Today was even better than yesterday, which started with orientation that was mostly filled with useless information, but I was able to meet more people from France, Australia, U.S.A., Nigeria, Netherlands, Hong Kong, and many more countries.  It is absolutely amazing to hear all these different accents, hear about other people’s cultures and hometowns, hear their experiences of traveling in the United States, and hear other places that they have traveled.  I have learned so much from just talking to these people for only a few hours. 
          I also learned a few interesting things today about Hong Kong.  I have seen over the last few days that some people wear masks over their faces, which puzzled me, but it turns out that they wear them because they are sick and do not want to spread their sickness. This is something I definitely wish some people in the Wisconsin would do.  Also, the elevators here are a little different.  For starters, my dorm has 3 elevators, but one goes only to the odd numbered floors, one goes to the even numbered floors, and one goes to all floors, so I can only take two of the three.  It seems like an efficient way to do things, especially with having 21 floors in the building.  Also, their 1^st floor isn’t exactly the first floor.  There are many different kinds of floors below the first floor, such as G, LG, UG, and Podium.  Why they can't just start with the 1st floor, I have no idea, but they do it.  

            After orientation was awesome.  I was finally able to experience the true Hong Kong by going into the city tonight and the streets were absolutely packed.  Traffic jams everywhere, the sidewalks filled with people, and so much activity. After orientation, me and some people walked through Kowloon, which was lit up like it was daytime due to all of the stores having their lights on. They all have neon lights extending out from the building, and there are 700 stores on one of the nearby roads, so you can imagine how bright it is. Also, some of the skyscrapers had designs on the side, such as one building that had christmas lights in the shape of a 500 foot tall Santa Claus.  Another skyscraper had a board on top of it with the current weather, the forecast.  Another building had windows that were actually video screens, and a 80 story building had birds flying on in with a moon and clouds.  I was stunned.

           After walking through town, we went to the Avenue of Stars to see the Symphony of Lights on Victoria Harbor.  It was absolutely phenomenal.  Almost every building for a mile stretch lights up in synch with music and shoots lots of green light beams into the sky for 15 minutes.  What made it even better is that the buildings were on the Hong Kong Island and we were in Kowloon, so we got to look across the water at the skyline in order to see the light show.  Even the sides of the skyscrapers had lights on them and had designs that went along with the music. It is nothing like anything else in the world, and hopefully one day I can post a video to show how cool it is!

          After that, we took the Star Ferry over from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island, which only cost about 40 U.S. cents each way for about a 5 minute ride, which is really cheap.  There it was just as spectacular.  In Central, which is a town on the Island, there are stores, bars and restaurants everywhere, and the bars are all open until 6 in the morning!  We only got to explore a little part of the island, but it apparently was the part we were in was where all of the Hong Kong celebrities and rich people go, which I have no idea who they are.  But I know that was the fancy area, because I saw Lamborghinis and BMW’s everywhere. Also, from one spot that I was standing, I could see two Armani stores, a Gucci store, a Luis Vuitton store, and many more super expensive brands.  We ate at a local restaurant on the island and I had a meal that was served with hot water, which is a common drink here because they have to boil their water to drink it, so they don’t bother cooling down the water to drink it.  

         We then walked back to the dorms taking a different route, and we saw some market shops in the alleys between the skyscrapers which sell really cheap knock off brands, such as fake Rolexes for 5 bucks!  I have so much planned for the upcoming days and weeks, its going to get so much better, if that is even possible!