The spiciest ramen of my life

Morning=uneventful. Afternoon=uneventful. Except for around 2, when I went to take my clothes out of the dryer (yes! I'd collected enough coins for laundry!) and found the door locked. The water had been shut off or something, but I guess they didn't trust that students would read the sign and not use the washing machine. Luckily the housekeepers understood my problem and directed me to the security desk. Then the security guard had to call in another guard to mind the desk while the first guard left to unlock the laundry room. So even though my clothes could have used some more time in the dryer, I removed them rather than inserting more coins and returning to the security desk 14 minutes later with the same request.

After spreading my clothes out around the room I decided to feed the bugs and hang out by the canteen. Then...dinner! We went to the Town Centre, but took the minibus this time--and almost filled it completely! We were going to eat at a Chinese restaurant but somehow the plans changed (if only I understood Korean...) I'm assuming it was too crowded. So we split into two groups, one for Spaghetti House and another for Japanese food.

Japanese! The first place we went to looked too crowded, didn't understand English well, and didn't have large enough tables besides. Which was unfortunate, because I really wanted to see the conveyer belts with food up close. But we found another Japanese restaurant a few escalators later. I ordered "Assorted Mushroom Teppanyaki" and--wow--I had no idea mushrooms could be so astoundingly delicious. I also sampled some of my friends' foods. Some really yummy chicken (but she forgets what the meal was called). A nibble of salmon roe from someone's sushi (roe! the answer to "Fish eggs" in the crossword! because "caviar" isn't three letters long!). And...the spiciest ramen of my life. Seriously.

I mean, I'd been warned. The friend on my left tried some just before me and said, "Look at my face." It looked distressed. "When a Korean tells you it's spicy, you know it's spicy." Of course, this only piqued my curiousity. So I lifted up one noodle from the pork neck kimchi ramen...
Imagine the flavor of Tabasco sauce, only increase the spiciness level, like, a hundred-fold. And it's not the kind of spiciness that spreads and clears out your sinuses. Nope, it just hangs around in your mouth until you imagine you could cause an explosion just by breathing on some semi-flammable liquids. Actually, I think at the time I described it as a roller coaster ride. Whoosh!

I gulped down my tea. Ate some mushrooms. Then, curiously, I needed to try another noodle. I can't explain it. Then I gulped down more tea, ate more mushrooms...and another noodle. And another. But all total I couldn't have had more than five or six. And never never more than one at a time.

How much would you have to pay me to eat that whole glob of wasabi over there? ...
Oh, that's too bad, the waitress cleared it away.

48 states

Yesterday it rained. I know it rained because it transformed me into a dripping mess. Yes, I saw the storm clouds. Yes, I saw the drizzle. I thought I would win the race to the supermarket, but the rain just laughed--ha ha ha--and dumped water on me.

At the lovely, air-conditioned Park 'N' Shop I bought the following:

• Red bean dumplings
• Fried fish balls
• Scallops Noodle
• And some ordinary stuff like bread and jam

And at the bakery I bought a pork bun that was tasty, if mostly filled with air.

After classes (the professor let us out early because of a dysfunctional projector) I went to dinner, during which I and the other American were asked if we could name all fifty states. "Sure, if we could write them down." "Woah..." And they believed us! And we believed ourselves!

Later that night we decided to test ourselves. Regretfully, Louisiana and Utah no longer belong to the United States. I'm sorry to be the one to tell you.

Update: The United States no longer exists either! I just went to http://xn13.com/countries/, where you try to name as many of the 195 sovereign countries as you can in 15 minutes. It's true, I forgot the United States (along with 124 other countries).

You forgot:Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda,
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh,
Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin,
Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brunei,
Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon,
Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Comoros,
Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Djibouti, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea,
Eritrea, Estonia, Fiji, Gabon, Georgia,
Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea,
Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Indonesia, Ivory Coast,
Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon,
Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar,
Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands,
Mauritania, Mauritius, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco,
Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia,
Nauru, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria,
Oman, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea,
Romania, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal,
Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands,
Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Switzerland, Syria,
Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tunisia,
Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, United States, Uruguay,
Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City, Yemen, Zambia,

And actually, I shouldn't have gotten credit for Dominica, because I'd been typing in "Dominican Republic."

Anyway, after dinner we needed an adventure. Initially, we'd hoped to bump into one (clearly labled "ADVENTURE" and maybe with flashing lights and sound effects) on our way back to the hostel. We met a cat.

So we decided to search for an adventure instead, by heading off for the Tun Mun Town Centre.

On the way we met another cat, this time with at least three teeny tiny kittens! And in the same area there were loads of toads (hah! it rhymes...) that kept leaping out from nowhere.

We went by bus, since it seemed like the adventurous thing to do. And it was more fun than the MTR, but if ADVENTURE was sitting on the bus, it was cleverly disguised and chose never to approach us. We arrived at one of the bajillion shopping centers and wandered around aimlessly. If I'd brought my camera I could show you a picture of the ridiculously large gold pig necklace I saw. Hang on, maybe Google will help. Yup! Click here! It's exactly like the one I saw (although based on recent performances of my memory it wouldn't surprise me if the necklace I remember seeing was actually small, silver, and in the shape of a rooster.

In our wanderings we'd caught a wiff of something truly delicious, so we decided to track down the source...

Fresh waffle cones!

But I already knew what waffle cones taste like, so I went with--oh no!--I just checked the receipt, hoping to share the name of ultimate chocolate bliss...but alas...it's in Chinese. I'll describe it:

1 scoop of vanilla gelato
surrounded by chocolate gelato
covered with cocoa powder
topped with a strawberry
and sitting next to
more strawberries
and
two tube-shaped chocolate and strawberry wafer cookies
stuck in a dab of whipped cream

Yum...

We did not eat any of the following. If I'd had unlimited cash and stomach-space I gladly would have.


Then we returned, failed at U.S. geography, and went to sleep.

Oh! But not before visiting the E-store! The hostel has a room filled with snacks for sale, so I bought these dried fish things that were surprisingly munchable. I've displayed a portion of the wrapper below.

More survival Cantonese

Having successfully remembered the Cantonese for "tired," I convince my friend to teach me more. Namely: "foil," "epee," and "fencing." And in the remaining practice time I heard those words over and over! It was more exciting than this afternoon when I understood half of a sign taped to a wall. Fire something person something.

Other news:

• I picked up my Personalized Student Octopus, which I should have done yesterday but forgot. Hopefully the savings will make up for the ID photos I needed to buy for it--I couldn't just buy one. What am I going to do with seven unsmiling photos of myself?! Maybe I'll tape them up all in a row and then people will ask, "Why did you do that?" and then I'll say, "What would you do with seven unsmiling photos of yourself?" And they'd give an answer and I'd do that.
  
• I now have a Park 'N' Shop card and three little keychain mini-cards for my non-existent keychains. Yay discounts!
• Tomorrow is Friday! Whee! But also: Gasp! Why is time flying by so fast?
  

Internet stopped working last night

So I saved what I'd written into a Word document and pasted it here for you this morning:

"I was all prepared to write, "Nothing happened. Sorry." But then--several people stop by to tell me we'll be voting for the floor representative and eating fruits.

Yum! Slices of my favorite pears! (unless they were pear-tasting slices of apple, I don't know) And oranges and really thin melon slices and the largest grapes I've ever laid eyes on.

We raised our hands unanimously for the only person to vote for.

And I finally remembered the name of the person I kept forgetting! So she can stop asking, "Do you remember me?" and then, "You've forgotten me again!" For some reason I thought her name was Francine. I don't even know a Francine. I've never known a Francine. But have you ever become convinced the name someone introduces herself as can't possibly be her real name? It happens to me all the time. A few years ago I kept thinking "Miriam" when the girl's name was Ashley. And the Mainland student on the fencing team doesn't call herself Agatha.

Anyway, I should go to sleep now. Waking up at 11:05 would be a bad habit to develop. Especially on days when classes start at 11:30. Like today."

"How are you?" "I'm fine, thank you. And you?"

More Mandarin lessons today! Yay! I like learning the characters best because they're pretty (well, when the teacher writes them) and afterwards I can spot them around campus. For instance, if someone went around and scribbled out all the English I could still enter the correct lavatory.

I also learned some more Cantonese at fencing tonight. I suspect I will become very confused with my numbers, because the Cantonese for 2 sounds like the Mandarin for 1. And a friend taught me how to say "yes," "no," and "tired," but she doesn't think I'll remember. It's true, I did forget my name. As I suspected would happen.

My other classes weren't bad either, except for a diagram drawing disaster in International Trade. He passed out copies of the lecture notes to everyone, but left us to replicate the complicated and important graph. So I have a trade triangle that's represented by a scribbly mass, wobbly indifference curves, and several extraneous arrows. Sigh...

P.S. I've updated the post from two days ago--it now includes videos I didn't have the time to upload earlier.

Ack! A quick post!

I thought today would be a sleep in late, review notes, sort through photographs day. Mostly it was.

However:

• Dinner at Fu Tai! I tried Szechuan style (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szechuan_cuisine --hah, like you need a link to wikipedia) fried pork. Luckily my friends shared their fried rice, so I could cool off my tongue.
• Moon cake! My roommate gave me a mooncake, but it's the kind with egg yolk that I didn't find particularly/not at all tasty. But I ate it anyway, so now I've eaten a genuine mooncake! I thought I'd missed my chance because the Mid-Autumn Festival is over and the displays of tins have all been replaced with I don't remember.
• A paper lantern! Rachel stopped by and gave me one of my very own! It's hanging from the laundry line my roommate set up.
  

And now, good night.

1,030

That's how many photos I took. Yesterday. I went through an entire pair of batteries and then some.

I'll share 25 with you.

The first photograph of the day, before we even left the Siu Hong station--bound for Causeway Bay!

It took us a couple of hours to get there, mostly because of ticket difficulties (for our non-Octopus-holding members). We also used up a good portion of time staring at the map. Finally we just followed the arrow pointing towards Times Square...and spiral escalators.

But we needed cheap food so--maybe you guessed?--KFC. I don't even eat this much fast food in America. And when I do, it doesn't come with a side of rice with mushrooms.

I really really wanted to ride in one of these. But I didn't want to stand in line.

I keep finding these large televisions everywhere (remember that other one in the shopping center?) and this one looked particularly out of place.


Yes! The spiral escalators! Everyone else seemed completely unthrilled. Admittedly, I too had been expecting something more twisty. Maybe I'll grow up and become a millionaire just so I can purchase a genuine spiral escalator.


After coming back down the escalators we wandered through the mooncake vendors. Mickey Mouse and Garfield shaped ones, and some that were filled with super-fancy gelato. And I got to sample a pineapple flavored one!



McDonald's with mesmerizing sign.


Trams! Everywhere! As common as buses! I read about them once. All I remember is the city once upon a time wanted to get rid of them because of their un-modern-ness, but couldn't because the people protested.


While we were waiting at a crosswalk on our way to a post office of historical significance I spotted this (I think) adorable graffiti. People should learn to park their motorcycles to avoid interference with photographs.


Also, the pizza and KFC delivery folks travel in style.

The post office. I have not included a photograph of the post office because it didn't look particularly interesting. Maybe some day when I have oodles of spare time I'll think, "hmm...I should like to spend this time uploading uninteresting photographs."

The temple! Umm...not much more to say, really. Incense, statues, dim lighting...

Then we just followed our leader, even though he tended to walk behind the group. Now that I think about it, I really have no idea how we knew where to go.

We walked past dirty buildings in pastel colors,


a street filled with chandelier shops,


a basketball court,


and a street filled with fancy furniture stores.

Then we arrived at a large shopping center, where everyone (except me) bought coffee at Starbucks. I ate a Mandarin muffin instead.

A Korean singer who's very popular in China.


This is not Starbucks. But my fingers couldn't stop taking photos, even while we were resting.


As we were leaving I spotted this sign.
P.S. That's where we'd all been sitting.

I took this photo while sitting on the planter. Observe the plants.


Oh no! I've gotten my day mixed up. That's what happens when I wait to long to write about it.
Sometime after the temple and before Starbucks we stopped by the MTR station and two more friends joined us. I'd had no idea we'd been standing outside the station waiting for them. This is proof that I can't understand phone conversations spoken in Korean. Or read minds.


And then we ended up here! In what I'll call the "awesome buildings district."
I'm actually not even sure which city we were in, because at some point we left Causeway Bay and ended up in Central.


Everything was so SHINY.



Some dancers in the park we ended up at.


Next we wandered into a shopping center chock full of designer clothes.
I stole this picture from Diore. Accidentally.
But when I become a spiral escalator owning millionaire, guess whose snobbish no-mannequin-photography-policy store I'm not buying clothes from?


We left and saw that night had officially arrived. Nearly all subsequent photographs resemble the above in blurriness.


Oh! I remember this photo now--on the way to the Mid-Level escalators.
The longest escalator system in the world, and one of the two things I remember from a documentary I saw on Hong Kong a few years ago (the other is custom-made suits).

The escalators go one direction in the morning and switch for the commute back.

And it takes 20 minutes to ride them all the way from start to finish. But we hopped off before the end, unless we began before the start. Either way, we weren't on for an extreme amount of time.

I've never enjoyed escalators more. They go right next to shop windows and restaurants, and night makes it all gorgeous.

Best escalator ever.

We ate at an Italian restaurant, where I ordered my favorite: fettucine alfredo. The waiter's flawless English felt so strange. And the old photographs on the walls made no sense (although I liked them). A sad boy next to a motorcycle, a newly married couple, a lady with hardly any clothes, a color photograph of a people around a table...

And then!

Oh!

I shouldn't even include photographs!

It couldn't be captured!

I give you permission to tap into my mind and borrow my memories of the view from Victoria Peak. If you promise to return them.


I'm only including this one because I can't very well blab on and on about something beautiful and then say, "too bad you weren't there, the end." We took a taxi to the top (first time in a Hong Kong taxi!) instead of the tram because of long lines and expensive tickets. The ride was quite exciting because I kept thinking we were about to crash. Only because I'd forget we weren't in the wrong lane.


Picasso could have drawn a centaur or something (http://www.vpphotogallery.com/photog_mili_picasso.htm). But I like hearts just fine.

In the moon, the Chinese see the wife I from the story I told you.
And Koreans see a bunny.

A lot of families came to the Peak for the Mid-Autumn festival. Everyone carried at least one lantern, some of them traditional paper and candle ones and others inflatable plastic ones with a battery powered light.


One of the final pictures of the night. We're exhausted and waiting for the bus that will bring us directly to Tuen Mun. Turns out the bus ride was even more exhausting--we stood the whole time, with our hands clenching those-things-dangling-from-the-ceiling-for-this-very-purpose to keep from stumbling into our neighbors with every stop.