
I had an amazing week. Everything is real strange right now and busy/nothing to do, etc. Saturday night was Andrew's birthday celebration. We went to Junco and had kind of an awkward time. Half the group went to hang out with IYC and some of us wandered around stoops in Sinchon. After coming home Sharon and I went crazy and dug through the mountain of trash in the lounge. It was such a treasure trove. People were throwing away boots, makeup, food keke, jeans, etc.
But the best find was a giant Chinese flag and Beijing 2008 flag. After grabbing all the useful crap we could find we tied the flags on us and ran over to the guys' side of the dorm, where we were forbidden to go for fear of getting kicked out of the dorm/Yonsei. But hey, it was the last night. It was actually pretty boring. We ran into Dan who showed us his trash find: a giant plastic horn. We found a dictionary in the refrigerator.
I tried to sleep but wasn't really able to. There were a bunch of European guys in our lounge watching some football/(soccer) game. As soon as the game was over the security ajashi came and kicked them out of there. We said sleepy goodbyes in the lounge and Amy, Rex, Jason, and I headed off to the airport. The weather was CRAP it was raining and gross.
We took Thai Airways, a first. It was fun, they serve so much alcohol and our plane was all shaking so we downed red wine to the point where my face was bright red, Rex's neck was red, and Jason just passed out. Upon our arrival in Hong Kong we were completely lost. None of us were responsible or planned any part of the trip; we were to meet Tiffany at our hostel.
Somehow we made it there. But the place was disgusting and shady and scary. There were actually cockroaches on the walls. We were too tired and disoriented to really do anything so we waited for Tiffany. As soon as she got to our room we all decided to get the hell out of there. We're all pampered kids who have never stayed in a hostel.
Our hotel was in Mong Kok, on the island of Kowloon. It was very fancy and since we all stayed in one room (not allowed) it wasn't too expensive. Tiffany and Rex checked in and asked for a really big bed and the hotel staff asked if it was some sort of anniversary or something.
Since Rex, Jason, and I are irresponsible and lost, we hadn't eaten since the plane. Tiffany took us to get real Hong Kong/Chinese food: noodles and soup and dumplings. We went for a swim on the roof of the hotel, very nice, and then got slightly dressed up to go up to Victoria's Peak and take pictures of the city. After we were sufficiently bitten by mosquitoes we headed over to Lan Kwai Fong aka LKF, the hippest part of the city, or where all the cool bars and stuff are. We had overpriced appetizers around 11pm as dinner and went back to sleep.
On our second day we went to Stanley Market to buy souvenir stuff. Then we went to the beach, except the sand was not too soft. We went to a grocery store and bought meat, chips, snacks, etc. and took a taxi to the next beach over to have a bbq dinner. Except none of us had never barbequed and we were all completely clueless as to how to light coal on fire. We were starving and some guy let us use his fire. Finally we got ours working after a couple hours and by the end we were exhausted. A group next to us was really nice; it was someone's birthday and they had all just graduated and they had us try some of their food and even spoke a little Korean to us.
The next day we woke up early and went for a morning swim. Tiffany and I fell asleep by the pool; it was so nice. We went out to Times Square for dim sum which was delicious. We just stopped into the Gucci store to peek around except Tiffany and I completely fell in love with this one bag. Except it was $700.
Jason went back to the hotel to chill and we went to Ocean Park. Everyone says Disneyland Hong Kong sucks so we shouldn't go there. Ocean Park had PANDAS. They were adorable. I was so excited I've always wanted to see live pandas. They ate and played and drank and slept it was amazing. We rode the cable car over the mountain to the other side of the park for the non-kiddie rides, except they kept stopping. We were getting worried because it was really windy and at one point really thought we would die. But the view of the mountain and bay was beautiful.
As we got toward the end we noticed people weren't coming back the other way. We got down and found out that the "Level 3 Typhoon Has Been Hoisted." So all the fun rides were shut down. We went to look at sharks, fish, turtles, octopi (??) and other sea life. By the time we were getting ready to leave it was pouring. We had to take a series of escalators down the mountain and then a shuttle bus to the main entrance. As consolation this woman gave us crappy pins and key chains and ponchos because we complained.
We met up with Jason and went to check out this store with designer bags. Tiffany and I ended up getting the bag we fell in love with (in different colors) and Rex got a Gucci messenger bag. We felt like such Gucci whores. I owe Rex a lot of money right now. We hurried up to Victoria's Peak to have dinner at Bubba Gump (authentic Hong Kong cuisine!) and everyone kept talking about the coming typhoon which would be at level 8. Level 10 is the worst and at level 8 employers can't force employees to work.
We got our food to go and hurried back to the hotel and ate there. It was pouring all night. We slept in the next morning because every time we looked out the window we could barely see. It was pouring and wind and well, TYPHOON.
It started to clear up and we went to the Hong Kong Museum of History because on Wednesdays the museums are free. We went back to shop at the mall attached to our hotel/chill in the sauna. We got slightly dressed up again and ate dinner and went back to Lan Kwai Fong for ladies' night at the clubs. We were told Beijing Club would be cool. A sign said strict dress code was enforced but I was wearing jeans. They didn't check our ids either and the minimum age was supposed to be 21.
While we were dancing around Tiffany freaked out a little and told us the old guy next to us was a really famous celebrity. We saw him a bunch of times, and there was another old guy celebrity with him. Tiffany took a picture with him and thought it was Jackie Chan but we were like, that is so not Jackie Chan.
This morning was gross and rainy again. We had a final lunch and Tiffany took us to the bus stop. We didn't really get a proper goodbye, but hurried onto the bus to the airport. We all split up outside the airport, taking buses to Gimpo, Sinchon, and me to Anyang. I was worried about being able to find a taxi but I was lucky and the guy even helped me get my giant heavy suitcase (29 kilos) into the car.
I don't know where my aunt and uncle went but my cousin is here watching tv in his pajamas. It feels good to be back here. I have a lot of unpacking/rearranging/laundry to do.