A Year in China

Sorry it's been so long

2009-04-09T22:43:00.000-07:00

I keep forgetting i have this thing!

Well everything here is going pretty well over all.
March was one long boring month. I only had one day off school durring the whole month so i spend most of my day's staring at my math book wondering when my teacher was going to let us out for lunch.

I did mannage to get some things done. I went to go see the Big Buddha on Lantau Island. There is a 40 foot tall statue of Buddha there. They have build a cable car out to where the buddha is. It's supposed to be a big tourist attraction. However two different car's have fallen off the cable car in the 3 years since the Cable car has opened. So me and my friends took the bus. Also the bus was 4$ US and the cable car was 20$ sooo...

The buddha was fun. I Also reciently went out to Churn Chow Island. Hong Kong is made up of many many islands. the two biggest are Hong Kong island, where i live, Lantau, where the Airport is. There are a number of smaller islands where people live. You can get there by going to the Ferry peir under the IFC in central. Churn Chow and Lama islands are two of the bigger out laying islands. Churn Chow has a Bun Festival once a year that it is quite famous for. However it wasn't that time of year. We went there to go swimming there were a couple of beaches there and we picked one and went for a swim. It's still pretty cool here it's not quite full blow summer but it was still nice to go swimming. The islands are a really nice place because they are so different from HK Island. Here there are always so many people running this way and that and it's all tall buildings and concrete in every direction. The islands have a bit slower pace of life there are beaches and trees and trails to get from one place to the next so you need to either walk or bike. There's no MTR or Tram or Busses.

I know i haven't put up many photo's lately and i'll try and get them up soon. there are jsut soooooooooo many of them.

Right now we are on the easter Holidays and AFS Hong Kong has a trip to Beijing. I will be leaving on the 16th and getting back on the 19th i'm really really excited!!!!! i'll take ton's of pictures and try not to get arrested for sedition.

I Hope your all doing well

Write me.

Patrick Belenky!

Hola from the far east

2009-02-23T01:40:00.000-08:00

Hey all!

Life here is going pretty well!

I've been very busy. I've joined my school debate team just too help them crush the opposition for fun! So I've been doing practices with them. The proposition is that "Class sizes in Hong Kong secondary schools should be limited to a maximum of 30 students." we are against...

That's coming up on Thursday.

I've also been preparing for the AFS Intercultural fair. That's this Saturday. Seeing as how I'm the only American this year I get to run the America booth. This also means I get to decide what is American culture!

I've decided that TV, Football, and Budwiser are NOT what America is all about America is infact about pulling on that pair of cheap sunglasses turning up your favorite band and rocking out on your AIR GUITAR!!!!!!!!!!!

that's right I'm going to be teaching a room full of Chinese kids how to solo on their imaginary AXE!!!!

I'll get some pictures and videos for you guys.

Another recient even of note

I WENT TO TOP GEAR LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*disclaimer if you don't like cars stop reading*

Top gear as the rest of you know is a ridiculious car show on the BBC with Richard Hamond, Jeremy Clarkson, and James may. Though James may didn't come it was FUCKING AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(sorry i think china is rubbing off on me i'm using exclamation marks way too much now. i'll try and stop.)

There was a car show, with all sorts of super cars and a few old cars as well.

and of corse the live show where they had foot ball soccer. the stig, precision driving, drifting, stupid challenges, and many other things.

along with a procession of super cars INCLUDING THE BUGATTI VEYRON!!!!!!!!!!! yes i got to see one.. it was pretty!

so that was basically my weekend...

the pictures will be up on myspace soon.

Hope your all well

Patrick

A bought of Sickness

2009-02-06T19:04:00.000-08:00

Hello all,

Still here in Hong Kong,

Thursday I went back to school, where I failed a chem test.
Thursday night I went out with a friend and we wandered the Streets of Mong Kok looking through all the interesting piles of crap they where selling.

I got home and went to sleep, at 4 am i was up getting water when i realized i was probably sick. so i turned off my alarm and spent yesterday at home sitting around.
It's nothing that serious. Lot's of sneezing and a low fever, but enough to keep me out of school.

other than that thing's have been going spiffingly. I downloaded "Surely Your Joking Mr. Feynman" on Book on Tape and listened to that this week. That book is a whole lot of fun.

that's about it for now... i really can't think of much else note worthy that's going on. so yep

take care of yourselves I'll be back this summer.

Patrick

New Pictures!

2009-02-01T05:24:00.000-08:00

Same place as usual! I've posted about 600 new photos.

My Camera has a 4 gig SD chip so I went a bit power crazy. There are pictures from A trip I took to Lamma Island with some friends. We came across a Brush Fire at one point which was pretty spectacular. I've been keeping busy over break running around Hong Kong with friends!

On a sad note one of my friends has headed home. Jessica from Switzerland was here on a half year not a full year program and went home last night my time. Luckly there was only one student here for a half year, the rest of us are here together till the end!

In the run up to her departure there where many parties (similar to my departure from Seattle). Jessica was a bit different from the rest of the exchange students in that her mother is from Hong Kong and she came her with more than a cursory knowledge of the language. While maybe not completely fluent she was definitely conversational in Cantonese. So at the various parties for her departure there where many of her classmates as well as exchange students.

Her classmates as you can imagin3e are more prone to speaking Cantonese than English, and I've been practicing my Cantonese with them. I have learned a lot in the last few days and it's nice to feel that i can communicate basic ideas at least.

I'm hopeful that i'll be able to speak some by the end of this year though Chinese has proven harder to tackle than I originally anticipated.

Hong Kong is much as it ever was. Full of people rushing this way and that. I'm starting to get very familiar with the different parts of the city. Hong Kong island where I live and go to school is very easy for me to navigate now. I'm still amazed by the efficiency of the public transportation here, being used to the convoluted mess that is Seattle's bus system.

All in all Things are well.

Back to School on Thursday.

More later

Hope you are all doing well

Patrick

Gong Hey Faat Choi!

2009-01-25T06:38:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Years from the far East!

We have a whole Week and a half off school so I'm not complaining! Chinese New Years is serious business around here. There is a massive Street fair going on in Causeway Bay in Victoria Park, It's part Flower Market part Random Crap Fair!

They have All sorts of different flowers each supposed to bring their own brand of luck in the new year. There are thousands of orange trees lined up everywhere (not big orange trees small orange trees like Clementine size oranges and small shrubs for trees) they are all for good luck as well.

There are pin wheels that are supposed to change bad luck to good and red everywhere. Tomorrow is the First day of New Years. You are not allowed to clean during Chinese new years or you will sweep the luck away. You are supposed to buy new pants because Foo the word for pants sounds like the word for Luck. There are many many other traditions as well.

This up coming year is the year of the ox. so there are all sorts of things floating around that are cow related. I bought a pack of cards that looks like a chocolate milk package. All the cards have cows on them. I'll put up some pictures soon.

That's all for now

Gong Hey Faat Choi (much wealth in the new year!)

Patrick

Circle Desk Nights!

2009-01-18T05:18:00.000-08:00

Hello all.

It's been another week in Hong Kong and many new things have happened. This Tuesday was the School Sports day. It's an all school track meet. I participated (your required to participate) in discus i was about average. The whole thing was rather boring and took all day. Besides that it was cold. it dropped to 8 degrees C so like mid 40's a bit chilly. Of course this means that all the Hong Kong people where out in Full battle gear. they all had on multiple sweatshirts underneath giant down jackets. with scarves and gloves. it was obscene. the funny bit is that for you events you had to change into your PE uniform (shorts and a t shirt!) it was pretty funny.

Wednesday we had off because of the sports day. I went to Mong Kok with a friend from Switzerland and we walked around. I picked up some random stuff i'd been meaning to get. That was nice. Then I went home and cooked Chicken Enchiladas for my family!
That came out really well, although the kids didn't like the olives or the beans in it. Everyone else liked it. It seems really weird to me that they didn't like the olives or the beans. Cause to me they are totally normal flavors. but i suppose they like tofu.

Thursday was school. In English we are doing speeches and Debate. we are starting with some famous speeches. They are all pretty obvious. but the really interesting part was the ignorance of my class mates...

We started with Jesse Owens. This was met by a chorus of "huh's" and "who's he?'s"
Understandable i suppose growing up in Hong Kong. but we move

They knew Winston Churchill.

Then came John F. Kennedy. yes my friends. my class was at a loss to identify this American president. They didn't know any of the others from the list either. Nelson Mandela, and Martian Luther King Jr.

Things that are common knowledge for Americans just aren't known over here sometimes. I forget this from time to time because everyone over here speaks English so I assume they know about all the things that we know in US.

Another funny thing happened in School. The kid who sits next to me was drawing a knight. he draws all the time. So he turned to me and asked if I knew the circle desk Knights.

So I told him yes i know the Knights of the Round Table.

However I think this would be a great band name
THE CIRCLE DESK NIGHTS!

anywho.. that's about it for now
hope your all doing well

Patrick

Hello All,

2009-01-11T05:35:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years everyone.

Life here keeps rolling inexorably forward. It's the 11th and we are drawing closer to the half way point. On the 23rd i'll have been here for 5 months.

After being here for 5 months i really feel like i'm starting to get to know the city a bit better. I know my neighbor hood much better than i did a month ago (thanks to the copious amount of time off I've had) I've gotten better acquainted with Causeway Bay and Wan Chai.

A change has come over me recently, I find my self thinking not about what food and things i'm missing in America but what food and things from Hong Kong i won't be able to find once I've come back.

This was my first week back at school. I did go back on friday the 2nd because my school is insane but this was my first real week back. The good news is i passed all of my Exams! Even pure maths where i only got 35 out of 100 marks (that was the passing grade i got an E (yes they have a grade E here)) I got D's in both Chemestry and Physics, and of course the highest grade in English.

Hong Kong itself has changed over the past week. Yesterday we dropped below 10 degrees C it made it all the way to 8 degrees and i got to pull out both a coat and hat for the first time since landing here.

Me and my friends went around yesterday as usual from one point to the next without any actual aim. We ended up somewhere new this time. Instead of going to Kowloon Tong or Mong Kok we ended up at the IFC in central. The cool thing is we found this little area with wicker furniture where you can hang out and no one bothers you. Your right under the IFC too.

I've been enjoying having a computer again, Even though i'm probably spending more time than i should be on it. But what else is new.

Today was Hoho's birthday so we just had a party. I gave him two magnetic board games. Tuesday is my host mothers birthday so I need to figure out another gift for her.

I can't believe we are already in 2009. Me and Adrian have already finished teh first 4 books of harry potter. It doesn't feel like i jsut got here but it doesn't feel like it was very long ago either.

Anywho. Life rolls on.

I'll go put up some more photos on Myspace now.

Hope your all well.

I would love to hear from you guys feel free to shoot me an email or even better a real letter.

I'll post again Soon

Patrick

well it's been a while and a lot has happened.

2008-12-29T00:41:00.000-08:00

god my last post was Dec 8th. that seems like much more than a month ago.

Well i'm out of school I took all of the exams and they weren't quite as bad as i expected. English of course was boring, and Physics and Chemistry i'm fairly confident about. Math however i don't think i did so well. i think i'll pass but i doubt i'll get a good mark. this wasn't due so much to the difficulty of the test but to the lack of studying on my part.

the math test was on Thursday the 18th and i had the two days before it off during which i planed to study all of the strange theorems involved in finding the limits of sequences. however on the morning of the 16th of December my life was interrupted by an Email for Reed College where i applied Early Decision, i didn't get in. With this on my mind studying took a back seat to my more philosophical musings. needless to say 2 days slipped by without me giving more than a cursory glance at my text books. This is my excuse for my poor marks... anywho....

After said test my classmates where quite excited to be out of school for break! We all went out to Karaoke, i was surprised because it was the first social thing i'd seen them do since i got to the school. i had fun never the less. there was a decent selection of pop songs (not my favorite but good enough to make a fool of your self!) and they sang mostly in Chinese but there are random words or sentences in English in all of the Canton pop songs so i got to sing along for that.

19th we had Christmas service and class photos. that all went smoothly and then it was Holiday time!

I've been really enjoying my holidays. I arrived in Hong Kong 1 week before classes started so i barely had time to get my bearings. This time has been really good for exploring and things. Also without my classmates eager to talk to me in English. Over this break I've learned a lot of cantonese (nogh haw gong ho daw gongdongwa)

I've been wandering around with different friends. and spending alot of time with my Host family. I went and saw the Twilight movie which wasn't nearly as bad as i though it would be. I also visited the "hong kong brands and products expo" yes an expo for brands and products, god how much more vague could you get... but it was fun there was all sorts of crazy stuff there. from every type of Chinese food imaginable to vacuum cleaners to rice cookers.

I also went to the hong kong Book Fair. where i picked up a bunch of books for really cheap! Thank you all by the way for sending litterateur along. however Space is limited in Hong Kong and with the approximately 20 books i've received i'll be set with reading for a while. but if i need more book's i'll let you guys know.

Christmas was surprisingly uneventful. My family though Christian didn't have any big plans for the day of. We went to yum Cha (dim sum) which was really good but spent most of the day at home. I lit the Chuannuka candles with them and handed they all presents which they all seemed to like!

The lack of Christmas plans can be partially explained by what we did immediately following Christmas. on the morning of the 26th we woke up at 5:something AM to start our trip to mainland china!

We woke up early and caught a bus from Wan Chai to the Chinese boarder. We got there by 7:00 by 7:45 we all loaded onto a tourist bus. I joined the crowd for my first Asian bus tour! we drove 2 hours into china to a honey farm. There they proceeded to try and sell us honey. after the sales pitch we went off to lunch. My first chinese food in CHINA was good but not what you'd call amazing. it's quite different than the food in Hong Kong you wouldn't think that less than 100 miles could cause such a change in cusine but it did.

After lunch we got to the main purpose of the trip a Massive Zoo! We saw many many many many different animals. and i took 200 something pictures that day of every type of wild life you can name. I've posted the pictures to Myspace so go check them out!

After our jaunt around the zoo which included Hoho (littlest brother) and Adrien (other brother) taking pictures with a baby white lion. we went to the Circus! The circus was part of the same complex that the zoo belonged too. It was more Ringling brothers than Cirque du Soile but still very good. That being said they weren't a normal circus. There where many acts that included the animals of the zoo. (dozens of bears on bicycles) After all the Excitement and dinner it was getting close to 10 o'clock we drove another hour to the Hotel, by this time Hoho was asleep and everyone else was very tired.

The hotel was very nice. The best part by far though was the beds. They had real soft mattresses. I'm not saying my bed here in hong kong is bad i find it perfectly adequate, but it's not what you'd call soft. think something like a pile of bamboo mats and you'll get the idea. It has some give to it but not and nice as those beds.
needless to say after the long day i slept well.

the next day wasn't nearly as exciting though we went to a beautiful garden in Shenzen. the trip ended in the early afternoon and we were home by 6 o'clock.

there was an AFS BBQ yesterday with the other students which was a lot of fun. though some where missing with their families off to mainland or Macau.

That brings us about up to date. I'm sure i've missed somethings, like the fact that i got a computer! but that's all i got for now.

Now that i have said computer i'll be updating more frequently.

Hope you're all doing well over the holidays. Have a happy new years.

Pat

Hello everyone!

2008-12-08T17:56:00.000-08:00

So it's coming up on exams...

I was off monday and i have today and wensday off too. I didn't do any studying yesterday so i really should get on that. anywho.

Life here plod's along nicely. After exams comes the christmas vacation. We are having a chirstmas party for the exchange students at my appartment, i will post pictures of that.

It is rather strange me putting on a chirstmas party but whatever. I suppose i should set up a little thing for Haunaka and explain what it is to people. (one more thing to do!)

I've been Reading like CRAZY! one of the good thing's about being here is i really have gotten a chance to make a serious dent in my reading list!

Since here i've finished Atlas Shrugged, War for the Oaks, Siddhartha, Cathcher in the Rye, 1984, Watchmen, and Drums of Autumn. Those of you who were around durring the packing phase of this journy remember the Stack of books i wanted to bring and the ones that made the finial cut. But after 3 months of reading. i've made it through 90% of my books (the rest are loaned out to other exchange students).

On saturday i bought 2 books from Page One (one of the few decent english book stores here) "the unbearable lighness of being" by Milan Kuendra and "The Road" By Cormac McArthy. In the two days since saturday I've already read 2/3rds of "the unbearable lightness of being" needless to say i will soon run out of books again. I was hoping some of you might happen to send me some books that you enjoy.

I would be most greatful!

and i would then have your address and the ability to pester you with leters!

I hope all goes well back in the states.

patrick

Thanksgiving in China

2008-11-29T17:20:00.000-08:00

So as you are all aware Thanksgiving was last thursday. As you might expect, here in hong kong they didn't bat an eyelash. Other than a brief segment on tv about George Bush Pardoning a turkey there was nothing.

Except at my house. I decided that i was going to have thanksgiving this year anyways to share some of american culture with my family. This is after i was walking through taste (a grocery store that imports alot of western food) and saw forzen turkeys. So I set to work. I collected recipes from my father, and last tuesday i went to taste and bought all the fixings.

Seeing as how i don't have 3 days off for thanksgiving, i decided to hold mine on Saturday as opposed to the traditional last Thrusday in November. I started cooking on friday night. I made the cranberry sauce(easy), Pumkin Pie, and the crutons and most of the mix for the stuffing. That took a long while seeing as how my 4 year old brother wanted to see how EVERYTHING was done. Luckly he had to go to bed so i finished before midnight.

With all the preperations done Saturday was here.
I woke up, walked down to the one bread shop near buy that sells baguettes and bought 4 for our feast (i wasn't about to let it be served with rice). I cooked the stuffing in a casarole, and then turned my attentions to turkey. Origionally frozen it had been thawing for 4 days in my host families refrigerator. even so i decided to err on the side of caution and i soaked it in cold water for 1/2 an hour. My host brothers where facinated at this gigantic chicken. However eventually i was able to get it away from them and into the oven.

While the turkey cooked i made Salade, and Mashed potatos. Everything was coming together beautifully. My exchange student friends from Europe and South America all were interested in what this thanksgiving thing was all about so i invited them over. Dinner was to be served at 6:00. The turkey came out (perfectly done) at 5:30 I made gravey and EVERYTHING was ready and on the table at 6:00 sharp. Everything was there, except for my friends who showed up 30 minutes later. They did call me ahead of time but for those thirty minutes i was quite annoyed. But it all worked out. with 7 guests and 7 of us we finished everything except for some turkey and a slice or two of pumkin pie.

The night was a sucess! 2 days of cooking but it was all worth it!

here are some pictures of the food i made.

My host brother looking at the turkey in the sink

So this is what i did yesterday. Hope you are all well

Patrick

Thanksgiving.

2008-11-24T00:46:00.000-08:00

All of you will take off this week for the lovely festivities of Thanksgiving.

oh how i would love to do the same. However it is not to be.

I have this week and next week before EXAMINATIONS start. then chirstmas holidays.

However i refuse to let thanksgiving pass unmarked so i have planed to cook a full feast for my family, in our tiny kitchen, this saturday!

I hope it will go well. though i'm really not sure. It should be fun in general.
Sunday is the Gala Dinner for AFS. Then back to school and insanity.

Today was very interesting. the first half was boring. But at lunch I met a girl from the school next to mine. She used to go to my school an knew the exchange students who had gone to my school before me. that was interesting.

Then after lunch i had Tripple english were my teacher decided to show us a movie.

Little Ms. Sunshine!
I love that movie and i'd forgotten how good it is. all the other students liked it too.

However i dont' think tomorrow will be quite as fun as today. but one can hope.

life roll's on. nothing HUGE in the way of developments here.

I spent the weekend hanging out with the exchange students. It was David's birthday so we all went ice skating.

hope your all well

Patrick

Hey everyone

2008-11-14T01:56:00.000-08:00

Life here's pretty chaotic.

I just submitted my applictation to reed college, to the detriment of my mential health and my families. I'm glad to have it done none the less.

This weekend has alot going on. I'm doing Cooking for fun on saturday (a voulenteer program where supposedly we teach children to cook for fun though i've seen neither anywhere near the program) Saturday night i'm meeting my host father's friends.

Sunday is my host brother's birthday. we are going to cinderella the musical theater version. and i'm cooking pizza again.

This week Cantonese lessons started again. I'm excited to get back to learning at least a little of the language. I honestly doubt that i'll be anywhere near fluent by the time i leave... In fact i'd be supprised if i could understand more than 3 sentences. but hopefully i'll be better when i leave than now.

thursday saw me going to the AFS office to meet up with some other kids. AFS Hong Kong is turning 25 this year and there is a big party. Of course they wanted us exchange students to do something and so i'm part of a group that's supposed to sing at the "gala dinner".

More chaos will insue i'm sure.
I'm busy running around. I need to buy a different uniform for winter. I'm not sure why they have a maditory day for you to change uniform's but alright...

I realized the other day that my classes have finials.. that are suppoesed to be mega tough. They are the second and third weeks of december and each finial is 3 hours long. so now i have to study,(sigh), becasue they don't actually bother to teach you in school you have to teach your self or (as all my classmates do) go to turtorial (a tutor class)

If your ever in Hong Kong you will find some English newspapers. The two i see on any regular basis are the South China Morning Post, and the Standard. The SCMP costs money, the standard is free. I subscribe through my school to the SCMP daily, that was a waist of money... that paper is trash...

Get the Standerd it's handed out at 7:30 am daily across hong kong. be there when they are handing them out because they dissapear quick.

one of the thing's i love about the standard is a colum that comes out daily called Dissident's Diary. It's usually quite funny.

here's the link

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_sec.asp?we_cat=5&d_str=20081114

I hope you are all doing well

please email me with your comments and updates
Patrick

Why Reed?

2008-11-07T19:10:00.000-08:00

Wow... it's been a little while

Many thing's have happened... the last update i gave you was before halloween.

mostly I've been hanging out with friends... it really is a great thing to do...
On halloween we wandered around as usual. on Saturday the day after we had a haloween party.

so in the morning i went down stairs and bought a bottle of EXTRA hard Gel. and proceeded to make my hair into a mohawk... it took about an hour including all the failed attempts. but in the end i think it came out pretty well.

Then i went to something called "Cooking for fun" it's a voulenteer program with AFS where we go and teach little azn kids how to cook "for fun" wellllll... it was neither cooking or fun...

well there was some fun to be had making fun of it. I came up with a theroy. I think it's not really a free program for children. I'm thinking it's a pay for program (kind of like a political fund raiser) where where cook to rais money so OTHER PEOPLE can have fun.... but the other kid's thought this unlikely...

we then proceeded to the other side of hong kong where the Halloween Party was. Eveyone loved my hair and my new Cowboy boots (thank's mom!). The party was great.

Sunday we hiked Over Hong Kong Island. it took about three hours and was a lot of fun.. but by the end i was dead tired...

this week's been good... I've been working hard on my applications to college... the first one of which, to Reed, is due next weekend. I was anxious about the elections on tuesday and i couldn't pay attention at all on wensday morning (when the results where coming in) i go the final word at about noon when i went out to eat lunch!

That really brightened up my day... I cought Obama's acceptance speach in the lunch room where they have a tv that's always playing something.

Friday was the school pick nic we went to a park that looked out over Clearwater Bay. My classmates had designed a t-shirt for us and it somehow ended up bright pink.. but it was fun. We tryed to go see james bond last night but they where sold out. so we went to the one mexican food place in all of hong kong instead... that was good.

here are a few pictures. if you want to see the rest of my pictures they are up on my myspace... www.myspace.com/pandora_the_third

I was walking around Mong Kok with some friends when we happend across this is a Jewlery store window... now you've all seen strange and stupid jewlery before... but this was in an up scale jewelery store... it's made of real gold... and i'm not sure why it exists

The pink class photo

And last but not least... my friend Guille from Arguentina gave an interview to someone or other over the phone. they asked if he had any pictures he said no. they asked if he had facebook so he gave them the link. about a week later this poster shows up in like 7 different schools around Hong Kong... it's quite funny and the best bit is... Guille didn't know anything about it untill we told him....

Sorry bout the wait

2008-10-22T01:41:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while since my last update...

I have many excuses believe me!

but alright...

it's been good for the most part. Starting with the bad news however i lost my ipod shortly after my last post. (it was a bad week both the ipod and the cell phone) this has been annoying me becasue i'm on public transit everyday for at least a half hour... and on weekends or if i'm going somewhere in the new territories i can be on the mtr for an hour and a half at a time... so in short i neeeeeeed my ipod...

Luckly i thought ahead and i have a back up of all my music on an external harddrive so i'll still have it when i get a replacement ipod.

Back to life

School is boring... more so than ever... Chemestry can be ok depending on the day. English is easy but fun. and math and phyisics put me to sleeeepppp god... soooooo dullllllll... and it's every day.... anywho...

Everyone here is good. I made pizza for my host family last sunday. And spagetti a la carbonara for them on wensday they liked them both.

I went out to dinner last night with Ozgur the turkish boy. which was fun. I've also been spending alot of time with the South American/Italian Group...

I've decided that i should learn Spanish... It will be easier than Chinese and i'll actually have a chance to use it...

this weekend i was reading harry potter to my younger brother (we're on book 3) and he looked out the window and said HEY SOMETHING'S ON FIRE sure enough there was...

I'm not sure what really went on but here's a picture i took from my house.

So there are tram's on Hong Kong Island. They (like everything else here) are very skinny and very tall (well maybe not the people) they run on two steal tracks... and infront of the central library in Causeway bay they are putting in new concreat for the road... while in america they would stop traffic. they just work the construction around the trams here...

click on it to see it bigger...

I figured out that photobucket takes forever to upload photos so they are now all being hosted at my myspace page!

www.myspace.com/pandora_the_third

I hope your all well

Pat

Orthodox....

2008-10-09T02:15:00.001-07:00

So last night was the begining of Yom Kippur...

Me and Guille (Arguentina) decided to head out to a jewish synagog we had heard about in Hong Kong...

We where walking down the road where it was looking but didn't see any sign's that said JCC in big letters. Luckly we saw a guy wearing a Kippa ahead and asked him where it was... he said in here and jestured to something that looked terribbly like an appartment building... so we went in.

We got all the way to Security where we where interrogated by a Big Jewish seceurity guard for 5 minutes... he asked us if we came last satruday (i started to get the hint that this was an orthodox temple...) he asked to see our id's, we went through the mettal detctor and they searched my back pack. I'm supprised they didn't ask to see if we where circumsized or not.

So we went in and of course it's divided by men and women. not only that but everyone in the congrigation has their own assigned seats... there was much chanting in Hebrew.

The other strange thing about this Orthodox Temple in Hong Kong is that there where no chinese people in the whole place.... it was all white people...

After about an hour of looking around nervously to see if someone was going to yell at us.. Me and Guille Split.

We got some mexican food for dinner and had a good time over all!

My camera wasn't allowed inside the Temple so no picutres...

the phone is officially gone.. so i'll be buying a new one asap....

Hope your all well

patrick

P.S.

here are pictures of the cards that the student association handed out and of Atlas Shrugged.

Butterfly Beach

2008-10-07T22:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the big gap between updates... I ment to do one this weekend but the time got away from me...

Casual Tuesday was ANNOYING.
So It's the one day in the year when you don't have to wear the uniform, and they have more rules about what you can wear on that day than on any other day...

So I wake up and put on my clothes, because i don't think i own anything that wouldn't be appropreiate for casual day. I don't have short shorts or shirts that say "weed is great" so i don't see anyway the administration can be angry with me.

So i get to school and the second i get there all my class mates tell me "NO YOU CAN'T WEAR SHORTS TO SCHOOL ON CASUAL DAY!" WTF.... anyways... the teachers didn't notice... but it was irritating as all hell....

plus the fact that it was 35 degrees C outside... it seemed stranged everyone else was wearing jeans...

Wensday was National Day
I went with my family to the Hong Kong Science and Technology College to hang out... it's a big campus with a soccar feild and some very pretty panoramas... I'll put the pictures up soon... we had a good time running aroung...

Aadne called and we made plans to go to Tsim Sha Tsui to watch the fireworks for National Day. (national day of china not Hong Kong) The Fireworks are in Victoria Harbor and the newspaper said the next day that 300,000 people turned out to watch the Fire works... at least 80,000 of them had to be with in 4 block's of where we where casue it was NUTS.

Afterwords the poliece blocked off the streets so you couldn't get to the closest MTR station and we ended up walking 2 miles to Kowloon station as opposed to the Tsim Sha Tsui station....

Luckly i was with friends and it was a great time...

here's one of many many many youtube videos shot that night... you can go to youtube to find more if you don't like this one... just type..

National day Hong Kong Victoria Harbor.

Thursday was my last organized Cantonese class through AFS...

It was sad becasue we won't all see eachother every week... well we won't see eachother durring the week we will still see eachother on weekends... and there are more cantonese classes but it's 2 to 4 students to a voulenteer teacher soo i think i'll learn a lot more that way...

Friday was school...

Saturday I went up and down Hong Kong Island looking at things... took some pictures.. it was good.... that night i met up with the AFSer's but they didn't doo much so me and Guille (arguentina) left... we headed to the IFC the tallest building in Hong Kong to talk and hang out... on the way home I figured out he was JEWISH! soo now we have a jew crew in hong kong...

Sunday was fairly boring...

I finished reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to my little brother and we watched the movie...

Monday

I finished Atlas Shrugged! by Ann Ryand it was good... the end started getting a bit boring... I don't think i quite agree with her but she does have some good points...

the funniest bit is that the my classmates who are running for school government handed out cards on monday... all the cards had you timetable printed on the back so you can carry it with you so you'll remember and on the front it has their logo and their slogn.

"You say what you need. We give, You receive."

I thought the Irony was too thick to help but laughing at...

*you won't get it unless you've read atlas shrugged*

Tuesday was off school for some holiday or another...

I went hiking with my family in the morning. (well waking along an even paved path) We went through the mountains a little and took some pretty pictures... of course it didn't last long... as hiking with 4 year olds never does...

A friend of mine was with us becasue their family was along so we talked the whole time...

At Noon thirty we got back and i split for home... I had planed on going to a party with the other exchange students at butterfly beach... an hour and a half by mtr to get there... I had to stop at home to get my cell phone wich i thought i left...

it turns out that it must have fallen out of my pocket becasue it wasn't at home... so i'm probably going to have to buy a new phone tomorrow...

But i called up someone there and got directions... and met up with them. We all had a spiffing time there on the beach and talked untill we went home...

Today Wensday...

I think is yom kipur, just looked it up... it start's tonight and is officially tomorrow... but me and Gillie are going to check out the local synagog...

He seemed intrested and i was wondering if i could find any chinese jews soo that's what i'm doing tonight...

school's ok... but that's life...

more fun thing's comming up soon

Hope your all well

Patrick

Casual Tuesday

2008-09-29T02:49:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is Causal dress day at school. I had to give them 20 dollars (hk so it's 2.50) which apparently is going to charity. never the less the fact that you have to give the school money to be able to wear normal clothes or for air conditioner fee's is very very strange to me...

Anywho.. I just got through another amazing weekend! I went to a Birthday party with the other exchange students... It was for Nelson's sister. (Nelson was one of the first friends) soo all the exchange student's hung out ONCE AGAIN! it was awesome... there were these little speaker things so I put on my music for everyone... me and the other kids spent a lot of time flipping through my Ipod saying "I LOVE THEM" and "HAVE YOU HEARD OF" it was a good time had by all...

Sunday I was going to go see a friend play a show... but my host family told me at noon that my support contact was coming over... so I told my friends I had to bail and went out to buy school book's.... Ozgur the Turk* showed up he happened to be on HK island so we hung out for a while...

*

I met with my support contact and told her everything was going dandy, and that leaves me at today...

Today was more school, P.E. where I played basket ball and realized I've forgotten completely how to shoot a basket ball, and closing the day with triple Math's... I caught up on some reading I've been meaning to do....

Paperwork here is like a religion. I keep getting thing's for my parents to sign even 1 month into the school year. I applied for a library card... but that needed to be revised because it needed a photo copy of my gaurenteer's HKID card. I tryed to get My Student MTR Card Today and they wanted a photo so they wouldn't take it... anywho...
it'll all get done....

You guy's keep on surviving.

Patrick

P.S.
It says "that's where I live if you where wondering" click the picture if you want to see it bigger...

It's the same picture as the blog header...

School and a Typhoon

2008-09-25T23:27:00.000-07:00

So I got off school on wensday for the Typhoon.

it got to level 8 wich is why we got off. unfortunately it came through at night... it started really picking up at about 8 or so at night and by the time I woke up the next morning it had passed...

So i'm waiting for the next one to go dancing in the rain....

School is pretty boring but that's ok

Hope your all doing welll

Patrick

Typhoon level 3 has been posted...

2008-09-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

if it goes to level 8 we get to go home!

there is nothing between 3 and 8 i don't know why

the levels are 1 (which is ignored) 3 (pretty much ignored) 8 (everything shuts down) 9 and 10 (JESUS CHRIST PLEASE SAVE US)

just thought you would like to know

Pat

ONE MONTH DOWN!

2008-09-21T04:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates...

School this week was fine... a fairly normal week... For P.E. we did swimming and played "water polo" (the pool is 3 feet deep so no one was swimming)

Thursday I BOUGHT A CAMERA!!!!

specks for the nerd friends out there!

8.0 mega pixels
5x optical zoom
4 gig sd chip
facial recognition
and more features than i would know how to use...

It's small and has a big screen which makes it perfect...

I've been taking a lot of pictures too many to try and up load to blogger...

Blogger's photo upload interface is fine for 5 or even 10 or so photos but i took a lot so I'll put them up on photobucket.com

the Internet is being finicky.... it's rather annoying...

soo Thursday was Cantonese lessons as every Thursday is... After we went out to fast food Japanese.... all good I fell asleep at probably 11

Friday was another good day and after school I went to a BBQ party at the Icelandic Exchange student's house. It was a great time. It took a lot of newspaper and failed attempts to light the charcoal but eventually we got it going and a good time was had by all... I left Baddi's House around 10:30 I ended up at home at 12.

Sign up's for after school activities must be done through the web the deadline was Saturday night at midnight so i was up till one getting ready for bed and signing up for Football (soccer) and Chess clubs'

Saturday was ORIENTATION!!! the orientation that was scheduled for the day we got here. we finally had it.. One month to the day after landing. So it was up at 7:30 and out the door at 8 to get to the other side of the new territories... if you care to look the meeting was at the Fanling MTR station on the light blue line i live at Fortress hill/North point on the dark Blue line (called the island line).

Camp was good because of the other students... the material was the same boring talk about culture shock they had given us in every book and in the us orientation, so that was fairly boring but it's hard to have a bad time with 30 of your friends and you hanging out. soo we played basket ball and talked about everything, school, host families, a lot about the differences between here and our home culture. It was great!

We had a talent show so I solved the Rubix cube. everyone was very impressed.

One German boy has been playing piano since he was 2, I think, and sat down at a piano and just whips out this beautiful piece of classical music from memory. he is an amazing musician it's crazy... and for him it was no big deal... he seemed to be bored... I wish I could play like that but just thinking of the practice involved make's me cringe....

for dinner was BBQ again... this time I helped light 2 or 3 fires after having figured it out the night before... they do BBQ differently here than in the US... in the us the Charcoal goes in the bottom of the BBQ and then you have the grill over it where you put the food down to cook... here you put news paper in the bottom to light the charcoal on chicken wire and you cook over the charcoal on sticks.... ummmmmmmm.... Meat on a stick... It was all very tasty....

After words we went to "bed" meaning we all sat in the Court yard talking all night... I was up till 4 my time... and wake up call was 7 am.... toooo early.... but i got a nap this afternoon... I'm behind on sleep over all...

We where at a camp. a summer camp, camp. bunk beds. soccer Field basket ball hoops room's to meet in and a Canteen. The canteen food at lunch on Saturday wasn't bad. it's camp food though and it's very strange to think of Chinese camp food... It was definitely passable... I mean I ate it... but think of the camp version of burgers or camp version of spaghetti and meat ball's. Now think of the camp version of mushu pork... of fried and glazed fish... any who...

Breakfast consisted of cold Hom Bow and a noodle soup of some sort... it was ok but not what I (or any of the other kid's at my table) where looking for in breakfast... Looking at the half empty serving bowl of noodles I found their opinion of breakfast personified in a "sign from the heavens"* camp got out at ten and we went off to find food. unfortunately by the time we caught the bus to the MTR to Kowloon tong... it was Noon so we gave up on breakfast and had lunch...

I got home at 1:30. I'm reading Harry potter (in it's entirety) to my 10 year old brother, we have finished the 1st book and are on the second one. so we watched the first Harry potter movie... I started falling asleep so i went off to take my nap...

anywho both my brother's want me to read to them soo I'm off...

Hope your all well

Patrick

*there's your sign....

to see photos

go here

http://s60.photobucket.com/albums/h18/inky232000/hong%20kong%201/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival

2008-09-15T02:27:00.000-07:00

hey it's the end of a Monday here and we had the day off for Mid Autumn Festival.

I really don't know much about it even after living through it... everyone seemed really excited for it and then just sort of went through a few motion's and there didn't seem to be much point... we went to a park and lit candles and played with lanterns.... that was it... there wasn't any ritual to it... it seemed odd to me... espeically after all they hype I've gotten about it being some great holiday...

anyways I've got more pictures for you

These are From the Peak of Hong Kong Island, The big building is the IFC the tallest building in Hong Kong you might know it from Batman (he jumps off it)

look at Hong Kong again from the peak. My house is in this picture but i'm too lazy to highlight it now.
my host dad standing at the peak .
a view of the other side of the island fromt the peak
My little brother adreil durring the daily battle to make him eat dinner

Mid Autumn Fetival

some of the many amazing lanterns at Victoria park

Adreil and Sandy Host brother and mother
More lanterns with Hong Kong in the background
more lanterns
even more
Different angle on the same lanterns
another angle

More lanterns!

More more more!
Different angles looking at the latnerns!!!
A man dressed up as a ferry with guess what a lantern on his head and on stilts.
Angles lanterns

Angles and lanterns

more and more and more

Me and my Host Dad

Candles we burned
The little brother
Taken from the living room of our house Sail boat racesMore pictures of boats!

The last week has been good, I've been going to school. Math class is the most boring thing I have ever had to sit through repeatedly. after math class it's like someone snapped my brain... it's a horrible feeling... any who... the rest of school is good i really like my class mate's though I don't have any pictures of them up yet... I'm going to buy a camera this week. at the Moment I'm operating on a camera borrowed from my host family.

I'm sooo tired right now. we got home at 11:30 and went to sleep at 12:30 here last night and left this morning at 9 to go swimming. They are used to it... I need more sleep. but it is absolutely useless to try and sleep in. other than the fact that my room faces east and is one big window. my little brother is up at 7 every morning and if I'm in bed he's yelling at me and poking me... for no good reason... I haven't been able to make it past 10 asleep...

on September 30th there is a day we don't have to wear our school uniform if we pay 20 dollars (a form a extortion if you ask me) but you need to pay it through an online system they use called pps... of course I'm not on any system and soo i spent all week trying to give them money that they wouldn't take... any who.

They told us on Friday that to sign up for after school activities you have to do it through eclass... an online program through the school.................................................................................... that will be this week's battle...

more school more school... orientation for AFS kids is this coming weekend and that will be fun soo yeah...

stuff too look forward too...

Pat

Hard Rock and More School

2008-09-09T02:50:00.000-07:00

Sunday was good.

I woke up at 10 and read some Atlas Shrugged, then I read to Adriel, then I read to Adrien. Finally i slipped out around 4:45 to head to Tsim sha tisu to meet everyone and go to the Hard Rock Cafe. My bus took forever to come... but it was Sunday afternoon...

so I was a little late... it was good though and we all had a great time. I realized that the Hard rock is real American food. McDonald's isn't. Anywho... After we walked around and ended up at the star ferry pier looking out at Hong Kong it was nice being with friend's hanging out.

I met a German kid who had gone to the same school as me... he wasn't wild about it. also a Hong Kong kid who spent his exchange year in the Cezch Republic. It's interesting because growing up in the suburbs I'm excited to live in a city. However whenever I talk to people here about not liking the country they all look at me funny. They all like the country, I have a feeling though it comes from growing up in Hong Kong, and they don't really know how boring it is...

Back to school... More of the same... I've been playing a lot of chess with the other kid's. I've mostly been loosing but i won one game today.

I hope you are all doing well.

Patrick

P.S. I just found the camera today so no pictures from this weekend from me. I'll see if I can get some from the other kid's to post.

Mong Kok on a Saturday

2008-09-06T20:07:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

yesterday was another exciting day. All the exchanges students came together again for another day of weekend fun... this week's destination Mong Kok, Imagine Time Square Crowded all the time and for about 20 sq. blocks. That's Mong Kok, it's the cool part of the city. It's got cafes and Karaoke bars and the Ladies market*, and many other thing's to see and do.

Mong Kok at Night

However we soon realized that Mong Kok was not as easy a place as the beach for a gathering of 20 exchange student's. The Beach is easy you all show up and some people swim some people sit there it's all straight forward... Mong Kok is almost like it's own city there is ton's to do and it's all very different... there is no way to keep together 20 student's for 12 countries with a variety of interests... so we got to the Ladies Market* (oh all right I'll explain the ladies market here. The Ladies market is a BIG STREET full of people selling knock off everything, watches, t-shirt's, Rolex's, Gucci bags, anything you want you can get there, cheep if your willing to bargin.) and we decided to split up and meet up at three o'clock, because trying to shop in group's of twenty is like trying to skydive with a duck for a parachute, it end's badly... so Aadne the Norwegian (pronounced odd neh), Tim from Belgin, and Dylan the Aussie, and I got some grub at a local cafe.

Mong Kok Ladies Market

The cafe was on the second floor. We got there and ordered stuffed snails to share around the table and deep fried soft shell crab also to share.. and a "chocolate milkshake" each... The chocolate milk shake was more like chocolate milk with some crushed ice and (because it's Asia) chunks of chocolate jelly at the bottom, like a bubble tea. They where ok, the Crab and Snails where very good and we went on our way...

We got back to the appointed place at 3 o'clock, and of course, no one was there. They had all gone for lunch at, do you want to guess.... McDonald's....... AGAIN, it's like some weird obsession for these kids or something...

so we called them and said "where are you?"
"McDonald's"

"okkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk, Which McDonald's?"

"It's in a mall"

"Which Mall"

"It's by the MTR"

"how bout this, go out side and give us a street name...."

"WHAT"

"whatever, bye"

to give you an idea of how unhelpful their directions where.. it's like trying to find someone in Seattle and they tell you, "I'm in a Starbucks"

Every building in Hong Kong is or has a mall, even my apartment complex has a mall under it, with a toy's r' us. and there is a McDonald's on every other block.

Eventually we found them. Once we did they wanted to go back to the ladies market.. so me and the 3 other's above mentioned + a German kid decided to go off our own way and check out the computer center.

The computer center is a special type of mall in Hong Kong. It's 3 stories, full of small booth's, all of them about electronics, Laptops and components galore for ridiculously cheep. we spent a good hour looking at different laptops and such... it looks like about 5,000 hk$ for a good laptop. We also saw a lot of E PCs or mini lap top's which i find very interesting. I'm not sure if i want one but I like the idea...

The Computer Center

we saw one that was like 6 inches by 4 inches it was just big enough for a keyboard, (that you couldn't type on) and no mouse pad so it had like the little mouse nub and two clickers off on the side... It was cute but stupid...

Another Shot of the Computer Center

Next on the agenda it was decided was food and a movie... we found both in a mall however the only non chick flick in English was... Bangkok Dangerous, the most generic and predictable movie I've seen in a while. What's worse is it had Nicholas Cage, who I despise. However I got some good Indian food and the rest of the day was good so, I'll let that be.

Tonight we do it all over again... but this time lead by me and my "first friend". about 15 of us are meeting up at 5:30 and we are going to the Hard Rock Cafe. It will be epic.

more later

hope your all well

(Photo's from flickr)

The Weekend

2008-09-05T02:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while... been busy...

School is finally going... we're actually doing thing's in class chemistry is a little complicated... and physics is easy so far... Math is putting me to sleep...

The other kids at school are a lot of fun to be around. we have been going out to lunch together... it's crazy cause we all descend on a place like 15 of us and take over... today we had Japanese food... I got basically sushi in a bowl... it was little cubes of different fish, some shredded seaweed, and fish eggs on a bowl of rice. it was really good...

I had Cantonese lessons last night with the other AFS kids... after we went to where else the worlds restaurant, the internationally acclaimed McDonald's.... yes it's sad but true...

Every time we get together it seems like they all want to go to McDonald's...

oh well...

I'm excited for the Weekend... tomorrow I'm going to Mong kok which will be tons of fun and Sunday night I'm going to the hard rock cafe.

I'll take pictures and write more soon...

Oh and BTW the stories about the having rolls Royce taxi's here are all lies... maybe executive taxi's but EVERY taxi I've seen has been the same boxy old Toyota....

Pat

Ebb and Flow

2008-09-02T03:19:00.000-07:00

point counterpoint, action reaction, stop and go.

There is a lot of that in Hong Kong. For me it's very conscience. Crossing the street is a dance of other people and traffic. I wonder if the people who live here even think about it anymore. they do it 50 times a day every day.

It was another boring day at school. We still haven't started to do anything. Tomorrow is the real first day. I exchanged my book's from form 4 for form 6 book's. I'm ready to fight the new year. ready to weather the storm that is school. (i hope.) It should be good though.

It is raining today... It's the first time it's rained since I've been here. it's really more of a drizzle... but it counts... it's very cloudy and thankfully it's cooled down some today... the atmosphere is strange a cool and warm mixture always tinted with the dampness of the rain.

Hong Kong is very much an Umbrella Cultrue... unlike Seattle... Eveyone carries a small umbrella in their bag... weather for sun or for rain it's always on hand.

The busses here are much simpler than back home... I'm already confident enough to ride the bus into Wan Chai and back. Where as the busses in Seattle take a Phd to navigate. They are all clearly numbered and like everything else can be paied for with your octopus pass.

My school gave me an RFID card wich is my Student ID for now. It doesn't have my picture (yet) and is unerving and annoying for me... they don't take roll at my school you scan your RFID when you walk in the front gate and again when you leave... so they will know if your even one second late...

It's amazing the proliferation of technology into every day life here... it's not that they are very far ahead in what they can do, but they are light year's ahead at doing it in everyday life...

I'm reading Atlas Shrugged, becasue I loaned War for the Oaks to an Italian girl at the beach (she didn't have anything to read and wasn't swimming) It's good so far... But i'm only 40 pages in...

I'm reading Harry Potter to my 10 year old brother and the rest of the family. Sandy my host mom who tought english for 10 years is very keen on having me read in english out loud to the kids. I tryed to read Harry Potter to Adriel but he doesn't understand all the words...

It's strange to think that english isn't his first language when he can already speak it so well. Adrein seems to like it but we are only one chapter in.

All this week school starts at 7:40 so I have to leave the house at 7 which mean's waking up at 6:30.

Much too early to be waking up for school espically a school you didn't sign up for....
Although i suppose in a way i did... but what ever...

My school is a Christian school, I'm supprised that no one has figured out that I'm Jewish yet. I thought it would be a tip off that I have to read the Lord's Prayer out of the book... but I suppose they aren't looking at me...

I'm in the Destdedit house (sound's like destitute) for p.e. apparently it's this big competition inside of the school they have Volly Ball games and ches games and quiz games, and a track and feild meet and other competitions and who ever get's the most "marks" win's. I think it's annoying and unnessary... but i always thought school spirit was in High School.... But worse that that you are REQIRED to do a sport for your house... so i suppose i'm going to do Shot Put, Javalin, and Discus. So I can avoid running and swimming... wich are the only other two options....

Tomorrow's Wednesday.

Another day another adventure

(P.S. the picture at the top of my blog is from the Peak of Hong Kong Island At night)

First day of School

2008-09-01T04:49:00.000-07:00

MORE PICTURES!!!

this is me and the Australian Kid. In the background is Hong Kong at night (isn't it pretty..... :-P) we where in Kowloon, but the camera didn't get it soo well...

The camera in night mode... you can see the city much better and me and two friends very creepily!!!
a picture of just Hong Kong at night...
taken from the window of the closet, where the computer is and I am right now...
I have more pictures.. some from the peak of the mountain on hong kong island... I'll post them later..

Today was my first day at the school here... it was a half day and full of handing out papers....

I got bumped up to form 6 so thing's should be interesting at least in the school work... My class mates seem like really nice people... The school is about 1,200 kid's like MIHS but it's forms 1-7. soo my grade is about 90 people... who are split up into three sections... Sciences (where i am), Arts (not really arts it just called that... it's really humanities... history, economics and geography), and something else i can't remember....

HSBC skrewed up my bank account... they mixed it up with another exchange student... but I cleared that up today.. and me and Maria (German) hung out for the rest of the day, we got coffee and talked about thing's it was good...

I went to the Beach this Saturday with the other AFS kid's I had TONS of fun.. swimming... i also got a big sunburn but it's healing well soo I'm not worried... it's very hot here...

92 degrees and 80% humidity... so i sweat all day... except inside where there is AC

I've been eating all sort's of different food... My family went to Spaghetti house (basically olive garden of HK) and we got a set menu with ribs, risotto, pizza, and spaghetti with cuddle fish ink sauce... which surprisingly, despite it's black color is very good

I've also eaten chicken feet while here. Thing's I expect to eat before I leave include... Goose, Snake and other things...

all the food here is very good... My school uniform isn't bad either and I'll Post a photo of me in it soon...

I need to get off the computer for now... But I'll up date soon

hope your all well

PHOTOS!!!

2008-08-27T04:59:00.001-07:00

Sorry some of them are sideways you can see them though...

This is the IFC the tallest building in Hong Kong 88 floors.

This one is me and my "first friend" Terry on the balcony at the IFC Mall (not the top) Looking across Victoria Harbor to Kawloon
Me in the Central District in front of "Stair road" literal translation... it's basically a road with no cars and low uneven steps to trip you!
From My Home a blurry picture of Kowloon over Victoria harbor from the window in the living room Cruse ships pass by every day... I will post a picture of that later...
this is Aderial the little devil... he's 4 year's old and my younger brother he wont stop trying to play with the camera... he like to touch everything in sight... and is funny in my opinion but i don't have to be his parents.
This is a group shot of all the Exchange students in hong kong... a few people are. Me on the Far left, Farthest right is a boy from Turkey, First girl on the ground from the left is from Brazil and the Second is from Ecuador, both of them are very nice.

This is a picture of Me, Terry, and Another exchange student from Germany, She is the one on the far left both her parents are Vietnamese her first friend went to Germany and speaks German. the Vietnamese girl speaks Vietnamese, German, English, some Spanish and french and is now going to learn Cantonese... CRAZYNESS
Me at the bottom of the IFC
Friends from Cantonese class, the boy is from Argentina, and the Girl is from Ecuador

This is the Brazilian girl i met in the Airport. The boy who was with her is sick... :( She is very nice and it is fun talking to her, partly because her English isn't so good so there is a lot of gesturing!
The other native English speaker and the only other monolingual person in the class, from Australia

These are a bunch of pictures i took today using my host family's camera I will get my own camera soon. I may have said but my "First Friend" Terry is very cool she spent her year abroad in Austria....

The group of AFS students is diverse... there are kid's from Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Iceland, turkey, Lot's from Italy and Germany, Switzerland, and Australia...

They are all very nice people and are alot of fun to be around tomorrow night we are all getting together for Italian food... (trust the Italians to want to go get Italian food even in hong kong)

I SAW A MEXICAN RESTRAUNT TODAY!!! only one though... i hope i can find it again if i need mexican food...

The food here is soooooo good... i had Hom bow for breakfast and lunch was curry and chicken and rice UMMMMM!

I went to my school yesterday... I'm kind of worried about it... it seems like all the BS from the us is there and larger than ever... but I made it though 2 years of BS in American HS i can do one year here...

School starts on Monday... Tomorrow I have an interview with a local newspaper... I'll post it here afterwards....

This is such an amazing place I'm loving it here...

It is very hot and humid here all the time you sweat all the time and learn to love Air Con! There are a lot of mall's in Hong kong which is good if only for the AC...

I hope i have a lot of time to explore with the other AFS student's that sound's like it will be amazing....

Life is good i hope you all are well. More later

I'M HERE!!!!!

2008-08-25T06:08:00.001-07:00

I've been here for 2 day's it's amazing in every way...

My flight was only delayed by one day. I caught a flight out of L.A. on Friday and arrived here on Saturday night at 6:30. the Plane didn't pull up to a real gate so we waited a half hour for buses and then it took an hour to clear customs so it was 2 hours to get off the plane. It took one more hour to get to my home in North Point... It is amazing here. I live in a fairly large flat... Yes flat it's British English here... we have a view of Victoria Harbor which is Beautiful... boats big and small pass by all day long... you can see Kowloon and the mountain's behind...

I spent Sunday hanging out with my host family. I have Two younger brother's Adrien(10) and Adriel(4), they are fun to be around. Adrien is a Board Game nut... In the two day's since I have arrived we have played set, monopoly, and Scrabble (yes mom Scrabble, and I lost to Adrien). My host mother and father both speak English very well and are very nice people. There are Two maids from the Philippines. They both speak English very well. It is strange having maids... I don't think I'll get used to it.

The fast pass for the subway(MTR) is called a mini Octopus card... it's a RFID card that you can place against the turnstile to get through. You charge it with money, and you can use it to pay for thing's at stores too like 7/11 there is a 7/11 on every corner it is crazy...

I also got an international calling card because the one i bought in the US didn't work. The card i bought however is an Actual Sim card with the money on it... the minutes are also much much cheaper buying it here... it's 25 cents a minute to call the us but that's in Hong Kong Dollars. the conversion is 8 hk to 1$ you do the math...

Today was the first day of Cantonese lessons, we also met our "first friend" in my case Terry who showed me around hong Kong... We went all over. we looked around Wan Chai. where the Cantonese lessons where and where my school is going to be. the Cantonese lesson today was boring counting mostly from 1 to 100.. hopefully it will get better....

The food here is amazing... I had curried duck for lunch! and all sort's of good food for ever meal really.

I am looking to buy a camera soon so i can post photos... I'll get one soon.. Cameras are about 2000hk$ or 250$ us for a good one. Laptops run around 600 US dollars... After school starts i will see if i want to buy one of those...

I hope you are all well I will write more later...

Much love

Patrick

An Inauspicious Start

2008-08-21T17:21:00.000-07:00

IT HAS BEGUN!!!!!!!!!!

Although not smoothly. I missed my flight Wednesday morning to LAX from Seatac. Thankfully I was with my mom so we hung out there and got breakfast and caught the next flight down 4 hours later... I showed up just in time for orientation. I made instant friends with the other AFS kids... they where all interesting and smart and fun to be around... We learned about life in different cultures and watched videos on the history of AFS and different hand gestures from around the world.

of the group 19 where going to japan, 4 where going to New Zealand, one to Australia, and me to Hong Kong...

I woke up this morning thinking my flight would leave at noon. a direct 14 hour jaunt that I was both looking forward to and dreading a little... however at breakfast I was told that my flight was canceled! Typhoon York is currently IN Hong Kong and the airport is closed... I hope I will be able to get in tomorrow. I was checking the weather... there is another typhoon headed right for Hong Kong...

So for now I'm in L.A. Luckily my mom is here and we are going to have dinner soon.

Today I walked down to the beach with the New Zealand and Australia kid's (the japan kids left earlier in the morning) we hung out and I played Frisbee. I'm having a good time I hope all of you are well I'll get you more updates as I can.

Second Thought's?

2008-08-19T22:00:00.001-07:00

kinda... but they're feeble and not worth thinking...

less than twelve hours to go... i'm basically done packing...
I have more stuff than I thought i did...

*Sigh* well this is it...

*sigh*

that's about all i can do right now...

ready to roll...

the rest is up to you world...

I hope your ready.

A Lul in packing

2008-08-19T15:34:00.000-07:00

My socks are in the dryer and the last thing's i want to add to my Ipod are downloading...
So I thought I'd throw something up here while I have a minute...

Jessica Lea Mayfeild is AMAZING... I found her music through Kexp if you like Lucinda Williams you'll lover her... same sort of vain.

Strange to think I'm leaving home but I've been dwelling on that for a long time now so I'm going to move on...

I wonder what Hong Kong will be like. I can't wait to get there. I seems strange that I'll get there and a week later i'll be in school. Just like everyone here.

I wonder how crazy different it will be? or if it will be all the same stuff in a different language... We will see we will see...

Peace out... I need to go pair socks...

1 day left

2008-08-18T19:40:00.000-07:00

well... I've put off packing for this long... luckily everything is together... it's all been sorted out... it's all organized i just need to put it into the suit cases...

I don't' know how i feel about the going... I'm not worried about the going... it just seems like there's unfinished business here at home...

I'm leaving that behind however... and it will all work it self out in the end...

C'est La Vie. I will learn that one in Cantonese because it has to be my favorite expression. What will be will be and what we do does what it does and in the end the world spins madly on...

I have this pile of book's I'm thinking about bringing that's huge.... if I brought them all i probably could have a whole 44 pound suitcase full of just them....

I wonder how many thing's I'll forget...

I'll try and post again before I go...

T -6 Days

2008-08-14T14:37:00.000-07:00

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

6 DAYS! I'm both very excited and very sad to be leaving home. but everyone has to do it.

I'm trying to figure out what to pack, but I still have a little time for that.
I've uploaded all the music i'll need for a year to my ipod. (an impressive 24 gigs)

I finially got the information about the family I'll be staying with recently.

This upcoming year should be full of lot's of fun...
I'm ready for it as I'll ever be.

I've been watching the Olympics, those guys and girls are amazing on soo many many levels...

I should be working on my applications to college... but i'm juts enjoying being at home for these last few days...

that's all for now.

I Can't Ignore it anymore

2008-07-02T15:53:00.000-07:00

It's summer. Its been summer for 3 weeks, and it's starting to hit me. Soon I'll be going to L.A. and from there to Hong Kong and I wont be back for 10 months... What have I gotten my self into.

While school was going I could ignore it. It was so far off. I studied Chinese but I wasn't really thinking of what it would be like I was trying to get through school here. Summer started and I wasn't thinking about Hong Kong I wasn't thinking about anything, but now it's creeping into my conscience. It's less than 2 months out. I find myself day dreaming of what it will be like when I first arrive, what classes will be like. I ask my self "WHY DIDN'T YOU CHOOSE FRANCE? YOU KNOW SOME FRENCH, WHAT HAVE YOU GOTTEN YOUR SELF INTO!" but those are just moments.

10 months is a long time.

I should get back to working on my independent study class.

This is the beginning.