Getting Oriented

We recently had our Exchange Student Orientation and our Institute of Textiles and Clothing Orientation.  We met lots of exchange students at both, were toured around the facilities, and had lunch with some of our new classmates!  After the exchange orientation we had our first evening out to Lan Kwai Fong with some Danish and Norwegian students.  The bars (clubs) were very suave and the dancing was definitely extreme. We came home "early" at 2:30am and the rest of the crew got home around 6am. Crazy. The next day was the ITC orientation for exchange students.  The ITC program sounds amazing.  The design studios look like Project Runway status and they have similar weaving, knitting, and dyeing labs to COT except smaller. They showed us a video of the Institute on a floor to ceiling, 180 degree theater screen and then showed us to the rest of the facilities.  The other students we met in ITC are from Australia, Germany, Sweden, and the UK.

The Theater at ITC

After eating lunch with the design crew from RMIT in Australia we decided to continue exploring the city and walk down to the Harbour.  On the way we took a footbridge to a neat little row of shops including a delicious bakery that reminded me of Italy.  We split a sweet bun and continued weaving our way through the city in the general direction of the water, we thought.

Delicious Bakery

Eventually we got to the water and stumbled upon this neat little open park space directly on the water.  From here we used a footbridge to cross the large highway of traffic and strolled along the Harbour until we made our way up to the famous Star Ferry. Along the way we passed the Avenue of Stars and saw Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan's handprints.

Park on the edge of the harbour

On the way back we stopped at a chinese restaurant and I ordered cooked vegetables with nice noodles.  Nothing crazy, but delicious!

In front of Hong Kong Island

WAD on the Harbour

The rest of the day was pretty calm so we would be ready for the weekend.

Today, Saturday, we got lunch at the old canteen on campus, steamed rice with tomato and egg, and then went to meet the exchange group for a city tour.  We were luckily on a bus or else it would have been 5 hours walking in the rain.  Here are some facts our tour guide, Timothy, told us.  Hong Kong has a ratio of three guys to one girl.  The name of Hong Kong came from fragrant garden because there used to be many incense factories in HK.  Hong Kong only taxes three things, gasoline because they do not promote hurting the environment, and tobacco and alcohol because they are bad for your body.  First we drove to the Chi Lin Nunnery.  The overcast sky actually help set the mood at the nunnery with the cooler weather and the amazingly calm, monk singing type, music.  We could walk around the nunnery and see the different areas they had set up for prayer and reflection.  

Right inside the Nunnery

After this we drove in the rain to Stanley Market which is known by tourists as a great market to see, yet is not the best price or the most authentic.  The drive up was on a cliff overlooking the water, reminding me of the drive into Sorrento, and the view was amazing.  We were able to walk through the market, visit the Murray House, which is a colonial architecture style building with fancy modern restaurants inside, and even relax on the beach for a few minutes before heading back to the coach.  

Sneakily taking a picture

As we got off the bus, Debbie's buddy, Carmel, came up to us to ask if we wanted to go with her to eat dinner. Yes please! We went to the Metropolis Mall, that we have walked by everyday in the tunnel and had no idea that it was three stories of indoor restaurants and shops, and went to a fusion restaurant as she called it.  Debbie and I split fried japanese style dumplings, fried rice with seafood and pineapple, and I got a kiwi, apple, pear, and ginger fruit juice.  It was really interesting talking to Carmel and asking her more about learning English and getting her to help us with Cantonese phrases.  We are now attempting to get up the energy for an evening out!

Thought this was an interesting concept

On the rocks at Stanley Beach