Hong Kong Hi-jinks

After getting on the plane in Los Angeles, we were shocked to see how, well, comfortable it was. There were cushions everywhere, chairs that looked like beds, free food, and my personal favorite: movies that had came out in theaters a few months ago. These were just the Economy seats! The AFSers were happy to be on the plane, but we could all tell what the undertone was. “You're gonna be on this plane a looong time”. The YES Abroad students had a separate group of seats, since their scholarship got their seats at a different time. That meant that it was just me, Jackie (the other BP scholar), and our Guardian/coordinator/person-making-sure-we-get-to-everything-on time, Linda, sitting in the aisle in the front.

I strapped in my seat belt then turned on the TV, which showed a camera of us outside. “This looks so wei...”

I fell asleep as soon as we took off. I was up very early in the morning though, way before practically anyone else on the plane. When I woke up, I found my way to the bathroom to get fresh, and then to a flight attendant. I asked for Sprite, because no matter how cheap or how expensive the plane ride, there is always Sprite. This one was no exception. The Sprite was good. I got another cup. Now that I had energy, I walked over to my friends on the other side of the plane. The YES Abroad students were sleep, except for one (who's name I won't say, in case the YES Abroad students are reading this) was taking pictures of our friends while they were sleeping in the funniest way possible. I greeted [censored], who greeted me back, and then resumed walking back to my side of the plane. With Sprite.

When I got back, Jackie was up (barely), she informed m that I missed dinner after I slept, which I was not pleased with. “Why didn't you wake me!?!?!” I asked angrily, yet jokingly, “I don't know, I jut didn't!” We laughed. Trying to hange the subject, I asked her about movies. Early that morning I had watched The Departed on my tablet (great film), and GI Joe:Retaliation on the plane's TV(not so much). Yes, I had been up quite a while before I got Sprite. Speaking of which, the Flight Attendant just passed. Five Hong Kong dollars to whoever guesses what I asked for. (SPRITE!) Yes, you are correct, audience in my head. I'm going to ship you the money shipping. Money delivered to imaginary audience member. Back to the story ( Blog!!) It's a story in a form of a blog, and unless you're quiet, I can't tell it. I'm sorry, readers, the voices I hear sometimes need to be told to shut up. I feel compelled to put their thoughts here to. Hopefully they talk less as the year progresses. (We won't) shut up, or I won't put your thoughts down.

Anyways, Jackie told me Olympus has Fallen was pretty good, so I activated the television on the chair and began to watch the film. It was a good summer film. Very good effects, and I like how the writer was pretty passive aggressive toward North Korea without actually showing it. I won't spoil the film

this one

OK, just that one spoiler 

for those that want to see, but it's about someone who IS NOT, repeat IS NOT (meaning: is) from North Korea, and is also a terrorist. I was surprised by the audacity ( audacity is what people who are politically correct say. The word is bal...) ANYWAY, the director managed to get away with making a movie that had a terrorist, and a “man that isn’t from North Korea” all while drawing in a lot of money with no political outcry. Good summer film 6/10 would watch again.

As I said before, the plane ride was long. After watching my movie, I watched Arrow, a great series about a man who becomes vigilante in fictional Starling City to deal with the post-traumatic stress of being trapped of being on an island for five years, and Kim Possible, an equally great series about a teenager who is also an agent of espionage. We landed in Hong Kong.

The most shocking thing about Hong Kong was how not-busy it was (Not-busy ain't a word. It's Not. Busy. Why you all the way in Malaysia for school if you don't know no grammar?) Not even responding to that comment. When we got to our area to wait for the plane, We found out we weren't leaving for another three hours. I had to go to the bathroom, and so did Stuart, so we went to go find a men's room.

The cliched “signs are in the wrong language so we went into the wrong bathroom” thing didn't happen (Why you lyin to people. He went into the girls bathroom on accident) the voice is lying. There are signs. I did not go into the wrong restroom.

When we left the restroom, I asked Stuart if he wanted to go find some food. Was it the best move? (NO!! What if you would have got lost in China? They would have been like 你讲普通话 , and you would have been scared out yo mind. But y'all had to get food?!?!?! which they probably gonna have on the next plane?) I get it! Not the best move. But I needed to get food.

So we took an adventure around the airport (in Hong Kong) where we discovered something about international travel. It is very difficult to find someone who speaks English (Nawwwwww. Really? Shoulda listned to me). I turned and asked Stuart “You speak Mandarin?” That may seem like a weird question to ask someone, but put that into the context that he also speaks German and Spanish, and most of the AFS students (except me, of course) speak at least 2.5 languages fluently (scary fluent, this one girl speaks five!) stop giving away spoilers, that's a major part of the next blog post!

Anyways, he didn't speak Mandarin, and I only knew 2 phrases. We searched, using our “sixth sense” to find somewhere where we can get food. I was nervous, because I didn't want to get left in Hong Kong. When my legs began to hurt (maybe an hour and a half into the quest) I saw something that made me very happy. Starbucks. As in, over expensive, free WiFi, Mocha Iced Venti Deluxes, hipster headquarters, Starbucks.

We rushed into line, and my memory became fuzzy. Stuart said I had a small panic attack. Coffee: $24. Those muffins spiked with caffeine? $19. I had no energy to go back to the area to wait on the plane (Hour left. Hurry up) Yes, that was ringing in my ears too. So I got a chocolate chip muffin, and Stuart had a green tea/red bean muffin. I went up to the counter. Bracing my wallet for the attack, I gave the man a $20. he looked at me with some disgust “NO CHANGE! AMERICA MONEY 3 DOLLARS. NO CHANGE 20 DOLLAR!” Instead of acting clueless, I calmly replaced my $20 with a 5, and was given back what translates to about two dollars in American money. Inside of course, I was overjoyed that I could go to Malaysia without losing weight. And yes, the muffin was delicious.



You might want to ask me about how we got back to the area we were supposed to wait on the plane at. I honestly couldn't tell you. Linda looked at us and nodded, as if students disappearing and reappearing was quite common. She'd been doing this for years, so I'm sure it was. Next Stop: Kuala Lumpur.






Edit: After some thinking, I am electing not to put up a post about our activities in Kuala Lumpur, because it may not agree with everyone's sensibilities. If I attempted to write an edited version, I would do the experience no justice, and would simply waste your time. Because I don't wish to offend, or worse, cause worries about moral decay, I will instead write a few lines on things I learned in Kuala Lumpur during my AFS Orientation. These thoughts are non-linear (that means he's not gonna put it in order, he's just going to write random stuff).



Everybody (teenagers at least) is the same. Skin color changes, language changes, but we all like/hate the same things, even if we like translated versions (Linkin Park Waddup).



Game is universal, if you have it, language barriers don't matter.



McDonald's is Everywhere. Next question



Things people get robbed for (Beats, Nikes, Adidas, Gold Chains, ) are dirt cheap. Things we consider ordinary (Pizza, Sprite, Red Bull,, Pringles, Cheese of any kind) are ridiculously expensive.



Difference between Architecture: American stuff evolved into what it is now, if that makes any sense. Here, it looks like they took modern architecture and built it on top of stuff that's been here since the 1700s, so there is a lot of juxtaposition ( y'know what he is talking about, old stuff and new stuff together),



Rule of thumb with cultural references: If you think people will get it, they probably won't, but if you don't think so, they probably will. For example, Mentioning Lil Wayne and Michael Jackson got zero responses, but Eddie Murphy and Fullmeatal Alchemist were pretty popular.



YouTube is censored. The Young Turks and Nirvana would not play unless I used a VPN (Google VPN, It's good for you, trust me). Ironically, Bill O'Reilly played fine



Airplane food and 20 hours of flight time can make any group into good friends. I know this to be true of the Americans, but pretty much all the groups walked around like they were all friends, or at least, knew each other well.



According to an international poll , Americans and French people are the coolest AFSers. I concur, though I think Swiss people are pretty cool too.







To my American parents reading this:
 If you want your child to be able to communicate internationally let them get on the internet as much as they want without it affecting their health. The older ones at least. In addition to nearly every teen I met understanding internet jokes (memes) and famous sites, the internet is also a gateway to world news. At the very least, they should practice their IM skills (with people they know. I am NOT advocating they go chat with pedophiles.) reason: In addition to that being my primary method of communication, about 1/10 of the people at AFS I already knew from chatting online on the Facebook Group.
A-salaam-alaikum, Jumpa lagi, etc.


-Signed, the Management