December 10, 2011

Hello Everyone! Ni Hao! Lei Ho!

So it’s been an interesting week since my last post. My roommate Tucker returned from his US holiday on Sunday. So now I have someone else in the apartment besides my shadow!  This past weekend I really did not do too much, Ben came over Friday and stayed at the place all weekend so we pretty much just hung out and watched movies.  Then on Sunday Tucker came back like I said, so all three of us were in the apartment together for the first time since Tucker left. To celebrate his return we decided to go out for Sunday dinner together.  The restaurant we went to is called “The Jockey”, it is located in Happy Valley right next to the race course and is owned by an American. It is actually right next to Happy Valley Bar and Grill, the place I sometimes go after Lacrosse. 

Ben and I actually had the same thing; a blue cheese bacon burger. I thought it was overpriced for sure, the burger was not bad, but not worth $15 US. Tucker was actually so jet lagged that he barely took any bites of his meal! So after dinner we just went straight home and crashed for the night.

Actually on Saturday, Ben went out to lunch with his Father and a family friend so I spent some of the day running errands. I finally got a haircut, the first one I have ever got in Hong Kong! The place I went to came recommended from a few of the guys I met on Thanksgiving, they told me I had to ask for Ash to cut my hair.  So on Saturday morning I called up ‘Vickies Salon’ and booked an appointment for 2:00 pm.

 I planned on taking the tram from Causeway Bay to Wanchai where the salon is, however when I got to the tram stop, I realized I had no idea which tram I had to get on! So I ended up just taking a taxi and told the driver to take me to Wanchai Market, as I knew that it was near the Salon.  However, when I got out of the taxi I found Wanchai market but could not find the salon anywhere! So after walking around in circles for about 10 minutes I finally just called the salon, but that did not work at first because I could not understand much of what ‘Vickie’ was saying. I guess when I did not show up for a while, she realized I was still lost and had an English speaking worker of hers talk to me.  I finally found the place with help and only had to wait for about 10 minutes to get my haircut.

Overall, It was a pleasant experience because I thought my haircut looked nice and he service was superb. One thing that really stood out was that after receiving a haircut I always hate little hair particles all over me.
Even when they blow dry it off there are always some left itching. So at Vickie's they will rinse off your hair after the cut as well! Compared to the other places that I saw this was a terrific price as well, it only cost $136 HK and every other place cost around $200 or more!

After I was all done with 'Vickies' I decided to walk around the Wanchai market for a little while as I had never seen it and heard it was quite big.  I'm really glad I did as well because I ended up purchasing a couple items. The market is huge and just like the Wet Market we have in Causeway Bay, there is a section for fresh seafood and meats, except unlike in

Causeway this section in Wanchai is actually inside a building. The outside section of the market is composed of 3 adjoining streets and just like most of the markets in Hong Kong you can buy just about anything there. I ended up leaving with a bag of mixed candy, a huge bag of almonds and also a Santa Cap. I bought the candy because I knew it would get eaten between Ben and I, and the almonds were for work as I like to snack. If you buy them at the grocery store the price triples for far less. The Santa cap cost me $10 HKD and was basically a impulse buy, however their is a chance that I will be doing a Christmas bar hop on this coming Saturday so it could come to good use then. If not then I will wear it on Christmas as I open my gifts and video chat my family.

Some of the Fresh Seafood

Small portion of Wanchai Market

Taco Loco

When I decided I was done venturing around the market I started walking towards Central because I wanted to visit the H&M store and, see if their were any part-time openings. I figure I should get a part-time job to add a little extra cash flow for my everyday life.  When I finally arrived at the H&M store I  immediately became lost as it is humongous! The store is the only one in Hong Kong and it is 4 floors. You enter on the second floor and I had no idea where the mens section was so, of course I went all the way up to the fourth floor before I realized I needed to be on the bottom floor!  The place was super busy as it was a Saturday so when I finally got a hold of an employee I was disappointed to find out they only took applications online.  However, I went all the way to Central and I was not about to make the whole trip a failure so I decided to go grab a burrito at 'Taco Loco'. I find Central is a terrific place to just sit and people watch as there are so many people coming and going.  Taco Loco is located right in the heart of Soho and there are bars all around it, luckily as I was eating I had some entertainment as their was a large group of people doing a bar hop.  They were super drunk and dressed up in all different types of outfits, so I enjoyed my lunch and watched them.

Some of the people in the Barhop

Demonstration (not real thank god!)

After that adventure I met back up with Ben and we decided that we really wanted to play Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 so we went and picked that up, we ended up beating the campaign by the end of the night.  However on our way to the store we saw this demonstration which I captured in the picture below.  It was people who were demonstrating against the Chinese Government for the way they treated the Falun Gong people. Apparently, it was a huge thing that I guess I just never heard about, but some of these people were tortured others killed and some even had their organs taken and sold for profit; which they are demonstrating here.

Monday was an exciting day for me this week as I finally was able to go pick up my custom suit which my parents bought me as a Christmas gift! It came out great and I really like the way it looks on me, but I will let you be the judge. My only issue with it is the fact that I asked for the inside liner to be a baby blue and they forgot so it ended up being just plain black. They ended up giving me $200 HKD off for the mistake so I let it slide.

Mr. Taco Truck Burrito's

Taco Loco was not the only Mexican place that I have ate at recently, in fact on Wednesday, Tucker and I decided to grab lunch together. He has this app on his iphone that you can search for any type of food around your location and it will give you results plus rating, pictures and reviews.  So we searched Mexican and found this place called 'The Taco Truck' and it was located in Quarry Bay which is 4 stops on the MTR away from Causeway Bay. Yesterday after work Tucker and I headed to Happy Valley to watch the horse races. It was a big event at the race track as it was the Cathay Pacific International Jockey Championship. They even had fireworks which Tucker and I watched from outside the track so we could get a nice view of the fireworks.  

At the track we met up with a couple of our English friends who live in our building on the 17th floor.  They are a good group of guys and all work as engineers here in Hong Kong. Out of all of us I think only one of us won any of our bets, so it was pretty much a losing night.

Yesterday (Thursday) was a pretty regular day, went through the motions at work got home and was pretty exhausted.  I did not go to the gym because I had to meet a couple friends in Wanchai at 8:00pm so, it would have been cutting it close.  Tucker decided he wanted to tag along so we took the tram to Wanchai together.  We met my friends at Mes Amis which is a popular bar in Wanchai, the reason we were meeting was because one of the kids I play Lacrosse with Jordan Wong, is leaving Hong Kong. Jordan is from Canada and plays lacrosse at Bellarmine University. He is a good kid and I will miss hanging out with him, he says he really wants to come back here after graduation so hopefully he does!  One of the other guys we met with Jordan West-Pratt is also from Canada, however he lives here with his wife and they both are teachers at one of the Hong Kong high schools.  He is a great guy and I am really glad that I was able to meet and become friends with him.  He has played professional box lacrosse, and when he and his wife were teaching in Berlin he had the opportunity to play for team Germany which is something really special.  Anyway we had a few drinks then Jordan Wong and his friends had to leave to go to their going away party, so Jordan West-Pratt sent him off with a bang by buying us all shots.  This shot he introduced us to was a custom shot that apparently one of his buddies came up with. Its called the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and is a mix of Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Johnny Walker and Jose Cuervo.  It sound terrible and to tell you the honest truth, it really isn't in fact its actually not bad.  From there Tucker and I grabbed some Ebeneezer's for dinner, and then took the tram back home.

That's really it for now, I do have a big weekend which I am pretty excited about! On Saturday night we will be celebrating my friend Pramond's birthday at this club called "Prive".  Pramond actually rented out all of the tables at the VIP section in the club so it should be one hell of a time with friends! Then on Sunday I will be pretty busy working on a project during the day but at night I will have my second Lacrosse game with team Skyers, after the game Tucker and I talked to Jordan about getting together for a couple beers.  So I am looking forward to that as well.
All I have left to say is Go Patriots, Go Bruins! Until next time...Adios!