Tres Amigas and the two Fins

Dear friends: life is good.

#404 is ¾ reunited; we’re just missing our classiest member: Ms. Kat (we miss you). Sinae’s finally in HK, and the party’s just begun. She arrived Thursday with two of her friends from Finland who are also studying at the National University of Singapore (Johannes & Lauri).

First thing off the check-list was dim sum. I’m working on my Chinese skills, but my Cantonese is still practically non-existent. It’s surprising that most people don’t speak Mandarin here; it’s slightly disappointing that I don’t get to practice as much as I’d like. Dim sum ended up being the traditional motions of pointing and grunting. People respond very well to it. It’s certainly easier than trying to talk it out. Everywhere we go, we’re always passed around from server to server in attempts to bridge the communication gap. Afterwards, we walked around the Central business district and eventually ended up at the infamous Lan Kwai Fong. They’re known for their western-styled bars and clubs. Thursday nights are ladies night. The poor Fins got a little winded (pocket-book-wise) the first night. We ended our day there. It was fun. Not my scene. It’s slightly similar to 6^th St, but I didn’t catch sight of any burnt orange. There were bars advertising college football. The only flag that caught my attention was an Aggie flag. If there was a comment box for the bar, I’d definitely make a suggestion.

Tangent: speaking of bleeding orange…I’m missing football season. I’m following along via net news, but it’s not the same. Another big miss from home: pizza. I didn’t think I’d miss it that much. However, I’d recently discovered that there are Pizza Huts everywhere. I’ll have to get on that soon. They’re combos are rather interesting. The ‘American Adventure’ is especially endearing.

Yesterday, we visited Sai Kung, a village off the bay. Immediately after we stepped off the bus, we were swarmed with offers to get ferried over to one of the islands on the bay. At first, we had no idea what they wanted from us. It was a lot of Cantonese and waving. Johannes caught an amazing picture of this lady trying to bargain with us. I’ll have to post it once I get it from him. Once on the island, we spent some time trying to get around the island. There was a lot of hopping rock to rock. Sat on the large rocks, enjoyed the view, sang some of the Little Mermaid soundtrack, played on the beach and in the water. Life was grand. For some reason, the large umbrella we pitched kept falling. Picture this: three loud girls chasing after a large umbrella rolling across the beach. Three times. This happened three times. We never learned. I’m loving HK more and more. Good people. Good times.

Gloria and I are off to Thailand next Thursday. Agenda: make it from Bangkok to Singapore one way or another in 11 days.