Swim Meet and Fashion Disasters

First, I have to applaud, well ... me. The wonderful people over at YouTube are now supplementing this blog entry. I discovered I could do video with my digital camera, so I have a few videos to show you.

Anyways, today was the Intrahall Swim Meet. The Residential Halls here are very similar in behavior to U.S's fraternities and other Greek organizations. They have initiation, songs, and dances. It's very similar to what you would see in the states at university areas.

Anyways, I was given a uniform to wear... and I screamed.

Here it is, I cannot believe I'm uploading this to the web:


AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Sleeveless shirts. Look how white my arms are; I don't think they have seen the light in a sleeveless shirt in probably a decade. Tragic, truly tragic. Yes, I had to go public in that. The shop workers at Prada or Gucci are saying:

Person A: "Hey, did you feel that, there's a disturbance in the force."
Person B: "Yes, I feel it too, something I haven't felt before. It's so strong... call the fashion police quickly, and probably an ambulance. And get Ken's name on The List. He can't shop here anymore."
Person A: "Yes, Agreed." (scampers away)
Person B: "I haven't felt this level of disturbance since a Mr. David Buck put on a madras blazer and considered that fashion, most disturbing."


Other than the fat, err fact that I looked like a beached whale in an ugly shirt; I proceeded to go cheer my floor mates at the swim meet. My roommate Danny was participating (I could not, because the practices were during school time for me, very sad). I couldn't show off my swimming skillz.

Between the races, the different floors would sing songs and do choreographed dances. Here's one of them, thanks YouTube.



Wasn't that special? I wanted to tell the girls over there that I love Les Miserables. Dad, see they love it here in Asia too. The musical is the gateway to world peace.

Just to make Danny mad, here's a video of his first swimming meet. He won actually, so clap, clap, clap for him. I sound like a swimming instructor in the video... wait, I was a swimming instructor. Sorry for it being horizontal, I couldn't figure out how to rotate the whole video. :(



What you hear in the background, "Yat Lau," is Cantonese for "First Floor, First Floor." That's the cheer. You usually don't cheer a person, you cheer a segment of people -aka First Floor, Simon K.Y. Lee Hall, etc.

Speaking of applause, here in Hong Kong, you applaud everyone for everything around here. When you're introduced communally to someone, a person of prestige, power, one level above you, you applaud him. It's not like when you applaud someone given a speech. No, No, No... It’s more.

Person A: "This is Franklin, our Floor Representative."
Everyone Else: "Oooooooohh..." (commence applause)

It's very interesting. If anything I am learning is how different two cultures take social interactions and group mentality differently. Yay for being a team player (my mom and Leslie would be so proud).

Anyways, Please Mind the Gap - and the water on the digital camera.

~Ken

PS: Oi, Ah, San, Tsi, Ooh, Lai, Chi, Ba, Jian, Sin - I learned to count to ten in Putonghua today! Now I can order Chinese food and sound smart. hahahahaha.

No one comments on my blog :(

Lost in Translation

This blog entry has no really order or purpose, other than to entertain a few people. Namely Ian.

Here we go:

This sign was on the outside of a restaurant.

Yes, a restaurant has on the outside of it's storefront, saying there is no eating or drinking in said restaurant.

Well, Ladies and Gentleman... that's just freaking hilarious.

That, or really ironic. I guess the purpose of the sign is to keep people from bringing food into the restaurant and eating it there. It just got translated wrong.

Continuing on.... unfortunately, I didn't have a picture of another sign I saw in SoHo.

It was a breakfast place called "The Flying Pan," with a picture of a frying pan with wings on it. Ian, .... remember your L's and R's...

If you don't get it, well... you're just going to have to sit that one out. I'm not touching that joke with a six-foot pole. I really hope Ian gets the joke.

Continuing on, I was at a restaurant with some friends tonight, and over the background speaker comes "Last Christmas" by George Michael. Now, both Matt from Germany and I are completely caught off guard by this (there very strict protocol rules about when or when not to play Xmas music). Or local student friends didn't seem to mind it.

It must be Christmas in Hong Kong all year long then.

I know, it's not as witty as it could have been. Anyways, Please Mind the Gap, and don't eat inside restaurants.

Ken

Tropical Storm Such and Such coming this way

I am the proud owner of an inside-out umbrella today. I did spend HK$15 on it (about $1.90) for it, so I guess I get what I deserve.

We have some tropical storm coming towards Hong Kong right now. It's supposed to hit us, or just South of us, in the next few days. Here's its current position.

It doesn't have a name, and probably won't have one, but anyways, it's cool that I am somewhat close to one. Here's some pictures of the rediculous rain we're getting.





We're at Tropical Storm level 3, I guess (out of 8 or 10, depending on who you ask), so I guess it's not a huge deal. But, I am getting what I asked for - I wanted to experience a big storm while I'm here.

Anyways, Please Mind the Gap, and the wet stairs (some poor girl took the hard way down today).

~Ken

Mercedes vs. Human vs. Double-Decker Bus

Warning: my lack of emotions and cynical nature will make this episode much funnier than it really was. Never challenge a bus and Mercedes, you'll lose.

So, out of complete boredom, I decided to go to Causeway Bay today to wander a few shops. I didn't purchase anything, so after a few hours I decided to get on the bus of my dreams: #23. It goes to HKU, to my work and to three malls. Yes, love it.

I got on my bus and after a few minutes, I feel a bump, a dozen car horns - and we come to a streeching halt. Now, the majority of these buses are huge-ass double decker buses that don't necessarily stop on a dime. However, the drivers here seem to think they do.

I bump my head against the chair infront of me.

A buzzer goes off, and me as the stupid English-speaker, asks a schoolchild what happened. He told me there's been an accident, and he thinks we're getting off the bus.

First thought: "Well, I want my HK$5.60 back."

So, I start snapping pictures with my cell phone camera. I guess, from the child's testimony, a bus and a Mercedes Benz both hit a pedestrian, and then the Mercedes, obviously caught off guard, slammed into the bus.

Sucks.

Here we go, no blood though, I couldn't get out of the bus to shoot pictures:

The guy in the grey suit is the driver.


That's a picture from the second level, where I was sitting. The yellow lines were the crosswalk. The man hit by the bus from my understand is somewhere under the rear of my bus and the car.

After about ten minutes, the passengers get shuffled onto another bus.

I learned very quickly when I first got here that you don't screw with anything on wheels here. They honestly don't care. The vast majority of people kept walking and didn't care. I mean, come on, the crosswalks tell you about as explicitedly as I have ever seen when or when not to cross.

I got my $5.60 back. I guess if you hit someone with a bus, the least of your worries is cashing in the fares of your passengers.

Anyways, Please Mind the Gap ... and the bus.

~Ken

Watch what you say...

On Saturday, I got invited out with a bunch of international students to go grab some food and maybe later end up wandering Wan Chai or something like that. So, we head down to Kennedy Town (located just south of where I live) to find a restaurant.

I was talking with my friend Jerry who is from Germany about several different things (we were at the tail end of a group of about 15) and then we pass a McDonalds. I say to him:

"I feel very proud that I've been here in Hong Kong for what, 10 days now, and I haven't had any American fast food at all."

And I was proud -I've been very good about eating at local restaurants. But then, I do think then God noticed this so-called pride and proceeded to smite my unneeded culinary pride.

Because no sooner did I say that, our group all turned into the KFC two doors down. I don't know when we decided on KFC, I certainly wasn't a part of that decision-making process.

So, here in Hong Kong, with every possible cuisine around me, I had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn and some rice palaf thingy.

And you know, it just doesn't taste the same. KFC in the states is so much better, maybe it's the water, or the MSG.

Please Mind the Gap,
Ken