First day in Hong Kong!

I am currently sitting in my cool dorm room feeling very accomplished for many reasons. First of all, I made it to Hong Kong in the first place! Our flight left at 11:50 PM from LA and was scheduled to arrive in HK at 5:30 AM. I flew on the airline Cathay Pacific and let me just say... it was the coolest plane I have ever been on! Chris and I had seats in the very back of the plane and we concerned about whether or not we would be able to recline in our seats. We discovered upon finding our tiny little bucket chairs that the seats did a neat thing where they slide down to allow you to recline without leaning back into the person's seat behind you. While clever, it made the leg room for us "tall" passengers very squished. However, the tv that was placed in front of every passenger's individual seat more than made up for the squished knees and strained necks. It was so cool. We could play games on the screen, choose which movies we wanted to watch (good ones too!), and we could even change the view to an outside camera located underneath the belly of the plane. Now while all of this was amazing, it did not compare to the foot rests, private rooms/areas, personal massagers and free alcohol that was provided to the first and business class passengers. The service was great and the vegetarian meal was wonderful as well. It should be noted that I managed to sleep fairly soundly for the first 8-9 hours. My professor later commented that I looked so incredibly uncomfortable at one point while sleeping in a pretzel like position that he had no idea how I managed to rest at all. Well, I did! I am however getting very tired as we speak. I had an amazingly full day and yet it is only about 6:30PM here.

We arrived at about 5 this morning (Wednesday). It is very strange that I lost Tuesday the 8th of June forever because of the time change and the length of the flight! But I think it was worth it. When we arrived, we grabbed our luggage fairly painlessly and prepared ourselves for the burden of customs, yet were surprisingly satisfied when all we had to do was walk through an area lined with customs officers. Very painless. A group of about ten or so students, including Chris and me, then proceeded to try to find our way out of the airport and to the dorm and CUHK, Chinese University of Hong Kong. We rode the AirBus A41 from the airport all the way to the Sha Tin bus stop located on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. The bus was very cool and a double decker so we got to see the amazing countryside. So far the weather has been rainy, muggy and overcast. I have been told that that is the norm for June though. Once we arrived at the bus stop the group split up and we all took cabs to the I-House, which is our dorm at CUHK! Since we had a lot of luggage this was the best option. I rode in a cab with Chris and the rest of the group followed shortly after. Once we arrived at the I-House, we checked in painlessly… minus the part where the tiny Chinese women took our temperature with a gun looking device that she pointed at our foreheads! I finally got to my “flat” and I have an awesome corner room, which I am sharing with two other girls… including my TA for the class! I was getting settled when I met some ladies from the accounting program that is also being held here for UT students. Almost immediately after changing shirts and making my bed, we decided to venture out into the city. We took the MTR (metro) to the stop of Hung Hom. Once we got there, we found the Metropolis shopping mall. We were very hungry and searching for breakfast until we realized that it was only about 9am in HK. So we came across a food court in the mall where a few restaurants were open. I chose a tomato salad that ended up being tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, and mayo. Needless to say, I only ate the tomatoes. Chris and I then shared some veggie-fried rice while some of our other friends ate shrimp dumplings (questionable) and beef fried rice (also questionable!). We shopped after breakfast but did not find anything too interesting so we headed back to the MTR station. It was at this station that I decided to use the restroom before we went to ladies market. Once I managed to find the bathroom, it became clear that the toilets were located on the floor of the stall… aka a hole in the floor! Needless to say, that was an experience.

We then headed to the Mong Kok East area and found a ladies market, fish market , and produce market. It was raining and a lot of students bought umbrellas for 10 HKD which is around $1.30 USD. I literally felt like I was in Chinatown in NYC, yet it was actually China! We had so much fun.

After the authentic market experience, a group of the group headed back to a mall in the area on the search for phones. I found one, along with a few others, at an electronic store for about $25 USD. We then bought SIM cards from a man on the street near the MTR. I was a little nervous, but they actually worked! I was able to call my mom on the bus ride back to the I-House at CUHK. It was great and I love my little phone.

After making it back to the school, we had an orientation meeting where we learned about the school. It was great to take a tour of the campus and find things like the swimming pool, canteen, bank, and market. I bought some food and then took the bus back to the dorm with my two roommates, Julie and Elizabeth.

After all the excitement of the day, I was very tired. I started to blog but then ended up taking a short nap. I then did hw until about 1 am with my roommate and went to bed! I slept great.

Day two begins… more to come later!

The journey to LA!

Currently, I am sitting in the ReLAX lounge at the LAX airport. It is relaxing, as the name suggests, however it has been a long journey since I left Springfield, MO on Saturday the 5th. I managed to get out of town right after the wedding of Lendsey's best childhood friend, Chris Haines. It was a fun way to end the last few hours I had in Springfield but it was still difficult to say goodbye to my mom, dad, and of course Gilley.... and Lendsey, Ashley (Daniels) and all the other pups that reside at 1029. After the wedding I hightailed it to KC, Mo and met up with Ashley and Justin. It was great to spend time with them and Izzy. We chit chatted in the amazing room that they have created for the nugget that is on the way and we even stayed up until about 11!

The next morning I woke up at the crack of the @ss and heading to the airport with Justin as my chauffeur! Now this is where it gets interesting... no offense A and J... but I was in line in security and was standing behind Billy Ray Cyrus. I have to admit that I was pretty excited to be in the presence of such greatness and I got so overwhelmed that I almost boarded the wrong flight. Instead of LA I would have ended up in Nashville if it wasnt for the nice Southwest ticket checker man who redirected me! So after that embarrassing situation I ended up on the RIGHT flight and as one of the last ones to board I ended up sitting right behind Billy Ray in one of the few empty seats. It was an interesting flight with his entire crew acting like they ran the place, but I did meet one nice guy who talked to me about LA and other small talk things. When I got to LA, I was surprised to learn that my bf, Chris, had already landed and was waiting for me at baggage claim (he originally thought that he was not getting in until 10:30 instead of 8:30). So... we hung out in baggage claim and charged our phones until my cousin, Andrea, came and picked us up. We went to Manhattan Beach where we ate at a nice American restaurant called Sharks... or something like that. It was great to catch up with her and meet her boyfriend. We also walked around the adorable town and along the pier where we admired the "June Gloom" (a haze that hangs over the beach during June) and pigeons bathing in a strange bird bath a random man created on the bridge/pier thing. After that we head to Long Beach.

Once in Long Beach we checked into our hotel at the Hyatt Regency and ran into some of our fellow classmates who had already arrived at the hotel. Long Beach is a very cool area which Chris and I explored. We had some lemonade and a frozen coffee drink while we walked around and admired the little shops and restaurants near the water. We eventually wore ourselves out and ended up sunbathing in all of our clothes next to the hotel pool... where we both ended up falling asleep until we had to go to a meeting with our professor and the rest of our classmates in the Shoreline A conference room at the Hyatt! We were dreading coming in from the pool and having to go to a lecture class, but it was great to see everyone and also be refreshed as to why we were doing the whole trip in the first place! After the lecture, it was great because everyone decided we wanted to try to go eat together. We all headed to the pier area searching for a restaurant at which to eat dinner. Eventually, we decided to divide and conquer according to food preferences. I chose seafood along with a few fellow classmates and we ended up at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. It was a great dinner and it was fun to get to know Elizabeth, Julie, Travis, Jared and David a little better! Afterwards we thought about looking for a gas station for some beer to go down to the pool, but we decided to go our own ways a get a good night sleep in preparation for this early morning.

This morning started bright and early at 6:45! We had an interesting situation trying to fit everyone's luggage and everyone on a city bus! Eventually we succeeded and we headed to the Port of Long Beach where we learned all about the port and the role of the city in relation to the port. After that, we spilt into groups where we headed to two different Terminal Operators. My group went to TTI, Total Terminals International, where we learned all about the role of terminals and the carriers that come into the port from the senior manager at TTI. It was so cool and we got a fantastic tour where we got to see the cargo coming off a huge ship from Korea. My favorite part was when I asked Kevin where the operator for the cranes are located. It is difficult to explain but basically they sit at the top of the crane in a box that looks like an elevator. He said "they sit in a big comfy chair and operate the crane by looking through glass windows between their feet." They had to ride an elevator a couple hundred feet up into the air to get to their box! Obviously, we learned a lot more about the logistics but it was very complex and too difficult to explain here! From there we headed to NYK Logistics which is a deconsolidator for Target. We ate lunch here and then had a tour of the building and learned about custom regulations for cargo coming in off the ship. At the deconsolidator, they basically unload the crates that come from the shipyards and then divide up the products in order to ship to various distribution centers around the country. It was really chaotic and there were forklifts driving and beeping all over the place.

So after all this excitement, we headed to the airport. Our flight is not until 11:50 tonight and so the plan was to check into our flight and check our luggage in when we got here around 3. We then wanted to take a cab to the beach or explore LA. unfortunately for us, you cannot check in until 4 hours before our flight. So with all of our luggage (two large suitcases, a carry-on, purse, and a backpack for me) we headed up the escalator in the search for bathrooms and food. We came across the ReLAX lounge where it is $35 for 5 hours of internet and free food, drink... and of course a relaxing environment! I am not sure how we swung it, but we managed convince our CIBER liaison to have CIBER pay for everyone to hang out in the ReLAX lounge! This brings me to my current position... drinking pineapple juice, eating chex mix, and surfing the web... and also chatting with my professor and trying to plan side trips on the weekends while in HK! Bon Voyage! My next post will probably not be this long so stay with me! xoxo

Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my blog for my study abroad in Hong Kong! I will leaving from Kansas City on Sunday June 6th to fly to LA. I will be there for one night and will get to see the port where Target receives products, then I will be flying to Hong Kong on the 7th! Considering they are 13 hours ahead... I will not actually be there until the 9th. I will keep you posted when I get to LA!