October 28th

I woke up early and headed back to my hostel to grab a few things and go to my drawing tutorial. We started doing grid sketching. We were each assigned a portion of a larger picture and we draw it using the grid technique and then when we are all finished we see if it all fits together. My piece was mostly fabric so that's a challenge but we get to use charcoal which I absolutely love (even though it's super messy).

After class, I rushed to the MTR station. Because I  had a long ride, I pulled out my sketchbook and started doing half-blind contour sketches of people on the train. Turns out a guy across from me was watching me do it and when I finished one, he complimented me and started asking me if I studied art. Then he told the girl (who was also on the bench across from me) that I was drawing her and she started talking to me too. Apparently she studied in the U.S. at Michigan State and her name is Jennifer. It was kind of funny to talk to random strangers on the train, but a little embarrassing to be caught drawing people on the train.

I got to Hung Hom and waiting for my family to come. They had gone to the Teaware Museum in Hong Kong Park for the morning. When I met up with them in Hung Hom, they raved about the museum and the tea house they went to. They said it was so beautiful there. I guess I'll have to go check it out for myself!

We bought tickets for the Intercity Train to Guangzhou and then went to McDonald's Cafe for a bite to eat (mostly for me because they had had some dimsum at the tea house). I'd never been to a McDonald's Cafe before. It was like Starbucks, but cheaper.

After passing through immigration, we boarded the train and saw that these people had taken our seats. They started jabbering at us in Chinese expecting us to understand their explanation for why they had taken our seats. It was very chaotic and they refused to give us our seats back. Eventually one of the passengers took pity on us and translated for us. We ended up relinquishing our seats and had to sit somewhere else. I thought those people were very rude and they talked really loud for the entire train ride.

The train ride took 2 hours and I occupied my time by reading The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. It is a veryyyy good book. I highly recommend it. It's very easy to read and very touching. We got off the train and were swept away by the crowds to immigration. After passing through that, we stopped to use the bathroom, which of course was all squat toilets (not fun). We got a taxi to the hotel and were majorly jipped - we payed way too much for it. Oh well, it was hassle free and not the end of the world. They probably labeled us stupid, naive foriegners. But who cares. We got to the hotel.

We stayed at Daysen Park Hotel. It was okay but not as nice as the hotel that Mom and Grandmother stayed at in Tin Shui Wai. The rug was kind of disgusting in the room and my bed was rock hard (they had to bring in a fold up bed just for me). But the people who worked there were SO nice and very helpful.

They had these fire gas masks everywhere! In our rooms, in museums, in stores.

 

Exhausted and too intimidated to go out into the city, we ate at the hotel restaurant. It was pretty good. I watched some TV, while they tried to remember what they did in Hong Kong to write it down. Then collapsed into bed.