This past week has been a little overcast and cold (for Hong Kong standards, sorry Wisconsinites), which was a damper to my plans.  This weekend looks great for weather, so I plan on doing a lot this weekend!  The bad weather wasn't all too bad, because it gave me more time to go with my roommate (who is from Hong Kong) to some local restaurants and try some weird foods (although some of them I should not have!).  To sum up some of the stuff I've tried (I've tried to stay away from the extra gross stuff),  I've tried: cow organs, snow fungus, shark fin and scallop soup,  raw snail, seaweed soup, squid, squid tentacles (with the suction cups and skin still on them), fish balls, and a few thing I'm still unsure of what they are.
          Also with the weather, my friend and I were able to book a vacation for 8 days during the Chinese New Year to go to Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines, with enough time to come back to Hong Kong and experience the New Year!
           I finally got a haircut since I haven't had one in about two months.  Apparently all a Hong Kong hair stylist needs for directions is "shorter" to go ahead and start chopping away.  It turned out well though, so I'm thankful.
          I was also able to go to the horse races last week (which are held every Wednesday, and they are free to students).  Obviously we don't have horse races in Wisconsin, but it is very popular here so I wanted to give it a shot.  It was a weird atmosphere in the racetrack.  The common area was filled with a lot of tourists just looking around for fun, but there were locals in the betting areas that were taking it very seriously.  We didn't gamble, but we made our own picks just for fun, thanks to a little booklet that gave every detail about each horse.  We could get right next to the track and we could’ve touched a horse if it would’ve ran close enough.   Knowing that we get in for free, it was a lot of fun and I will definitely go again!
           I should probably give an update on my schooling since that's pretty important.  Although the people here take schooling very seriously, they don't seem to have the same attitude towards volunteering in class. If I haven't set every record for volunteering that there is, I don't know what more I can do.  This has also helped me get pretty close to my professors who also seem to appreciate having an American in their class, as they always ask me what its like in America (which is really fun, since they are also teaching me about Asian culture).  We get a week off for the Chinese New Year, but then after that I have plenty of projects and midterms, so it is going to be a busy next few weeks!
           Lastly, I've been able to settle in a lot more and I've been doing things other than the touristy stuff, such as exercising, playing piano, playing ping pong, reading the Chinese newspaper (in english thankfully, but it's still interesting to see all the events that happen in Asia), getting to know more locals and more exchange students, just to name a few.  I've also been able to watch the Badger basketball games online, which is fun, but considering the time difference, they are on at really bad times for me (usually between 1-8am).