Clubbing, Macau, and Strange Food =)

Friday was a good day. I went to work and designed a bit before lunch with the guys. After lunch designed more then we celebrated Alvin's birthday with cake and alcohol. This was my first official dose of alcohol in 2+ weeks. LOL, so glorious. Wow.  After work my colleague Salina and I went to Lan Kwai Fong (The clubbing street in Hong Kong) to have a happy hour drink. OMFG, Lan Kwai fong is soo fun! As you walk down the street, you see many people just having fun drinking and talking. Every Single establishment on the street is playing loud fun music. It's just an amazing atmosphere there. We went to this bar called Fong, and I got this raspberry alcohol drink with vodka and gin. YUM. Salina had a malibu Pineapple. 

Afterwords Salina and I walked back to my place so I could quickly change and drop off my laptop. We left and took the taxi to Causeway bay to have dinner at the "Causeway  Way Salty Crab" Restaurant with some people from work. We had so many things, 9 dishes! Every course because more peculiar than the next. We started out with scallops, crab, and salt+pepper squid. Then, I was encouraged to try some new foods that I've never eaten in my life. LOL. I had some humungous Oysters which tasted good. Eel that tasted just as good but the bones are TINY! Thousand Year egg that I took one bite of and I was done. And.... Snails! Ahh, it didn't taste too bad but just the thought of eating snails kind of made me cringe. If someone wouldnt have told me it was snails and it was taken out of its shell already, I wonder if it would have been more appetizing. LOL

After dinner my friends and I walked to this bar in Causeway bay. I wasn't really in the mood to drink there because it was minimum 150HKD if you ordered. Instead Treyna and I went take the MTR back to central to go clubbing! We were looking for this club called Volume. We were lost for a good 20 minutes but ended up finding it. OMG, i don't know if it was because I was super drunk and I was looking forward to going to the club, but this place was fun. It played techno music, kind of like the club neighbours back at home, but this was way better. I bought 2 drinks but also they were handing out free shots of vodka around by the waiters! OMG free alcohol, forreal?? Shoot. I had a good time, dancing. Geez, if "knocks you down" by Keri Hilson would have came on, I would have flipped out!! I wish it would have played, but oh well. Oh yeah, and I kinda kissed a stranger, eh. I have the person's number though! hahahaha.

As I was walking back home from Lan Kwai Fong, I had to take the escalators back up. Oh.. but wait... CONVENIENTLY, they shut off the escalators at 12AM. WTF? Whos great idea was that. Alot of people go clubbing, and wouldn't it be more sensible to keep them on!? During the walk back up, LOL, i had drunk dialed my friend Alyssa back at home in the states. She was laughing her ass off. Geez!! but anyways, what should have been a 10 minute escalator ride, was much more. Half way, i was like.. FUCK THIS, I'm getting a cab back to my place, which I did. LOL, i was still pretty buzzed at this time. I just remember wavign my hand at a taxi cab, going in, saying "Robinson Road 17 mgoi sai", sitting in the seat. LOL. When I got home, Celly was up and I felt bad becaues i think she was waiting up for me! Iremembered drunk IMing people, geez. 

The morning came and I had to get ready for going to Macau (the las vegas of asia). This 2 day expedition was much needed. The first day we stayed at the Grand Lapa hotel. Really nice there! The lobby is really nice and our room was very comfortable. We were supposed to have lunch at this restaurant outside the hotel, but they wouldn't let me in! WHY? Because i was wearing shorts and flip flops. So annoying. Its 90 degrees out and I'm not trying to wear pants and shoes like I do during the week day. We ended up going to this portuguese restaurant where I had spinach and chorizo soup, Steamed bass, cod, and rice. SO good! We went back to the hotel. The resort had so many things to do. I ended up swimming in their swimming pool. They had a water slide and a waterfall. So nice! The also have tennis courts, a gym, rock climbing walls, etc. OMG their pool boy was so cute! Ahh! So BOMB!! He had this swagger to him and he walked like it. Geez!!! Later that night I went to the spa. I had used their sauna, jacuzzi, and steam room. Their steam room was really nice! It had eucaliptus or SOMETHING steaming. Afterwards, I went to get an aromatherapy massage. It was sooo relaxing and smelled so good! I must have fallen asleep many times during the session. The lady was filipno. How do I know? Because she kept saying my last name correctly. LOL, I asked her and she siad yes! are you? LOL. later on that night Another guy asked if I was filipno, because he saw me write my name on a bill. THere are HELLA filipnos in Hong Kong. 

The next morning, We went to lunch at the dimsum restaurant in the hotel. It was really nice and the food was pretty good. I learned some Hong Kong etiquette. Like for example, when you receive tea and its being poured, you have to do this tapping motion on the table. It's a way of showing thanks apparently. We went to Macau with my ninang and her friends Louis and Therese. They are really nice people, and have british accents  so cool. Louis speaks cantonese fluently, and he's been trying to teach me! After lunch we walked around and gambled some. I doubled my money, about 60 HKD. LOL about 10 USD. Afterwards we headed to another hotel to check in. We stayed at the Venetian Hotel. Everything is so grand there. Ive been trying to plan a macau trip with Nicole,  Fiona, and Emily! I had good and bad luck with gambling. I was up 500HKD in the tables, and ended up losing 400 of it and walked away with only 100HKD. Later I ended up losing 500 more HKD playing blackjack. Ugh, then i stopped. I ended up shopping in the venetian hotel canal malls. There were so many sales going on! I ended up picking up a few things from FCUK (french connection united kingdom)  and the nike store. I had to sleep early because I had to take a ferry back to Central HK at 7:30 so i could go to work at 10. yay.

The best things in Hong Kong are hidden

These past two days have been really fun for me. I got to go eat dim sum (finally) and eat lunch at another restaurant with my coworkers. This dimsum place and the other place I ate lunch at is literally hidden somewhere in this compacted city. We went through so many streets that I don't even know how to find my way back to eat at those places if I even wanted to go by myself. We ate at this dimsum restaruant wednesday at lunch for one of the guys' birthday in the design studio. His name is alvin. About 11 people from work came along, and we ordered SO MUCH FOOD! Oh my goodness. The table couldn't even fit the amount of dim sum we had ordered. I had the usual ha gow and siomai. But then I also ate new things like scallion cake, this really seasoned vegetables, and more! The total bill came up to about 126HKD, about 16USD. Not bad, I'm thinking, since we ordered a ton of food!

The next day for lunch, the guys and treyna brought me to this small restaurant, where I can't even tell you the location. We walked through many streets just to get there (thank goodness that we have an hour for lunch!!). I had what my friend gary had (minus the eggs). I had rice, chicken cutlets, vegetable preserves, and 2 links of sausage. I also got a bottle of coke, and all together it was less than 5 USD. WTF! that's a deal!! During lunch, my friends were helping me learn new cantonese phrases. LOL, I learned how to say "I Love you" and "She is a tourist". hahah, i gotta take it day by day.. ya kno?

When I got back to work, I continued working on a few projects. I had to make revisions on a few CMHI covers so that they would be ready for monday when the client sees the presentation. Day by day I've been really getting comfortable with the people I work with, I just wish i knew cantonese better!!

After work today, I took my time to walk home so I could take some pictures! I took alot. Tomorrow should be really fun. Later friday night, some friends from work agreed to go out with me to the club and drink and have fun! Hopefully these plans will happen! And saturday and sunday I'm going to Macau! I was planning on getting a massage in one of the hotels. I am soo excited for this weekend!! =)

Thinning Shears are NOT hair clippers

Woke up early this morning, because I kept waking up unexpectedly throughout the night. It was very uncomfortable! For breakfast, I ate a banana with toast w/ jelly. I got to the design studio, and was kept busy throughout the day. I put some final revisions for the CMHI client in a PDF. Also, I got the opportunity to help design the Interim Report Cover for this light provider company called CLP. 

For lunch I went to Cafe De Corale and had BBQ pork, Sausage, Rice, and Soda! All this was 33 HKD, which was less than 5USD! OMG, crazy!! It was soo good!

After work, I needed to get a haircut badly, so I walked down 2 streets to Stanley Street, and I found a hair salon. It started out well; I got my hair shampooed and it was so relaxing. Then the lady who cut my hair started. She used thinning shears to cut my hair! WTF?! I basically had to guide the lady throughout the whole time, but since she used thinning shears, I look like I have thin hair. Good thing I have thick hair to begin with. The lady, though, who cut my hair was so annoying. She kept talking to me and kept trying to solicit he services. She kept asking my phone number, email, my full name and what not. I was like, uhh, I don't know my number, I'm new here. When she went to rinse my hair, she was gonna pop one of my pimples in my forehead. Then I had to Stop her. WOW!

Anyways, I got home, and ate dinner. Lumpia, Fried Rice, vegetables, and soup. Yum

Back to the city

Hey everyone

Today started out with me waking up several times throughout the morning. Every hour or so I would wake up from sleep to just check my facebook. That's how big of a nerd I am. LOL. This weekend was really relaxing. I ended up watching the entire season 6 of Friends. I got ready at about 6:45AM because we had to leave the house by 7:45 to catch the bus then the ferry back to Central Hong Kong. The ferry ride was particularly enjoyable and relaxing. As we were riding on the ferry, I look outside as we were approaching the dock, and I see a tall building with a familiar logo. It's the company's logo that I've been designing for (The China Merchants Holdings International Company). I was surprised that this company was pretty big, and that it's logo, which I've been using in my design, was plastered on this tall high-rise building.

I get to work at 10AM and I've been working on a few things that I've been doing last week. The CHMI covers and the Licee Envelopes. Work was pretty good today, I was kept busy the entire time. For Lunch, a few of the other designers invited me to go eat lunch with them. I was really excited for this, because this would have been the first real time I'd have spent any time with them outside of the studio. We went to some random restaurant where I ate noodle soup with some pork dumplings. I also had milk tea. We talked about random things, like where I lived in HK, Camera lenses, How to hold chopsticks correctly (lol), and etc. We got back to the studio, and I continued working until it was time to leave at 6:30pm.

I was contemplating whether I wanted to get a drink after work, because there are several bars around the studio AND where I live, which was a 10 minute walk away from where I work. I decided not to, which I'm kind of regretting now. I haven't drank in SOO LONG! omg, I think i've mentioned this so many times in my past blog entries. I had dinner, which consisted of cabbage+carrot soup, fried talapia, eggplant omelet, and fried rice. (thanks celly!). Afterwards, I started to watch season 7 of Friends.

Right now, I feel like I should enroll into a gym. I've been eating soo much lately, that I need to exercise somehow. I wish I'd have brought my tennis racket with me so I could find a way to play! But there's this gym near where I live, about a 5 minute walk, called PURE fitness. It looks really nice from the outside. They even have a restaurant with a bar inside, which i find kind of funny. My ninang is a part of that gym, maybe I'll ask her sometime and see if I could enroll sooooon.

It's now 10:34PM, and I'm to bed now. I have work again at 10AM tomorrow morning. Goodnight =)

Chill Saturday

This morning was saturday morning, and I woke up to having breakfast ready on Ninang's rooftop Patio. It was hella hot outside, and it was only 9AM! I had eggs, bacon, rice, toast, fresh blueberry juice, cherries. Yum. After breakfast, I layed on the lounge chairs on the upper deck and was just talking with my Ninang for a bit. We talked about my possible trip to Shanghai towards the end of September, and of me going to Philippines later in september too. Hopefully this can work!

Afterwards, I went back into my room with the AC put on blast. I was just laying around for a few hours, just chillin. Man, working 40 hour weeks are really draining and stressful! I didn't appreciate being at the weekend house last week, but this week, I'm straight up relaxin! For lunch, Celly made some pulled lechon meat, stirfry vegetables, and rice. Hella bomb. I stayed in my room for a bit afterwards then my ninang, celly, and I went to Tong Fuk beach where I swam and they walked along the shore. This beach is a salt water beach, and sort of reminded me of Boracay, Philippines... but not as pretty, that's for sure. When we got home, we got ready for dinner at this Chinese Seafood restaurant where they cook seafood that they've freshly and newly caught. We had scallops (still on the shell), salt and pepper squid, Ginger Crab, vegetables, Sweet and Sour Pork, Pan Fried Tofu, Broiled Prawns, and... PIGEON. WTF! My ninang and her friends were really trying to get me to eat some pigeon... and that wasn't about to happen. LOL

When I got home, I just went to my room, watched a few episodes of FRIENDS and fell asleep. It was a really relaxing day today, and I enjoyed myself. Next week, i'm gonna try and remember to bring my running shoes because I need to exercise! It's harder to go running in Ninang's weekday place, because it's in the city, but in Lantau I could easily go running. I just need to watch out for the roaming cows and whatnot. LOL. Also, I've realized that since I've been here, I've been eating ALOT of vegetables. I've found my new love for stirfry cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage! yum

Finally the weekend

It's 10:40PM on Friday, July 31st. I'm at ninang's weekend house in Lantau Island. I woke up today and went to work. I brought my northface denali fleece sweater with me because the studio puts the AC on blast, and I get hella cold! Brr. I brought an extention cord with me to work because of what happened yesterday: When I was unplugging my laptop charger, I accidentally pressed the switch of the power strip, and one guy's computer shut off. I felt so bad! I didn't know what to do. Anyways, a quick fix to prevent that from happening again, was to bring an extention cord, lol. 

I notice that everyday at work, I usually work extensively on projects until 2 hours after lunch. Then afterwards, I feel like I've done all the I can and I usually just tweak little things in my designs. But for the most part, I really need to find more to do in these last 2 hours. Sometimes I feel like an outsider with the rest of the design studio, with the exception of a couple people who have reached out to me. But, I do understand that there is a language barrier for the most part, and that I may just need to give it time. They all seem pretty nice though!

After work, I took the MTR to Tung Chung at the City Gate outlets. I had dinner there and had pan fried pork dumplings, fried rice, coconut and sugo. Yumm! Then I walked around and looked at the outlet stores that were there: there was puma, nike addidas, armani exchange, etc... Hopefully I can go back there, because I saw a messenger bag there from Puma that I was considering buying. Afterwards my godmother took me grocery shopping and we got a few things. We took a taxi back to her place in Tong Fuk, which was about a 10 minute drive. Im here at her house, on the bed, enjoying wifi and AC. yay

old school bowling

Hey everyone! Hong Kong is still hot and the humid is not enjoyable, but I am having a great time here. I have just completed my 4th day at Monopoly Design as an intern. I have met a few people so far, and they are really nice. Still working on those projects that were mentioned in the previous post. I really think that my friends should get to HK quick! I wanna go to Lan Kwai Fong sooon and get drunk. I haven't drank in over a week already. I must sound like a DAMN alchy right now, but I miss drinking and going out with my cousins and friends. 

After work today I went to the Hong Kong club. My ninang was there bowling with her friends and she asked me before If i wanted to join her. I said yes! However, I was very surprised about how DIFFERENT it was from bowling back home. It's not like ACME bowl in southcenter everyone. Apparently the bowling lanes in the Hong Kong club is the oldest in Hong Kong. There's only 4 lanes. There are attendants who manually reposition the bowling pins instead of an actual machine that does it. Also, there is no computer scoring your score, you have to do it manually. OLD SCHOOL. LOL. I was having a really crappy bowling day, I only bowled 110. I usually bowl 150+, especially when I'm drunk (all my cousins can attest to that, lol).

Tomorrow, My ninang, her maid celly, and I are going to Lantau Island on tong fuk. I can see why she likes going there everyweekend. Its so chill and relaxing there, which is the complete opposite of her home and area in central hong kong. I'm looking forward to going there this weekend. I'm looking forward to possibly swimming in the beach again and also going to the outlet malls in city gate. Hopefully I can go!!

See you later