A new day... here at least

My first full day in Hong Kong was full of excitement and a bit of tiredness. Kristen and I were a bit bored by ourselves so we went out on the town to check out what was around. We crossed the train tracks and ended up on a strip of stores. We looked around and got a feel for everything. There were American convenience stores, like 7-11 and Circle K, as well as a couple bakeries and several, several noodle shops and tiny Hong Kong style diners. We also ended up in a shopping center of some kind, where we wandered around looking at what kind of stores they had. A lot of clothing stores, for the most part.

It's amazing to see how much stuff these stores can cram into their tiny spaces. The stores are less than half the size of mall stores in America, and they just put stuff on the floor all the way up to the ceiling, with very little room to walk.

We got back to the room and chilled until Rachel, Roper, and Adam came back, and then Rachel and Roper treated us to lunch at a nearby Japanese restaurant. I had fried chicken and ramen, and it was so much better than the ramen you can get in the states. Not surprisingly! Roper showed us the grocery store, where Adam, Kristen and I stocked up liberally on juice and American cereal. They do have several American brands here, but I've noticed that a small box of cereal can be quite pricey. My somewhat small box of Rice Krispies was around $35HKD, which is $4.50USD.

Rachel showed me where to drop off laundry. It's right under the shopping center that we got groceries and lunch at, and the best part is it's a genuine Asian market, right down to the fish stalls and fruit everywhere. I wish I would have had my camera, but I'm a bit shy of taking pictures of people in a neighborhood that obviously never sees tourists. We've gotten a few stares, especially Tayten, Rachel and Roper's little girl. She has beautiful blonde curly hair and it's not common here at all.

After a bit of downtime, Rachel showed us the beach, which was small, and nothing compared to the pacific or gulf beaches (before the oil spill :-( ) in the States. But it'll be fun to go out and look for shells and try the water. I'm not a swimming person, but it looks fun. We grabbed lunch in one of the dinky restaurants. We chose one that had clear pictures, and managed to communicate with hand signs and the couple words the lady knew. I decided to be very brave and order something without knowing what was in it. I'm a very cautious eater. Some things I won't consider (mushrooms, tuna that I haven't opened myself, pork), but I figured that if I'm in Hong Kong, and in an area that isn't as Americanized as Hong Kong Island, I have at least stick my neck out a little!

The low mein wasn't very good, but I ended up getting fried fish! It's NOTHING like Long John Silver's back home. This tastes like fish. And I actually managed to like it! I don't know if I'd order it again for the noodles, but at least I know one thing that I like here.

Rebecca, Laura, and Luke got in later that night and I didn't get much of a chance to talk as they were as tired as I was when I got in. Like back home, I didn't get really tired until after Midnight (and didn't go to sleep til after 1:30). I woke up a bit earlier than I usually do at home (My body wakes me up around 8 when I'm at home), since I got up at 6. But it's very peaceful this morning, with the birds singing. The other girls are all up, and we're typing away on our computers. Not a lot of people are online, as I'm wondering if some are off at dinner or are busy with jobs or something. It's hard, getting ahold of family and friends when my time is so opposite theirs. But email is amazing, and I've caught several people on AIM and Facebook chat.

Now, time for the pictures!

That's a working electric train in a sandcastle. The boy who did this was taking up close pictures of the train as it came around. It was so cute. It was also very, very neat. I don't know of anyone who's done this in the states, other than adults and for competitions. Just some fourteen or so year old kid having fun on the beach in the evening.

My dinner. With grapefruit juice. It cost $26HKD, which is about $3.34USD. Too bad the noodles weren't good, though the soup made them taste a bit better. Needless to say, I didn't eat all of it.