Off to Mainland!

Hi everyone, so tomorrow afternoon, the other HK Fellows and I are setting out for Changsha in Hunan Province in Mainland China! This will be my first "real China" experience so far, so I am quite excited! I also am quite curious to see what it's actually like, given all of the stories I've heard! I'll have a full update for you when I get back next weekend. Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!

Birthday in HK!

I'm 23! I've been looking forward to this day ever since my cousin Lindsay told me about "Golden Birthdays" several years ago, so I had always hoped 23 on the 23rd would a momentous occasion. And I must say, the day did not disappoint! Thursday, Friday, and Saturday all provided wonderful and surprising moments, and I'm just feeling a lot of love from all over the world!

So the fun actually started on Wednesday, when I woke up blissfully early and decided to make my way downtown for some shopping. I had a particular place in mind, a dress shop next to the Travelator (a giant escalator in Hong Kong to get people from Central to the Mid-Levels), which had had this gorgeous blue dress in its display window for the past couple of months. Every time I had passed by, I would always mentally take note of that dress, and since I kept thinking about it, I decided it was worthwhile to go and actually check it out and maybe try it on. So when I arrived at the shop, I browsed for a few minutes, but ultimately decided to try the dress on - it was a bit big, but once they pinned it all up to show how it would look once altered, it took my breath away. After a bit of negotiating, I decided to get it! The dressmaker would even do the alterations for free, and would make it a rush process since I wanted to have it for Friday! I felt very well taken care of, and absolutely thrilled with my present to myself!

Thursday started off auspiciously, as I awoke to an e-mail from Kacie with an embedded video, which featured my favorite 7 year-old and 4 year-old singing and dancing to a song they made up called "Hong Kong Jenny." As you can imagine, it's pretty much the cutest thing ever, and I've been playing it on repeat since. So I head out the door, just hoping to get through the busy day of a double lesson and four hours of faux interviews with my 2nd year students, not expecting anything spectacular until the next day.

I walk into my 1310 (my first-years) class, a couple of minutes late, and no one's there - there are a couple bags on the desks but not a student to be found. I'm seriously taken aback because usually no one in this class is ever late, they're always right in their seats, right on time. So I get a little concerned, wondering if maybe they had all left because they thought I wasn't coming, or if they were just boycotting my class because we had had a "come-to-Jesus" meeting about their latest assignment on Tuesday, and I was starting to think that they really didn't like me. Then Allyson, one of the other tutors, comes in and is like, "Where is everybody? What's going on with all of your students?" And at this point, I'm getting worried and a little upset because I just have no idea why they aren't there - then this random girl walks in and sits on top of a desk and pulls out her camera and points it at me, and I'm like, "Umm... what??" Then, all of the sudden, I hear people start singing "Happy Birthday" and I look over, and my entire class is walking into the room, carrying a birthday cake with candles and a big bouquet of flowers, and all singing to me!!! I was *shocked*!! I just about started crying right on the spot - it was absolutely one of the sweetest things I've ever seen. Not only did they bring me a cake and flowers, but they also brought me a card in which they had all written really sweet notes and gave me a big red Mickey Mouse pillow, which they told me I could sit on when I was grading their papers because they know it takes a long time. I was just absolutely speechless. I literally could not stop smiling all day. My students make me so, so happy.

My flowers!

The day just got better from there, as I received numerous birthday wishes from people in the English department, and after finishing up interviews, I ran down to Central for my second dress fitting. In addition to the dress being perfect, my dressmaker also offered me 50% of manicure the next day for my birthday and gave me her membership number for a show store so I could get a discount on new shoes for the dress? Was this a ploy just to make me contribute more money to the Hong Kong economy? Probably. Did it work? Yep. I came home already sporting a happy glow from the day's events, even though I still had quite some time before my actual birthday. That night, after midnight, my flatmates all came and wished me happy birthday and helped me celebrate as I bought myself my big birthday present. The best part is, I ended up getting a much better deal on my present than I expected, which virtually cancelled out the cost of the dress! So I was most certainly happy that I ended up making my purchase, on both accounts!

Friday began with the family calling me in the morning to wish/sing me happy birthday, which is always a lovely start to the day (as long as it's not at 6:15 AM!). I headed back downtown to pick up my dress and get my wonderfully relaxing manicure and made it back home in time to relax and watch the latest episode of Top Chef before starting to get ready. After a good three hours getting ready, some of which was spent curling my flatmate's hair (sound familiar, Elena and Rach?), we jumped on the bus and MTR and headed down to Tsim Sha Tsui, home of the Peninsula Hotel. The Peninsula, I believe, is the swankiest, most beautiful hotel in Hong Kong (and that's saying something), and one of their main attractions is the bar/restaurant on the 28th floor, featuring some of the most beautiful Harbour views in the city. So the flatmates and I ventured up here first for the evening for drinks and snacks - I had my favorite, Fraises Royale, which is the way-jazzed-up version of Strawberry Andre. It was lovely and a magnificent lead-off to the evening.

Me at Felix, with the Harbour in the background

After drinks, we jumped on the MTR and headed across the Harbour to dinner at Wagyu, an Australian steakhouse in Lan Kwai Fong where we met up with Su and Ren. Now, given that I had been studying menus for weeks (and we know how much I enjoy this activity), I had solid expectations for this place, but oh my gracious goodness, it was PHENOMENAL, even better than I expected!! Here was my menu of the evening:

Appetizers:

Wild Mushroom Camembert (camembert cheese with assorted sauteed mushrooms with thin crackers and cranberry sauce - I expected it to be good, but it was beyond delicious, great flavor combinations!)

Portobello Mushroom Milanese (lightly breaded and fried with yummy greens and sauces)

Entree (get ready):

8 oz. Wagyu fillet

Medallion of foie gras

Whole portobello mushroom

Whole baked garlic

Blue Cheese Butter Sauce

Potatoes Au Gratin

Sesame Honey Carrots

Sweet mustard sauce

Now to be fair, most of the accoutrements came with the steak, but I will admit to ordering an extra side dish. And all I can say is AHHHHSOOOGOOOOD!!!!! I seriously could not take more than two bites without stopping and exclaiming to everyone at the table how unbelievably delicious it was. Could very well be the best steak I've ever had (but that's tough competition). My flatmate Annie also had a phenomenal meal of slow-cooked veal shanks, which when they came out, looked like it was essentially the entire baby cow - it was *huge*!! Overall, I think the meal was enjoyed by all, and I hope that I can return again soon!

My dinner before...

My dinner after! Steak demolished! Yummmm

Happily finishing sipping on my wine for the evening

After dinner, Annie and I decided to stay out a bit longer, and while at first we went wandering for a sports bar so I could watch "football" (by which I mean soccer), but given the lack of games that were on, we settled on going to bar called Tastings. Now imagine this (this is how Annie described it to me): It's basically like a really classy wine vending machine. They give you a card at the beginning, and you go through and browse the various bottles of wine of display, and you can choose either to have a tasting, a half-glass, or a full glass. You then stick your card in, make your choice, the charge is added to card, and the wine is poured from a little spout in front of the wine bottle. It's a brilliant idea, and if there aren't already places like this in the major cities in the US, I think they should be opened. Kacie, get on this.

See, classy wine vending machine.

Saturday also started in a wonderfully surprising way. I got a call from the Hong Kong postman that morning, telling me to come outside and get a package. Being delirious and not knowing who might be sending me a package, I stumbled out to be handed two boxes. Once I got inside and got them opened, I found out they were boxes of treats from Shijie's family!! It was a wonderful surprise, and a great start to that day! Plus it got me up early enough to be able to witness myself actually turning 23, which didn't happen until 12:03 PM on Saturday. Which of course, birthday 2.0 would be celebrated on Saturday night!

After a chill afternoon, Ally and I ventured out to Ocean Park, one of Hong Kong's biggest theme parks, which is famous for its Halloween Extravaganza (think Six Flags Fright Fest). It was fantastic!! A bit crowded, but still really fun. We walked around amongst the zombies and ghouls that were terrifying the park's visitors all over the place - I screamed at every one that jumped out at me, even if I saw it from a mile away. We went through one of the haunted houses (with lines over an hour, it was all we had time for!) and rode some of the rides, the scariest of which was actually just the cable car over the mountain, which was extraordinarily steep and kind of horrifying! My favorite part of the night was dancing to "I Gotta Feeling" with a giant monster.

At the entrance to Ocean Park with our newly acquired headgear

Dancing with the Monsters

After Ocean Park, I headed back to downtown to meet up with my fellow BR '09er, Brittany and her fellow Fulbright-er Emem for a night of revelry. After several solid hours of dancing, we ended up sitting outside Club 7-11, eventually making our way over to the Flying Pan, a 24 hour breakfast joint, around 5am. The perfect cap to a fantastic weekend: Bacon and cheese grits with good people.

After having a few very busy days with work and Yale-China business, I received two more final birthday joys: the making of the Funfetti cake that my mom had sent over a few weeks ago last night, and then the arrival of birthday cards from the whole family today! I even received a fantastic new Colt McCoy jersey, which a little bird tells me is from my dad - Thank you so, so much Dad!! I love it!! I can't wait to wear it around HK tomorrow!

Overall, this was one of the best birthdays I could have asked for - I only wish all of my favorite people from back home and school could have been here with me, but just know that I appreciate the love I was getting from around the world that day! Thank you so, so much to everyone who made the day/days/week so wonderful!!

Giddy

Today has just been spectacular, from beginning to end. It started off with a fantastic video present from my favorite 7 year-old and 4 year-old and ended with me buying one of the best birthday presents ever for myself, with a huge and wonderful surprise in the middle!! Plus lots of other little surprises and treats along the way! I'll post more details later, but if today was any indication, hopefully I'll have lots to tell you by the end of the weekend! I am so in love with CUHK, Hong Kong, my friends and fam, and life right now. Today is one of those days that makes me realize how extraordinarily fortunate and blessed I am - I realize how rare and wonderful this is, and I am savoring every minute of it!

I apologize for the vague nature of this post, but I will give you a more detailed account as soon as I can! But for now, I need to get some sleep so I can be refreshed and awake for my first birthday in Hong Kong, which also happens to be my Golden Birthday! 23 on 23!!

Long Time, No See!

Hey everyone! It's been quite some time since I've had the opportunity to update, so I thought I would give a quick rundown of life in HK from the past few weeks:

1) Papers, papers, papers - Much of my time in the past few weeks has been devoted to the editing and grading of my students' papers. Since I last posted, I have graded approximately 40 papers, with about 40 papers coming before that. It's craziness! I'm starting to get the hang of grading papers quickly - when I first started, it was taking me about 45 minutes - 1 hour to grade a 5-page persuasive paper, but I'm slowly reducing that time. Or perhaps my students' papers are just getting better, and thus I do not need to make as many comments like "It's not clear what you're trying to say here - clarify!" As I was slugging through these papers at first, I was grumbling a bit, thinking what a thankless job this was. However, many of my students go out of their way actually to thank me for the comments and feedback I give to them, and to say how they really feel they are improving in their writing. I can't believe it never occurred to me when I was in school to thank my teachers for grading my papers, but now that I think about it, I think I owe a lot of people big thank-you's!

2) Information Day - I had a major flashback to my tour-guiding days last Saturday, when hordes of prospective students flooded CUHK's campus to be convinced that this was the school for them. I was stationed in the English department and was able to meet many potential English majors, some of whom were more comfortable than others speaking in English with this chatty American. Many of the prospective kids were curious about how they could improve their English, and we all suggested ideas like watching American TV shows, watching English movies with the subtitles on, and listening to American music. When one student said that the only English writing they had tried to read in school was Shakespeare, we immediately said, "No, try something easier! Then work your way up to Shakespeare!" So we recommended easier books like Harry Potter, Twilight, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and Pride and Prejudice. Apparently this was the approach several of our current students took to improve their English, and clearly it yielded good results! Who knew Twilight could be so valuable? :)

3) Football, finally: Last night, after a particularly long week of work, I ventured downtown for the first time in a couple weeks to have dinner with my friend Brittany and then to meet up with the legion of Hong Kong Texas Exes for the UT-OU game! I had been looking forward to this all week long, and I'm happy to say that the experience did not disappoint! The HK Texas Exes had rented out a restaurant in Wan Chai, and about 30-35 Texas fans converged on the site. I got to meet some fantastic people, some Hong Kong residents as well as some current UT students who are studying abroad in HK, so there was some great company. As everyone knows who watched the game, it was an ugly, UGLY game, but a win's a win!! I cannot even begin to tell you how good it was to watch football and to hang around Texans again. I will definitely be making this a tradition!

Here I am after the game, elated but absolutely exhausted and ready for some sleep!!

All in all, it was a pretty spectacular evening!

Not a whole lot else to report as of now, since I've just been knee-deep in the job for the past couple of weeks. Next weekend should promise some exciting times, though, as I'll be celebrating my 23rd birthday on the 23rd!! I'm currently in the process of deciding what to do for the occasion - mainly just deciding on what fancy restaurants to try! I'm also buying myself the best birthday present ever this week! Hope everyone has a great week this week, and I'll be back again soon!

xoxo,

Jenny

An Exercise in Losing Face

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone!! Look at the moon! Ahhhh, pretty moon.

And Happy Jenny-Took-Her-First-Classically-Humiliating-Tumble-in-Hong-Kong Day! More on that in a bit.

So Mid-Autumn Festival is this really lovely holiday where you carry around a lot of lights and lanterns, gaze adoringly at the moon, sit around in groups with candles, and eat mooncakes, one of the most famous (and most debatably tasty) desserts in Hong Kong. The typical mooncake has some sort of intricate design on top of the cake, and it is filled with white lotus root paste and an egg - the flatmates and I decided to go for a more modern route with our mooncakes, though, and opted for the Snowy mooncakes (mango, green bean, and tiramisu flavored) and Haagen Dazs mooncakes. The history of the cake is something like long ago, when bad people were coming to steal the glory of China, brave Chinese soldiers found a way to communicate surreptitiously by placing written messages inside of mooncakes, and we celebrate this clever move every year with the consumption of 1000+ calorie mooncakes. Sounds like a holiday to me!

Our Haagen Dazs mooncakes - yum!!

So as you can imagine, with the Haagen Dazs mooncakes, the evening got off to a very nice start. Ally and I then ventured down the mountain and made our way to Tsim Sha Tsui, one of my most favorite areas of Hong Kong (the best Harbour view in the city), which was having a large lantern and light display. It was also a gathering point for people to come together, light candles, run around with lanterns, and look at the moon. We walked around for a while, taking pictures of all of the sights, enjoying the peaceful merriment that was taking place around us.

Much to my delight, we run across a band of musicians playing awesome Mandarin songs while a number of people in the crowd either danced or sang along. It made me really happy, as it reminded me of the street bands in New Orleans that I loved so much last year. I was particularly excited when a bunch of people started doing what looked like a Chinese form of line dancing. I immediately pulled out my camera and took a clip of it so I could bring it home and share it with all of you. Check out this action:

Well, I wish that the story could just end here, with me enjoying the jovial sight and then having a nice, uneventful rest of the night looking at the moon. But of course, it did not.

While watching the musical scene, I was laughing and clapping along with everyone else, which one of the ladies who was dancing took to mean that I wanted to join in. She came over over and said something to me in Mandarin, followed by "Dancing?? You come!" I smiled and told her no thanks, I just wanted to watch. After a few times repeating this, I just shook my head so she would get the message. I was sure that if I made a foray onto the dance floor, as the only non-Chinese person out there, I would make some sort of horrific mistake or cultural misstep and embarrass myself as well as everyone there. I figured there would be some sort of calamity, and then I would go from that funny American who was appreciating and engaging in the culture to that horrid American who made a fool of herself and disrespects Chinese traditions. But then, after listening to a few more songs and watching the lovely, uninhibited dancing of the crowd, I figured, you know what, I'm probably just being too self-conscious and I should just embrace the experience, embrace the culture, and not worry so much. "Just say yes!" kept ringing through my head. So when the lady once again invited me to dance, I threw caution to the wind, handed my bags over to Ally and joined her for the next song, a fun, uptempo number that brought out a good group of dancers and attracted some new folks to the crowd.

At first, it was great - we were twirling around, bopping up and down, having a great time. My dancing was absolutely wretched, but I didn't really care, the people in the crowd didn't seem to be judging me too harshly. We kept spinning each other around a lot - I was pulling in some old moves from swing dancing and each time, we both giggled and then kept bopping. Well, about 2/3 through the song, I was in mid-turn, in about my 12th twirl, when SPLAT!! My sandal lost all traction and I fell smack down onto the pavement, wiping out for the whole crowd to see. I heard a gasp from the people around me, but I got up quickly and laughed as loud as I could and continued dancing, just to show everyone that I was ok. I was trying not to "lose face" (aka absolutely humiliate myself) - but the damage was already done.

The lady and I kept dancing, but when we went in for the next spin, an older lady in the crowd started loudly chastising my dance partner for twirling me, thinking I had fallen because I was dizzy. People were now looking at me like, "What the hell are you doing out there?" I kept smiling and laughing to try and allay and awkwardness, but as soon as the song was over, I understood why people had seemed concerned: my knee, which had taken the brunt of the fall, was BLACK and RED, with a sizable bruise having already formed on the spot where I had hit the pavement and a nice big scrape that was oozing blood. Ally immediately started shuffling around in her purse to get Band-Aids, and one nice boy in the crowd rushed over to offer additional bandages. We stepped back a bit, away from the crowd, so I could properly examine the damage and apply the Band-Aids, but when I looked up, I saw that a number of the people in the crowd were no longer watching the dancing but were now STARING at me trying to fix my bloody and banged-up knee. I threw them my winning-est smile possible and gave them the thumbs-up to indicate that I was ok, the show's over, etc. and they then, to my relief, laughed and smiled, returned the thumbs-up, and turned their attention back to the music. I then limped off with Ally, finally realizing just how much my knee was hurting. Did I mention that this was my already-messed-up left knee? I'm just glad I did not do more damage to it, or else I would have been the American who ruined Mid-Autumn Festival when an ambulance had to come pick her up and ruin all of the festivities... Luckily, I think the worst damage of the evening was confined to my pride.

So I've managed my first adequate dose of humiliation in Hong Kong, with quite a crowd of witnesses to boot. I think I played the part of the foolish American quite well this evening - hopefully I haven't permanently damaged these people's views of my country with my terrible dancing and clumsy moves, but oh well, I guess that's one of the risks of living abroad! All in all, it was a pretty great evening - Mid-Autumn Festival was fantastic, and now I'll have scars/souvenirs with which to treasure the memories. I'll be posting more pictures from this evening, as well as some from the past month, on Facebook later in the week, and Mom, I'll send you pictures of the gnarliness that is my knee.