This Week (for lack of a more creative title)

So I was too lazy to update this week, but I promised myself that I will be better about updating in the future.
Monday: What did I do Monday? It seems like so long ago... Oh! I watched a Hong Kong movie called a Brassiere (绝世好Bra) for my Hong Kong Popular Culture. It was a Japanese company that wanted to create the "ultimate bra." The manager of a Hong Kong subsidary of the Japanese company was made the project manager. She hires two men to undertake the task. The movie was very entertaining and it was interesting to look at the evolution of the four main characters throughout the movie and note the gender roles they filled. For those who are interested: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0306651/

Tuesday: A very busy day as most Tuesdays are. I had three 2 hour classes. My Hong Kong's Heritage professor showed us photographs from old villages in the New Territories. It was very enlightening and interesting. Here are just a few of the photographs I got in a packet in class.

Huts that refugees (a result of the Japanese army during what we called WWII) lived in. Most of them starved to death

Women planting out rice. Backbreaking work that men were incapable of doing because the belief was that women bend easier.

Boat squatters. Pretty much the poorest people.

Tuesday night I also went to the Lion Dance Club Meeting. I met the coach who was very entertaining and we got to practice with the head. I had no idea what I was doing. We also learned a piece on the drum. During that process I discovered that playing the drum is not a future career for me.

Wednesday: I had my first graded assignment today. A quiz in Chinese class. I was very nervous for it but I did much better then I thought I would. Megan, I wrote a little essay about you on it because I had to introduce one of my friends as part of the quiz. I will copy it down here so you can see.. haha :-)

我的朋友叫Megan。 她是美国人。她也是大学生。在日本，她学习文化和历史。她喜欢狗。
My friend's name is Megan. She is American. She is also an university student. In Japan, she is studying culture and history. She likes dogs.

Yeah, that's the best I could do without any dictionary to help me.
I don't really remember what I did the rest of the day. I went to FuTai to buy some groceries. Not that that is particularly exciting.


Thursday: In my drawing tutorial we had to do contour drawings. We started with 5 minute blind contour drawings of our hands and then moved on to 10 minute blind contour drawings of a bag on a table cloth. Then we did half blind contour drawings of the bag and table cloth. I struggled with this because I saw the shadows and bright spots easier than the lines. My professor helped me, but I think it is something I need to reluctantly practice in my sketchbook.
Then came the adventure of the day. Trace and I took the MTR to Yuen Long and then took the bus to the border. We crossed in to ShenZhen, China. It took longer than Trace thought because I had to wait in longer lines as a foreigner. But eventually we crossed and took the bus to their subway system. We took the subway to the stop called LaoJie to go shopping. I never ever want to take the subway in ShenZhen at that time of day. It was SO crowded. Everyone told me that when I go abroad I will learn about myself. Well, yesterday I learned that I am a bit claustrophobic. I could not deal with being smashed between people and not able to move. We were like sardines in a can. Oh man, it was terrible. I was SO happy to finally get to our stop.
I thought shopping was cheap in Hong Kong, well it is even cheaper in Mainland China. I already knew this, but it was brought to my attention again yesterday. Especially when my first purchase after dinner was a pair of high heels for a grand total of 5 yuan. That's about 70 cents in the US. SEVENTY CENTS for a pair of shoes. You can't get anything except a piece of candy, a small bag of chips, or a used paperback for that price in the US. We met up with one of Trace's friends and we all went shopping. It was a very fun excursion. I was able to communicate with some of the shop keepers using my beginner Mandarin. It was great. I don't know if I could communicate and bargain with them by myself, but I feel more confident with my ability to get the general idea across.

70 cents :-)

Vendors selling food at FuTai at 1 am.

We didn't get back to our hostel in Lingnan until after 1 am. It was a very long day, but the fun of it got diminished when I discovered I was missing my key chain once we arrived back on campus. I am dead positive I left it on the minibus we took back from the border to school since I had it when we got on the bus in order to use my Octopus card to pay for it. I ended up losing my room key, Lingnan student id, WAC student id, temporary student Octopus card, and my key chains. It is very frustrating and I am think I am most sad about losing the key chains. Luckily I have an extra room key (from the last time I lost my key), I can replace the ids, and I am supposed to get my real student Octopus card any day. So it isn't the end of the world. But still frustrating that I keep losing things here. I hate losing things.


Friday (Today): Today I did absolutely NOTHING and it was wonderful. I spent some time talking with Megan about Japan and her visit to Hong Kong. I made a list of all the places I want to go to in Hong Kong. I read a book. I attempted to make spaghetti in the microwave (not an easy job... for me at least). Now I am going to watch a movie or something and draw. I guess I should practice those stupid contour drawings.
Oh and today was a public holiday because 51 years ago today the People's Republic of China was founded. Since I usually don't have classes on Friday, it didn't affect me directly. Happy Birthday PRC~