These last few days have been the chinese new year. From what I can gather, there's about as much emphasis (or at least tacky decoration) placed on the new year as we place on Easter, Christmas, and our own new year put together. Everywhere you look there are little strips of red paper with phrases of joy written upside down on them. Red lanterns are hung everywhere a lantern could be hung. There are also many little ritualistic things that the chinese do for their new year: it is a time to pay off debts to people that you owe; a time buy lots of flowers; a time to clean your room. I'm not really sure I understand, but then again it's certainly not any more strange than our own new year's custom of making a resolution and breaking it two weeks later.

I rang in the new year and Shanghai this year, at the absolute nicest Holiday Inn I've ever stayed at. I took pictures of this place (a four star hotel), because no one would believe me. On our first night out some tavern we went to watered down our 1 liter glasses of beer, but after we screamed at them for a little while they gave a around of real beer for free. With two liters of beer in our tummies we ran out into the street, where people light fireworks off to scare away the devils who eat people around the new year. These people don't mess around like we do, with out little sparklers and snakes and roman candles. They only light off massive chains of crackers and the kinds of bottle rockets I would expect to see at a professional show. Only, instead of lighting them a safe distance from the viewers, these go off on side walks and islands in the middle of the street. Dangerous, perhaps, but absolutely awesome to watch. It beat December 31st and July 4th put together.

Most of the things I saw and did in Shanghai are beyond my capacity to describe in words. Blogspot is supposed to let you upload pictures, but I've been having some difficulty doing so. I'm going to work on that, and get a flickr account if that fails. I have loads of beautiful pictures that describe my time here much better than my mangled prose could ever dream of doing.

What wonderful adventures my nights here are turning out to be. They almost make me feel alright about sleeping till 4 P.M. the days after them...

Last night started with a rooftop party of international kids atop Wei Lu towers, a dorm located in the housing projects of HKU. It's strange, but most of the international kids here don't really seem to want to associate with us Tufts kids. Sure, we're a predominantly male group who already knew each other and had friends before we came to Hong Kong, but I can't help but wonder if I should write my president a letter blaming him for the situation. 

After a rather awkward hour there, we left for LKF in search of Sense 99, a bar where they just pass around lots of musical instruments and everyone joins in. It was way off the main strip, in a run down section of town. There was no pounding music and obnoxious glowing neon sign to show us where to enter. The only indication we had found it was a sign about 2 inches long next to the button we had to press to be buzzed in. After climbing two long shoddy flights of stairs, we found it. The two floor loft had a makeshift bar in one corner with two big coolers holding the beer. The air was thick with the secondhand smoke of the punky, beatnik crowd that inhabited the place. I, in my Banana Republic knit and collared shirt, immediately felt self-conscious and way out of place. Though we saw the instruments- a drum kit, a guitar and a bass (both alreday plugged into amps and ready to play), as well as a few random bongo drums and cowbells- no one was playing any music, and the last thing I wanted to do way put myself out there in front of these people. But Pat sat down and started playing guitar. After a few minutes, I joined him on bass. Then, the coolest thing happened. One of the beatniks sat down and started playing drums for us. A guy joined in on the cowbells. Two girls started doing the bongos to our song. Then Greg took the drums over and some guy started rapping in French over us. Beatniks started gathering around and taking pictures of us playing. After about an hour and a half of jamming, we got a round of applause from our audience as we stood up to leave.

It was such a surreal experience, but nothing less than I would expect of Hong Kong.

Once a week-  that seems like about enough time to warrant a post. Perhaps I'll try to keep up that pace for the rest of my time here. Every day here brings new challenges and surprises...

I've decided that I quite like being a minority in Hong Kong. Or, as my black friend Julie tell me, I quite like being a 'white' minority, as we are the pinnacle of perfection across the world. I've noticed it myself though- all throughout Hong Kong I can see advertisements for face-whitening products and eyelid surgeries (eyelid mutilations, more like it). It's not a sense of superiority that I enjoy here, but rather a sense of the esoteric. Small children stop and stare at you in the super market. A few days ago I had the following conversation when a little boy started to stare at me on an escalator:

Child: Where are you from?

Me: I'm from the United States of America.

Child: What is it like there?

Me: It's very nice. It's not much like Hong Kong at all though, the building are much too short.

Child: Really? Hong Kong is not like the rest of China. It is very poor there.

Me. So I've been told though. I have yet to see it myself though.

Child: Well I have to go follow my mom now. Goodbye! (waves vigorously).

Me: Goodbye!

I like being able to offer someone, anyone, another perspective on the world, no matter how briefly. 

Tonight was another wonderful experience. One thing I've noticed about people here in Hong Kong is that they don't seem to have any vices. No drugs, no booze, no nothing. But a few kids on my hall expressed an interest in having a 'house party' on the floor. So tonight Greg, Mike, Pat, and myself bought a bunch of gin and tonic and taught the floor how to play Kings. I've never really liked Kings, but I had the most fun playing it tonight. The best was the 'bust 'a' rhyme' card, where the Hong Kong kids tried to rhyme in English:

Mandell: I'm scared of rats.

Asian Elvis: When I see him (points to left) I attack!

Asian Sirius: But the I have to be flat!

Asian Colin: I want to swim, but I'm afraid to get wet.

Throughout this whole ordeal, the four of us were just laughing, and so happy that we decided to ditch LFK for a night of drinking with real locals. 

They loved it too. In return, they taught us a couple of Hong Kong drinking games like 'School' and 'Bing Bang Waaaaa!' Also, at 3 AM they took us down to Kennedy Districk for Dim Sum. It was wonderful and tasty. And cheap. For 7 of us it came to about $22USD. 

What else... I went to Macau, and wandered around Hong Kong a while ago. Bought a bass guitar. But eh. Maybe I'll write more about that later. It's almost six in the morning here though, so I'm gonna call it a night.

I've been sick for the last little bit- just spent 22 hours straight in bed sleeping. Not sure if it was just that I needed the rest, or the result of the Dimetapp I was a nursing for my screwed up head and sinuses.

My first week of classes passed pretty uneventfully. The chinese engineering courses don't really seem that hard, although of course it's a bit too early to tell anything for sure. Since they only meet twice a week though, I've been finding it hard to fill up all the free time I have. For sure, weight lifting and playing Squash have helped to pass a few hours each day. The other main hobby I've acquired is wandering around the city here. Kennedy District, my prime wandering grounds, always has something new to see or do. I don't have any pictures (and if I did either Blogspot or my computer is making it difficult to post pictures online anyway), but it looks like a stereotypical busy crowded Hong Kong street. All sorts of interesting stores, each the size of a linen closet, line both sides of the road. There are lots of tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurants where you can get the tastiest broth based noodle and meat dish for less than $3 USD. There's also rarely a stretch of road where you can't make out at least one foot reflexology or massage parlor. I have yet to try one, but I plan to very soon.

Since I've gotten here to Hong Kong, I've been on the lookout for a game arcade. I used to love going to one called Aladdin's Castle when I was a little kid, but since then I've never even seen one- much less gone in. But as I wandered around Kennedy yesterday, I found The Game Station. Bo yah! As I swung open the door to this arcade I was enveloped into a jungle of blinking lights and deafening sounds. Thank god I'm not seizure-prone. 

I found a game that seemed to vaguely resemble Guitar Hero and put some $1 coins in the slot. Immediately a small crowd seemed to form behind me. Unlike in America, where arcades are usually inhabited by little boys and their weary mothers, this one was full of young adults and, most surprisingly, lots of hot girls. So when I lost this Guitar Hero game in all of about 3o seconds, I felt so ashamed that I could only hang my head and walk slowly out The Game Station.  It seems that my arcade skills have atrophied in the past decade...

Still Here

With classes having started, but still only taking up at most a few hours a day, and Vera no longer there to fill up every second of my time, the reality that I'm here in Asia for the next five months is beginning to sink in. This campus is so damn difficult to navigate, and it's impossible to have a meaningful conversation with most people. In addition, I'm feel out of place, being often one of the only white people around. Oh well, I guess this is what minorities back in the States feel like as well. This video made me feel better though

I can't decide whether I am currently happy or sad that I came with a group of friends I had before. While it certainly is nice to have familiar faces around, the trade-off is that it makes it more difficult to make new friends when you're always with that group. And you can't hang out with the same 3 or 4 people for 5 months. 

On the up side, had my first Life and Buddhism class today. It's taught by a real live Buddhist monk in a Buddhist monk robe and everything. The class was really fascinating as well. The whole way they approach the human condition and condemn blind faith as ignorant really fascinates me. I can sense many a meditation on the Noble Truths and Eight-Fold Path in the near future. 

A random wander down around the Kennedy district ended with a nice Japanese meal, and early to bed today, for soil mechanics and Cantonese await me next wednesday.

First Day of Classes

First day of classes today. I wanted to make a good impression on my first day of Hydraulics and Hydrology class, so I left my room an hour early for the 10 minute walk to campus. Like the rest of Hong Kong, HKU is much more vertical then horizontal. So even though it's area is much smaller than Tufts, there are many more floors and classrooms. And depending on where your class is, you might have to go through two or three random buildings just to take their elevators up to higher levels. 

After finding my classroom in Library Extension Seven, I headed to HKU's centrally located Starbucks (i.e. Homebase) for breakfast and coffee. I returned to my class with time to spare, ready to wow my professor. However, when the professor entered and started passing out diagrams of city streets, it became apparent I was in the wrong room. 40 minutes later I finally found the right classroom, but there was only 10 minutes left by that point. So much for my good first impression. 

Even though I only saw a few minutes of the lecture, that was enough to know this class is going to suck. The teacher speaks very slow, stilted english, and my final exam is 70% of my entire grade. I was so bummed after the lecture that I went to the Student Union and had a dim sum feast and took a nap. Then I felt better.

Tomorrow is more or less free. I think I'll explore Hong Kong, or maybe summit The Peak.

Hong Kong

I had planned on writing in this before now certainly, but the last few days have been the busiest of my life. Vera, the resident director for Tufts-in-HK, has been running us around quite literally every minute of every day. The purpose of our packed orientation is two-fold: it introduces us to many aspects of Hong Kong while helping us to beat the jet lag. We have been meeting around 8-9 every morning and getting back to the dorms between 12-1. I'm literally tired all the time, so I guess jet lag per say isn't really an issue. 

So far this has been the most incredible experience I've ever had. Easily. Having a wonderful director to show us around and guide us through the jungle of university paperwork  has taken all of the stress off of us. Really I feel badly for everyone who doesn't have a Vera, as the  paper work isn't at all straightforward and the buildings are rather difficult to locate. To make it even more difficult, the english speaking capabilities of most of these people are...well... lacking. Even though it's one of the two official languages (along with Cantonese), since Hong Kong was returned to China the people's linguistic focus has shifted from English to Mandarin. 

I've only been here a few days so far, but I could easily see myself living here. It's so different in so many ways, but the biggest difference for me so far is the amount of respect people here have for each other. When someone feels sick, they slap on face mask to prevent others from getting sick. In America, no one gives a damn about getting random strangers sick. My dorm common room is packed full of people's food and has a playstation with a stack of games sitting there. At Tufts, no one leaves food in the common refrigerators because drunk kids come back and eat it. And the playstation would be gone within a week.  It's refreshing to see, honestly.

Classes start tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.