A Wandering Weekend

We stayed out late on Thursday. That means I slept in on Friday. Not only am I living in a totally different place, I'm living a different life with a much later schedule. I stay out really late and wake up later (which I rarely do at home). The typical conversation with my mom goes like this:

"Hi, Mom!"
"Hi, Unknown number. Just kidding, I knew it was you."
"What are you doing?"
"Wait, what are you doing? And Jeez! What time is it there? 3, 4am?!"
"Yeah, I'm about to go to bed. (Groggy voice.)"

Anyway, after lounging around the dorm room that morning and afternoon, I went to the Indoor Sports complex and signed up for archery classes! (I'm super excited about this!) I walked in and filled out the piece of paper with the word "ARCY201" at the top and handed it to the young woman at the front desk. She looked at me and said, "Hello, this eez arch'ry improva-- not beginna." I replied, "Yes, I know, but I have shot many times before." She reluctantly typed it into the computer and then finished by saying, "On first day, instructa will require test. You must pass to stay in course." I think the skills test requires you to shoot a 180 (with 36 arrows) at a little over 15 yards. Granted the target is smaller, but I've shot that score on the 40 yard line. I'm hoping I'll be ok. My language skills with a Chinese instructor might be another story.

That afternoon I wandered around the Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) station on the Kowloon side. TST is full of shopping, museums, hotels and wonderful views of Hong Kong Island. My goal was to get oriented with that area and find a new pair of shoes. After I did both (and wandered through some very nice hotel lobbies), I had an American dinner at Ocean Terminal and watched the Sympthony of Lights show at 8pm. I didn't take pictures, but I'm sure I'll be back there when mom and George are in town. Look for them then.

After the show, I met Jen at Causeway Bay to see "Sweeney Todd." She's taking a musical performance class and her professor said he would be discussing the movie in class. She saw it for that reason and I was more inclined to see it thanks to it's three Oscar nominations. Summary: decent action, interesting storyline, lots of music and blood. We went to bed late Friday night, but had definite plans to explore on Saturday.

We left campus the next day around lunchtime. We caught the MTR to Central to explore-- mostly controversial architecture (bank buildings), random parks/gardens, SOHO and the Mid-levels. Anything controversial usually means it isn't feng shui. A lot of the time additions are made to make the building more feng shui. Every savings bank in Hong Kong has a pair of lion or monster statues out front to keep the money safe. Supposedly without these lions, investors are hesistant to do business there. Again, we took funny pictures, but I'll post those later.



When our feet were tired, we went to the Mid-Levels (a super long series of escalators) to get to Soho. We found a Mexican restaurant called Caramba! and when we looked at the menu, we were hooked. The first thing we read said, "The original margarita: What you stopped in for!" We each had two margaritas and an entree, paid our relatively expensive bill ($30US ea.) and left-- so full and satisfied! It was good, but of course, nothing like Austin Tex-Mex. After dinner we met some of the USC guys at a comedy club... and that'll be the next post.

If I don't stop writing, I'll be late to class. I spend entirely too much time blogging. I think I'm addicted.