New Pictures!

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

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