HONG KONG

I feel bad for mainland China. The fact that the mainland is compared to Hong Kong is really sad. Hong Kong surpassed everything the mainland had to offer by at least a thousand. For that matter it is economically, industrially, sanitarily, everythingly better and stronger. Though China has clearly emerged as world power and is industrializing at an insane rate, no matter what the mainland does to catch up, their best city will always have been developed by the West in the form of the British. This is clearly a biased stance but a very honest opinion. Hong Kong felt like home, for good reason, but it was just nicer than anything on the mainland. If I could live anywhere in China, I would hands down choose to live in Hong Kong.

Unfortunately by the time we arrived in Hong Kong it was 2 PM the day before we were supposed to leave. We had taken a 5:45 AM flight from Beijing that morning and I was exhausted. On top if it there was little incentive for me to leave the ship area because the ship was literally five steps away from an enormous shopping center with, drum roll please… free internet and bigger drum roll please… CPK! I was in heaven. There were stores from home, food from home, free internet, and western toilets. I had CPK for lunch and went on the computer trying to upload pictures to Facebook until my computer died. Unfortunately all my pictures were unable to load and are disorganized. Facebook stalkers- you are just going to have to deal with the chaos and not chronological pictures. Lunch and internet was quickly followed by a very long nap.

Ivy’s parents were in town (they are going to be with us in Vietnam and Cambodia as well) and took us out to dinner. We all automatically agreed on eating American food and went to this restaurant called Dan Ryan’s which oddly enough is based on a Chicago politician but has no chain in America but does in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. I had maybe the best cheeseburger of my life and could not have been more satisfied.

That night was the most amazing night out I have had since embarkation in January. After dinner we took the Star Ferry across the harbor to the main island of Hong Kong. We went to this main area that reminded me of New Orleans. Lots of bars and clubs with hundreds of people in the middle of the streets. It was like a giant Semester at Sea block party. It was just a solid solid night of bar hopping and socializing. We made it back to the ship by 2:30 AM and I was ready to finally sleep.

The next morning I attempted to venture into Hong Kong Island to explore it a little. However I am not sure if I mentioned this previously but I got a cold the last day in Beijing and was feeling very under the weather. This cut my Hong Kong exploration short and Jill went back to the ship with me. After napping for about an hour we met at CPK again and did a quick visit to H & M. As Sussman repeated for the majority of December, I got a shirt that would “be good for South Africa.” We unfortunately had to board the ship to refrain from receiving dock time.

It’s weird that I was only actually in Hong Kong for the night I went out but I still loved it. I definitely need to go back. In Japan it was Kyoto and in China it is Hong Kong. There simply was not enough time for me to experience Hong Kong in a mere twenty hours. It never crossed my mind until dinner in Hong Kong the night before I left to purchase a Hong Kong Flag. Due to my illness the following day I was unable to purchase said flag. So if anyone is going to Hong Kong any time soon- hint hint Mommy and Daddy, a 12 by 18 inch Hong Kong Flag would be much appreciated. Anyway this concludes my brief report about Hong Kong but my very long report of China. Two more classes to endure and then Vietnam and Cambodia in approximately 35 hours!

Oh and if someone knows any info about the NCAA investigation with Michigan football please keep me posted. I’m praying that they don’t end up forfeiting my senior year football season like USC is doing in basketball right now. Go Blue!