Chinese Palm Readers and Crossing the Chinese Border

My week was pretty uneventful until Friday. Friday night I went to Temple street with some of the girls from Augustana and some French girls we met at Lingnan. While there, I bought an authentic Chinese fan (started at $40 and got it down to $20HKD). Then, Sunny, Laura, and I decided to have our palms read. My future looks pretty good according to the the Old Man. I will be married by 23, I guess I better start looking. My husband will love me forever, and we will have possibly two kids. He said don't bet on having any girls. He also said the lines on my hands are very straight forward, which means I am a person with a plan and I always carry it out (sounds about right to me!). Because of this, he said I will be very successful by age 30 and own at least 2 houses, possible 3. He also said I will live abroad with my husband and start a company. He said my hands show I am a sensitive and sincere person! I'm not sure how much of this to believe, I guess we will have to wait and see how much of this is really happens!! On Saturday, Sunny, Laura, and I decided to cross the Chinese border! We did it pretty successfully, but once in China we learned quickly that NO ONE speaks English. So we had to use some of Mandarin skills to get us to the Shenzhen zoo! Once we got to the zoo, we realized everything seemed a little shady, but we decided to keep going. All three of us got to feed tigers. These random men just gave us sticks with meat on them and we held it up to the cages (I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be able to do this in the US, especially unsupervised!) Not only did I get to feed a tiger, but I also got to hold a baby tiger (see Pics below)!! It was so cool, except when it came out growling! At that point I told the guy I didn't think I could do it anymore (it just seemed so angry, but I did it!) I guess I can check off holding a tiger on my list of things to do before I die! ha. The Shenzhen Zoo was very open, the monkeys just roamed around, and many of the animal areas did not have bars or anything! Thank goodness the tiger area did! The zoo was definitely a different experience compared to going to a zoo in the US. There was little supervision even around the dangerous animals! I also experienced my first Chinese bathroom. Lets just say it's basically a hole in the ground (literally). I guess I'm going to have to get used to that since I'll be leaving for Beijing on Thursday and will be in China for 11 days! So, I definitely had a lot of new experiences this weekend....palm reading, feeding a tiger, holding a baby tiger, and using the "Chinese" bathroom. This will be a weekend I will never forget!


Sunny getting her palm read



Me, very interested in what the Old Man has to say



getting my palm read

Welcome to CHINA!

all the major roads in Shenzhen were lined with the Chinese flag

a Swan at Shenzhen Zoo

a roaming monkey

I just liked the colors of this one

Beautiful!

Camel!

Ostrich

Rhino

I found a good place for Grandpa to fish...sorry I wouldn't get any closer because of my fear of fish!

Elephant

Laura feeding the tiger

Me feeding the tiger...I tried to look happy! haha

A very angry tiger...the "zoo keeper" kept taunting him

Hello....

Lions

Me holding the baby tiger! He was not very happy at the moment. And notice I was not in a caged area...they just brought it out into the pedestrian area. At lunch we kept wondering what would have happened if I dropped it??? I guess we will never know.

Another one of the little guy and me....he was pretty heavy!

Mr. Bear

aww so cute!

Mr. Bear getting some food! (we are pretty sure they starve some of the animals so that they will get a better reaction out of them when it's feeding time. The tigers were definitely excited to say the least)

Panther

Leopards

They love each other. The Chinese call these little guys the "Lesser Pandas"

Mamma and her baby...(if you look closely the baby is wrapped in the moms legs reaching up for her)

Buddies!

Another Momma and Baby....

Toucan?

This guy was not very happy

Pretty birds!

look at the colors!! Beautiful.

I can't believe I've been in Hong Kong for 1 month!

Well as my title states...can you believe I've been in Hong Kong for 1 month, I sure can't! My first week in HK, I kept thinking, "how am I going to do this for 4 1/2 months?" Now, all I can say is "How am I going to do everything I want in 4 1/2 months!" Everything I have experienced here has been a true blessing. There are so many stories that I hope I will be able to share with you all one day! Posted below are some pictures of my "cozy" dorm room.

view from my dorm window

another view from dorm window

One last view from dorm window

my cozy dorm room

my bed

my desk

My bed is about an inch and half thick and very hard. The "mattress" lays on top of a wood panel. I don't know if I'll every be able to appreciate this!

Just to give you an idea of how thick it really is.....

The Modern Toilet, Wet Market, and More!

This week has been a pretty exciting week for me! To start, me and three other people booked tickets to go to Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai...and we leave in two weeks! Now, I'm sure you are thinking "what is she going to do about school?" Well, I will be missing a week of classes, but I have talked to my professors and plan on doing the work/readings ahead of time to stay on track! I figured this is a once in a lifetime chance and I should travel to mainland china when given the opportunity (so in two weeks, look for an awesome post about my trip!!! If you can't tell I'm really excited!) Tuesday some of us went to Sha Tin, just looking for something to do and we stumbled upon the Monastery of 10,000 Buddhas. We had to hike up a pretty good sized mountain (about 30min hike) and the path up to the monastery was lined with life size Buddhas! Once we got to the top there were even more..literally 10,000!! I forgot my camera that day, but did get a few photos to post. Don't worry though, I plan on taking my parents there when they come to visit so I'll have more photos then! On Friday, we discovered a restaurant called the Modern Toilet and we decided to eat there! It was great...the atmosphere was something I had never seen before and the food was pretty good too! (pictures below) We also went to the movies on Friday, luckily it was in English! Saturday we ventured to Wan Chai, where we did some shopping ( I did manage to find a few good deals. I bought a purse and shoes!). We also went to the local "wet market," which is lined with hundreds of booths full of meat. yuck...but it's all part of the culture (sorry about all the pictures, but I feel it's an important aspect of the HK culture)! That same day we went to the Jade market where the three of us negotiated prices on jewelry (I got two jade rings that are real, and cheap!) That evening we met up with a girl we meant on Friday night. She took us to her dad's sushi restaurant where we ate in a VIP room with soundproof glass windows and the food was free! That was definitely a different experience, not sure how I feel about sushi just yet. All in all I have to say it was a pretty good week! Keep sending e-mails, I love hearing about what's going on at home!


Path up to the monastery, look at all those Buddhas!



at the top of the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery. View of the mountains and city in the background.



The Modern Toilet, yes those are urinals on the wall!



Of course we would sit on toilets when eating at the Modern Toilet!

Entrance

Toilet seats used as decoration.

sorry, but I just thought this was funny!

"Table and chairs."

my food came in a bathtub, while my drink in a urinal!

Our dessert...looks good?

the Wet Market..notice the guy doesn't have his one shoe on and is propping it up on the fish tank.

chopping up the meat.

fish stand

not sure what type of meat they serve at this stand. Maybe at the end of my stay in HK I'll dare to try some!

pig head and more...yuck!

fish anyone?

I believe this was duck...one can never be sure though.

Bamboo Scaffolding, there aren't even planks, the men just straddle two sides of the scaffolding and work...someone should call OSHA!

Jade Market

more stuff in the Jade Market

Jade Market