A Life Less Ordinary

I think I have discovered the elixir of life: Schweppes Grapefruit pop, not soda to all your bastard children out there. After a long day out on another field trip with Harry Potter’s professor…I mean Prof. Hase it was refreshing to come back, put your feet open and crack open a Schweppes Grapefruit. Ahhh…being 21 is so useful here. We visited a ton of stuff today, virtually none of which was the least bit important nor interesting but included: a boring grey and white “Ancestral Hall” where this entire village came to devote burning sticks to their family. If they don’t, supposedly they’ll never marry or produce an heir and will die lonely and sad…which clearly means they’re family is watching out for them. Good God. We also visited a Buddhist temple, which was actually a big Buddha transported into an old house from the Maoist area that was deserted and surrounded by scary rabid dogs. Skip that one.

Oddly in three weeks we’re done with classes (which to me means its past Thanksgiving in a normal year, which means Christmas music is acceptable, but I’m holding out till at least the 1st), which here at SU abroad means kids are either A) freaking out that they chose to do the internships or B) are planning more and more elaborate trips in a strange game of “Who has the bigger penis?” I’m serious, I mean I went to Vienna which makes not very much sense, but kids here are constantly like “Hey I just got some rates for a hike up Everest, would you be interested?” Yeah, cause I’ve secretly been training to climb the world’s tallest mountain in the rugged foothills of Washington, DC. Hell no. Or my personal favorite, “I’ve always wanted to experience the herdsman lifestyle in Mongolia, doesn’t that sound like fun?” Maybe to someone without legs…who has ridden a horse for years at a time…who enjoys yak butter tea. I enjoy legs, cars, and 7-11′s on every corner, so I’ll skip that. We currently have people planning to go to Burma, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, Cambodia, Laos, China (again), Korea, Japan, Bangladesh, and Australia. Oh and Paris. As in France. Just for fun. I swear, sometimes I fear for my generation. In my own defense, at least I had a host and reason to go to Vienna.

Personally, I’m ecstatic that these worthless, utterly incomprehensible classes are almost over. I’ve come to enjoy two of my professors, Hase and Sophia, the former because of his accent and habit of calling one of my frequently tardy classmates “A child of unmarried parents” and the latter because she calls people “naughty boys,” gives us food and told me that me visiting Bekah in Vienna was “touchable.” My other two professors are less interesting, mostly because one thinks that being a “Certified Thinker” (I shit you not) is actually impressive and the other because he always has a stained polo on and spits in class. The jungles of Angkor and the bustle of Vietnam sound like heaven right now and I can’t wait to be done with some of this research and bogus paper writing so I can travel. Wasn’t study abroad supposed to be a joke?

Nathan Road, outside my dorm, at its best

st Thursday was China’s National Day, as I think I mentioned. We visited a lame carnival on Hong Kong Island, but I didn’t really know what anyone was expecting. All it was were some oddly decorated boards and things on some tennis courts, surrounded by literally a million and a half Filipino maids on their day off. After escaping the crush of cleaning ladies, we headed towards TST (Tsim Sha Tsui) to try and grab dinner before heading to the waterfront for fireworks. After some delicious California Pizza Kitchen (Which had the best CPK view of the entire company) Sarah Wendell, Kim and Rachel and I got separated from the group and watched from near the Kowloon Clock Tower. The fireworks were spectacular, the best and longest show I’ve ever seen.

Friday morning, Mo, Alice, Rachel and I woke up early and headed to one of the ferry terminals to catch our TurboJet to Macau. Macau is an old Portuguese fishing colony, that was also home to a lot of the South Sea Pirates, but was handed back to China as a Special Administrative Region (Like HK) in 1999. It is famous for its European colonial heritage and as the Las Vegas of Asia. Though LV might start needing to call itself the Macau of N.America because last year Macau officially beat out LV on revenues. When we arrive, I must say Macau wasn’t like anything I’d imagined. It seemed like what Vegas might have been 60 or some odd years ago, with dilapidated apartment blocks and hundreds of scooters. Not the glitz and glamor of Vegas’s high rise condos.

We were staying overnight at the Pont 16 resort by Sofitel, and it was a great choice. It was like the Cheescake Factory design crew built this hotel, with all the grandeur of a Chateau designer on crack. We headed to the old historic sites of Macau, including the ruins of Sao Paulo’s Cathedral, which was burned in a fire years ago. Among the small winding, tiled streets in the old town were thousands of little shops selling all kinds of crafts and wares. We had lunch at one of the city’s famous Latin cafes and eventually made out way to Macau tower to watch some of my other program mates bungee jump off the tallest bungee in the world. That was thrilling! Kelly, our resident Brazilian convinced us all to take a trip to the island of Coloane to taste some authentic Portuguese food at Fernando’s. I tried Chili Verde soup and garlic grilled codfish, and it was all delicious. Definitely not sweet and sour pork.

We came back to our hotel and got ready to go out on the town, trying to walk the fine line between drinking and gambling while not losing too much of ourselves in either. Some people won big, others didn’t win or lose anything (myself included). We stumbled in and out of the Grand Lisboa, the Wynn Macau and the MGM Macau without a care in the world. And because we were American, we could go anywhere we wanted, it was both awesome and sort of disconcerting. The next day we spent recuperating by the pool and later meandering our way through the halls of the MGM playing a variety of games on the cheap.

It was great to come however, and see that another former Portuguese colony had finally gotten its chance in the spotlight: the 2016 Olympics were awarded to Rio de Janeiro. My heart went out to Chicago, but I mean I think that if a great Midwestern city is to host the Olympics, why not Minneapolis? I was glad the IOC finally got enough balls to bring the games somewhere new, I just hope Africa isn’t too far down the road. Minneapolis 2020 is all I’m saying!