Day 6 : Stupid waiter telling us the wrong bus route.

I woke up this morning like usual needing to pee again but that’s okay since last night I saw Angels&Demon which was pretty good. My cousin decided to go see a 10PM show so we didn’t get home until 12:30AM last night so I was all “eff this, I’m not showering now. I’ll shower tomorrow morning” So I totally did showered in the morning which I totally miss. So I showered and watched this Korean show with my mom which is awesome as well. I got ready to go out for early tea and I got to straighten my hair! It was so nice to get to do that and I looked hella hot. Lol.

Anyways, I got up got ready and we went out for early tea, it was rainy and wet out so my straight hair didn’t last long in the humidity. Even if it was raining, I don’t think it would last. So we went to early tea, brother, mom, grandma, Edward [family friend] and I and it was quite delicious I must admit. Best part, the ceilings were short so I felt just right. Haha. Afterwards we walked Grandma home and we went out to go shopping and to look at my camera. While shopping, we got some plugs to change to Korean outlets, my brother got a webcam for fun, and we went to like every store to talk about prices with cameras. Prices everywhere are pretty close and I’ve made up my mind on what I actually need. Talked to Edward about cameras and every little thing just asking him stuff and then asking the sales associates stuff at different camera stores. Some of them weren’t very friendly but I did get some prices from a lot of places. Some of them were quite honest and very helpful. Afterwards, we went back home to write down some things for my camera and headed onto a bus to go somewhere else where we shopped around more for cameras.

Finally after half a day of looking at cameras, we took the subway to go for dinner with my dad’s brother’s wife, who is related to me and has a proper family name but I’m just going to call her an Aunt. Lol. But we went for dinner, had to take a taxi there and we managed to fit 5 into it then plus driver. Four in the back, one in the front and we fitted just fine. So now [if you saw my Facebook taxi picture], its 5 then plus driver so 6. We get to our destination and we went in and this restaurant was HUGE. We were way early though, being it was only 6PM and Chinese people don’t have dinner til 7PM or 8PM. It was really nice, comfy chairs and very good service. After dinner, we were asking how to get home so we listen to the waiter to take the 171 home but the bus stop he told us to get off at didn’t exist so we went somewhere else, talked to this lady that was walking and she helped us home. We got home and mom and I went to get shampoo for Korea and from there, my night starts getting worst and I start getting cranky. Things start to go sour and my mood gets worst. I’ve finally calmed down after awhile: talking to Mike, telling him whats up, listening to music and just being off in my own little world with him. It’s nice getting to talk to him! I miss him a lot. Well I should do up my YouTube video and get it ready to upload tomorrow so I’m off to bed.

Thanks.

-Allison

Day 5: Another rainy day but with a dog.

Yay! I slept in a tad bit…only because ignored the fact of me needing to pee at 4:30AM AGAIN! But I did sleep in until 7:30AM or so and that was decent. I sat around and watched TV grandma, mom, and aunt. Mom asked if I wanted to go out for breakfast so we went. It was pretty cool. It was just me and here, in the rain, with our umbrella, it was awesome. For breakfast, we had elbow macaroni in soup with slices of ham. It’s not weird! It’s something Asians do and it’s really good. On the side, there was a slice of toast, fried egg, and fried ham. Haha. And we ordered two egg tarts and I had an ice tea. Sooo good. Food here is just beyond awesome and worth it. Afterwards we went and got some steamed buns for my bro and we had to wait for those so we walked over to a bakery for some more buns. Haha. You probably won’t know what kind of buns I’m talking about if you’re not Asian. Seriously, no joke.

When we came home, we sat around for abit waiting to go out for early tea. After everyone was ready, we left and it was raining out. It’s been raining for the last little bit and people with umbrella get into this battle where you run umbrellas into one another and opening and close it and move it around, super annoying sometimes but it’s okay I guess. Early tea this time was my mom, bro, grandma, 3 aunts and a cousin of ours. It was such a nice place and there was a wedding cake on this platform that said Neko and Johnny, my brother and I laughed not knowing if Neko was a dude or a chick. Early tea there was good and we later notice that my cousin actually brought the dog with her to early tea. Dog was trapped in this little bag and it kept peeking at us, it was quite adorable. We went home and it got out and we played with him and even made some videos with him it. He’s quite adorable and ever so tiny. As I type this, I’m watching him lay on his side using his to front paws to hold this piece of food as he chews away at it. Very adorable! He also has these two big bells on his collar just so we can hear him coming and DON’T step on him. Haha.

I’m sitting around right now not doing much at all, just typing away. So lets tell you something random. MY HAIR IS NOT THE SAME. I haven’t been blowdrying or straighten. That’s good and all but its not behaving the way I want it too. I don’t like it! Being bad! Lol. Seriously though, its doing funny flips and junk, not cool. Found out that this “Internet” we got is what we’re stuck with which is little lame but I guess we gotta take what we can get right? I’m looking at camera lenses still and debating if to buy it here or not. 

I’ve been siting around doing nothing to be honest other than sitting, watching tv, and typing away and junk. Been playing with Bobo, typing in my personal blog, and waiting for dinner. Later I’m going out to see Angels&Demon with my brother, cousin and her boyfriend. That’s essentially my day. Once I get home, I’ll shower, and sit around waiting for my hair to dry, and off to bed. Oh, good news, my mom went out and got me a hair straightener, WOO! Hair should only get better [and at the same time, worst] from here.

Thanks.

-Allison

Day 4 : Rain rain go away, but smite these douchebags while you're at it.

I went to bed at 12 or so last night and I woke up AGAIN at 4:30AM having to pee. Ugh. I think it’s jet leg that’s all like “Hey, you usually pee at this time…WAKE UP!” haha. Random right? But I rolled around in bed til 5:10AM or so and finally went to pee and after I came out, I chatted with my mom for a bit and we decided to go out for a morning stroll. I washed my face and brushed my teeth and got dressed. I woke my grandma up to bring her along [She needs the exercise, okay?] We went out, walked around for abit and the weather was decent; it was windy and not too hot and probably about to rain. We went on a stroll to another place and we walked around, took some pictures while walking around and then walked home.

At home, I had some coffee raisin bread; ever so delicious, and took my allergy pill. Sat around with my mom looking at GUCCI bags and talked on msn with Rhett about lenses AGAIN and chatted it up with Mike about random things like usual. I showed them both the stupid McDoanlds menu that you get as flyers and it has such random things on it! Such as fresh corn cup, green tea sundae, potatoe wedges, nestea honey pear tea, mcwings, DOUBLE filet-o-fish, DOUBLE sundae [Green tea with red bean, strawberry, or both, (syrup, ice cream, syrup, ice cream)], grilled chicken twisty pasta, which is elbow macaroni in soup with chicken ontop, and probably more random things. Oh, they do delivery here for McDonalds and delivery is free after 60 HK$ which is about 9$ CDN

I decided to go back to bed at 9AM and woke up at 10:30AM to get ready to go out possibly. Mom told me I was going to go get sushi but instead while on the phone with my dad, my aunt calls and ask us to go out for early tea with her. It started to rain pretty bad but we went out anyways. It was sooo good as always haha. Afterwards, my mom, brother, and I went out to this place called Muji and we bought pens. They are SO nice and write so well. Definitely loving them. Haha. Afterwards, we walked home and said hi to my OTHER aunt before heading home. They started to play mahjong so I decide to make a YouTube video and stuff and type in my blog.

I started to watch cartoons and I saw Lucky Star and watched that. So adorable! I need to watch it all now. So I started to flip through channels to watch more cartoons and I come along this show on the English Channel about these kids who are spies in England and best part…THE SHOW IS CALLED “ M.I.High”!!!! My brother read it and I was about to say “Yes you are” and then I read it and we’re both going “No effing way!” and he says “That is what you should ask yourself if you are watching this show” Hahaha. And now I’m watching it as I type. I love the accent.

Since it rained, we decided to go out for dinner instead. This place was decent I guess. I still don’t know what the actual kind of restaurant is, brother says it’s a satay restaurant but it has a buttfuck load more foods. Kind of like Jack Astors…but semi-Asian. It had a wonderful atmosphere of pirates. I love pirates. We sat in this booth with like this mesh cover over it, which was neat, I like that. BUT FUCK! The fucking area we sat in was full of douchebag 18-25 year old Asians that couldn’t keep their fucking mouths shut and restrain themselves from clapping as they laughed. Yeah, I may be guilty of clapping sometimes but fuck, not clapping that fucking loud! Shit sakes. I was about to take people out left and right. Everyone there was a clear douchebag. Talking as loud as they humanly can and being rowdy as fuck. Yes, I’ll admit I can get rowdy with my friends to but to that extent, no fucking way. That restaurant would of gotten at 9 out of 10, but no, because of the fucking noise, it gets a 3. Yeah, it’s that important.

That was my night essentially. Now I’m home and waiting to shower so I’ll update more for you tomorrow.

Thanks.

-Allison

Day 3 : Hectic shopping at SOGO

Again, I woke up at 6:30AM this morning once again and I got online to talk to some friends and talk cameras with Rhett because he seems to know a heck of a lot compared to me. Haha. Also I finally got my YouTube video up and loaded, also my brother gave me a hand to upload my Facebook pictures. After sitting around until 9, my uncle comes over and we leave the house, my mom, brother, uncle and I, to go to lunch. We went to this place called Yoshinoya, and you can get rice or noodles and stuff. It was so good and such a cute little place. Its has a fast food feel but they do give you actual utensils and stuff for you to eat and they do dishes and stuff. It was really delicious. Oh so delicious haha.

After lunch, we walk over to a mall called SOGO, and once again, another giant mall, many levels, but this mall wasn’t really separate stores, but separate areas for you to be in. So we go in, and it’s strange here, the more expensive stores are on the first floor, the higher you go, the cheaper the stuff gets. You can buy anything in this mall it seems; make up, toiletry, kitchen supplies, bed sheets and such, clothing, swim wear, shoes, bags, toys; it was amazing. My mom wanted to pul me somewhere, pft, how dare she try when I see a sign that says Lesportsac. Haha. Yeah, I got one, it’s amazing and huge. It covers my whole body almost! I’ll have to take a picture of it or something and show you guys! I’m slowly looking at things to buy more people and on a search for gifts also. Oh, and something really cute, there was a girl operating the elevator. Hehe. Oh, and while crossing this big intersection, my brother told me to run like a maniac and see if people would dodge me or whatever. haha.

I came home, took a nap, had dinner, and that has been my day =]

Thanks.

-Allison

Day 2/May 21st : Just another day.

So after I ended last night, I went to bed in a bunk bed with my grandma, I had top bunk and before getting in, there were so many bugs up there! I freaked out a little. Haha. But sleeping nonetheless was nice. I ended up waking up around 6AM and went out in the early morning with my mom and grandma to go for a morning stroll. It’s so different compared to later afternoon or in the day in general. It was so nice and so peaceful out, with a nice breeze and tad bit of rain. I’m going to take pictures next time I’m out and you’ll get to see. After we came back we sat around for a bit while waiting to go out for “early tea.” We had to do a short walk there, which wasn’t too bad, but we ordered SO much food just for an early tea, which is so intense. I’m going to gain so much weight! Food was so amazing though compared to any other place to be honest. My uncle, 3rd oldest of the Ko family, looks EXACTLY like my grandma and it was so funny to see him squint because his eyes really became a PURE line; it was awesome.

After our large early tea, we went to go get my Hong Kong ID and that didn’t take too long. We took the cable car and it was weird because you don’t pay when you get on, but you pay to get off. Isn’t that weird?! Haha. At the immigration tower with the office where I get my ID, I had to get my picture taken and its so much better here in HK because they have a computer sitting in front of you so you can see yourself and they’ll crop it and show you and if you don’t like it, they’ll take more until you do. Pretty ballin’. Afterwards we went shopping and went to a straight up market. You won’t understand unless you actually see it but I’m somewhat culture shocked. The market here is very different. People could work without a shirt on, hair all over the place, smoking and what not. There was actually this one guy holding a box of meat and he sneezed RIGHT into it, laughs it off, jokes about swine flu, puts the box on the floor, drops a chunk of meat, and puts it back in the box. A lot of things, such as meat, seafood and what not just out in the open and you think “Man, this can’t be healthy” and yet we seem okay with it. Shopping this way is much cheaper and it’s always been this way, it’s a huge business so it’s acceptable.

We came home sat around for a bit and we went out again to get some groceries and bought a camera for Ivan. I now have to sit around thinking about what camera I want. There is way too much to think about but I guess I’ll have to do it sometime soon IF I want to buy it here. The warranty here for the body itself is decent and worldwide but no warranty on lenses. Mom says its no big deal so I may get it here. I’m not sure anymore. I have to decide on the model I want. They speak in Cantonese here and I have NO CLUE what to talk about! So I’m just standing there agreeing with whatever they say. This Internet is POWERFUL slow. My YouTube video is taking forever to upload. Maybe 5 hours even. That’s what Facebook said at least; Now it says 9 hours….Pathetic. I want my extreme highspeed Internet back. Hopefully it gets better AFTER the modem gets put in.

While people were playing mahjong, I took a small 2-hour nap. Jet leg isn’t HORRIBLE but I’m feeling it when I’m not doing much. Haha. We then had a small dinner and then we hung out and showered and now its time for bed. So far, HK is doing me well. I’m still being lurked; I’m allergic to something so I’m getting hives every so often, itchy eyes, and all that other fun stuff; haven’t exactly bought much yet which is a good thing; people tend to get in my way and I’m getting angry with that; lot more homeless people then I can actually imagine; a lot more advertising from big billboards to people standing on the street trying to give me a flyer; people who try to con us, mostly my brother [giving us a small little toy and asking for money, reminds me of Europe]. That’s it for now so I’ll update you with more details tomorrow, hopefully we’re doing something fun then. Haha.

Thanks

-Allison

Day 1/May 20th : The leaving and arriving

So my day started off at 3AM, waking up from a short sleep to take the Robert Q to get to the Toronto Airport. While on the bus, someone gets on at one point and I was like “Holy Heck that looks like Bill Hader” And he really did from my angle. The whole time I was a human pillow to Ivan, not cool, wtf. He was comfy though so whatever. We get there, we check in, go through security check. You know those buckets? Yeah, they only want certain things in there, those bastards. Bags just go through, sweaters in bucket, laptop in separate buckets, blah blah blah. My brother goes through, my mom goes through, and I go through, and guess what, I had to be special and forgot my iPod in my sweatpants and I couldn’t feel it because they are that baggy on me. They wave that damn wand around me, take my shoes and ugh, it was just annoying as heck. I make a joke to my brother how I wanted to be special and wanted to be touched even. Haha. We’re horrible people. Oh, and people that work there are ALL angry. Very very ANGRY. Don’t want to mess with them.

Waiting around for our flight, we get Starbucks and junk and sit around waiting to get on. We were suppose to board at 9AM but instead it was 9:30AM but we did take off at 10AM While sitting, we made a video in this thinger…[check my YouTube], and this giant moose/caribou was for sale and what would we do if we could get it. It was awesome. Lots of Asian jokes and making fun of people, including a girl holding a roll of toilet paper.. I HATE TAKING THE PLANE! Absolutely hate it! It cramped, its stuffy, its loud, its WAY too long of a flight. 14 Hours is NOT fun and UNNECCESSARY. On the flight, I watched Taken, ONE BAD ASS MOVIE! WATCH IT, and Grand Torino, which is kind of sad [Or I’m just a big baby] but it was good nonetheless. I barely slept on the plane, I felt sick, I had a headache, it was just horrible. I get motion sickness fast and just 10 minutes before we land, I HAD to throw up. It felt better but I was quite embarrassed about it. Thankfully I was at the window seat and only my mom had to deal with it, but everyone had to hear it. Lol. Here’s something good, there was this angry Asian man on the plane, he put his luggage up in the compartment of the row infront of him, a couple comes in and opens it and it’s like “Oh, someone is using it, let’s try to get something in” and this angry Asian man goes to say “Oh, just use the one over here” which is on one of the side rows and the young guy goes “Well, I don’t want to use it since people sitting there might need it” and they go on and on and the young guy finally goes in a polite way of “Why don’t you put your bag there if you like it so much” and the angry Asian man just starts mouthing off and asking him too fight! This happens after the flight too. It’s pretty horrible.

Finally, after 14 hours of flying, we land and we go get our stuff and finally see our cousin, who is totally too cool for school and totally awesome. He use to do commercials for this drink my brother and I absolutely adore, I’ll try to find a video for you guys. Then my aunt comes and we leave. By this time, I’ve been lurked by most men and realized I’m wearing the shortest shorts and the lowest cut top…I’m wearing a white v-neck and my jean shorts. Nothing bad but compared to people here, I’m way revealing. We leave the airport and that heat/humidity just hits us HARD. My brother and I just GROAN in disbelief. We drag/push our bags to our busstop which is AWESOME because the longest wait is 20 minutes, and the fastest is 2 minutes; I KNOW RIGHT?! And at one bus stop, about 12 buses goes there and the way it is set up just looks 20 times better. Double decker buses everywhere and we decide to sit at the top, in the very front. We take pictures and make videos and what not. We saw some hilarious names of places and made fun of things. Such as in the airport, there was a place called Free Duty and then later a building called DP World….think about it lol. The weather as of NOW isn’t totally terrible; I can still deal with it. A lot of people are wearing the little mouth mask and I’m all “Lawls, Swine Flu! I want a mask too. What if we just start coughing HARDCORE?” So walking around with our luggage to get to the apartment, then shopping for toiletries and then going for lunch and stuff, the WHOLE time, I was being lurked….It’s weird because for me, this is normal, for them, this is not. Haha. Oh well. My brother states while walking around the ratio of pretty people and ugly people is about 1:20. Made me laugh. Saw some homeless people; saw this guy playing a harmonica with a burnt face; saw this guy doing calligraphy without arms; made me little sad too be honest. Lunch wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t grand. 

We went grocery shopping later and we got ice cream, Haagen Daaz, and it was the “Japanese Selection” There are 4 little containers inside, flavours include Green Tea, Coffee, Vanilla and Cookies and Cream. My de me laugh because the most Japanese selection is Green Tea. So it epic fails. After we come back, we’re all sitting around waiting for dinner and my mom tells my brother, cousin and I to go downstairs and go to the close by mall. So we ran off and it was pretty awesome but no shopping. The mall has…9 levels and we walked around and stuff here is pretty nice but not totally me but the shoes here are amazing! Some stores are pretty awesome but not on the first day. Haha. We came home, went for dinner, dinner was some kind of Korean all you can eat grill, not fantastic. Went to get our internet and that will take awhile and now this is this.

So, Hong Kong has caught my heart already. First of all, there is this little card, half the size of a credit card, thick as those bigger memory cards and guess what, IT DOES EVERYTHING. Not everything but it’s amazing. You can put money on it, let’s say 100 dollars, and you can use it anywhere that allows it which is a lot of places, almost all transportation [Believe the only exception is taxis], 7-Eleven for sure, and sometimes you can get discounts of some sort. There is a lot of use for it and so easy to use. Mine is Mickey Mouse themed! Another thing I like about Hong Kong; shopping that are less than 5 minutes away. We live in a pretty condensed area that has a lot of shopping and stuff and it’s just awesome. And walking isn’t bad because no matter where you go, there is something to be looking at. I think the next thing that caught my heart is the weather [as of now]. Even at night, weather feels the same, nice and warm.

This is only the first day, be prepared for a lot more =]

Thanks.

-Allison