Sometimes the best times are the most unexpected.  After a normal day of classes and working out, I bumped into a friend on the elevator who invited me to join the tug of war team that was competing in the hall event.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into. 

            I missed the few weeks of practice that they went through (yes, tug of war practice that included a coach, an introductory video to the techniques, and a speech from the head of Hong Kong’s tug of war team), but I still was able to participate.  When I walked into the common area of our floor, people freaked out and asked if I was going to participate, since I was bigger than everybody except this huge Scottish guy, and I said of course I was!  They instantly gave me LiZhi apparel (the name of our hall, pronounced “Lee Jih”) and threw some war paint on my face, although I ended up looking more like a clown, but it was still cool nonetheless. 

            We went downstairs and into the back room filled with like-minded crazy people.  There was a live feed of the matches on big screen projectors, and everybody was going over strategy.  When it was our turn, we walked out to the cafeteria that was closed down for the event and all of the security guards were working the event and the hall directors were there screaming, cheering, and promoting the event.  There was an MC, official referee, and TV cameras. There had to be about 200 fans watching, and when we walked in the place went crazy, and we ran down the aisle giving high fives to them like celebrities.  The LiZhi fans were repeatedly screaming our chant, which is in Cantonese, and the opponents were screaming their chants, and everybody else was just screaming.  Right before the start it got silent, but then when we started it went crazy again, and it was so so so tiring.  After we were done (and won our first match) we cheered some more, but then I realized how exhausted I was and my legs were numb. 

            We ended up taking 4^th place, and everybody was super friendly and nice, which made the whole experience super cool.  We got Chinese desserts after (potato drink, green bean drink, and a rice drink), and just hung out for a while.

         

         For the second time in a week, I went to Tai Long Wan, this time with three friends.  We started at a different place this time, a dam along the ocean in a place called Long Ke.  What was cool about this dam was that in front of the dam were hundreds of I-shaped concrete structures, each about the size of a house.  We climbed on these a lot, which was a lot of fun since they were all angled and there were gaps in between as deep as 50 or so feet. There was also a cave behind the dam, which we went in, but it was filled with water so we could only walk a little bit on the walls of the cave.  

            This route was so much harder, going straight up, and then straight down.  It was tiring, but it had great views and hiking with the guys made it bearable.  We eventually got to Tai Long Wan, and I took them to the natural swimming pool that I found last week, and we went swimming.  At first they were hesitant because it was very cold, but eventually we got to jump off the rocks into the water, which was a blast.  We were about to leave when a Scottish guy came and we talked ourselves into jumping off the highest rock, over 20 feet high.  We jumped a few times, and I now have bruises on my arms from hitting the water so hard, but it was definitely worth it.

            We finally walked back to Pak Tam Au and barely made it before complete darkness, and I was as tired as all could be, walking for over eight hours. 

Yesterday I went to a BBQ with a local and his friends near Lai King to celebrate a couple of their birthdays.  They made the fatal flaw of eating the cake before the meal, but I wasn’t going to say anything.  I don’t usually eat cake, but they had a mango cake with fruit on top, so I gave it a try, and it wasn’t bad! We had some vegetables, tea, chicken, and Chinese sausage (whatever that is).  I’ve noticed that here in Hong Kong, bare hands are not used to eat whatsoever, because if you do, you’ll probably get a weird look (I have learned from experience).

My friend also brought his 2 year-old cousin, and we played with him for a long time.  He was super energetic and I learned some Cantonese in order to play some sort of cops and robbers, and he would tell us all to freeze and give us instructions (all in Cantonese).

We also played some Chinese form of hacky-sac, except they played with some dart shaped thing, and it was hard, but I eventually got the hang of it.

At night I met with the “Let us talk” group again (the language learning group), this time playing cards. First I taught them Skipbo, which they liked a lot, then we played a Chinese card game (I forgot what it was called) that was very fun and I learned a lot of words related to card playing.  In China they don't usually play cards just for fun, but instead they always have money or some sort of punishment on the line, so we played that the loser had to pay the penalty by doing something silly. One of my punishments was to sing the American national anthem while standing on a table, but I turned my punishment into a punishment for them, though, as I embarrassed them be standing on the table and singing in a crazy voice.  I also have picked up on what it means by “face” being very important to the Chinese.  No matter who it is, I haven’t met a graceful loser in the slightest, and they get very angry if you mention it at all. They either ignore you or try to justify it in order to make themselves not look bad.  I know people everywhere can be sore losers, but this is a different type of losing, which isn’t necessarily bad, just interesting.

Starting at the dam in Long Ke

                                                             

Back to the waterfall of Tai Long Wan

                                                             

      

                                                              Cliff jumping!!!

            

Cave exploring!

                                                               Playing hacky-sack

                                              The little 2 year old cousin!

                       Our team lined up to go (I'm second in line, behind the guy in the blue shirt)

                                     Got my war paint on! (although I look more like a clown)

                               Live feed displaying the event (that's the referee there on the stage)

      Of all the hiking I've done so far, Sunday had to be the coolest trip so far.  I took a long bus ride to an area called Pak Tam Au, then I hiked a strenuous path for about 2 hours through vast mountains with spectacular views (and cows that were blocking the path!) until I got to Ham Tin, a village where the beach was., and Tai Long Wan, which I heard may be the most isolated area in Hong Kong. The beach was huge, and mountains surrounded it with no modern buildings anywhere in sight.  There were huge rocks on the north side of the beach, so I climbed them but they turned out to be more like stalagmites than rocks due to the beating they have taken from the typhoons over the years.  The rocks led up to the water, so I got to see huge ocean waves crash upon the rocks, which looked awesome.  Then I walked another half mile to another beach, but instead of going to the beach, I used the advice of a book my mom got for me and I followed a somewhat hidden path that led to an absolutely gorgeous waterfall, natural swimming pool, cool rock formations, and a river that led to the ocean.  The water turned out to be swimmable, but I didn’t bring a suit because I just wanted to explore.  Not only was it swimmable, but apparently it is so deep that people jump off of the surrounding cliffs ranging from 5 to about 30 feet high into the water!  I climbed to the top of the waterfall and read a book for a while, which was spectacularly relaxing with the perfect temperature, water crashing below me, and a true sight to behold.  Then I walked back to the beach, and then hiked to a road about two miles away (seeing some even more spectacular views), and I caught a minibus back to town. As I have said before, minibus drivers are crazy, and this guy apparently has driven this route one too many times, because he was too comfortable driving full speed along a cliff for my likings, but we made it back safe, so that’s all that matters.

       As I said in my last post, these last two weeks have been chaotic because the middle of the semester is when they load up all of the coursework, tests, and presentations. Thankfully, I am all done with that (except for two papers in finance and operations management, which is more like something fun I would love to do in my free time as opposed to homework) until finals, which the schedule just opened up for.  My last final is on April 30th, and I leave Hong Kong on May 28th, so I have almost a full month to travel around Southeast Asia! I haven't made any plans yet because I did not know how many days I would have to travel, but I am going to hopefully decide soon on where I will go! If anybody has suggestions, I am all ears!

                                             Halfway through the hiking trail to Tai Long Wan

                                                We seem to have a roadblock on the path...

                                                   The beach was enormous!

The "stalagmite" rocks by the water (this is actually common in Hong Kong due to the heavy rain they receive during the typhoon season)

                                                The back of the beach...

                                                      ...and the front of the beach

                                                 Birds-eye view of the beach

                                                          On to the next beach!

                           Natural swimming pools and waterfall in the mountains that leads to the sea

                                                      View of the river leading to the sea

                                                 I guess I had to be in at least one of the pictures...

                                        Just your average place to sit down and read a book

On the way out of Tai Long Wan

 My marketing team after our big presentation-they were lots of fun to work with! Also I had to borrow the suit from a friend, so I realize its not the best look

We are oh so cool...

      I have hit about the midpoint in the semester, and at PolyU that means midterms.  Since they do not have regular exams throughout the semester, they pile all of the exams and projects for around this midpoint. Sadly, this means that these next few days/two weeks are finally not as adventerous for me.
      The midterms here, unlike in America, are held on the weekends.  I had one midterm on Saturday night at 7pm (not my ideal way to spend a weekend, and I'm hoping I did well), and thankfully I don't have anymore.  Instead, over the next week, I have to give a 10 minute presentation, a 20 minute presentation, write two papers, and thankfully have an in class midterm. Other students are not as lucky, however, because they do not have the luxury of taking fewer classes due to being an exchange student.  From an unofficial poll I took from talking to the locals, the average course load is about 7 or 8 classes, or about 21-24 credits.  My local friend told me that Hong Kongers are very hard workers, and I can clearly see that its true.  So for all the college students out there, myself included, consider ourselves lucky that we are only supposed to take up to 18 credits as a maximum.
       Although not as eventful as the past two months, there are still some fun things that I am looking forward to during this hectic period.  I was able to go to the peak (the tall mountain that overlooks the city) again yesterday to walk around and I plan on going hiking during the next two weekends to find some great views and some great beaches.  At the Peak, there is a 2 mile trail that goes around the mountain, which is not very special except for the fact that it is called a "Life Trail."  This means that along the 2 mile trail, there are exercise stations set up for runners, including a sit up station, a pull up bar, arm workouts, calf raises, etc.  I was not dressed for the occasion, otherwise I definitely would have tried it out!  But I did finally go to a nearby outdoor basketball court (which I should have done on day 1) and I played some pickup games with the locals, which was a lot of fun and something I definitely want to do regularly.
       Additionally, I am thrilled to have joined a program here called "Let us talk" that brings people together that want to learn/practice new languages together.  I want to learn/practice more Mandarin Chinese, so I was paired up with 3 students from China that want to learn more English, with the intention that we help one another learn the others' language and culture. Ideally I will practice enough that I will be able to go to Mainland China at some point and put what I know to the test!
       Other than all of that, I would say that I am sufficiently settled in here and I almost know this city like the back of my hand! It's a beautiful city and I am thankful to have this opportunity to see not only a million skyscrapers, amazing mountains, the best skyline, a great view of the harbor, a new great culture, and much, much more.  I hope everybody stayed warm throughout the winter and hopefully it starts to get warmer now that its March, God bless!
   

                                                  The view from the path at the Peak

                         The clock tower (as seen in previous posts) decorated for the Chinese New Year

                               The local basketball courts that are only a 15 minute walk away