Don't worry, be happy.....

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What H2O2 can do*

Waking up on Wednesday morning, Erkki and I decided to do something fun since neither of us had the energy or discipline to spend the day in the library studying (what we probably should have done). Instead, we took a train to Causeway Bay to find a hairdresser recommended to us by some other exchange students who had had their hair colored there and had come back without looking absolutely awful like those who had gone to get a haircut at the university.

We found the place and a -after some nice coffee and cake- went on to explaining what we wanted. This turned out to be easier than expected, since on of the employees spoke English very well. I had decided to not cut my hair (since I only trust myself in these matters) but to color it, Erkki wanted his hair cut. I chose a “light brown” color from a color book (the same ones they have in Finland), since I thought it would cover the red, which had been pretty faded by the sun already. My head covered in color and wrapped in plastic folio, I watched Erkki’s hair get cut – it looked very pro. Then he decided to get some color as well –ash blonde- maybe inspired by me… I don’t know (but won’t resume responsibility for departing from the original plan). So we both sat there with our heads in plastic.

1h: the red color did not get out of my hair, so they put on some other color. 2h: still wrapped and getting a bit tired. 3h… more color, and then even more- and since it hurt like my scalp was pulled off my head, it could not have been “light brown”… Emerging from the plastic, we were both really blond. And I mean really, REALLY blonde as in my blonde and his being exactly the same (even though it was supposed to be brown). I guess, since the red did not go out, they just bleached my whole head (that’s how it felt at least) - I can’t blame them: Asian hair is very thick and dark and the color mixture they use is different (even though the brands and basic “ingredients” are the same)- rarely, the hair is really blonde or then it washes out quickly. And they tried very hard…

But when I saw myself, I was … speechless. OMG!!!! Imagine: the roots of my hair being much lighter than the red are now completely white, everything else is golden blonde…. It is pretty… hmmm interesting!!! But after being quite upset at first I have to say: it does not look too bad, just very blonde and it is all about getting used to it! … and it helped, that I am not alone in my misery since Erkki looks completely alike! (and we went to buy a hat for him after getting out of the hairdresser’s**)… Take it with humor! It’s cool(e)!!! *smile* A Hong-Kong- summer-look which will get even lighter with the sun… it’s very different than anything I have ever looked like, believe me… it was an experience! But I like being blonde! (I think; … and everyone else seems to like it too or then they are just very good at lying… honey toast!)


* H2O2 = hydrogen peroxide
** for cheap, efficient colors and fresh ideas (cut=color for 268 HKD), visit “the barber” at 466 Lockhart Road, 1/F, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

On the nature of human relationships

I hate to say this but being female is not necessarily recommendable in HK. Don’t get me wrong: I like being what I am! *smile* What I mean is that although gender roles are subtle and not directly imposed (and women are probably more “equal” in society here than in other South East Asian countries – as inaccurate a generalization as it is and however exactly the term equality might be defined in this context) these still exist – and are obeyed. I do not completely understand it –but do I need to? - but I feel very intimidated sometimes since my behavior triggers reactions and conclusions which I feel are completely irrelevant and thus for me unexpected. Of course certain roles or societal expectations, norms, exist in European countries (giving back a similarly inaccurate generalization of clustering cultures as one), but I feel that in Finland these are while more broadly defined simultaneously not as strict nor invisibly present. This being an effect that is surely in part explicable by the fact that these roles are subconsciously included in my own behavior and definition of self and identity, I can only emphasize the limits and subjectivity included –and dominating- any statements I make regarding this issue.

To give an example: girls here do not do sports. Logically, if I want to play football, basketball or do anything else classified as “physical exercise” I have to do so with male students. This is no problem for me – or at least I never thought of it as one- but it seems to cause a lot of confusion – for the local HK students. For example, when playing football, I am not regarded as a normal person, but something “undefined”, i.e. in e.g. counting the members of a team, I am not counted. And all other players are afraid of getting to close to me, of touching me. And they are very sorry if they do – I think they are afraid of me getting hurt if I get hit by the ball. Or maybe it is just cultural… (or I just suck) while I am afraid of knocking them over, since most are shorter/smaller than me. It all results in a weird (boring) game. It makes me feel a bit inferior… and it – my behavior, my confusion and the reaction of others- annoys me.

Girls are supposed to be cute. It is not accepted for girls to pursue hobbies that might be “disgraceful” for the family – some parents are very conservative. A mainland student joined a drama society, but since her parents did not want to see their daughter acting, she told them she was in a finance club. To produce the needed evidence, she got around 20 friends together- all of them dresses up in suits and staged the “HKUST Finance society” posing for pictures which were later sent to her parents. I only know about this, since a fellow exchange student from Shanghai was posing as the “professor”- the pictures are very authentic. It’s scary!

Western girls hitting on HK guys: no, no …. NO! Completely unacceptable!!!

And more of a cultural clash independent of gender (which as an issue should not be overrated nor mixed with a too generous notion of feminism, see the above):

Having an opinion and not being sorry for expressing it or really pressing for important issues being solved is regarded as really aggressive, impolite (but this has no gender background).

Drinking? No! (Only the rich kids I guess…)

Why do I not understand?

Öööörrrrrrrrggääääääääääähhhhhhhhh!*

The weekend was crazy.... and sleepless!
(I know, the adjective is soon completely overused, I’ll try to come up with a synonym)

I decided that after one week of intensive studying it could be reasonably justified to allow myself to mentally switch back into “tourist-mode” although this does in HK not resemble the general excitement and adrenalin usually encountered with “real” travel but rather comes with more practical implications. The idea is not to get too comfortable falling into and getting trapped by the easy way of living through a daily routine but to constantly seek to explore other parts of this city.**

After a nice (and expensive) dinner in Soho, which back in Hesinki would be classified as “ordinary” (nice pasta, wine, bruschetta, olives), the 10.000 Buddhas monastery was the next “item” on my list. The monastery is located a bit north of Kowloon, in the new territories and near the big horserace course in Sha Tin. We left in a group of five (2 Finns, our Czech-Austrian couple and a Norwegian girl) and quite late which is why –by the time we got there- half of the people were dying of hunger. Usually I hate that part of trying to do anything in a group of more than one – conflicts of interest one could name it. This time however I could not do anything but agree- it was raining as it had been the whole past week and I had only gotten up ten minutes before leaving. I joked about craving meatballs and cranberries and –surprise- the next thing we saw around the corner was an Ikea: we decided to go look for umbrellas since I reckoned the possibility of this Ikea having a restaurant when the one closer to the centre did not have one, as inexistent. But it had one. And I got meatballs (which were by the way cheaper than the food in the university)!!! The best food so far!

We also bought umbrellas- they only had blue ones with a yellow Ikea inscribed –very distinctive. We walked up a path lined on both sides with little yellow-colored Buddhas (since some were golden, it might have been that the color of the others had just bleached). The atmosphere creeping into me when walking up the path an then eventually seeing the temple and the red pagoda was very weird, even creepy, or this is how I at least experienced it. The place was erected sometimes in the 1950s, judging from the “monumentalism”, but completely run down, shabby, sad. Created for a different time, a different society, and as such completely out of place. Created for the sake of creation, but without meaning or message. A spiritual but spiritless place.

Does that make sense? And can I justify asking such a question? The monastery was for me a HK in a miniature format- the city where money rules and fake is real at large but only in the definition’s immediate context.

After a small rest in Kowloon Tong – a huge mall- we continued via Central to Aberdeen, a little expat-dominated township in South of the Peak on HK island. We had no clue where we were going –the only direction being to find “the warehouse”- upon hearing this I hope you will never suspect I would do anything like this! The plan was to go to rock concert- a rare event in HK, as there are no rock clubs but most “western” (excluding the popular karaoke and other such places) entertainment establishments follow the “Sedu Koskinen concept”. The warehouse was an old Chinese police station on the top of a hill, surrounded by old trees and overlooked by huge residential high rise buildings. There were five local bands playing that evening- the concert turned out to be an underground hard core rock concert!!! The whole audience knew each other- we really stood out- and people went crazy jumping around in moshpits. I have never heard such music nor been to such an event- it was amazing! Whether the music was good or not remains to be seen- once I can draw comparison with some other similar event!
Half of all the band members were non-Asian locals as was a big part of the audience: we met five people with whom we went to dinner back in Central. One of them was a Swiss-German guy who had lived all his life in HK- a very interesting conversation (why are all whites regarded as rich; who goes to the HK German school- and why its British line is more posh; why do white HK locals not speak Cantonese; why does HK society not accept white men dating HK Asians…). The night continued in a club named Insomnia and I was home at 6 a.m. the next morning.

After sleeping for a couple of hours (since I had not been drinking anything but water, I was pretty fit) I spent the day planning my spring break: now it is official! The destination is: Malaysia! To give you a rough picture: we, i.e. Sarah (from the U.S.) and me, will leave on Apr. 8 for Kuala Lumpur. From there we will continue to Borneo and spend about 2 weeks there after which we will have another 4 days for Peninsula- Malaysia. Highlight: climbing Mt. Kinabalu, the highest mountain in Asia between the Himalaya and the mountains on Java. I will not reveal anymore- but I can say that it will be grande (and this is officially confirmed by Erkki who returned this morning from his 10-day trip to the aforementioned location)!!! A lot of things to plan and to take care of before that though! (and now I will stop the hehkutus before it gets too transparent) Back to reality- class starts in 7.5 hours and in between I should get a so called “good nights sleep”…. (does the math add up?)

* This is supposed to resemble a certain genre of music. Guess which? Find out by reading on…
** Note: this little newly adopted principle will be enforced after me returning to Finland, or so I have decided now!

A quick recap without philosophical depth

This must have been the longest gap of not posting anything whatsoever! Time flies! Why? Cause it all gets to be so everyday-life maybe?*

First of all and because I will otherwise forget: we have a pet! Or actually we’ve had three. The first was a bee, a real big yellow killer bee living in our bathroom, which fortunately deceased during the last cold season in HK. The second a cockroach, which was crawling out under our water cooker (that one we got rid off). The third is a lizard which dropped out of Erkki’s trousers- nobody knew where it came from. It lived in Erkki’s room for a couple of days decimating the population of flies and mosquitoes (which always manage to sting me in the eye – i.e. I wake up with only one functional one), then disappeared mysteriously. I hope we do not find it rotten under someone’s bed at some point (a possibility, considering the cleaning frequency of the apartment). But for now it is alive (until proven otherwise).

Erkki left for Malaysia last Friday; he did not have any midterms this week, so he just decided to take one week off. To celebrate we threw a farewell party on Thursday night –it started with few, ended up in everyone (50+ people), including me, being outrageously drunk. At some point someone decided it was my birthday that day: this because I had regretted the fact of having been born in November. Everyone started singing and going completely crazy. It was insane! I can’t give you any more details of the night- it was fun though, but our landlady was apparently not so thrilled since she contacted us via the rental agency the next morning. While she was upset, they took it all with humor… but anyways, no big parties on weekdays anymore!

The weekend and actually the whole week up until today went into sports (playing football, basketball and badminton) and into literally living at the library for the rest of the time: studying, studying, studying… I found my old work-mode-routine, which I am glad about! My mid-terms were yesterday: one (Derivatives) I had studied for all week, the other (Business Ethics) I hadn’t. Gut feeling: the one I did not study for went probably better than the other, which was a complete catastrophe! I was really frustrated. The format here is more: do not think, know everything by heart, and just write and calculate like crazy for 60 minutes. Ok, I knew what was coming, since I had done my Econometrics mid-term the week before (that one went actually pretty ok), but still, this was even worse! Results next week and I am not looking forward to them… should try to persuade HSE to give me a pass/fail grading. Don’t know if that will work though.

Yesterday was the worst soft drink I have ever had: American tea with ginger and honey. The label looked nice, but the content was not. How deceiving! (but other HK/Chinese “softdrinks”, e.g. tea with jelly marbles, i.e. bubble tea, are really good!) It was also the day of my first HK pizza with Chinese mushrooms. The evening continued with ladies’ night in LKF then the Kangaroo bar in Wanchai. The Kangaroo bar is the cheapest place to get drunk in the city. It is crappy, and if you are not at least half as wasted as the average, you will soon feel the urge to leave this place as fast as possible. The only reason to stay might be the cute bartender (who does not like me for ordering coke with ice). There are no drinks sold but only fishbowls, i.e. big bowls with a mixture of various alcohols that come in red, blue or black (listed here according to the perceived increased “lethality” in terms of temporary “death of alcohol”). And people (not including myself) were –again- so b***** wasted, half of them passed out in the bar, the other half puking all over the place. It gets really annoying… ok, a lot of people (maybe 8) had their 20th and 21st birthdays last week and this week; most of them American which means they “have to be gotten” as wasted as possible without alcohol poisoning. It’s like an orgy of some sort- and in the early hours every second person vomiting at some corner in LKF is a UST exchange student. I guess it is understandable but as a Swedish guy put it: “it’s like holidays in Greece when you are sixteen and you get drunk for the first time there cause in Sweden you can’t do that”. Very prolonged holidays though.

I feel so old in my mind! I do not know how to describe it, but old. I think very differently about what is fun or spontaneous and I am not sure whether I am enjoying myself in what this group defines as “a normal way to have fun”. I am not. Enjoying that that is. But maybe I just think too much? Some people certainly don’t. Apparently, after a long night in Wanchai, some people forgot (or were too drunk) to pay the full fare to a taxi driver- or maybe they had negotiated a lower far, because that is how it usually works (the fares never go by the meter, or if they do, you are surely ripped off), and the driver then decided to charge the full amount. In any case, we got two angry emails from the international office and the business school administration, that this was a “criminal act”, “unfair behavior”, etc. etc. I understand the principle (but hey, it’s 30 HKD), but the best part was the advice, communicated to us in an absolutely serious email.

Quote: “We'd like to give you the following advice:

• take good care of yourself and avoid getting drunk
• designate a friend to ensure the group returns safely
• have sufficient cash (at least HK$200 - 300) to pay for taxi fare
• pay full fare as shown on the taxi fare meter
• do not assume that the taxi driver should give you a discount”

Is this fun or so far from reality that the naïveté implicitly emanated can be already categorized as scary? Is this to be taken serious? I never imagined the cultural gap to be that substantial. What do they think people have actually been doing here? Running around playing with dolls and cards (like the locals do)?

Summa summarum: Less drinking, (and no ginger tea), more joy = no hangover!

* This entry was composed on Friday, March 24, 2006 but publishing had to unfortunately be postponed due to scheduling problems. The author apologizes for any possible confusion caused by the disruption of the chronological sequence of this story.

Taipei revisited

As promised and traditionally coreographed, here are some pictures from our Taipei-weekend. To start off and to fill some gaps of recollection: Taipei probably resembles more of a Mainland Chinese or South Asian city than Hong Kong in a lot of aspects, but one of the most visible differences is the traffic. Traffic is a lot of little motor cycles. A lot... really! And that is why, they have proper traffic lights over there. Below, the first light tells you the remaining time to cros the street-from turning green the clock counts down from usually 60 or 70 seconds when until turning red again. The funny part about this is (and I have a video clip to prove it, although I cannot upload it here and you won't probably see it from the picture) that the little green man actually walks, i.e. moves. When there are only 10 seconds remaining, the guy suddenly starts running. Running really fast! I thought that was hilarious. Never seen anything like that before!A lot of things in Taiepi are very monumental and the city is clustered with various memorials and squares. I always wonder, what must have been there before, and how come, everything can be torn down from one day to the other, without leaving any traces in the surrounding area. The newest of these monumentas is Taipei 101- the tallest building of the world. Unfortunaely, the weather was not too good when we went up... looks like bamboo?
The CKS Memorial- this is truly monumental and massive and was not built until the 1980s. Reminds me of East Berlin, although the connection is probably more "sentimental". What I mean that for me it was more a similarity in atmosphere or the way an ideology is manifested in architecture, spilling over into ...everything.

"My American Team", Margo and Mike, climbing up the roughly 4700 little stone steps to the top of Mt. Cising (1120m), northern Taiwan's highest peak- while others climbed in pro-clothing, we had flip flops... it was fun though!

Glimpse of the nature.... the landscpaes are amazing!

Here we are walking down from the peak- it is a mixture of grassland and highland bamboo plants. The mountains in the north of Taipei are inctive volcanoes, but the soil is "thermal", with little cracks of hot air and sulfur...

And the last but not least: the signs. Signs are everywhere and for everthing.... and they do not only cover what not to do, but to a great extend what to do or how to do it. Even worse than HK!

This sign was at the park of the Sun Yat-Sen memorial. The park was full of kids flying kites. So much for rules.

Random stuff I have to get out of my mind

Although I promised myself I would study right after finishing the previous post- I can’t. There is another of those nice lists on my mind which I have to get rid off, and that list includes some minor things that have happened here over the past few weeks- things I have not remembered to add to any post or that have not fitted into any “theme” yet – yes, I actually try to configure my posts to give them some logic for the readers and myself and yes, once posted, I will not change anything in the text (except grammar). Weird enough- once posted, things get “out of my mind” usually- since I have “recorded” them somewhere probably. Ok, here it goes:

Being away physically I have in the last couple of weeks started to actively surf through Finnish newspaper pages and other Finnish web pages, mostly newspapers though, in addition to world news. Why? First, on campus the only free newspaper is the Herald Tribune (you can get it from the international office and I really do not want to run into our exchange coordinator), pretty much any other freely distributed print media (if any) is Cantonese. The next shop with newspapers is in Hang Hau. Secondly, I trust neither the China Morning Post nor any other Chinese paper: the important stuff is usually missing (e.g. that a guy died last week of H5N1 in Guangzhou, 170 km from here; that was not in the news). And the more I fly and read free newspapers, the more I realize how much I am missing off the rest of the world…
Stumbling on the “predict your date of death” at www.hs.fi was one thing I of course did yesterday- compared to Finland, the matters of life or death are here more dependent on income and luck. For the records: my official date of death (according to Helsingin Sanomat) is with a probability of 59% March 11, 2068 (at age 83).

Life is slowly switching to “normal” mode although I sometimes have to tell myself: “I am in Hong Kong; I live in here!”, when I wake up in the morning or when things get too shitty (as if that as such would be super great--- it is!). Other people (exchange students) do not seem to perceive it as such exorbitantly extraordinary- but I do and I want to enjoy my time here fully and doing so consciously without letting it all just pass!
I get along well with my flat mates - Jussi and Erkki. Erkki and I have two classes together, both in the morning. This means in practice that we wake each other up since one of us always oversleeps (I have adopted some bad habits lately… *smile*) or both of us feel like shit because we spent half the night talking BS through the wall. The wall is thin like paper so technically we “sleep in one bed”, since our rooms and beds are right next to each other.
The fridge I full of vodka and gin- student life- although today I felt like real food since I am getting really fed up with the rice noodles and the rice. Just therefore I am very grateful to have a kitchen… I went to Hang Hau and spent an outrageous amount of money on cheese, mozzarella, red wine, non-toast “darkish” bread and salad which was SO good.
I am really happy to have an apartment- just being able to be alone for sometime and shut the doors- although I realize the drawbacks from not living 24/7 on campus. Some other people have moved out or away too: a Swedish girl (Matilda) moved to Fortress Hill on HK Island a couple of weeks ago. It is a small sea view 2-room apartment (one room has the kitchen, shower and bathroom all in one and separated only with plastic curtains – easy to re-model) close to the “center”- expensive but cool! And another guy moved to Thailand- he just announced he was leaving and coming back. As far as I know he is living on some beach in the North or so- sounds cool!
And I understand the reasoning behind it to some extend, since if I would not need the courses I am doing (and two of them I do need), I think I would just go as well. The lectures are a joke (don’t know about the exams yet), especially management, which is why I completely fail to take them seriously as I do usually. I have one management class Ethics and something and last lecture we spent one hour lining up according to our birthdays. We were then divided into groups and had to paint colorful posters with our names on them. And people took it VERY seriously (I guess it is graded). Can you believe this? Today we talked 1h about plastic surgery (breast implant) ads on Chinese TV: a monologue of pretty extreme jokes by the professor. Nice. Why does everything have to be translated into dummy language? I think I do not have to elaborate on this (or otherwise I will have to censor my own language). It’s just a f****** joke!

Our school is really pretty ok, trust me… and taking about studying: I am thinking too much about what I want to do next year. I have no clue. Maybe do some other degree? Am leaning towards (international) law, but not in Finland. Or then more business studies? Or do what I really want, i.e. music (do I really want that?)? Or work? Or go to Africa (for 6 months) or then to China or Thailand (to work or teach English)? It seems that most people I study with graduate at 21/22 with a Bachelor’s, no clue of anything, and then go straight to work. Nope, I think I still have a lot to learn.

Fakes: I bought a fake Gucci bag in Shenzhen. And when in Oslo a guy came to talk to me about my bag asking where, when, how I had bought it –turned out the bag will only be sold in Europe in the summer- he could not believe it was a fake until he actually looked at it and opened it. And the guy worked for Gucci as a purchaser… that was pretty interesting- and I learned about more about SCM! And fakes are apparently even more authentic and cheaper in Beijing and Shanghai.

Otherwise the days pass in school or doing homework. Running around the track. Playing tennis. Hanging out in the sandwich club (coffee shop, and the coffee is really strong and good everywhere here… to counter the Rafla-coffee complaints). Going out from time to time. Easy life! I miss the music- should have brought my flute to play. And my books!* *smile* I plan to do some local cultural stuff instead- Chinese and Western Opera, maybe some classical concert or theatre- but the selection is quite narrow. Have to plan my spring break trip- I’d like to extend it to 12 days or so; maybe travel to Borneo and Indonesia.



*Course books are really cheap here, about HKD 200-600. Other books in English (novels) are expensive, about HKD 160 a piece. I bought some, because I haven’t found a library yet. I decided to go through the “Finance classics” we get preached about. Check out for zero literary value but some insights into “why I do not want to be an investment banker”:

Connie Bruck: Predator’s Ball
Mikel Milken, the junk bond king, the rise and fall of Drexel(LambertBurnham) and the roaring 80s on wall Street.

Bryan Burrough and John Helyar: Barbarians at the Gate
The story of RJR Nabisco and the attempted LBO by its CEO Johnson which ended in a takeover through KKR in 1988

And of course I read a book I got from friends whenleaving:
Mikael Niemi: Popular Music
Hilarious! ***Thank you!***

Cherry blossoms and chocolate cake

I start to think that I am repeating myself but: it is sooo COLD! It is unbelievable! HK 10C by day; and even colder at night (I am so happy I brought a sleeping bag from Oslo!) … and everyone keeps telling me it should be warmer! Apparently temperatures dropped here on Sunday by 11C in just one hour –ok, the climate is (supposed to be) tropical, it gets dark soon and day and night time temperatures vary a lot, but 11C? Fortunately, I was not here but in Taipei, where it was MUCH warmer (although Taipei is further north, as most of you might know), which brings me to my next topic: Taiwan, another little island, but again very different.

We decided to go for the weekend on Tuesday since we found flights for only 1100 HKD on Zuji which is about to turn into my favorite website. Pretty cheap I would say but if I would go for that factor in every busing decision I would be broke right now and sitting here with tens of pairs of shoes and a pile of nice clothes. Fact is: Taiwan was on the top of my list of places I really want to see- and though “listing” sounds again typically like the over-organized me, it is necessary since there are so many great, unexplored places close by!

I went with two Americans, Margot from Tulane University and Mike (University of Maryland), on the last flight at midnight on Thursday: brand new plane of Air China- I recommend it!Everyone with little backpacks we got to Taipei at 2ish and found crazy taxi driver: he was not really driving a taxi but a black Mercedes but he was 300 NT cheaper than the “real” version. He drove us for 900NT (divide by 38 to get euros) into Taipei in an hour. First impression: trucks have little light chains in the rear which blink in all colors of the rainbow (weird?); the city is huge and consists of a lot of old dirty buildings- so wrong! As it turned out in the next three days: Taipei is amazing!

To give you a short summary: Taipei is not Taiwan, which is renowned for its great landscapes and national parks (most of which are located in the south of the island) but it is a nice, modern city with a lot of street markets and temples but also huge shopping malls and the tallest building of the world (Taipei 101) – all of which we managed to capture hopefully some sort of an impression: Taiwan is something between east and west –that goes for the economy and politics- but it is confusing –open and nationalist at the same time. Re-inventing itself and conservative, afraid?

Friday was spent seeing the Chiang Kai-chek Memorial* and the surrounding governmental buildings as well as visiting the Luoshang temple and the nearby night market with the snake alley. A lot of time went into finding our way around- most signs are in Mandarin and occasional English street signs are sometimes very confusing- that was the first time I realized how much attention I do actually pay to all the signs around me! People are however helpful and friendly although most do not speak English – and my Mandarin is really far too basic to understand anything of practical importance! (I really have to work on that…)Also, we had to change hostels and after some calls found one in Zhongshan- the place was owned by a Mexican guy and full of Mexicans and (U.S./Irish) hippies teaching English in Taiwan who had lived there for months! The showers were on the balcony and there was a crazy little cat running all around the place… it was kind of fun (but only for three days thank you).

Saturday we went north out of Taipei to the Yangmingshang National Park. The journey took ages- first with the MRT and then a bus, which was so full I was almost standing outside- no wonder, since the weather was great and it is the flower season in Taiwan and everything is blossoming. We climbed Mt. Cisin, with 1120m the highest peak of Northern Taiwan (4700 steps up and a bit less down). It is an old volcano with sulfur and steam streaming out at some points of the flanks. After our daily exercise we took a bus to Beitou and went to the (public) hot springs: relaying in hot thermal water under a clear sky with starts -perfect! The pools had water with different temperatures as well as cold pools- and no tourists! (it was the cheapest place ever: 45 NT entry and 50 NT for a towel).
On the way back into the city we spotted crowds of people near one MRT (mass rapid transport) station and just decided ad hoc to jump out of the train- it was the Jiantan night market which stretches for blocks and blocks selling everything from shoes and clothing to pets and great food. Street food in Taipei is by the way a must: I tried omelet with bird eggs, buns with onions and meat inside, caramel strawberries, sweet bean cakes, fresh lime and cherry juice. The best food ever! (“normal” Taiwan food is pretty much the same as HK food… i.e. not the best ever…)

Sunday was dedicated to the National Palace Museum**: if any museum, this is one to see! The oldest pieces date back to China in 6000 B.C. - the collections are unique covering Chinese and Asian history very comprehensively. Due to restoration of the building, we (un)fortunately managed to only see part of everything –that took already almost the whole day. After that we went to Taipei 101- the tallest building in the world- no comment! In the evening we walked around town trying to find an open club- but had to settle for a lounge bar (also nice) where I –of course- met some nice German guys…

Off to the airport at 5 a.m. and straight to class--- where I noticed I had forgotten to do two homework assignments… oops! Worked all afternoon in catching up on school and then fell into my (cold) bed; today the same and I should be studying right now as well- am as you can see avoiding this at all cost (but I guess writing a blog entry is more efficient than just ”hanging out”). Overall I had again a great weekend: it was the first time I traveled with only Americans, which was an experience as such –different expectations, “tourist” behavior, daily rhythm (I usually get up much earlier…)… We had some nice conversations about the usual topics –American culture***, love, life etc. and –unusually-religion.
Now it is time to stay here for a while, see some more of HK before it gets too hot (which is hopefully soon) and end the holiday bubble for at least sometime- do some studying and schoolwork just to pass my midterms (one this week, two next week), do sports, write job applications and look for some internship around here.

I hope I haven't forgotten anything... ? Pictures to follow!

* Chiang Kai-chek ruled Taiwan (Republic of China), a repressive and authoritarian single-party state, from 1948 to 1975; the memorial was opened in the 80s. Chian Kai-chek unified China as leader of the Kuomintang after the Northern Expedition in 1926. He led China in the war against Japan 1937-45 (Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1931, Republic in Nanjing) but was defeated by Mao and the communist People’s Liberation Army in the Chinese civil war (1926-49) and retreated to Taiwan.

** The museum was founded in 1925 in Beijing as the Palace Museum administering the Ch’ing Imperial collection most pieces of which were from the Sung, Yuan and Ming dynasties. Upon the Japanese invasion the collection was first transferred to Shanghai and Nanking, and in the civil war later transported to “safety” in Taiwan.

I hope this historical info is somehow in its compressed version accurate; I do not want to spread too much propaganda, exposure to which is very hard to avoid while being in Taiwan as a tourist. Please enlighten me!

*** Yes, I said “American culture”, whatever culture means in the context I leave up to the reader. I am learning more and more about some subtleties I did not understand previously – Americans of Chinese origin can call themselves “Twinkies”, “bananas” (yellow outside, white inside) and FOBs (fresh off the boat) or whatever, but we have to call them ABCs (American born Chinese)… interesting. And of course learning some slang words and about college life that I am apparently unaware off since I am perceived as “26-years old, wise, organized, the momma”…. And now I can blow hubbabubba to be so large as to cover my entire face as it bursts! *smile*

Escapism or: More tales from the bubble

“I can see my f****** breath in my apartment!“
This sentence seemed fun at the time but it is last week’s fashion, i.e. the weather has improved drastically. When getting back from Oslo, I expected a HK in spring but the whole last week was actually freezing here. Freezing as in temperatures around 9-12C during the day, which does not seem very little compared to home, but add the humidity, damp clothes and the fact that buildings do not have any heating nor isolation, and soon you find yourself cold. I slept in jogging pants and two shirts, woolen socks; the guys hat gloves and hats as well. When waking up in the morning, the humidity and warmth of our breathing had turned into condensed water on the inside of the window glass and was slowly dripping along the wall. Getting up was a pain… and I felt that all my energy also in class went into keeping warm; not focusing on anything else. Erkki compared our state of being to that of being in the army; I can’t really say whether it was as bad. I felt stiff, as if I hadn’t slept, ill, shivering. And I think everyone else had the same problem since most people got either sick during the week or on the weekend. So much for warm and sunny HK!

Consequence: leave (somewhere warm). The funniest explanations came from Charlotte (from Sweden) who said something like “I don’t have any winter clothes. I should go to Thailand for the weekend.” And this is along the lines of how people (exchange students) think here think or have gotten to re-think - not “I should buy (winter) clothes” but “Let’s go to Thailand- it’s warm”, since it is sooo cheap. Or well, cheap once you get there but only relatively cheap to get there. A general sense of escapism- an urge to see as much as possible as fast as possible, always looking for the next “hot spot”, where nobody else has been yet, has spread like an “epidemic”- everybody has it but with slightly different symptoms and few know it. It does not make any sense, I dare say: It’s madness! Who (except Americans) does seriously think a country and a culture can be explored and experienced in a long weekend (4 days minus travel time)? You must be kidding me?

Ok, ok, a lot of people have jobs/graduate in the summer, so they go back home right after the final exams, which will be in the end of May/beginning of June. I wish I had a job! Some because graduating have taken even more extreme measures- one guy from California left for Thailand last week and will stay on some island there until the semester ends; had enough of HK- I’d say that is courageous!

Seeing a country in one weekend is unrealistic, expensive and a lot of stress, but apparently worth it. My own travel plans- tossed and twisted around numerous times- have now come down to seeing the islands (Hainan, Taiwan, Philippines) and places in mainland China which are not along the main “travel routes”, or at least not close to anything else I really want to see. I would like to do one bigger trip during spring break and the leave in the beginning of June for either first the mainland or then the South to Vietnam (where else?). That of course depends on whether I will be able to get a job anywhere (which seems still unlikely).

Anyways, I left for the weekend too but that trip was long planned and just happened to help me escape from the cold in HK. I went to Singapore, where I visited a friend studying at NUS. We met at CBS last year and have since kept in touch more or less regularly, so one might say it was a bit of a crazy idea to just fly over… But: I had an amazing weekend! And felt very at home there. Why? Maybe because the society s so “colorful” with Chinese, Indian/Sri Lankan, Malay, Indonesian, Western all living on a tiny island off the southern tip of the Malay peninsula… everyone in a chaotic mix, but at the same time equal. Western and HK people are not equal; or that is how I feel. I live here and am at “home”, but remain still a visitor in some aspects. Singapore is easy- everything is clean, everything works. It’s organized, functioning, safe. Some may say government regulation makes it boring- it is like a European city except for the heat and the humidity- some may say this is essential to forge a nation out of so many distinct pieces, generating a national pride and spirit (which they have succeeded at). It’s an interesting society I think- especially when looking at what is happening in the countries around.

Controversial, maybe. Death penalty on drug possession/trafficking. The government controls most property and housing. No bubble gums (that’s the cliché), no littering (fine SGD 500) and other minor details. But: Diversity, great food, great clubs, a booming city, which is however conservative in values: we had some interesting conversations about marriage (no living together without being married in Singapore) and the importance of the family (even if not needed children support their parents financially after they start working, a gesture?). Of course I did some of the tourist-stuff as well: went to the Botanical Gardens and the Orchid Gardens (amazing!), the Jurong bird park, Little India, Chinatown, Orchards Street (shopping), the Arab quarter… not to forget the Ministry of sound- the biggest club I have ever seen! It had one huge dance floor and six adjunct rooms on two floors, each in a different color and with a different theme and each about the size of e.g. Birdie in Helsinki. One room was completely white, with white glass floors, chandeliers, long white curtains and couches. One room was more 70-s style pink and shrill. Te hip-hop room was dark with cages and very crowded.
And of course I had really good food- a thing that Singapore is famous for… My favorite was Prata (which I guess is Malay), which is (sort of) pancakes filled with mushrooms, cheese, tomato etc. served with curry sauce. The Indian and Thai food, basically everything I tasted, was very, very good and cost the same as food in HK.

After a great weekend I was back in HK on Monday. I had to catch up on my schoolwork and am still trying to extract motivation for studying from some unknown reservoir of it which should exist in my mind. I overslept today and on Tuesday for my first class. Don’t know why, but it really should not happen. It is actually embarrassing, since it is not at all my way of doing things. Have to get a grip on this; am afraid that I don’t. It is like a rosy bubble that is so nice to be in. No sense for reality, just party, socialize, have fun. Once you try to exit it will burst. And then?

Orchids is what I associate with Singapore, since the first hybrids leading the way into the mass-cut-flower industry were created. The Botanical Gardens in Singapore have a huge collection of wild and hybrid species but only part is open to the public. Still an amazing experience!

Above: The financial centre of the sity, left the cricket club, a colonial leftover from the 18somethings. Taking this picture I am actually standing in the middle of a football field right in the center of the city. Singapore is -unlike HK- very green with lots of parks and trees everywhere.

This is the financial centre from the other side, just to contrast the size of the regular buildings with the towers. Along the water there a lots of restaurants and bars. I think the ministry of sound was also somewhere along there.
Above: Temple in Little India, below: Arab quarter. Singapore has a lot of colonial era uildings- or houses bult in that style. There are whole blocks and quarters with tiny 2-3 floor houses, which makes for a special atmosphere.