Hi All!

So I’m finally in Hong Kong. I’m on a fifteen minute timer at an Internet cafe so I’ll be brief. We arrived last night around 10pm, after the longest flight of my life! A 5 hour flight from Miami to Los Angeles followed by a 13 hour flight to Hong Kong. But they did have instant coup noodles and Haagen Daz ice cream!

We are staying at the Marco Polo Hotel at Kowloon, next to the New Territory. Last night we went for a late night dinner at a place right across the street. After massive bowls of wanton soup we were served what is considered a delicacy here in Hong Kong – shark fin soup. Each small portion was 98 Hong Kong dollars (the rate is 7.8 HK to the dollar). The broth was very salty, but in a good way. The shark fin had been bleached and left to dry before being cooked in the broth. Thus it looked kind of like angel hair pasta.

Today we had Dim Sum with a bunch of my grandma’s old friends for 4 hours!! And of course I sat next to an Asian man who kept feeding and feeding me. I tried some geese, which kind of tastes like duck only its twice as expensive. My mission to learn Chinese is proving harder than I expected. First of all, there is Mandarin and Cantonese and individual dialects. Cantonese can be spoken in Hong Kong but not in most mainland China. Most of our friends speak Cantonese, which is spoken mainly by the older generation and in Canton. I have decided to learn at least 5 words a day. So far I know how to say hello and thank you, but in two different languages! Ni Hao is hello in Madarin. To che is thank you in Cantonese. My fifteen minutes is up, but once I find an Internet cafe next to my hotel I’ll be sure to post some pictures up!

Below: The Hong Kong skyline from the Avenue of the Stars.

Below: The commercial Nathan Road on Kowloon Island.