diva status

Let me start off the post with pictures from the laser show last night.  Anyone who reads this blog needs to watch this show!

Carrie, Erin, Faith, Ashley and myself

the camera kinda focused on the background...

Bruce Lee's star!

We are finally settled in!  No more moving!  Oh today was long...and really funny.

We were told to meet our group down in the lobby of the YMCA at 10:45 this morning to head to our dorms for the remainder of our stay in Hong Kong.  We ate breakfast with the rest of the group.

Erin, Chris, Jeff, and I at breakfast

Erin and I both have 3 rolling suitcases...it is extremely difficult to navigate them, neither of us thought this through while packing.  So we called down to the front desk to have a bellhop help us take the six suitcases to our bus for us.  We were not prepared for the eye rolling and confused looks from the members of our group.  I had assumed that everyone else had a lot of luggage and might need some assistance taking it to the bus as well, boy was I wrong.  Most of the other UT students had one suitcase and maybe a backpack.  Our bellhops got our luggage on the bus and we hopped on the bus (I was a little bit embarrassed).  We arrived at the Chinese University of Hong Kong a little before noon.  Our bus stopped at the bottom of a hill and we were told to take our luggage to the top where our dorms were located.  How on earth am I supposed to lug three rolling suitcases weighing a good 40 pounds a piece up a 200 yard hill?!  Erin and I were both concerned about this.  We obviously took the longest to get up the hill and were exhausted upon arrival.  We received our room keys and proceeded to the third floor, another difficult feat with all the luggage.

that's a lot of suitcases

Faith is so excited to hear about lugging everything up three flights of stairs

Now it was time for lunch.  The cafeterias on the campus are called canteens...not sure about that one, must be a strange Chinese translation.  The closest spot to our dorms was another dim sum style restaurant.  Our dorm TA took charge of ordering.  When the food started to arrive I was questioning whether or not it was a good idea to let her chose.

sweet and sour chicken foot, you don't actually eat it...you suck on it

cashew and curry noodles...i stayed away

a view of a little bit of everything

After lunch the only advertising professor at the Chinese campus, Dr. Lee, along with the dorm TAs led us around to the different buildings.  We got to see many of the dorms, libraries, and canteens around campus.

broadcasting room

infinity fountain overlooking the harbor

Dr. Lee told us this clock is a popular meeting spot for couples because it's design means a long lasting and strong relationship

the highest point at CUHK

statue of Confucius 

our classroom starting tomorrow!

Finally when all of the touring was over our group went together to the IKEA to buy bedding.  This IKEA was on the 5th and 6th floor of a large home decor shopping center.

The mattresses in our dorm rooms are very thin mats so Erin, Faith and I decided to buy cheap mattress pads to soften up our sleeping area.  We assumed other kids in the group would do the same thing.  Wrong again.  Everyone made fun of us for our huge bundled up mattresses.  Let's see who's laughing tomorrow when we got a good night's sleep on our awesome mattress pads...

divas at checkout...the rest of the group is waiting behind me for us to check out

see what i mean?

before...

the final product, luxurious right?

Ashley, Erin, Faith and I finished off the evening by catching the MTR to find dinner.  It was about 9pm by this time so not much was open in the area.  We ended up at the bistro inside the Grand Central Plaza a.k.a. the IKEA cafeteria.  Surprisingly, the food was not that bad.  I think we were all getting sick of Asian food and needed a bit of a change.
Well, that's about all for tonight.  Erin and I are both updating our blogs and I'm about the hit the sack.  We did a lot of lugging luggage and walking today.  whew...