Just killing time

Hey all

Got a spare hour to use up so I might as well blog.

Had a late night last night with both a presentation and an essay due for my political science course, one on the IMF and how they screw over the the third world and the other on international trade disputes. What i would give to be on a beach back home now!!!

On Sunday I visited Ocean Park which is a theme park similar to Sea World just near my hall. It was okay, the rides were so-so but the two pandas they had there were really cool. What wasn't cool was EVIL JOYCE who had me thinking the whole day that the PANDAS WERE DEAD!!!! What had happened was I missed the first bus there and so the others went ahaead and saw the panda exhibit before I arrived. ThenEVIL JOYCE decided to pay a trick on me and made the others pretend that the pandas had died. I believed them since I knew they were very old. Old enough in fact that the Chinese government is sending out two more pandas as a reward for Hong Kong being really good for the first ten years of reunification.

I like it. Be good and we give you pandas!!

Other then that there isn't much to report....omg someone just told me to stop typing so loundly (i'm in the library). What an idiot. If he wants peace and quiet he shouldn't be in a computer room.....and now his phone's rining and he procedes to ANSWER IT AND TALK ON IT IN THE LIBRARY!!!! So rude. I'm bashing the keyboard now.

Oh yeah, I should mention that I am in the process of trying to extend my exchange here. So far I haven't heard back from BEL faculty which means I can't do anything. In order to extend my visa and get a HKID I need a new admission letter. They won't issue me a new exchange letter until the exchange office here lets them. They won't let them until I get a letter from the UQ exchange office and the UQ exchange office will not issue a letter until I get credit from BEL. I hate red tape. Also I got my "leave by the end of year or else" from my hall and I can't extend my residency until I have an admissions letter.

*frustrating....*

Anyway I'm sure Chirstmas in in full swing back at home as the decorations are starting to appear here.

Don't spend too much.
Matt

Hate the homework and hate the weather...

Hong Kong what have you done to me? So much homework, boring classes and the weather...omg!

Ever since about 3pm today we have had nothing but storm after storm. There's another one coming through now and that will be number five.

- got drenched on the way back
- I left my window a little open so my bed is wet
- the canteen flooded so i have to go to 7-11 for dinner
- and worse of all, the tv blew up meaning that my floormates no can't play FIFA2006 so have had to resort to throwing balls at each other and anyone that gets in the way

I also have so much homework this week. I have a Chinese test on Thursday, an essay and another presintation for next Tuesday as well as two probalem sets that are completely impossible to solve. So now its 1.30am, I've had about three cups of tea and am buzzed to work!!!

and of course procrastinate here!

I'm looking forward to Thursday night though beacuse I finally get to meet my mentor. At the beginning of semester I applied for and got accepted into the university's mentorship program and the inauguration ceremony in on Thursday. I don't know much about her excepts she's an alumni that is currently high up in some chemical company. Should be really fun.

Also I won third prize in the UQ Abroad photo competition. Cheak it out at:
http://www.uq.edu.au/uqabroad/index.html?page=54847&pid=35449

I also picked up my new passport yesterday. I must the new style of Aussie passports are very ugly. The pages are orange for god's sake!!

Anyway I better do somework before it's 2!!!

Oh yeah. Went to kareoke in Aberdeen on Saturday. A lot of fun. Here are some pics (none of me though)


Cheers all,

Matt

Stuck without a passport

Damn the Chinese authorities. All I want is to visit their damn country and I have to jump through hoops to get there.

*grumble*

How I am I supposed to know that you need 6 months validity from the expiration of the visa not just 6 months from when my visa expires.

grrrrrrrrrr

As a result I found myself heading to the Aussie consulate to get a new passport even though my current passport doesn't expire til July. Not ony does it cost me around A$200 but it will take TWO WEEKS to get it. As a result I am stuck in Hong Kong with no passport and nowhere to go.

I was supossed to be going to Chengdu this weekend - CAN'T
I was invited to go to a 21st in Macau - CAN'T

*********
On a lighter note, I'm starting to really like the grading system here at HKU. So far I have technically failed two mid-semesters (less then 50%) but since everything here is bell-curved, I have really achived decent passes for both of them. Too easy :-)

I hope everyone did just as well for their exams!

Take care, need to eat.....food here so good!!!
Matt

Three weeks of power with Japanese horror

Hey all,

It has been an extremely busy (and stressful few weeks) so here it goes!

Two weeks ago was our reading week where as you all know I spent 5 (which tuned into 6) days in Japan. This was a very stressful experience in itself. I spent the first 5 days travelling around the country as planned, spending a night in Tokyo, and then going on to vist Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima. It was fantastic as it was a part of Japan (a much more traditional and beautiful part) then I visited last time I was there. I went with a group of 3 other American exchange students, the guy I went to Malaysia with who's from LA, as well as two others (a guy and a girl) from San Francisco.

However the trip was sort of spoiled on the final day where I was travelling back to Hong Kong. This involved me taking the bullet train from Osaka back to Tokyo (around 3 hours) and then taking another train from Tokyo to Narita airport (another hour). Since I didn't have to fly out until 6.30 that night I spent the morning in Osaka, visiting this castle (I would add pictures but the site is playing up - later!) and then heading back to Tokyo at around 12. This was a huge mistake, resulting in me missing my flight back to HK.

What had happend was that someone had committed suicide that morning by throwing himself in front of the bullet train (not a very rare occurance in Japan although they normally disrupt local lines and not the inter-city lines). This resulted in the main line between Tokyo and Osaka being closed for two hours. As a result when I arrived at Osaka station there was chaos. People were stranded as the trains they had booked were still in Tokyo and trains that were supossed to arrive in the morning had only just begin to arrive. Lucky for me I had a JR pass meaning that I could just get on almost any train (except the Nozomi super-express) without reserving a seat. So I got on the next train that came through (20 minutes late, very un-Japanese!) and has to stand for most of the journey. This could have been okay except that it took around 6 hours to get from Osaka to Tokyo. The main reason for this was that whenever we arrived a city along the way we often had to wait up to half an hour to be given a platform as priority was being given to all the trains finally getting out of Tokyo. This was not helped by the fact that there was often only a single line in between cities meaning that we had to stop every 15 minutes or so to allow trains coming the other way to pass. It was so frustrating.

I finally arrived at the airport an hour after my plane left. I mamaged to get moved to the same flight the next day but at an extra cost of US$200. I then had to return to Tokyo to find some sort of accomodation. Thank God I picked up a leaflet from one of the first youth hostels we stayed at that showed all the different hostels in Japan. However there were only 8 listed in Tokyo so I started ring them reading down the list. Everyone I tried was full (leaving me more and more anxious) except the last one (always the way!) which I managed to get into. It was actually a business hotel that was affliated to Youth Hostels International so I managed to get my own room, shower (everywhere else I stayed was communial - a very interesting experience) and TV, all for around 5000yen (about A$50) so I'm not complaining! I left the next morning and arrived back at the airport four hours before the plane left (no point taking chances!) and got back to Hong Kong that night.

Another consequence was the fact that it meant my mother was left alone in Hong Kong for another night by herself. She spent another day going on another group tour but she was really disappointed. On the hand she was very happy to see me safe and sound the next day and got spend a lovely 3 nights in a five star hotel here in Hong Kong, a welcome change from my student hall. We managed to get a lot done in just four days. We went to Macau, Shenzen as well as all the markets around Hong Kong (an any woman, she's always looking for a bargin!) It was very sad to see her of at the end of it all - made me want to come home (boo hoo). No time to get to depressed though because I was about to enter into my week of power.

Four exams and two assignments all in 4 days meant I didn't get much sleep this week. This wasn't helped by the fact that there was Halloween last Tuesday which for some reason Hong Kong people really get into. That night my floor created a haunted house where each of us had to dress up as mummies and monsters etc and try and frighten one of the girl floors as each of them came through one-by-one. It was a lot of fun since we got a few of the girls to cry...very childish I know but as I said before, my felllow floor mates still act like 10 year olds (is this a Chinese thing or is it the same in all halls/colleges?).

Anyway back to the school work. I have just started to get my results back. I did really well in my Chinese but not so well in the important stuff like econometrics (only 47% although this will probably still be a pass when they apply the bell curve) and game theory (haven't got the results yet but I have ssen the answers and I am very worried). Perhaps I should party less and study more???? Nah. Its only pass/fail anyway.

Good luck to everyone about to untertake their final exams.

Study hard, I'm not!
Matt