Hong Kong went by fast and I'm back at sea...

Hi all!
Wow what a busy few days it’s been! First I should mention that we had a pretty sad thing happen Friday morning. One of the students on my ship was hit by a car in Hong Kong and he was killed. His name was Kurt. I didn’t know him well, but I’d seen him around the ship and I hear from everyone who knew him well that he was a really great guy. It was tough to hear about that this morning, they woke us all up with an announcement that we had an emergency meeting we had to go to, so we all went and our executive dean Jack told us all what happened. Sigh. Very sad.

But aside from the tough time this morning hearing about that, I had a great time in Hong Kong. I posted some pictures on flickr of my 2 days there! We got to Hong Kong on Thursday morning, it took a while for the ship to be cleared for us to have permission to get off, but once we did we got to explore the very large city with it’s huge buildings and all! I got to go up to the 55th floor of the tallest building in Hong Kong! The building is actually 88 floors high but we were only allowed up to 55. Even that was higher up in a building than I’ve ever been! Haha. Coming from Boulder where there are rules about how tall buildings can be so that we can still see the mountains from anywhere in the city! So that was really cool to see the whole city from that high up. I also got to just do some walking around the city seeing what there is to see. And on Thursday night a group of friends and I took a double decker bus around the city and then the bus took us up to the top of Victoria’s Peak, above the city! It was so cool to do that at night time, we could see all the city lights and on top of the peak there were a bunch of shops and restaurants and stuff so we hung out there for a couple hours. In fact, one of the coolest parts was that there was a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company restaurant with Forrest Gump’s bench outside it! Hehe. That made my day, because if you didn’t already know, Forrest Gump is my favorite movie! I got to go to a Bubba Gump’s in New York last winter also, so now I can say I’ve been to one in New York and Hong Kong! Pretty cool :-) So I bought a couple little Bubba Gump souveniers and got some great pictures of me and my friends on the bench. Then we took a little bus back down the mountain.

Friday I woke up early and went on an SAS trip for a breakfast of dim sum, a tai chi lesson, and tea sampling! All very Chinese and very fun. We went to a restaurant for dim sum first which was awesome, then we went to the Hong Kong art museum where we got to learn tai chi and watch a demonstration outside on a balcony and that was really fun, I really enjoyed tai chi. It’s very relaxing but also definitely a workout. I felt great afterward. I can definitely see how it can help you feel ‘centered’ and calm and just happier in general, espeically if you do it daily. And something that always makes me happy is tea! We got to visit a tea house where this guy taught us all about making tea and showed us how and we got to sample lots of different kinds. He also emphasized the quality of making you happy and healthy that tea has. I totally agree with him. And the tea was really good! Then the rest of Friday I spent getting things done around the ship. I used the free wifi in the mall near the ship which was nice. I got to talk to some friends at home online for a little while and then I came back to the ship and hung out until it was time to go.

While we are in China we are doing Hong Kong and Shanghai, and the two days at sea between the two ports (where I am right now…currently experiencing some very rough water!) we don’t have classes, so people had the option of flying to Beijing from Hong Kong to see the Great Wall, and then flying from Beijing to meet the ship in Shanghai. Most of the people on the ship ended up doing this, so there are only about 100 of us left on the ship right now! It’s so weird having that few people on board while we’re at sea. There are usually about 700 of us not including the crew! I would have loved to see Beijing and the Great Wall but just couldn’t afford the plane tickets and everything. Plus I get 2 days at sea with no classes and no obligations other than the homework looming over my head. But it’s nice to cath up on sleep, watch movies, hang out, and maybe catch up on homework too. A few of my friends are still on the ship too so it’s nice. I’m not bored! Another benefit of staying on the ship instead of going to Beijing is that when there are this few of us we get a FANCY sit-down dinner! It’s like fancy restaurant-style. Normally on the ship when there are 700 of us to feed, they make it buffet style and while the food isn’t gross, it isn’t exactly amazing either. It’s usually about the same every day. But tonight we had our first fancy dinner and the ship’s chef proved that he really can make some amazing food! It was a 5 course meal and it was all delicious. After dinner the chef came out and everyone applauded! Great fun :-) I’m excited for our second fancy dinner tomorrow night! My friends on the Beijing trip are missing out. Haha.

So we arrive in Shanghai Monday morning and we’ll spend 2 days there. Tonight the sea got pretty rough and currently the ship is rocking a lot! It’s pretty crazy. But hopefully it will calm down a bit by tomorrow or at least by the time we get to Shanghai. The weather is changing also from the hot, humid weather we’ve been having since India. I’m glad to have some cooler weather because I’m really getting tired of being all hot and sticky all the time! I’ll be glad to have some cold weather when I get home I think. Japan is supposed to be pretty cold too so I’m looking forward to that.

Well that’s all for this blog entry. I hope all’s well with everyone!

Peace and love