Today, I felt like a hick...

What an exhausting day. Class was a lot better today: it was more lively, we talked about Chinese history and there's one more student in our class. That brings the headcount in our class to 3! Wow! Isn't that different from the U of T experience...Anyhow, class wasn't the exhausting part of my day (although the exercises that made you make sentences with certain words made me want to headdesk myself...). The exhaustion came from free time, actually.

So today, my friend Suki went and visited her relatives and then she wanted to get her hair cut in a place near Causeway Bay station. Since we only had morning classes today and I figured that we needed to get out as much as possible before next week when our full day classes start, we decided that I'll go to Causeway Bay too, which was rumoured to be the financial district, and since in Hong Kong, money+people=shopping malls, I figured that I'd find one and explore until her hair is cut and then I would go meet up with her for a yummy dinner.

In any case, I decided to wikipedia Causeway Bay to see what sort of sights and sounds were nearby. To me, the two coolest attractions were Victoria Park and a shopping mall called Times Square. I thought about this some more and figured that wandering around a large open space could be dangerous for me and my directile dysfunction so I crossed Victoria Park off my list and decided to go to Times Square since wikipedia informed me that there is a path that leads directly to the mall. So off I went; and I must say, the trip was an adventure in itself. Take a look at this subway map. I had to go from University station (on the light blue line) to Causeway Bay at the very bottom on the dark blue line. The trip took 1 hour in total. Then, I had to trek about 500 miles (or it felt like 500 miles) of underground tunnels to get to this mall:


Did you go, "Pshttttt, that's it?" Well, here's another picture:


I hope this picture puts you in my perspective. I felt like a peasant in here gaping at the shininess and prettiness of the place.

Also, please note that this picture only shows floors 3 to 7 above ground. There are 9 floors above ground in total and also 2 floors below the ground. All of them full of people who could afford the fancypants stuff they sold there. It was then when I started to feel totally overwhelmed. I mean, I was in a foreign country in one of the biggest and most gorgeous malls I've ever seen with all of these fancy stores and it was totally packed with people. I also stood there for a bit and stared wide-eyed and my mouth hanging open. I actually felt like some back-country hick who came to the big city for the very first time. Seriously. For most of you, I know that you know that Toronto is not a small town. Although it might as well be when you compare it to Hong Kong...

In any case, I think this was a huge lesson on culture shock. I admit that my eyes glazed over a bit when the exchange office talked about it in the pre-departure session. I thought that Hong Kong would be similar enough to Taiwan and that I'd be accustomed to everything soon enough. Happily enough, I guess, Hong Kong is nothing I expected it to be and now I think that it's a good thing.

Anyways, there's a quiz tomorrow and I need to study. Balancing travel, class and studying is so hard here... On a happier thought, I'll leave you with a few images of my voyage to Causeway Bay.

There were all of these wonderful sculptures in front of the mall. This one and the rhino were my favourites.
There was more art in the mall!

Coolest bookstore (that's probably a chain) I've ever seen in my life!

There was a music store with funky-looking instruments!

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!! YULYA!!! IT'S AZUMA'S TURTLE BREADDDDDD!!!