Reunions

It was a day filled with seeing some familiar faces again.

I started out the day by inviting Caroline and Jonathan to meet my friend, Eric. Eric attended UT last semester on exchange and was another buddy I showed around Austin.

From Left: Howard, Eric, and I at a UT Volleyball Game

I spent a lot more time with Eric during the fall (compared to Howard) simply because our schedules coordinated better. I also invited him over to my house for the Thanksgiving holiday, so he met my family. He really hit it off with my Asian grandfather! Haha :)

Unfortunately, Eric does not attend HKUST (like Howard). He attends another rival university in HK: the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). However, he is currently taking the semester off to intern!

I decided to meet up with him at Choi Hung Station, so Caroline, Jonathan, and I took the minibus from campus to the station and met up with him inside. It was great to see him again!

It's funny to think that he was in my hometown having me show him around, and now, the roles have switched completely!

After meeting Jonathan and Caroline, Eric took us around the APM Mall (open in the AM and PM, get it?) in Kwun Tong and then suggested we eat dim sum at a local restaurant he goes to with his friends.

It was OUTSTANDING... A++.

Seriously, I could have eaten there for the rest of my life!

Caroline and Jonathan Chatting with Eric

APM Mall

New Year's Decorations in the Mall

Year of the Rabbit!

Dim Sum Restaurant :)

Waiting for a Table

Inside

Explaining Each Dish

Deciding What to Order

Ordering
(You Check the Dishes you want)

1st Round of Dim Sum

Round 2
The "Yellow Thing" on the Right was my FAVORITE!

After saying goodbye to Eric... Jonathan, Caroline, and I decided to go see the light/laser show with Lika Lieka (Netherlands), Honza (Czech Republic), Jared (Michigan), Mike (Canada), and Nancy (Maryland) in downtown HK. It was basically a reunion with the folks we hung out with last night :)

Just so you can picture it, downtown HK looks a little something like this at night:

Pretty sweet, yeah?

Well imagine adding lasers and music... you basically get a beautiful light show! I am still wondering about how they coordinated all the skyscrapers to light up in a perfect rhythm with the music they play.

Take a look for yourself:

That was the grand finale.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: The light/laser show is a very famous attraction in HK and occurs every evening at 8PM. If you are ever visiting, it's definitely something you should check out!

As we made our way back to the MTR station, we suddenly became really hungry. Mike and Nancy decided to lead the way to popular hot-spot known as "Mr.Wong's." The general concept of the restaurant is that it's all you can it and drink for $40HKD (less than $6)! Mr. Wong basically cooks you random dishes and puts them on your table until you tell him that you are full. IT WAS INSANE... but delicious, and probably one of the places I will be visiting most often this semester. Another A++.

Mr.Wong Preparing a Table for us

From Left: Honza (Czech Republic)  and Caroline

Nancy (Maryland)

From Left: Jonathan (UT), Me, Lieka (Netherlands)

"You have boyfriend?" - Mr. Wong

From Left: Lieka and Jared (Michigan)

Lieka Getting Called Over by Some Other Dutch Exchange Students

"CHEEEESSEEE!"

Talking

Group Picture, of course :)

After some delicious cuisine, we decided to look for a karaoke club. However, the only one we found was VERY expensive and was about to close. It was a major let-down! We wanted to sing some Lady Gaga :)

Outside of the Karaoke Club

With nothing else planned, we all decided to get back to campus before the MTR closed and ran into Yenz Jens (Sweden), Marc (France), and my new suite-mate! Her name is Mud (spelling is wrong, but it sounds like "mud") and she flew in from France this afternoon. She really sweet, and I can already tell we will get along well :)

Mud and I

We all didn't want to end our little "pow-wow," so we decided to try sneaking into Mike's dorm past visiting hours. At HKUST a security guard is standing by the door waiting for you to show them your residence card to prove you live there... however, we decided to just walk in and pretend we could not understand what the guard was asking. We all kept straight faces and Mike said "oh sorry, we don't speak Chinese" and led us to the elevator... IT WORKED! The guard didn't even try to stop us. Haha!

Caroline and I were crying from laughing so hard! It turns out that Honza was the last person to get on the elevator and he actually turned to the guard and said "Thank You! Have a good night!" We couldn't believe we got in! It would be something we would all never forget!

6 people getting into a HKUST hall past visiting hours? Piece of cake :)

We ended up spending the rest of the evening laughing and talking about movies and music. It was nice to see the different tastes different countries have.

Unfortunately, we couldn't stay long because we are planning a big New Year's shopping trip with Mariel tomorrow morning. WAIT! We have to be at the bus stop by 10:30AM... 5 hours.

Ohhhh mannn!

Power napping from Hong Kong,

Lina