Las Vegas of China

It was so nice to have a little getaway with just us girls.  We ate great food and got to see some amazing history about the city.  Since Macau was under Portuguese influence for a long time, most of the city's architecture reminds me of what Spain or Portugal looks like.  The streets were decorated with mosaic tiles and the buildings were colorful.  The language barrier was much more difficult in Macau.  All of the street signs were in Portuguese and Chinese.  Hardly anyone there spoke English.  It was hard to get directions to places we wanted to go.  The hotel staff had to write down directions in Chinese for us to show cab drivers.

When we arrived in Macau on Friday evening, we snuck onto the Wynn hotel shuttle, we are such rebels.  The Wynn is located across the street from the Hotel Presidente where we were staying.  Check-in was relatively easy except for the difficulty understanding the people at the front desk.  I ran into a lot of problems trying to ask for a roll away bed to be added to our room.  I talked to four different people before they understood what I wanted.

the very crowded Friday afternoon MTR to the ferry station

Faith and Erin

at the terminal!

our ferry

airport in Macau: the runway goes out over the ocean!

our hotel

The room was much nicer than I was expecting!  The pictures on the Internet did not do the hotel justice.  We had plenty of room to move around and lots of mirrors so we were able to get ready at the same time.  The only problems we had with the room were some handprints on the windows and a false eyelast stuck to the sides of one of the mirrors in the bathroom.  Sick!  Our hotel was located right on what I would call the "strip" of Macau.  We were next to the Wynn and MGM Grand.  We weren't sure where to eat dinner so we decided to explore.  I had done a little research and knew our hotel was near an area called Senator Square so we headed in that direction.  After some trouble getting directions from the locals we finally found the place!  It was beautiful.  This is when I felt like we weren't in China anymore.  Everything was so European.  The mosaic tiles made shapes and animals all along the walkway.  In this square there is an old Catholic church called St. Dominic from the 16th century.  The church was hard to miss with it's yellow walls and bright green windows.  We stumbled upon a perfect little Portuguese restaurant for dinner.  It was hidden down one of the many narrow side streets we walked down.  We split a bottle of champagne and had Caesar salad.  Best meal of the trip so far!  I had been craving a salad.  After dinner we headed back to the hotel for the evening.  Traveling made us sleepy.

these did NOT taste like Cheetos

the lobby of our hotel

Saturday we all slept in late.  It was so nice to get a good night's sleep in.  I think we all needed it.  By the time we got ready it was time for lunch.  Erin had spotted a cute little French restaurant near the Senator Square and we decided that would be the spot for lunch.  My croissant was wonderful!  Everything on the menu sounded so good so it was difficult to decide what I wanted to eat.  After lunch we took off to see more of the sights we had researched in Macau.  Sadly, I didn't get many pictures before lunch because of the humidity.  My camera lens kept fogging up and I was unable to get any good pictures.

We visited St. Dominic again and took a look around the inside.

Continuing down the path of Senator Square was the ruins of St. Paul.  The church of St. Paul was the largest Christian church in Asia when it was built in the 1500s.  All that remains now is the entrance and cypher.  This is a very popular tourist attraction in Macau and was extremely crowded with tourists.

posing like an Asian in front of the ruins of St. Paul

isn't he cute?!

inside the cypher

Next to the St. Paul ruins is a very small Buddhist temple.  People were burning incense and worshiping there.  It was very interesting to see.  Erin bought some of the incense.  Hopefully she will be able to bring it back to America!

We found a little gelato place on the way back to the hotel.  I got a raspberry cheesecake cone.  It was delicious and just what I needed in the 98 degree weather!

Asian baby creepin' again

gelato!

We had seen plenty of the history and architecture in Macau so it was then time for shopping.  The Wynn and MGM Grand both had great shopping malls inside.  We also walked through the casinos because Faith and Erin had never been to one.  I played a slot machine so they could see how it worked. I lost all $20 Hong Kong dollars almost immediately.  The hotels were beautiful and very similar to the hotels in Las Vegas.

Erin researched some good places to eat in Macau and made us reservations on Saturday night at an Italian restaurant.  Pizzeria Toscana was located right next to another Buddhist temple we wanted to visit so it sounded perfect.  Hats off to Erin, the food was awesome!  We each took a bite of each others dishes and everything tasted great.

ravioli

We walked over to the A-Ma temple after our meal only to find that it was closed.  We were bummed but decided to visit on our way to the ferry terminal in the morning.

We walked through a couple of the other casinos and hotels around the area before calling it a night.  All of the walking around and shopping really made us tired!

brunch at the Wynn

magical tree that came out of the middle of a zodiac circle as we were walking by...random

A-Ma Temple in the day time!

The weekend retreat to Macau is just what I needed.  It was nice to get away from the campus and city for a couple of days.  The European layout of Macau made it even more special.  I think we all are so glad that we took the initiative to go.  Macau is my new favorite Asian city!

P.S. I just figured out that my pictures get bigger when you click on them!  You guys may already know that, just thought I'd share.

Macau for the weekend!

Erin, Faith, and I are headed to Macau for a weekend-long adventure.  Macau is the gambling capital of the world and puts Las Vegas to shame.  We are staying at the Hotel Presidente next to the Macau Wynn.  When I was looking up places for us to stay I found that many of the famous hotels in Las Vegas also have a location at Macau.  I am really excited about our trip.

I am going to try to teach Faith and Erin how to play blackjack so we can gamble a little bit while we are there.  I downloaded a Blackjack application on my phone so hopefully we will be ready to go once we arrive!

Right now we are waiting at the ferry terminal for our departure.  I will not post again until we get back from Macau!

diva pics...thanks Erin

laundry issues...

I'll start out today's post with Erin's dessert choice from dinner last night.  Of all the selections in the ice cream drawer, this is what she chose.  A "Lam Lam jelly stick".  How on earth that sounds appealing and delicious, no clue.  It was definitely strange...the inside of the popsicle was peach colored jelly...she threw it away.  I don't blame her.

Lam Lam jelly stick...Erin thought this sounded good?

It was much more humid here today than it has been.  When I took my camera out to take pictures the lens immediately fogged up.

view from my window this morning.

Class was fun today!  We were split up into groups and assigned a global brand to discuss.  I was in group "Coca Cola".  Each group had one of the native students in it.  It was interesting to hear their perspectives about each brand based on marketing efforts and popularity in the Asian market.
After class three of the Chinese students offered to show us where the supermarket was on campus so we could buy laundry detergent since it was laundry day.  The campus store had just about everything we could need during our short stay in Hong Kong.  The students offered to take us to one of the better canteens on campus for lunch.  I was so relieved to see hot dogs and cheeseburgers on the menu!  Thank goodness we made friends in our class that knew their way around.  Lunch was great.  We talked to them about American actors and singers they listen to.  They all love Lady Gaga and were extremely jealous when I told them I had been to one of her concerts.  She has never been to Hong Kong for a concert.  They also showed each of us how to write our names in Chinese.

rows and rows of cashews at the market

Chinese hotdog, Erin had already claimed the cucumbers

my name in Cantonese 

teaching the Chinese students how to hook 'em!

After lunch it was laundry time for the week.  Our laundry situation here is a bit strange.  We are only allowed to use the washers and dryers for three hours at a time twice a week.  This means that we have to combine and share washers with other group members.  Erin, Faith, and myself shared one washer and dryer.  The Chinese do not traditionally use dryers so we had to pay to use them.  They hang everything on hangers outside to air dry.  When we got our clothes back out of the dryer, everything was still soaking wet!  We took the t-shirts and other items out that could air dry and paid for a second round of dryer time...this was a little bit frustrating.  The laundry room was pretty cool though.  It's located on the roof of our dorm.  There is a beautiful view of part of the campus from there!

the laundry room

view from the roof of our dorm

everyone's clothing after round one of washers 

the dryer....

We are going out with some of the students from South Carolina tonight.  They offered to show us some really cool places around Hong Kong.

Mong Kok market...shop til the DiVaZ drop

Our first day of class was today!  We didn't start working on any of the coursework but we did get to meet the Chinese students in our class.  They seem really nice and one of the girls offered to show us around Hong Kong sometime.  Dr. Choi informed us that there is a Hong Kong holiday next Monday for the dragon boat races in the harbor so there would be no class.  The Chinese student sitting next to me seemed very excited about the races, we will definitely have to go check that out!  Our assignments for this class will be to explore and observe the differences between American and Chinese culture in both Hong Kong and Shanghai.  I'm really excited to get started!

Erin, Faith, and I booked our hotel and ferry to Macau this weekend.  This place is considered the gambling capital of the world but is also famous for great food and shopping.  The divas are taking a vacation!  I can't wait to post pictures from that trip, I'm sure it's going to be a blast!

Today after the very short class introduction the whole crew decided to head over to the Mong Kok market.  This is a very popular spot in Hong Kong to buy anything and everything you can possibly imagine.  From knock-off handbags and accessories to silk kimonos and electronics.  It was very hard for me to stop spending money there!  I got so many great things though, a lot for you people back on the other side of the world...get excited!

on board the MTR headed to Mong Kok

group at money exchange

example of a stall in the market, they have everything!

After we cleared out the stands on Mong Kok a small group of us went to the New Town Plaza mall.  This is a gigantic mall right next to the MTR station near campus.  Not going to lie, we got a little bit lost walking around.  The mall was impressive though because the stores were so organized.  All of the children's clothing and toy stores were together, women's and mens wear were separate, there were sections for furniture and make up as well.  I didn't buy anything because I want to figure out how much I spent at the market before making any new purchases!  We did find a large supermarket inside the mall, now I won't go hungry because I can buy recognizable food at the grocery store.

inside a milk cow in the kids section of the mall

hey Brandi, wish you had these while you were still cheerleading?

Jeff got this fantastic shirt at Mong Kok

Erin certainly cleaned up...

all of my purchases!

Sorry for the lack of pictures or exciting news today...we were shopping up a storm!  We ate McDonald's for lunch (again) and are planning on eating at one of the canteens on campus tonight.  I must say, I could really go for some enchiladas and a margarita right now.  There is no Mexican food in Hong Kong.  Actually, I don't know that I would eat it if there was any.  Asian influence on Mexican food does not sound like an appealing combo.