This past week has been filled with fun! Wednesday I planned a trip to the Science Museum because frankly, I am a museum nerd. I went a little bit crazy when we got there...the mirror hall was my favorite--it was fun to sit at a table with a bunch of me's and to see myself upside down, reversed, headless, squat, and tall. On Thursday, I went out to an Italian place with our professors for a group dinner; the topic was book lovers and you KNOW that I had fun with that! We all talked about our favorite books and I have a lot of recommendations now. Lots of people in my group (and in the Global group in general) really love the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Afterward we got yummy frozen yogurt. Friday I also went out to eat with a couple of the girls at yet another Italian restaurant, and got my secret santa their gift! (shhh don't tell. It's PERFECT and I can't wait to give it to him/her). That night we had a big girls' night and watched the movie Love Actually to get us in the Christmas spirit. We'll be watching whatever Christmas movies we can get our hands on in the next few weeks.
On Saturday, a group of us visited the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery in Sha Tin, a beautiful monastery on a mountain that literally has ten thousand Buddhas inside. The walls of the temple itself were lined with little golden Buddhas, each with a light in front of it so that the whole room glittered and glowed. Outside in the courtyard there were Buddha statues of all shapes and sizes, some with extra long arms or legs and all with varying expressions on their faces, from grumpy to insane-looking to extremely serene. It was pretty interesting, and the view was gorgeous. On our way back down the mountain we encountered some scary dogs (thankfully they were behind a fence) and some HUGE monkeys that we were scared to look at because we felt like they could see the fear on our faces and they might attack! But they scarcely noticed us actually. We also stopped at Wing Wo bee farm halfway down the mountain, which was pretty much just a small farm located in the back of someone's house. We saw the boxes where the bees made their honey and literally walked through swarms of bees. They would smack into us every so often but each bee was so busy that they didn't bother to sting us. It took a huge effort not to swat at them or scream and run. We bought some delicious honey too! That night our group had planned a night out on the town, and we went to Central, the bar/club/restaurant center of Hong Kong. It is a happening place late at night for the youth and mid-twenty crowd! We ate some nachos at the Hard Rock cafe, walked around for a bit, and later went to a 24-hour breakfast place called the Flying Pan. That was MY goal of the night, to eat breakfast! And it was delightful.
To end the weekend, today we were taken, compliments of our professors, to an ice skating rink located on the 5th floor of a mall. These Hong Kong-ians are crazy, aren't they? Who thinks to put a skating rink that high up in a mall? Anyway, it was very fun and I only fell once... however I DID make a fool of myself trying to learn figure skating moves from my friend Kelsey. It was so nice to feel like I was doing a Minnesota-type activity and it made me miss home a little bit. Some grocery shopping happened afterward, and now I'm back in the hotel writing to you all! Pictures to come in the next post!

Happy December everyone! I hope it's snowing in Minnesota, we have quite a lack of that here. It's been a mix of fog, rain, clouds, and more fog. It's the kind of weather that chills you to the bone because it's pretty wet and all you want to do is curl up in bed and drink hot chocolate. We haven't gotten a chance to do that though, because we've been busy! This weekend I went with a couple of girls to the Ladies' Market in Mong Kok, an outdoor market with very cheap (in price but also in quality) items and delicious bubble tea. Some of the girls went back to the hotel, but my friend Thao and I decided to go to Tsim Sha Tsui, a shopping area nearby. This ended up being quite the adventure! We got off the train and got a little lost on our exits but took an exit labeled "Peninsula Exit." A lightbulb went off in my head and I realized that this was the same Peninsula Hotel that my great-grandma had stayed at in the 1900s, and also the one that I'd read about as being one of the nicest hotels in Hong Kong! Thao and I got very excited and decided to pay it a visit. However, we soon felt very out of place as the first thing we walked into was the hotel's "shopping arcade," filled with designer stores such as Hermes, Bvlgari, Chanel (we actually went in there because Thao loves it and tried to act classy), Louis Vitton, to name a FEW. It was a whole different world, the world where people dress up in the designer clothes of the very store they're at just to shop there. We were wearing jeans and fleece jackets. It was a funny contrast. Anyway, we ventured toward the hotel lobby and it was MAGICAL. Christmas lights were everywhere and a giant tree stood by the main entrance with designer bags as the presents underneath. People sat having afternoon tea and the line was immensely long. Outside, the parked cars took our breath away; there was a beautiful Lamborghini and a Rolls Royce, among others. It was a lot to take in. We snuck around the hotel for a bit, almost crashing some wedding photos and then the same wedding banquet. It was the nicest hotel I've ever seen, and all I could picture was my great-grandma walking around in a fancy evening gown in the 50s or whenever she was there. In the bathroom, I was shown to my stall and my paper towel was neatly placed by the attendant next to my sink so that it was easily accessible to me. After this classy adventure, we walked around Tsim Sha Tsui for a bit more and it was sort of like New York City. Enough about that. On Sunday we had quite the opposite experience. We went from cosmopolitan to rural when we traveled to Lantau Island to hike in the mountains. We took a gondola through the gorgeous mountains and the clouds to get to Ngong Ping, the village where our hike was and where a large seated Buddha sat. We visited him and then hiked all over the mountains. It was so foggy that our views were not quite as they should have been, in fact we didn't see ANY spectacular views. It's been foggy every day though, so we decided not to put off hiking for a beautiful day as there may not be any. We used our imaginations though and it was a blast! It seemed like a spooky fairy tale with all the fog. Today we had a tough quiz for our art history class, but to celebrate finishing a huge group of us went to get dim sum at the nearby market. Our Global friends who speak Chinese (one is from Hong Kong) did all the ordering for us and we received dish after dish of steaming egg buns, pork rolls, chicken feet (these are actually decent), chicken, rice, and nameless dishes. It was all delicious, and a good cultural experience. That's all for now!

Hey y'all!

It's been a foggy week since I last posted, and not much has happened except for classes and a wonderful midterm today... not so wonderful actually, but I shouldn't be complaining, I'm on Global for goodness sakes! Because of the fog and all the studying we've been doing, we haven't done much in terms of sightseeing. Some people have gone on hikes in which the guide book described gorgeous views but when they reached the lookout spot or the summit all they would see in place of that gorgeous view was fog. So they're going to try again, and I'm going with them next time! We may go hiking in couple of places this weekend, if it's clear out. This weekend we did some grocery shopping and some laundry, and it's nice to see the malls all decked out in Christmas decorations already. I've heard that most people here celebrate Christmas for the holiday part of it, not necessarily for the Christian meaning behind it, but I'm thankful for that still because all the decorations and Christmas music is putting me in the holiday spirit! It still doesn't beat being home and with my family on Christmas. In our classes we've started learning about Chinese ceramics, jade, and bronze and it's actually pretty interesting. Tonight we are celebrating finishing our midterm with an ice cream social in our professors' room and then heading out to the Temple Street Night Market! Should be fun. Here are some pictures from Thailand, since I haven't uploaded them yet.

The Grand Palace in Bangkok

being goofs!

The Reclining Buddha at Wat Po

The view from the top of Wat Arun

Our room at the Shangri-La Hotel!

We had tea at the Oriental Hotel with my friend Rachel and her mom

In Chiang Mai I got to see Petra!

The night market in Chiang Mai

At the elephant camp!

bought a ring!

the climb to the Doi Suthep temple

So... a lot has happened between my last blog post and the present time. I'll try to fill you in without making you fall asleep. My mom and I had a BLAST in Thailand! The Thai are incredibly hospitable and friendly, so much so that my mom kept inviting them back to Minnesota because they'd never seen snow :) After our stay in Bangkok, mom and I took an overnight train to Chiang Mai where we met up with my college roommate Petra, who is studying there for her St. Olaf program. She's been there for over a month, so she showed us around. It was SO GOOD to see her, and we went shopping at the night market for bags, shorts, Thai silk; you name it, it was probably there. The next day is one of my favorite parts of Global, and I know I say that a lot on here but it really was, because I was with my mom for it! We had decided on an excursion through our hotel to an elephant camp. Now I'll tell you about it but I won't go into too much detail because I don't want to make it sound TOO great (which it was) because people like my sister may be a bit angry that they weren't there. First off, we got to the camp and were able to play with the elephants a bit and get lifted up in their trunks and sit under their heads--I got a little bit drooled on I must admit. Then all the elephants performed a fantastic show for us in which they played harmonicas, danced, punted soccer balls around, and, most impressively, PAINTED. They painted pictures of elephants! That were realistic! It was amazing, and I thought that their trainers must have been doing something to help them but it really seemed like elephants are artistic animals. After the show we went on a bamboo raft ride down the river, then rode on the back of an elephant through the mountains and all the beautiful scenery, feeding our elephant Chomai bananas and sugarcane the whole way. We rode in an ox cart, and then were driven to a refugee village inhabited by the Longneck people and the big ear tribes. I was a little uncomfortable that tourists were being taken to just look at these people and take pictures of them (it felt awkward) but they had shops set up and we learned about their neck rings, and eventually I started playing with the little kids there and I felt a little better. They were all very proud of their neck rings, looking on it as a sign of beauty. My mom and I wondered if they would consider us not as beautiful because our necks aren't long and encased in brass coils! It was an interesting perspective shift. After the village we saw a beautiful orchid farm.That night we had delicious Thai dinner with Petra again and the next day flew back to Bangkok. That was the majority of our trip to Thailand, and it was wonderful. I really miss my mom now!
So on to part two: we are now in Hong Kong! We took the nicest airplane I've ever seen to get here; an Emirates airplane with two floors, gourmet food, hundreds of movies, games, internet, news, radio, etc options to choose from in front of your face on a screen, and bathrooms with wood paneling. Don't ask me how St. Olaf managed to snag THOSE tickets, I have no idea. We have been exploring the city little by little and our hotel is pretty fancy. We've been to several markets to get food (we have kitchens in our hotel suites and are on our own for food this month) and clothing. Many people here are buying new wardrobes in preparation for colder weather. Lucky for me, my mom brought me a change of clothes! So we've done a lot of shopping. Tonight a group of us decided to go out for sushi. Our friend Ian who is on Global with us is actually from Hong Kong, and he knew of a place that had half-price sushi after 10 pm, so we headed over there for what would be the "best sushi" people have ever had! It was my first time trying sushi (except for once when I was little but I thought the seaweed was gross) and my friends convinced me to go. I got salmon, shrimp, and crab sushi and I still thought the seaweed was disgusting but otherwise, it was delicious! And very cheap. We navigated the trains and subways all the way back, and I am still wired after such a fun night out. Tomorrow we might go hiking! The amazing thing that I love about Hong Kong is that the view from our hotel window encompasses a river leading to the ocean, a huge city skyline, and right behind all of this, the gorgeous mountains reaching up over the buildings. All three things in the same line of sight! It amazes me. I love this city!!!!

Last day at the ECC with the kids!

The Taj Mahal

Beautiful semi-precious stone inlay

Agra Fort

Hellooooo there!

WE ARE IN THAILAND!! Samadi! (means hello, good morning, thank you, sorry, nice to meet you, etc). We finished up our trip to India with a bang (literally) in New Delhi, where the Diwali celebration was happening everywhere around us with tea candles lining the streets in traditional "diyyas," fireworks being set off by store owners (and almost singeing a few of us), fireworks everywhere throughout the city, and a great cloud of smog looming above us and obscuring the buildings. It sounded like there was a war going on from all the booming around us. We had our own little Diwali fireworks celebration in the parking lot of the YMCA where we stayed, and the staff sent us away with some fun gifts, typical Indian hospitality. The last part of our stay in Bangalore had been great--we had fireworks with the kids, ate lots of Tex-Mex food at the local mall, took our final, and had our last cup of tea before our sad farewell to the staff and their families. We were all very sad to leave that place, but I must admit that I was really excited to go to Delhi because that meant I was that much closer to Thailand and seeing my mom! In Delhi we also got to see the Taj Mahal, one of the wonders of the world! It was BEAUTIFUL, the largest love monument in the world. Made completely of marble with precious stones inlaid, it's a huge mausoleum for the wife of Shah Jahan who died in childbirth. It was so surreal to actually be in front of this building that I'd only seen in movies. Later we saw Agra Fort, which had great views of the Taj Mahal and was enormous.
So now, we're in Thailand. When we got here the first night I saw my mom and started bawling. I had no idea how much I truly missed her until she was physically there in front of me! We both were embarrassingly emotional; so much so that other Global students who were watching teared up a bit too. That night we stayed up until two am talking and packing. Yesterday, we went with the Global group on a bus tour of Bangkok! We first visited the Grand Palace, a major tourist site that looks like a mix of Candyland, Disneyworld, and all of my sequined dance costumes rolled into majestic buildings. They had mirrors on them and fancy designs, and in one there was the famous emerald Buddha statue, enshrined in a mountain of golden... things. I'm not sure what they were. The tourists there were mostly Chinese and East Asian and were VERY pushy. I thought I would be stampeded for sure. We also visited Wat Pho, the famous site of the 151 foot reclining Buddha, covered in gold leaf with mother of pearl inlaid in its gigantic feet. After that we climbed the Wat Arun temple, which was very scary considering that at one point the stairs were so steep that they were practically a ladder going straight up and down, and that I had a very overweight backpack on that threatened to pull me backwards and off the side of the temple. My  mom and I checked into the Shangri-La hotel later, and our room has gorgeous views of the river. Walked downtown last night and got Thai massages--they were very painful and at one point I thought my kidneys might fail from the pressure put on them :) Also, they walked on our backs and cracked our whole bodies, pretty much. Quite an experience and we feel bruised but it also felt good! Today we went to the Jim Thompson museum for a tour and saw how silk was made. We had high tea at the Oriental Hotel (the nicest hotel in the world according to Thai tour guides) with my Global friend who is staying there with her mom, and I think it is probably the nicest hotel I've ever seen in my life. Afterward we headed to the Asiatique Market to find a puppet show that unfortunately evaded us, but we got good pad thai anyway. Now we're exhausted and off to bed!

Hey everyone!
We are at a hotel with free wi-fi so I have more time to write this blog post. Wow, have we been busy this past week! We've had classes every day, as well as two holidays to celebrate at the ECC: Halloween and Diwali. For Halloween we went all out and decided to make a haunted house for the kids of the ECC staff. Global groups have done things like this in the past, but we like to think that we went a step further this year. We converted the Dialogue House (the hostel where we're staying) into a full-blown haunted house in which we were all characters. We bought face paint, wrapped ourselves in toilet paper and sheets, hung sheets from the rafters, hid behind screen doors, made chair tunnels, etc. We even painted Kelsey's face green and had her stir a "cauldron" and cackle a little bit. It was funny and the kids absolutely LOVED it! We tried to make it a little less scary for the younger kids by telling them that once they said Happy Halloween to the monsters that we would turn nice and give them candy. My post was at the end of the chair tunnel and I got a couple of good screams. Then after all THIS, we brought the kids and their parents into the classroom where we'd organized a cake walk, coloring, face painting, and music. It was a PARTY! Then at the end we took them outside and set off some poppers--I have no idea what they were actually because I stayed behind to start cleanup, which was quite a daunting task since the kids threw their wrappers every which way and their crayons as well. It was such a fun night, and we were so exhausted after doing all of this for the kids that we kind of forgot to do anything for ourselves! We played a round of the game Mafia and some people watched a scary movie, but lots of us ended up falling into bed.
The very next day, we celebrated Diwali (a Hindu light festival) with the staff at ECC. The ECC celebrates all religious holidays because they are ecumenical and they have Hindu staff. Actual Diwali isn't until November 14th or so, but the ECC always celebrates it early with the Global students. Usually it's quite an event and they set off fireworks and play games, but it was raining that whole day so we put on our brand new saris and went to eat food and listen to a speech about Diwali in the cafeteria. We hung out with the staff for a bit and then took pictures for a half an hour in our saris. It felt like prom--there were so many different colors!
The rest of this week has been full of classes, and today we went on an excursion to Mysore. On the way we stopped at two temples, one involving walking up the side of a mountain (literally) on 500 or so steep steps to a Jainist temple. It had the largest statue in India (if I heard correctly) and we saw a worship ceremony going on when we got there. It was a little strange for us because there were some naked people and they were worshipping the statue of a man who was not even a god, just a leader of the people back in the 900s when it was built. So many of us decided to go sit outside and look at the jaw-dropping view of the Indian countryside way below us. It was beautiful. The second temple took more than 80 years to build and is still unfinished (called the Halebid Temple) and it was extremely intricate--small elephants, mythological scenes, and other elephants were hand carved all over the temple and they were the most painstakingly detailed stone carvings I've ever seen.
Tomorrow we're visiting the Mysore Palace and might be riding some elephants... can't wait! Our stay in India is almost over and I'm getting sad to leave because the people are so nice here. However, I can't wait to see my mom in Thailand!