SwInE fLu StRiKeS HoNg KoNg!!!

Upon the completion of Friday's Cantonese class - which I celebrated joyfully, both for the completion of my first full week and my newfound ability to tell time in Cantonese - we were informed that, due to an 'outbreak' of swine flu, our class would be suspended for the upcoming week.  Apparently, four international exchange students caught the bug, and others would be tested for the virus, so as a precautionary measure, they called off class.  Hopefully we will be resuming class on July, provided there are no new cases of swine flu on campus.  Even though my class is crazy difficulty, and getting harder everyday, I actually don't want to stop now that I'm making progress!  But hopefully everyone can get well and we can get started up again.  But in the meantime....

I'm using my unexpected vacation in the most delightful of ways!  The plans are, as of now, for Camille and I to take a short trip next week, and while we have our destination, flight, hotel, and activities pretty much all lined up, I don't want to post about it on here until everything is booked!  Don't want to jinx it after all ;)  But I'll let you all know as soon as it gets confirmed (hopefully!)

But I spent my first day of the weekend doing some major exploring around Hong Kong.  Today Camille and I met up with her friend Adler (also a recent Yale grad, Pierson '09, who is staying at CUHK this summer), and we basically pointed to random places on the MTR map and decided to venture there.  We first ended up at TST (Tsim Sha Tsui), which is directly across the harbour from Hong Kong Island (also the location of my current profile picture), though we didn't spend much time by the water - instead, we explored several new streets as well as Kowloon Park.  SO many flamingos there!!!  Apparently, there are Great flamingos and Lesser flamingos.  At one point, the group of Great flamingos approached the Lesser flamingos for a rumble - at least this looked like what was happening.  But given that no violence ensued (instead, they just kind of stood around and bathed together), I suppose that was not the case!

Greater Flamingos

Lesser Flamingos

Greater flamingos inexplicably charge the lesser flamingos, presumably for a rumble...

 

Instead, they're just straight chillin...

After watching this entertaining bit of animal behavior, we continued the walk around TST, enjoying delicious baked goods from a local bakery and getting soaked by the intermittent rain.  We eventually jumped back on the MTR and ended up in Quarry Bay, which at first did not seem to have the same scenic appeal as our previous location, but after walking around for a bit, we ended up under an overpass right by the water, accompanied by a handful of local fisherman.  By this point, the temperature had cooled down and we were getting a lovely breeze off the harbour, so it was rather peaceful.  

Notice that he's fishing the old-fashioned way... pretty impressive.

Well, that's all for now!  More updates to come soon!

xoxo

Jenny