Drew will edit this later with the necessary details. probably?

Yes this is Drew, and I am finally editing this post to include my side of this story. I had a 3 week cultural research group project on the subject of the Qipao, which is the traditional Chinese dress. For the final presentation, my groupmates (all lovely girls) bought me my own cheongsam, which is the traditional male shirt quite often used in Chinese history (Bruce Lee was a wore them frequently). I guess the shirt got to me a little bit in these pictures.

Late Night Eats

There are some great restaurants around our student halls and we keep discovering more everyday. We've had some excellent Thai and Vietnamese food, ate at a phenomenal Shanghai Style chinese restaurant where our friend Birdy ordered all the food for everyone and we all shared a great variety of stuff. A few of the food highlights here have been the food we had in Macau, a Japanese sushi restaurant we went to with a few local friends and the swedes, where the whole menu is 40% off after 9:30pm. Needless to say there was a long line out front at about 9:15, but we eventually got a table and gorged ourselves on sushi and sake, and seafood soup tea. Absolutely delicious, and very cheap thanks to the generous discount.

Another night I ventured off to a Korean Barbeque restaurant not far from the halls, where I had dinner with some additional swedes who had just arrived. We all had a great dinner, a buffet of all-you-can-eat, that included sushi, raw beef, lamb, chicken, pork, squid, octopus, oysters, ox tongue, duck gizzard, fried tofu, bok choy, green beans, mushrooms, and much more.. including jello for some reason, which seemed out of place but was nice.

Another favorite of mine, a dessert, is a fancy ice (cream) from taiwan? I believe, can't really remember right now. But it is delicious and it's a shaved ice that is folded and layered and when it melts is very similar to ice cream. You can get chocolate, milk, banana, green tea, coffee, and many other flavors of the ice cream. Then add fruit, toppings, and various other coverings to enhance your sundae. Very delicious. There are some great eats here in Hong Kong, and we are just at the tip of the iceberg.

images courtesy of swedes.

My sleep schedule is in shambles

We have had a hectic week this last one, with a few projects due over the last few days and other miscellaneous things popping up. On wednesday we stayed up late finishing a project with some year 3 students for the next day. Then spent the next day up real late working on another of our design classes, and then the next night up again for another design class with year 2 students. We had a presentation saturday morning that ended up lasting 5 hrs, and everyone in year 2 was running on 2 hrs sleep, needless to say there were naps taken afterwards. Following this week of work hell we went out for a local friends of ours' birthday. We were out late, and up late and it was very fun. That very next night though I was out working on school again.

While Drew slept I had to drag myself out of bed at 3:30am and grab a taxi out to Mong Kok to go visit a secondhand market that sets up in the morning. (Quick note: even though I think walking around the city at 4-4:30am should be as expected completely empty, it was not... there were many elderly men shirtless, standing around on the sidewalks and in the streets stretching and punching the air, slapping their bellies and massaging their legs.. It was surreal, hilarious, and all in all absurd. They were out for their morning exercises.) Anyway, I found a taxi and told the driver I wanted to go to the Mong Kok Stadium - a large soccer stadium that is a reasonably well known landmark - we were driving for probably 10 minutes when he turned around and handed me the cb radio to talk to the dispatcher. I had no idea why. He was motioning me for to use it, so I said into it Mong Kok Stadium, unsure of what I was being asked to do. Then he took it back and there was much arguing between the driver and the dispatcher, and a few minutes later we pulled up to a small community soccer field that looked like it had seen better days and was in no way the stadium that seated 8500 people, instead maybe 50. He pointed at it and repeated Mong Kok Stadium, and not wanting to bother arguing I got out here and decided to find my way. It took me another 15 minutes or so to find where I was going and upon arriving I stumbled upon the markets which I had been looking for.

Many markets are usually highly specialized, there is a road that sells strictly birds, another that sells antiques, and one that sells just business cards and wedding invitations. The first one I found was a flower market and at 5 am they were already in full swing setting up the stands and piling the flowers out on the sidewalk. Now, I should make the distinction that the ones above I have mentioned are legal and established.. the one I was looking for was illegal, hence the reason it sets up at 5am and closes at 7am as to avoid the police. I'm doing research for a class on an aspect of Hong Kong Culture and I was assigned Secondhand markets, which are essentially markets where poor people assemble any variety of goods from clothes to half full soy sauce bottles, toys to electronics. I had no idea what the market I was looking for was selling so when I finally found it I was more than a little surprised.

It was a highly specialized market, selling only aquarium equipment and fish food, as well as a variety of fish, goldfish and turtles. The woman selling the turtles really didn't seem like an animal lover as she treated the turtles who were in little tupperware containers as if they were dice in a yahtzee shaker. Maybe the craziest part besides the fact that they show up and dump bags and bags of goldfish all over the street to sell for 2 hrs is that there are a LOT of customers. Not only do they know about this but that it happens everyday and there is always a crowd, there is also a mad rush for the cheapest fish. They know what they are looking for as well, they come with flashlights to check the quality - but really who is buying these many goldfish, and what for?

Anyway to wrap up this long post, I guess overall even though school is consuming a bunch of our time it is offering some opportunities that we would otherwise never have been able to see or take advantage of. Hong Kong is still as exciting as ever, but right now I think I'm going to go take a nap.

Filipino Invasion

There is a large Filipino population here in Hong Kong, mainly consisting of younger women. Almost all of them are employed as domestic housewives, maids, drivers, waiters etc. Basically, the jobs that the Hong Kong people themselves don't want to do. They work hard 6 days a week, and their only day off comes on Sunday. So when Sunday comes, they are everywhere. They usually crowd together in public spaces en mass to catch up/relax/play games and basically do nothing. It reminds me of school girls at recess.

I knew about this phenomenon beforehand, but I had the pleasure of stumbling upon an extremely large gathering on a trip to central. There were thousands of them, all women, and they were sitting in all groups along and in this street in Central. The city even closes down the street in anticipation of their "social time".


After that quick detour, I arrived at this really interestingly designed Starbucks. Half of the inside of the store looked like any other Starbucks, and the other half was designed to look like a historical Hong Kong Bing Sutt corner. These existed in the 40's 50's as kind of a local "soda shop". It literally translates to Ice Room, and inside people could gather and enjoy some western treats and traditional Chinese tea and coffee. The cool half was designed by a local modern/culture store called G.O.D. (Goods of Desire) - who mark is working for on his project for class. You can check out their website HERE.

The Bing Sutt Corner

You can see people taking photos in the space in the background.
Where the transformation actually begins..

Later that Night, Typhoon...

Drew and I decided to head out again to see the weather... only now the winds had picked up more and it was raining.

That last post was a little premature.

Well, today started off a bit windy and while we were in class we found out that we were in for another level 3 typhoon warning. That was soon upgraded to a level 8 typhoon warning, and classes were cancelled along with many businesses shutting down and people heading home. Our roommates, Janne and Rikard (the swedes), headed with me down to the harbor to see what all the fuss was about. On the way we picked up some sushi to eat on the way and down at the harbor, it is never an inconvenient time for sushi... granted it was hard to eat without losing it in the wind, but delicious.

We ended up meeting some other friends at the Harbor, a couple german guys, Martin and Clemens. The weather did not improve upon their arrival. Very fun overall - wet, windy and slightly salty. Part of the roof from the bus terminal blew off while we were standing nearby so we decided to head home shortly after, there wasn't much debate. As we left we saw some locals walking up with some beers and snacks to enjoy the weather, I guess it is still a novel experience for some - it definitely was for us.

Finally, we were getting bored with just hot, muggy weather

5 degrees cooler... and is that fresh air I'm breathing?

This last weekend we headed up to Victoria Peak to get a little more sightseeing under our belts and see the city from a prime vantage point. To get here we had to take a bus to Central (on Hong Kong Island) and then take a tram that goes at times 45deg up the side of the mountain. Getting on the tram was a little adventure in itself because there were people from all over, tourists, that were trying to get on as well.

A little digression - in Hong Kong everything is fairly orderly, people queue up for lines and wait patiently for the subways, buses, atm's and such. We have been told though that in Mainland China it is nothing like this, there is no order, it is push or be pushed and you have to fight your way through in lines and there is no sense of personal space. It is not that they are rude, there just never was any reason to think this is impolite, it is just natural for them.

So, when we were getting on the tram we assume there were some mainlanders because it sort of turned into a free-for-all getting into the tram doors. An elderly german couple almost got knocked to the ground, we both took some shoves here and there and an elbow or two to the chest and made it on to the tram to find no seats left and only standing room. There were grooves in the ground to position your feet on so when the tram made it's steep incline you wouldn't fall over. When we made it to the top, we had to navigate through a massive mall at the top of this mountain - which is set up so you pretty much have to go through it (not unlike IKEA) before you can get outside.

Upon exiting there is a great view overlooking all of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, and it was a clear day so we could see far. (We attempted to go to the peak maybe 2 other times, but it was too cloudy or smoggy out to go, there was little point in going then.) We arrived while it was still light out and stayed until it got dark - watching the light show from the opposite side this time. We met up with some other exchange students at the peak and had some dinner before heading back down. It was a full 5 degrees celsius cooler at the top of the peak than down in the city which made it very appealing for spending hot days up there. We are looking forward to coming back up in a month or two and hiking some of the trails that are accessible from the peak, it should prove to be a very nice hike.

I mean, I'll try it...but that doesn't mean I have to like it!

Some of our design buddies

A little friend

Mark, Drew, and Friedrich (Germany)

Pile of "ingredients"

Our first day of class was September 1st. Before the first lecture, we were introduced to our fellow peers when they came in to the studio in what seemed to us as a swarm of yelling, laughing, and general excitement. They sure are a rambunctious bunch. We all then proceded to our lecture together for the Special Design Class 400. This class involves combining all the disciplines of design into a 9 week course created to provide the students with a chance to work with on a real client sponsored project. There were at least 15 projects to choose from, and for each one there was a professor "mentor" who briefed the class on the parameters. Some of the project clients included BMW MINI, Hong Kong Transportation Department, A Hong Kong lifestyle store called G.O.D., and a headphone company.

Each student ranked their choices 1-5, and hoped for the best. We both ended up getting our first choices (BMW MINI for Drew and G.O.D. Store for Mark) and are really excited to see how the rest of the project goes.

After class, we were invited by our classmates to join them for a traditional "hot pot" dinner. This dinner is usually meant for a large group of people, and it works a little like this:
1. A large pot is put in the middle of the table on a burner. The pot is filled with two kinds of cooking oil/soup mixture.
2. The people at the table then order from a large list of both raw and cooked items which are then brought out to the table on plates.
3. When the oil boils, the ingredients are placed into the pot to cook by the people at the table
4. After the right amount of time, everyone just digs in, using their chopsticks to pull out items they want to eat. Food is continuously added to the pot as the night goes on.

Now, the words "both raw and cooked items" can include anything as simple as lettuce, to as crazy as chicken testicles. Other notable items include squid, cow stomach, corn, dumplings, fish balls, tofu, raw beef, and fried fish skins. Needless to say, the meal was delicious and we had an awesome time.

Hanging out with Locals

Where did that sign tell us to go?

We are finally getting back into the groove of blogging after a week hiatus, so bear with us.

Earlier last week we traveled with some friends to visit the Kowloon walled city park, and also temple that was near to it. This proved to be more difficult than we thought, as the park was not quite near to the metro station, and it seemed that signs that were indicating its location kept leading us on some sort of blind journey. When we stopped someone and asked where it was, he knew just enough English to inform us that it was "far away". Oh, and it was quite hot...maybe 95 but felt like 105 with humidity.


We finally found the park, and took a leisurly stroll through its many paths. The Kowloon walled city park itself used to be a lawless, ragged, slum village within the confines of Hong Kong. The slum buildings grew so tall and close together that the whole city had to be illuminated by fluorescent lights. It wasn't until the early 90's that the British and Chinese government finally decided to take responsibility and tore it down, creating a park to preserve it's legacy.

The "walled city"

After the park, we decided to call it a day. We never found the temple, but we will definitely post the trip when we do.

7-11 Club

Beers are extremely expensive at the clubs and many of them run around HK$65 (US$8.50). So instead of buying beers there everyone goes to the local 7-11 of which you can find anywhere because they are everywhere. You can get the same beer that you would have got in the club for around HK$8 (US$1.00) and enjoy it out on the street. We were out tonight with a bunch of exchange students from many of the different schools in the area, but mostly our school is here at the 7-11. Students from over 20 countries ranging from Sweden and Germany to Australia and Taiwan - it is quite the experience when you step back and realize you are drinking with all of these people from all over the world on a street in Hong Kong outside 7-11...