The Weekend

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

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

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!!!

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!!!!!

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

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?

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

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

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

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.