camping. When we landed , we had about a 20 minute hike to the are we were going to be climbing known as The Technical Wall. On the way we stopped at this small

little place on the way to grab a bite. Had some great dumplings!

We then headed down a beautiful gully to get to the climbing location, some fun scrambling at

times. We rounded the corner

and there we were at this beautiful sea side climbing location...too good to be true for my first, but it was real. There were a few people already there climbing, but this was a big wall, with plenty routes to keep us busy.

Robyn took the first climb, so she could set the rope so I could top rope for my first climb.

Then it was my turn, and I was off on my first ever outdoor climb, so cool. My first route was named the black corner. In HK they use the French grading system, of which it was rated a F5+, which on the Yosemite Decimal System is a 5.8+

Gotta chalk up to make sure to stick that last move.

Great success! I on-sited my first outdoor climb ever, which would be climbing without a fall.

Robyn the took on a tougher climb and rocked it, she mad a difficult roof section look easy. It was a F6a+ or 5.10. I gave this one a go and was good until the rough where I struggled.

I then took off on my first outdoor lead climb, I took a pretty easy route called Black Crack, which was a F4+ or 5.7. It turned out to be a lot easier than I expected, but that was probably good. Lead climbing is when you start with all the rope on the ground and then clip yourself in on the way up. in this first picture you see me grabbing my quickdraw, which I will then clip into the wall and attach the rope to. If I were to fall before I clipped in, I would fall and land on the ground.

As you can see the rope is still below me, but in the bottom of the picture you can see the quick draw clipping the rope to the wall. If I were to fall that would catch me.

Luckily I didn't test their reliability and I made it to the top without falling.

It was a great day, I had a ton of fun! I am getting tired and need to get some rest, but I have a few more noted I will posts soon about Hong Kong.

In good health,

Brent