Surrounded by Deutschland

I have completed my first week of the life at Hong Kong Baptist University! I am among 220 international students from around the world who will be studying here. Most of them will be here for one semester. Orientation was from Wednesday to to Friday with several sessions introducing life on campus and how to work the internet programs that are offered through the university. The weather here is much like that of Houston. Many are complaining that is is ridiculously hot and humid here; the humidity is the same as home but the temperature is in the high 80's. I told them that it is even hotter back where I am from. I find it funny that since I have been to Hong Kong before and I know my way around roughly by memory of my last trip, the other international students and I often go to places and I show them around. A local student, Shae, also coordinates trips for our "group" that we have formed from the 220 students. Needless to say there is never a dull moment with these guys!

It is nice to have a friend here from ETBU, Cassy Rains. Here and I are both nursing students back at home. When her flight was arriving to Hong Kong I was waiting at the dorms for her to show up. Her flight was to land at 7:00pm and the time was 11:30pm and still no Cassy. I began to freak out a little and thoughts began to rush my mind like "what if no one was there to pick her up from the airport" or "I hope her flight wasn't canceled." I left a note on her door for her to call me ASAP when she arrived to campus. I was in my room still waiting for my roommate to arrive... hoping that it was a guy from another country since I signed up for an international roommate. Well, at 12:50am there was a knock on my door. It was a guy with luggage and he introduced himself as Jake from Oregon. Yes, my roommate is in fact an international student FROM THE STATES! I laughed really hard because if you know me well enough this is the luck that I always have. As we began to talk and unloading his things he said that he had met a nice bubbly girl from the states on the shuttle to the university. I knew immediately that it was CASSY!!! I was so excited that she finally arrived. Shortly after Jake and I were talking he expressed that he did not feel well all of a sudden and it must be from flying so long. After about thirty minutes it was revealed that I was the reason that my new roommate was getting sick. He looked at my top shelf and saw a bunch of bananas... come to find out my roommate if HIGHLY allergic to bananas, so allergic that he can not even smell them. I immediately ran to Cassy's room with my bananas and greeted her with a present since I could not have them anymore.

I have already met some great friends and have bonded well with about seven of them... ALL GERMAN! For this reason I felt it necessary to name this post as I have. I have enjoyed their company very much and look forward to many great nights with them on campus and off campus. It is neat to interact with them and talk about our different cultures and views on certain topics. I help them around Hong Kong and they help me stay together at times. They have asked me to help them with their English and I told them that my English is a little different from the proper English like in the U.K. They say that my English is easier to understand and that they would much rather learn from the American. I do have to share this story from today about the whole English thing. One of my good friends, Christoph, said "I need a breast for my hair." I looked at him with my usual "what the heck are you talking about" look. Before I could correct him our other German friend, Lisa, said "oh, well I have one that is round and one that is flat." I busted out laughing and said "wait a minute before people start thinking we are talking about breasts!" I corrected them and told them that the word they were looking for was brush not BREAST! We had a good laugh. I look forward to many more wordings that end with hilarious comments such as this one.

This is Christoph and Lisa (breast convo)

During orientation, the university took us on a tour on Friday. We hit several of the popular areas around town and ate lunch at the Jumbo floating restaurant. Yes, I said FLOATING restaurant! We had to park the bus on the side of the street and board a small boat to bring us to the restaurant. It was a three story restaurant that was sitting on a barge. The food was good but it was said that the locals do not visit this place much due to the high cost and the more western approach to preparing the traditional Chinese meals.

That night I took my German possy to the Harbor for the world's largest light show. The Harbor skyline is used in this display and the majority of the main buildings have lasers and colored lights that are synced to music. The beautiful arrangement lasts for thirty minutes. It was our lucky day for seeing this due to the rare event of it being a clear night and not foggy from the smog.

The semester has started out with a BANG! We have five days off before classes start on the second of September. Until then I shall go and enjoy my new home and family. Prost!