Orientation again! This time it wasn't SO bad because we had some performances towards the end. I finally found the group of Americans but I don't think I clicked with them so well so I ended up hanging out with one of the American's girl's roommate (Sarah) from Singapore. For part of the orientation, they brought us to lunch in Kowloon City and we had dim sums. We had a lot of trouble picking up the har gow. They all kept breaking! Even the Asians had trouble. It was kind of sad. Oh and we had some really bitter-ass tea in a tiny-ass cup. But anyways, this was the first time I met Jade, Jennifer, and Natasha. Little did I know at that point, we're becoming a group already! So like I did with my buddies, I'm going to write down my first impressions of them because I tend to forget how I met people or what I thought:
Sarah: When she introduced herself I thought of Ms. Noh over her with her blog on the second to last link on the top. Except this Sarah was tiny. She's my size. Although she's Singaporean, she goes to college in Taiwan so she speaks a lot of Mandarin and English. She reminds me of Chryselda because of the way she talks. They have very similar accents. Anyways, she's really nice and acts as my translator when everyone speaks in Mandarin too much.
Jade: Sat next to me and reminds me of Willa. Her role in the group is usually to find the best restaurants near us and what's popular using her app from China. (Ok, so that's not a first impression) The first few days, she didn't like to speak in English too much even though she'd try and we gave her some trouble because of it too. But it's all just fun and games and we (Sarah and I) were just teasing. She's improving a lot actually and in retrospect writing from Day 12, she's getting so much better! Sarah doesn't even have to translate anything anymore! Jade will do it herself.
Jennifer: reminds me of Johanna. They look similar and in some ways act very similar too. They have the same gentle but bubbly personality. It's adorable.
Natasha: is the only one that doesn't speak Mandarin. She's from the Philippines which is very interesting to me because a lot of people think I'm Filipino. (Aka the Filipinos that live in my building in New York.) Also my parents met in the Philippines and my mom spent a lot of time there. Apparently she thinks I look Filipino as well. She's one of those people with a happy personality and I like talking to her because finally, someone that I can just speak English to!
Anyways back to orientation: there were a few (a lot) more speakers and the Karate and Dance clubs had the best performances. The karate one was surprisingly funny, I'll give them that, and interesting too! The guys here are very good at presenting because they're very silly. This gives their presentations a comedic edge which makes it entertaining enough to sit through. Ok fine, they were actually fun to watch. The dance people also just looked really chic or whatever though. They did well but they scare me haha. So fierce. Finally, when everyone else was done with orientation, the Americans had to stay to because the American consulate wanted to say some things to us. Pretty much they said that if we get drunk and arrested at 3am on Saturday, we're waiting until Monday for them to bail us out. Ok, so that's not really how it went but they just went over a few issues that we had to keep in mind but I see no reason to over them here. I'm sure I'll be fine.
Afterwards Natasha, Sarah, Jade and I went to have dinner in Mongkok. Only problem was, we couldn't find the place with Jade's tablet so we ended up getting lost and had to ask a random old man where to have dinner. This is one of those "I'm not going to tell my mom" moments because we actually followed him to get to the restaurant. At least I made sure that the streets we walked down were all crowded and populated? I know, it was probably a bad idea but the old man actually was very nice, showing us out of the goodness of his heart, and told us which places were good along the way/famous for what foods. To walk off our dinner, we went to a ridiculous amount of shops and malls and my favorite moment was finding that there was a Sanrio exhibit/restaurant going on! Don't worry, I took pictures. I also really appreciated that everyone was so patient with me and my want to see/take pictures even though they weren't particularly interested.
Finally, we went to get dessert at a chain restaurant which is really popular in Taiwan. We got a whole bunch of mango desserts and shared it. They may have put something in the desserts though because afterwards, we were all acting a bit funny, especially Jade. We think she got drunk off of mangoes haha. In reality, it was probably just because we were tired or high off of sugar. Still not sure what happened. We even took pictures with a few European or American tourist guys who look to be around our age and a bit tipsy at that point in time too. It was a bit ridiculous but still, I felt the most comfortable hanging out with them since I got to Hong Kong.
*Also, Chinese lessons is in the title because Jade was teaching Natasha and me Mandarin on our way to Mongkok and throughout the night. Natasha is a really fast learner! I'm only ok because I've already heard of the phrases before.
Sarah: When she introduced herself I thought of Ms. Noh over her with her blog on the second to last link on the top. Except this Sarah was tiny. She's my size. Although she's Singaporean, she goes to college in Taiwan so she speaks a lot of Mandarin and English. She reminds me of Chryselda because of the way she talks. They have very similar accents. Anyways, she's really nice and acts as my translator when everyone speaks in Mandarin too much.
Jade: Sat next to me and reminds me of Willa. Her role in the group is usually to find the best restaurants near us and what's popular using her app from China. (Ok, so that's not a first impression) The first few days, she didn't like to speak in English too much even though she'd try and we gave her some trouble because of it too. But it's all just fun and games and we (Sarah and I) were just teasing. She's improving a lot actually and in retrospect writing from Day 12, she's getting so much better! Sarah doesn't even have to translate anything anymore! Jade will do it herself.
Jennifer: reminds me of Johanna. They look similar and in some ways act very similar too. They have the same gentle but bubbly personality. It's adorable.
Natasha: is the only one that doesn't speak Mandarin. She's from the Philippines which is very interesting to me because a lot of people think I'm Filipino. (Aka the Filipinos that live in my building in New York.) Also my parents met in the Philippines and my mom spent a lot of time there. Apparently she thinks I look Filipino as well. She's one of those people with a happy personality and I like talking to her because finally, someone that I can just speak English to!
Anyways back to orientation: there were a few (a lot) more speakers and the Karate and Dance clubs had the best performances. The karate one was surprisingly funny, I'll give them that, and interesting too! The guys here are very good at presenting because they're very silly. This gives their presentations a comedic edge which makes it entertaining enough to sit through. Ok fine, they were actually fun to watch. The dance people also just looked really chic or whatever though. They did well but they scare me haha. So fierce. Finally, when everyone else was done with orientation, the Americans had to stay to because the American consulate wanted to say some things to us. Pretty much they said that if we get drunk and arrested at 3am on Saturday, we're waiting until Monday for them to bail us out. Ok, so that's not really how it went but they just went over a few issues that we had to keep in mind but I see no reason to over them here. I'm sure I'll be fine.
Afterwards Natasha, Sarah, Jade and I went to have dinner in Mongkok. Only problem was, we couldn't find the place with Jade's tablet so we ended up getting lost and had to ask a random old man where to have dinner. This is one of those "I'm not going to tell my mom" moments because we actually followed him to get to the restaurant. At least I made sure that the streets we walked down were all crowded and populated? I know, it was probably a bad idea but the old man actually was very nice, showing us out of the goodness of his heart, and told us which places were good along the way/famous for what foods. To walk off our dinner, we went to a ridiculous amount of shops and malls and my favorite moment was finding that there was a Sanrio exhibit/restaurant going on! Don't worry, I took pictures. I also really appreciated that everyone was so patient with me and my want to see/take pictures even though they weren't particularly interested.
Finally, we went to get dessert at a chain restaurant which is really popular in Taiwan. We got a whole bunch of mango desserts and shared it. They may have put something in the desserts though because afterwards, we were all acting a bit funny, especially Jade. We think she got drunk off of mangoes haha. In reality, it was probably just because we were tired or high off of sugar. Still not sure what happened. We even took pictures with a few European or American tourist guys who look to be around our age and a bit tipsy at that point in time too. It was a bit ridiculous but still, I felt the most comfortable hanging out with them since I got to Hong Kong.
*Also, Chinese lessons is in the title because Jade was teaching Natasha and me Mandarin on our way to Mongkok and throughout the night. Natasha is a really fast learner! I'm only ok because I've already heard of the phrases before.