He was really cool and took us around the island of Boracay to a nice snorkeling spot.  I actually got in the water and it was so beautiful to see all of the fish down there.  And luckily (or not) Joe brought some bread out there with us.  We broke the bread up and hundreds of fish came up to us.  There was a point when he threw a whole piece of bread in there for me to break up, but before I could get it, all the fish were already on it.  So I tried to pick it up, and it felt like they were trying to eat my hand off!!  but I still have it, don’t worry.

Later that night, we ran into some American guys that we me at the airport on the way.  They requested that we have a ‘San Miguel’ beer (brewed in the Philippines) with them.  One of them is married to a lady from here and I guess they had another girl tagging along for his brother.  Unfortunately, we saw a lot of couples like that.  As we were eating at the delicious buffet, we saw what looked like a lady with a European man and her 16ish year old daughter for his brother.  It was really disgusting for me to see that.  I felt like I wanted to rescue her and just have her come hang out with us.

After we took the rocky ferry back from the island and an airplane to the mainland, we explored the city of Manila.  We spent a lot of time just observing the culture and the remainder of the time at a historical museum.  Right before our flight, we took these little jeep-buggys to the Mall of Asia, which was really huge.  It had an ice skating rink that snowed every 15 minutes or so.

It was a really nice trip and I’m glad that I went.  It was great to see a white sand beach, but I probably wouldn’t go back again.  There is still so much to see in the world and honestly I wasn’t too impressed.  However, if you are ever on this side of the world, it is definitely something to check out.

Most sources said it wouldn’t be too difficult to find people that spoke English in Hong Kong, but oh it’s a struggle.  I feel kind of like I discriminate when I need directions and I’m trying to find someone on the street that speaks English.  We usually resort to the youngish 20-30 year olds that look like they are in hip and educated.  It usually proves to work, but sometimes we still get rejected.  Not really sure if: 1. they don’t know the location we’re talking about, 2. really don’t speak English, or 3. just really don’t want to help us.

I just thought this was funny

There is such an emphasis on exercise and being fit.  Even during our orientation, there was an entire segment on how to work out and where and all the extra details.  Along with that, the food never really fills me up!, which is quite irritating.  On a positive note, I have found a great deal of places that serve ‘American cuisine’ usually meaning delicious cheeseburgers, french fries, pizza, lasagna, omelettes and deli sandwiches.

Eating Spaghetti with Chopsticks

For some reason, the horse racetracks are such a big deal.  I think it’s because gambling in any other form is illegal in HK so everybody goes to the races to give away their money.  Don’t get me wrong, it was a lot of fun, but not nearly as big of a deal as all the locals make it.  They have newspapers printed with stats and probability and it seemed like everyone studied that backwards and forwards.

At the track

Go 8!!

It’s not too bad though.  Nothing that I can’t deal with for the next couple of months.

The 16 hour flight wasn’t as long as it seemed, but it was definitely long, especially when I had a window seat and I kept wanting to get up to stretch my legs, but out of courtesy waited until the old couple next to me got up to go to the restroom or wherever.  The food wasn’t too bad: chicken teriyaki in noodles, ramen noodles, and some lasagna.  I wrote most of my family and friends an email in the airport and finished setting up Skype so I could call them.

I’m going to do a quick run-through of some main highlights then maybe do a blog later that will go back in detail.  I’ve been on two tours of some cool places in the city where I met a lot of other exchange students.  I’ve gone to see “The Big Buddha” which was really cool because we had to take cable cars to get there over mountains and water.  Inside there was a museum on Buddha and some other cultural things.  I also went to Ocean Park, which is like their version of Sea World with big roller coasters and panda bears, but no Shamu.  There have been many different temples, churches and monasteries to visit especially during New Years.  That was also great because we got to see some of the traditions as well as the big parade and fireworks.  We’ve also done a lot of shopping and a lot of partying.  Surprisingly the clubs play some really great American music like Chris Brown, Neyo, Beyonce, Rihanna, etc.  I just got back from Macau last night.  We had to take a ferry to get there and they have a strip like Vegas.  There, we went to the Ventian Casino where we also saw a Cirque de Soleil show ‘Zaia’.

Everybody seems pretty cool, but for most it seems like they want to meet and please as many people as they can so it seems like they are just easy-going and will go along with the crowd even if they don’t want to.  I think I’ve pretty much found my crew that I will hang out with for most of my time here.  I have definitely been concentrating more on my studies than I thought I would, but it keeps my mind off other things and missing people too much.  We are supposed to be going to the Philippines this weekend!!  I will try to do more of a weekly update; until next time.

I am really excited about going natural because hopefully my hair will finally make it longer than just my shoulders.  I have never known its full natural growth potential because I have been getting relaxers since 6th grade, omg!  So, I’ll see how it goes, wish me luck.

ps. Still trying to decide if I will post pictures of the transition.

I digress.  You know how they say engineers and multiply, divide, take integrals all that stuff, but can’t add and subtract?  That is so true!!  (The following is for all my nerds)  You know when you take an integral and there are limits on the integral so you have to add that extra “+C” business.  Yucky.  That always messed me up because that’s where the adding comes in.  Okay I still digressed…

[Real quick on that note: Why do people say I digress?  That's not grammatically correct.  It's I digressed.  and who really cares anyway.  If you are going to get back to the point, do it instead of telling me that you are going to do it.  I feel similarly about the "Outline" slide in a presentation.  But I guess it makes one believe that the real meaning should be that 'I'm going to get back to the subject' instead of the actual meaning that 'I have gone off subject'.  Unless you are digressing from your digression...wayyy to deep, just now]

Anyway, but the time zone thing.  I still don’t understand it.  This WikiAnswers was the dumbest explanation I’ve heard.  And I thought you weren’t supposed to answer a question with a question.  Here’s another explanation that talks about it in terms of sun and whatnot.  I get that.  But when I have an appointment in China for 5pm on the 16th, why must I look online to convert that to an American Time Zone?  I didn’t know if China is really ahead or behind us.  So would that mean whatever time am on the same day, or the day before, or the day after?  NO CLUE!  Why can’t everyone just use the same time (all standardize with whatever the time the sun is at its highest over Greenwich and this crazy ‘International Date Line’.  And then everyone will be fine.  It will be okay if it is dark at 3pm.  Because everyone will still be on the right time.  In Michigan just say come in to work at 6pm because no one will really know the difference since it will be light outside.

They talk about it will be easier to keep track of time if you travel between time zones…HOW?  It makes a lot more sense to me to say leave Michigan at 5pm and get to California at 9pm that to leave at 5pm and get there at 6pm.  I’m just saying.

I’m still a little anxious about going to China.  Just because I keep having a feeling that I’m going to forget something.  Either a class, or some money, or work out a situation with a phone card.  But we’ll see.  That’s the latest.

I’m going on The Price is Right and Dr. Phil’s new spinoff show The Doctors.  Okay, maybe ’spinoff’ is a bad way to describe it.  It’s more like an extension.  Only thing is, I can’t document my journey because neither of them allow cameras   Hopefully, I get on The Price is Right and win lots of cool things.  We shall see.  I have to study up on my ‘retail values’ of cars and cans of soup just in case!

back to work

We work on the 9/80 schedule where you work everyday for 9 hours and we get every other Friday off work.  Last week was a really short week because Memorial day was Monday and we got Friday off.  After work Thursday some of the young people went out to this restaurant for drinks.  It was cool and even better because the guy that owns this sector and the guy right under him paid for all of us!

After that, and a little rest, the three interns, NB, JM (yet to be introduced) and I all went swimming in the pool outside.  I had already established that this would be the summer that I learned to swim.  It was kind of late, but I got the basics down.  I stuck my head in that water and actually swam the width of the pool (10 ft max, lol) but I was really excited.

Friday (no work), we went out to eat breakfast and got dressed to swim again!  NB hung out with his local friend so it was just me and JM.  I was trying to learn to tread water and float.  Everytime I tried to float, whenever the water touched my chin I would freak out and sink cuz I didn’t want it in my nose or eyes cuz that isn’t pleasant.  JM had some goggles that also covered the nose so I used those so I would have nothing to fear.  They didn’t really help me float but it made me not be scared.  Alas, I did it without the goggles and that was the first time I have ever felt at peace with the water.  I was floating all over the place, from end to end.  The deep side is about 5 feet   I tried to swim again, but my legs just don’t like to go to the top of the water.  They just sink to the bottom so I abandoned that and went back to my trusty floating!

Saturday, we planned a trip to the beach!!  It only took about 20 minutes to get out there.   It was kind of breezy.  NB went out too far in the water during a riptide and the lifeguard (in red shorts) came off his post and it was really like Baywatch!  It end up letting up some and he wiggled his way back to land.

It was a lot of fun and water-filled weekend and I can ’swim’!

I drove up there Friday after work.  I ate some food, chilled for a second and went to take a nap.  I was knocked out and then woke up so we could go out and party.  It was this nice club and had a lot of fun.

Saturday, he told me of his co-worker’s graduation party.  However, he took a minute to tell me that it was formal attire.  Of course, I had not brought any.  You know what that means… shopping!  So this was my first LA shopping experience so I was preparing for overpriced-for-no-reason clothes.  However, I was pleasantly surprised that the prices weren’t too bad.  I got this baaad dress, these baaad shoes, a necklace, and some earrings to complete.  My contacts were killing me!  So I had to take them out and go blind for a little bit.  oh yeah, earlier we met his friend from back in the day at this yummy Jamaican restaurant and i smashed all my food!

The graduation party was really nice.  Formal attire was indeed required.  A lot of little kids were having their junior and senior proms there too.  He had a nice catered dinner (steak and potatoes) with an open bar.  There were a couple presentations from his family and friends followed by a champagne toast and some Hispanic dancing.  mucho fun time, but my feet were killing me from breaking it down at the club.

Sunday, we woke up really early for church and my friend led a song in the choir.  It was really good, well his part was, the other guys were a lil nervous.  We went to the fellowship hall where they were serving breakfast (grits, eggs, chicken, and rolls).  This old guy kept trying to hit on me.  He offered me money to buy myself a breakfast (not knowing that I was going to Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles soon after).  I declined the money.  The cook brought out some remaining wing dings and the guy got one and presented it to me.  It was really funny.  He was like 50 years old.  He kept looking hard at my friend and ended up telling him to ‘take care of [me]‘ as he held the door for us on the way out.  I chose to not tell him that our friendship isn’t like that hoping he would leave me alone.  Then, like I said, we went to Roscoe’s and it was soooo good.  Of course I caught the -itis and with lack of sleep, took a nap.  We went back out to look for a jacket for me and got this catfish po boy from this yummy creole place.  I couldn’t finish it all.  That thing was huge and I wasn’t extremely hungry.  Plus, as I got to the last third of the sandwich, all of the creole spices were taking over and I couldn’t eat anymore.  So I just watched the rest of the Lakers game as they got smashed upon.

Then, we watched this African documentary named War Dance.  It was really good!  Next, we got dressed to go to this house party in Beverly Hills.  The plus-sized man from Superbad was there just chilling.  It was like a high school reunion party.  Lots of drinking and plenty bottles of Belvadere just laying around.  I didn’t really have a good time there because I didn’t know anyone, but that was fine.  The house was beautiful too.

Monday, Memorial day was real chill.  We slept in then got dressed to go to Reggefest on the campus of UCLA.  The weather was kinda in between cold and hot so I went to buy a hoodie from Crenshaw mall.  Not much to tell about the festival.  It was $35 to get it, which was crazy!!  There was a lot of smoking.  I ran into Bobby Brown.  Other than that, Mr. Vegas and Stephen Marley (Bob’s son) performed.  We left there and hit up In ‘n Out and then I hit the road.

long story short about the ride home: I was about 20min away from being home and this cop made everybody turn off the highway.  I got lost, it was dark, really scary.  Finally found my way back to the freeway.  About a 45 minute detour.  Got home, went to bed.

I’m going to get some work today :-/  I met another intern this morning, he looks like me   I’m going to lunch with my mentor.