Bryan in Hong Kong

Happy thanksgiving everyone! Well no turkey here, just another standard day.

Thanksgiving dinner, HK style:

Still have a bit of free time left before I have to really get ready for finals. Had another basketball game last Saturday against the mechanical engineering grad students which was fun. Went salsa dancing Saturday night, and museums downtown on Sunday. Got dad’s ticket to Shanghai booked for January and am trying to finish the rest of my winter break plans. First week will be here in HK while some friends visit. The next week will be somewhere outside HK (beach in Thailand or city in Tokyo, what do you think?) and the final two weeks will be on the road (err… train) with dad on the mainland (thinking Shanghai, Xi’an, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hong Kong).

A few days ago I went downtown to find a new pair of shoes, which turned out to be more difficult than expected. Walking down the street in Hong Kong, you would think that selling shoes is second in popularity only to selling cell phones. Apparently my feet are too big though, as no one seemed to carry size 12 or 13. There was even a really nice Rockport store in the mall, which I was sure would have something in my size, but didn’t carry anything over 11! I finally found a 12 at a sports store, so I now have some new kicks for Sunday’s b-ball gave against the electrical engineerings.

After we heard the news that the historic Star Ferry was moving to a new pier, and that last night was the final run of the current route, we decided to head downtown to be a part of history. Of course, everyone else had the same idea, and it was packed with people. After taking the ferry to Central from Tsim Sha Tsui (the Central pier is the one scheduled to relocated), we found giant crowds of protesters and banners objecting to the move.

Later though, we found a map that showed the location of the new pier, which is just a very short walk from the original (in fact, despite riding the ferry twice before, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed the new move, though I guess there’s also a historic clock-tower that’s being lost in the switch). Anyways, it was fun to see the commotion.

Also, I cooked my first meal in Hong Kong (perhaps first meal anywhere? haha, no) which consisted of tacos at a friend’s apartment. I couldn’t find flour tortillas at the grocery so used pita bread instead which worked out well. Combined with the ground beef, tomatoes, lettuce, grilled peppers, Japanese shredded cheese, and authentic Old El Paso refried beans, it was quite a tasty meal. Pictures later…

The MSc econ students had a basketball game today against the MSc IT students. Referees and everything. A lot of fun, and we even won by three points. Apparently some of the other master’s programs have teams too, so this could become a semi-regular event :)

Just finished my last midterm exam yesterday, which means exams are over until finals start next month (though still have a big project due soon).

Also, some new photos up.