Alright, I have quite a bit of updating to do..
So I will start with Sunday. Sunday I woke up quite early and went to go meet Judy at an mtr station and we would go to Macau with Andy for the day. On Saturday when we talked about it, I thought she said to go to the Chai Wan station. On the Island Line, which is the mtr line where the station that is by my apartment is located, Chai Wan is on one end, which is the farthest one away from my apartment, and Sheung Wan is on the other end, which is only about 3 or 4 stops from the one by my apartment. So I woke up extra early because it would take me about 25-30 minutes to get to the Chai Wan station. I got up, went to the station and couldn't find Judy, she said she was waiting at the exit for me. So I called her and said I was there but couldn't see her. She said you are at exit B right? and I said yes, I am at exit B. But she thought I said D and so she went there. After about 10 minutes of confusion and not being able to find eachother, she realized I was at the Chai Wan station. Turns out she told me to meet her at the Sheung Wan station. So now I am at the farthest east station and she is at the farthest west station. Great huh? The ferry we were supposed to take was leaving at 9, and we needed to be there at 830 so we could go through customs and such. Well it was about 8:18 and I needed to travel probably 35-40 minutes to meet her at the station. I went to Sheung Wan and met her and Andy, she told me that we would take a different ferry and it left at 930. So we made this ferry and headed over to Macau. It was about an hour ride to get there. Macau is part of China, so you have to go through customs and all that fun stuff. In Macau we walked around, went to this fortress thing and this really old church which only has the front still standing, the building itself is no longer there, but the front wall is still there. It was soooo hot out this day and I thought I was going to die! It was super busy in this area as well, the streets were just packed with people! After the church and fortress we went to the Macau tower, which is like the CN tower or any other kind of tower that you can go up to the top and look at the city. There is a skywalk, which is where you get strapped into a harness type thing and you can walk the circumference of the outside of the tower, it is pretty cool, but I couldn't do it, way to high for me! There was also bungee jumping! We watched one guy do it and I was freaking out just watching him, I could never do that either! After the tower we went to a temple. There was this bowl, some type of metal, maybe bronze or something, and it had a handle on each side. There was also water in this bowl. What you do is you go and dip your hands in the water, then you rub the handles and the water starts to spray upwards. Not everyone can do this though. So I went to try it and no luck! I watched so many people before and after me do it, so I wanted to try again. I went again and lucky me, got the water to spray up, it was so cool! I felt like I was magic or something, haha. After that fun time, it was time to head back to the ferry. It left at 5, and we had to be there for 430 to go through customs and such again. By the end of the day I was not feeling so great, all of the heat and walking, probably not a sufficient amount of fluids or food either. I went and got some groceries then came home. By this point I was not doing well at all. I didn't stay up much longer then I went to bed, where I had probably the worst sleep ever! I couldn't get comfortable and I kept waking up. On Monday, yesterday, I was doing any better, stomach pains, head ache, nauseous feeling and all of that fun stuff. I went and got some medicine, which helped for about 10 minutes then wore off. I drank some aloe vera juice and had some crackers, which did help a little bit, but I was still not feeling so great. Then I got a text from a booker from my agency saying I had a casting, awesome timing huh? Since I haven't really had many castings I thought I should go because who knows, maybe by some crazy chance, I would get this job, even though I was quite ill. So I went to the casting, thought I was going to puke/pass out on my way there, but I eventually made it there. At the casting, the guy asked me a bunch of questions and I tried on 3 outfits and he took some pictures, he also put a star on my comp card! So I am hoping that means it will be good news and hopefully the forcing myself to go to this casting will pay off! I came straight home after and was still feeling really unwell. I went and got some more medicine, talked to my mom for a bit, then went to bed. I had a better sleep this time, but woke up at about 5:30 am, I stayed awake until about 7 and then fell back asleep until 11. The medicine worked quite nicely and I feel much better today, still not 100%, but lots better than the 2 previous days! Me and my mom are thinking it might have been food poisoning, but we are not quite sure. Today I just sat at the apartment and rested pretty much. Watched some movies and all of that fun resting stuff. Tomorrow I have a small magazine job, so hopefully I will be feeling even better than I am today. Either than that, there hasn't really been much going on. Castings are still pretty slow, but hopefully will be picking up in the next month, as girls will hopefully be leaving to go to school!

Lets see, what did I do today... well the day started off by having to go to the agency at 11 am to do a video casting for deodorant to send to Bangkok. I was sooooo tired but I managed. After that, I came home and slept some more before I had to go to another casting pretty far away from the living area. This second casting was for a clothing designer that is here in Hong Kong. I think the casting went pretty good, but who knows, guess we'll find out in a week or so! After that casting I had one more for a makeup show, but when I showed up, the lady asked me when I was in HK until and I said the end of October, turns out the job is in November, so I am not eligible for it, yay good times. So if you read all of that correctly, that means I had THREE castings in ONE DAY. Holy crap right? If I am doing my math correctly here, which I do believe I am, it seems that I had more castings today then I have had in the past week and a half. Hopefully this means that its starting up again and won't be so slow anymore! I would thoroughly enjoy that. So after all of that, I came back home, ate some supper and then hit the gym to work on my fitness. While here, there was unfortunately no entertaining old woman salsa class (sad face), but there did happen to be a very high paced aerobic/boxing/not sure what it was class, also filled with older woman. This was not as fun to watch, but still slightly entertaining and probably about 98% of the people attending the class could not keep up whatsoever. After watching a few minutes of that I finished my Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which I realized, as well as being really really good, it was really really odd. I am kind of shocked that children are allowed to watch it! The one part where they take the boat on the chocolate river, through the tunnel, WEIRD! There are all of these like flashing lights and pictures of insects and Willy Wonka is just going buck wild like he's on drugs or something. If I watched that as a small child, I would be scared and probably have nightmares! What the heck. Anyway, I did enjoy it. One thing though, while in the process of being on the treadmill and watching my movie, there was a girl, probably about my age, maybe a year or two younger, on a treadmill behind me and a few to the right. Now that you know her position, which is totally not relevant at all, I will tell you what she was doing. First off, she was running on this treadmill, normal human activity to be participating in while at the gymnasium. Second, now this is the part that wanted me to rip my eyes out and throw them at her, she was running with the heaviest feet I have ever friggin heard in my friggin life! I swear it was like not one, but TWO huge, large, big elephants running on this treadmill. It was so loud you could probably hear it from outside of the gym walls. FLIP. Talk about annoying/hi you are interrupting me and everyone else here with your loud flippin feet, could you please pretend that you are walking on clouds or you have feathers for feet or something? CAN YOU NOT HEAR YOURSELF RUNNING?! Like what the heck. If that was me I would be just a tad bit embarrassed..OH WAIT I would never run with that loud of a sound! Gosh. Anyway, so I kept looking back at her, trying to give her the "Umm excuse me could you please not run with this loud of a noise"/"HI YOU ARE BEING REALLY FLIPPIN LOUD AND ITS NOT SO GREAT" kind of look, but she never noticed, not once! I looked at her multiple times and so did many other members of the gym! Geesh girl, figure it out! So that was just fun and lovely times, and now I am back at my apartment, typing up my day and about to hit the hay (that rhymed if you didn't notice..). Some things I forgot to mention:

1. I actually talked to my one roommate that always sits in her room with her headphones in! The one that is 16 and stays in the apartment 24/7 unless she has a casting or a job. We both had the same casting so we went together, which means some conversation must occur otherwise that would make for a slightly awkward situation. So we chatted a little, not a whole bunch, but more than we have since I got here. It was quite dandy. I asked her when she was here until, she said "I don't remember...2 months", so I said oh so your staying until october, and she says uhmmm yes. I said what day do you leave? And she said September 13.. Sooo as you can see there is a slight communication error here, I think it is a tad difficult for her to understand english/what is really being said.

2. I met a girl from the Ukraine today, her name is Valerie, she is also with my agency. She was quite nice. We had to go to a casting together, so we chatted quite a bit. She was a nice human, I did really enjoy her! She will be here for awhile I think, I don't think she really has a set time on when she is leaving, so maybe I will see more of her in the future days!

So this week has been pretty much boooooooring! I have done pretty much nothing, whoopeeeee. But yesterday happened to be my 18th birthday, wooohoooo!! So I woke up, ate etc etc, hit the gym to work on my fitness, where I started on the treadmill and while doing that, watched this salsa or dance class take place in the area behind me. It was mostly older ladies taking the class and it was hilarious! Most of them had zero idea of what the heck they were doing, so it was quite entertaining, I was trying not to laugh! After watching about 15 minutes of that, I watched some of the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie on my phone, IT ROCKS! The original is so flippin good! I will watch the rest of it today when I go to the gym later! Oh also should I mention, I witnessed this one older woman wearing a fluorescent pink and green workout outfit... it was extremely flared bell bottomed spandex pants and a sports bra, may I also mention here that she did not have a hot bod, so the sports bra should have been underneath a shirt of some sort... After the gym I went and got a manicure and pedicure, that was quite lovely. Not the same as back home, but it wasn't to bad! I came home for a bit and rested before the big supper event. We went to a Russian restaurant called Balalaika, I think thats how it is spelled. It was pretty cool! Nothing to fancy, but the decorations were cool and stuff. There were also this guy and girl that were dressed up russian like and they sang and made music while everyone ate. They didn't look very enthused, but they kept playing anyway. At supper was me, Joe, Judy, Andy, Yumee, Eric and Lillian I think her name is? I don't remember! So they ordered the food, and we just shared all the dishes, it was quite delish! I did enjoy it. After we ate we went into the freezer! It was a vodka freezer or something where people go in and they drink ice cold vodka and hang out. We just went in there for kicks and to take pictures! We wore large fur coats, it was -20 in there, so pretty much just like winter back home! After all the pictures and that shenanigans, they brought me my cake! Yumee picked it out, they had bought it somewhere else and brought it to the restaurant, it was a chocolate cake, with blueberries too. IT WAS SOOOOOO GOOOOD! I pretty much licked my plate clean! I also received a few gifts, a bracelet from Andy and Yumee and perfume from Lillian. Earlier on this month I was shopping with Judy and she had bought me the Dr. Martens I had wanted as my birthday present from her and Joe! After all of the restaurant events we walked around this area full of tourists and bars and then went to this one lounge thing and had a drink. Wasn't to wild of an 18th birthday, but I had to be up early this morning to go to the agency and do a casting to send to Bangkok. It definitely wasn't the same as being at home, but it was still good and way better than having to spend it by myself, which is what I thought I was going to have to do! Also, before I end this blog here, I have a few things to mention that I witnessed yesterday:

1. A fire truck stopped at a red light and let the pedestrians walk... His lights were flashing and stuff, so I stopped to let him go, but all of the people just continued walking, so I also went. But I thought this was sort of odd?

2. A lady had her dog in a stroller... she was pushing him around like he was a child, oh and there was no child in the stroller, it was just for the dog. Whens the last time you seen a dog in one of those?

So, today started off by waking up and eating, as per usual. Talked to mom for a bit and then had a little chat with Dan. Got ready and then headed over to the Hong Kong Coliseum to watch volleyball! I got there pretty early and took pictures, it was soooo cool! I was so excited, obviously! I took about 500 pictures and 30 videos.. I drained the battery in both my phone and my camera by the time I left the place! The first game was at 1:15, Germany vs. Thailand. It was actually a pretty good game. I thought that Germany would win, but they fell apart by about set 3 and Thailand took it. When Germany started to fall apart, their coach went wild, so that probably didn't help to much. I didn't take to many pictures of that game, I was waiting for the USA vs. China game, that would be the really good one. So that game started at 3:45 I think and thats when the coliseum was packed, no seats empty. China is like 2.5 seconds away, so what do you expect! So first off, the woman sitting next to me was about 70-80 years old, and the whole time she sounded like she was going to cough up a lung, for real. It was a really gross, super phlegmy cough, I didn't enjoy it to much.. Second, the guy on the other side of me was probably in his 50s and he made a sound effect to every little thing that happened. "OOOOHHHH", and "AHHHHH" or some yelling of chinese words, or even just talking chinese words, but he was by himself so I'm not exactly sure who he was saying them to.. Anyway, so I not only got the entertainment of watching this game, but I got some from the humans sitting around me, it was like two shows for the price of one! NOT. The game started, it was wild, US is good, I was enjoying it quite a bit. US won the first 2 sets, 25-20 and 25-10. So the third set was do or die for China. HOLY MAN DID THE CROWD GO WILD. It was unreal, you have no idea. Every point that China would get or pretty much anything they did, pass, set hit, whatever they did, the crowd would make some type of noise, and loud. They would all "OOOH" or gasp or some type of sound effect. It was crazy! I have never heard a crowd cheer like this before, it was cool to be in! So the crowd is just going crazy, and this really helped China out, US fell apart sightly and then China took the set 25-22. The crowd definitely enjoyed that. I just can't even explain the extent to which everyone was into this game, it was amazing. So the fourth set started and the crowd was just full force into this game and were going crazy for every little thing that happened. When the ref made a bad call, the crowd made sure to let him know. The whole coliseum was booing, loudly may I mention, talk about the ref thinking twice next time.. ;) This set was a close one, quite intense I must say. But in the end the US won 25-22. The crowd was nuts! I took many videos, theres no way I'd forget it, but just so everyone else can see! They gave out player awards after, #19 from the US, Destinee Hooker got 3 of the 7 awards, best scorer, best blocker and MVP. She was alright I guess.. JUST KIDDING, she was soooo good! I got quite a few pictures of her, she was set lots, obviously. But yea, she was just real great. I left the place at around 6:30pm by the time all the awards and such were done. After that I got something to eat then got some groceries and came home! It was quite an eventful day, I thoroughly enjoyed it! Oh and another thing I forgot to mention. Each team had their own cheering section of students from different schools cheering for them. Each corner of the coliseum was designated to a different group of students. Each group had costumes and signs and different cheers, it was pretty cool! All in all, this was BEST TIME EVER!

Okay so this week was so so so slow, I had barely any castings, so I did pretty much nothing all week, which means nothing interesting and/or exciting happened. The usual eat, sleep, workout, walk around, etc etc is what my days were filled with. I do however have some interesting points to throw out there:

1. Rubber boots are a huge fashion here, people wear them as normal shoes and there are shoe stores that sell only rubber boots!

2. I almost got ran over by a bike yesterday, I was crossing the road at a crosswalk, when the walking sign was on and this bike came the direction of the vehicles and just flew by, almost taking me out. I put my hand out and almost knocked him over.. if he fell it would of been his fault, he shouldn't have been going against all the walking people!

3. Last night for supper we went to a seafood restaurant. There was a pregnant lady there and she was eating fish and seafood. I thought pregnant people were supposed to eat that?

4. Joe and Andy took me to this big computer fair that comes every year for a week or something. It was flippin huuuuuge! Like large building/hall/event center thing and it was just filled with endless booths that were selling usb keys, tv's, computers, printers, ink, cell phones. Pretty much anything to do with technology was there. Ooh and while we were there, we saw this fake imitation iPhone 4, it looked almost identical to the real thing, it was so weird. They have lots of that here, like imitation technologies. They had ones for iPods as well as iPads, those ones were called "iRobot". Also while we were there, I seen a pair of headphones that were about $500 canadian! What the heck!

5. I discovered that the pop cream soda here is not pink in color. It is the color of ginger ale with a slight green color, but not to much. It is not as dark as ginger ale, a bit lighter. The can it comes in is green and silver, just like a ginger ale one too! It was weird because I tried it and I was expecting a different taste, something like ginger ale, but it tasted exactly the same as cream soda does at home!

6. I am shocked at how people survive in the weather here. It is so flippin hot all the time! I wear shorts and a tank top and I am just dying, but then I see people everywhere wearing jeans or pants and a long sleeve and they don't even seem to be phased by it! It is crazy! You think you would look at them and they would be sweating like on their face and stuff, but nope. Just normal, as if its not hot out at all!

7. What ladies wear to the gym is hilarious. Many of them have these spandex pants, but like bell bottoms to the max. Its tight as normal spandex pants are around the thighs, but then at the knees it flares out lots, like for real bell bottoms. They also get like really bright colored things and matching tops and bottoms as well.

8. That is all for today, tomorrow is the day I go to watch the FIVB World Grand Prix!!!! Yaaaaay!!! :)

Today was another boring day, to bad so sad. My day consisted of:

1. Going to the agency to do a casting for a washing machine commercial to send to Bangkok. I didn't have the props (laundry basket, washing machine, fridge etc) so I had to pretend with air, slightly weird.

2. Purchasing a towel and a face cloth, blue in color to be exact.

3. Going to a re-cast type thing for a camera commercial and print ad.

4. Getting hit multiple times on the street by passing by humans. Not like hit as in punch or slap, hit as in we are walking opposite directions and their shoulder/arm hit mine and almost threw me across the sidewalk.

5. Playing monopoly on my phone.

6. Feeling ill from the thick air outside. I realized that here, the term "fresh air" refers to inside the building, not outside. At home, outside is fresh air, but here outside is thick, humid, bus exhaust, smoker air. Joy joy.

7. Making a salad which I put to much dressing on, so it made the lettuce soggy and the salad as a whole suck.

8. Buying the magazine that has the pages with my first job in it!

9. Seeing many weirdly dressed humans, many weird haircuts.

10. A new addition to the hex ladies.. there are 4 now, there used to only be 3!

11. Wondering how the heck girls here walk in heels 24/7. I walk in mine for a solid 10 and my feet hurt, they walk in theirs all day, and they walk everywhere. Maybe they just can't feel their feet anymore so thats why it doesn't phase them.

12. Feeling sorry for the men that have to wear full suits. I wear shorts and a tank top and sweat profusely, I can't imagine pants, a dress shirt AND a jacket. Geez

13. Refer to number 12, but change business man to police officer, dark pants, belt with weapons attached, thick shirt, hat. Not fun

14. There was another one but now I don't remember, so I'll leave it at that and if I remember soon I'll add it on

Yesterday wasn't that interesting as I was so so tired, didn't have a very good sleep. My day consisted of nothing until about 7:30, then I had to go meet an agent that is here from Tokyo. I got to the place and I wasn't given a room or floor number, so before I just assumed that it was just a one roomed place, like a store or something. But I got there and there was another model waiting there from the same agency that I am with. She had already been there for half an hour and the security guard doing the reception stuff didn't know who we were looking for. So we pretty much didn't know what to do, as it was both of our mother agents (agents from back home) that sent us to meet his agent from Tokyo. Finally the security guard found the guys name and we went up to the room, it was a hotel. We did our casting, didn't take very long and then left. After that I came back to the apartment and did nothing. What an exciting day huh? But I do have some interesting points:

1. I was on the mtr, the train, to go to the place where the agent in Tokyo was, and this lady was holding onto the pole and her nails were soooo long!! Especially her thumb, it was kind of gross.. haha. All of her nails were uneven, probably because they got long, then broke off at random times..

2. At the casting I had to fill out this sheet saying my mother agency, my name, blah blah blah, and it asked me for my "real age"...as opposed to my fake one?

3. I have seen a few more look alikes.. Its really weird seeing these people, because when I spot them, all I can do is stare, first to figure out who it is that it looks like and second because its like "Oh my gosh, its the asian version of (insert whoevers name)"

4. My iPhone is just delightful, I thoroughly enjoy it

5. Castings are going slowly this past week, hopefully it'll pick up soon

6. My one roommate eats McDonalds pretty much everyday and is still really really skinny, WHAT THE HECK?! Also just to throw in there, she doesn't go to the gym, neither of them do I don't think. Ummmm if I ate McDonalds everyday and didn't work out, I would get large quick. Even if I did go to the gym and ate it everyday I'd still probably get large fast! Talk about unfair!

7. Another thing on the food palate for my roommates: chocolate. All the time. Chocolate bar wrappers on the table and in the garbage everyday, maybe more than once in a day. Hi, can I please eat like this and still be as thin as them? Where does it all go?! And no, I don't think they have eating disorders, because neither of them go to the bathroom to puke or anything after they eat, I would be able to hear if they did too.

8. It's really loud here. Any type of motorized vehicle feels they need to honk all the time. If the light turns green, lets honk, even if the person in front is going already. If there is a pedestrian, when the walking light is flashing (so pedestrians are still able to go at this point), lets honk, because thats a great idea. They just lay on their horns too, not just a quick one honk, its a I'm going to literally lay on my horn and never get off. Like relax people!

9. Number 8 brings me to my next point, they seem to be impatient because of this whole get going hurry up on the road thing, but walking, MAN ARE THEY SLOW. These people walk at the slowest pace you have ever seen. It is unbelievable. They are slower than the oldest turtles in the world, walking through peanut butter,  my gosh. It's the worst when your in a rush, but everyone infront of you is walking at -10 km/h. You really have to learn to weave your way through the sea of people!

10. I don't have a 10th one, so I will leave it at that.

Okay so I didn't blog yesterday because I was to tired by the time I got home, so I will do yesterdays and todays as well. So yesterday I met up with Judy, Andy and Yumee to go to the Big Buddha. We took the mtr all the way to the one station, which was on one end of Hong Kong, then we went and lined up for the Crystal Cable car. My goodness there were a lot of people! You know when you go to the airport or something and you line up to go through security and they have those rope things and its like winding rows? Yea well there were 3 long long long ones full of people waiting to go on the cable car. We waited for about an hour before we even got to the desk to buy our tickets! So we eventually got on the cable car and the floor was glass and so were the sides, it was so cool! It was like we were just floating around. You could see everything below you and all that jazz, it was really cool. The ride took about 25 minutes and then we were up at Ngong Ping village, which is just an area with restaurants and souvenir shops before you get to the area with the temple and the buddha. We walked through there, ate Subway and then made our way to the buddha. The day started off not that hot, but of course by the time we get to go climb the 268 stairs it just heated right up! I was dying by the time I got to the top! Imagine, 268 stairs plus 30 some degree weather, plus humidity! Talk about workout and a half! It didn't take that long to get to the top surprisingly. Maybe 15 minutes? But my perception of time is not that good, so maybe longer. We got to the top, walked around and took many pictures. After that we walked down, then went over to the temple. It was just like any other temple you see anywhere else in an asian country, nothing to special. We took a rest there, as we were all really hot and tired. After we finished there, Yumee and Andy went back home and Judy took me to this place called Tai O. It is an older community that used to be a big fishing area, but now the fishing industry has declined in Hong Kong, so there is not much there anymore. Mainly older people live there because there is nothing to do there, so all of the kids move away to work or go to school. In Tai O, everyone used to live in boats and such, as they were fishing all of the time, but now that they don't anymore, they have built their houses in the water, held up by bamboo sticks. They don't like to live on the land, so they built their houses in the water. The houses were first of all the most basic houses ever, nothing fancy at all. Second, they were pretty much all falling apart and very very old. I would not be able to live in them, I would be scared that they would fall apart on me! So we walked through this place, and there were vendors everywhere selling fish, fish skin, fish stomach, everything to do with a fish pretty much. There was even a shark skin hanging there, it was crazy! I will post some pictures below when I am finished writing. After Tai O, we went to Mong Kok to meet Joe for supper. We went to this Japanese noodle place in a mall called Langham place, something like that. In this mall, there was the largest escalator I have ever seen in my life! It was huge! It took you from ground floor to the 5th floor or something like that, it was so crazy! We went all the way to the top, which was the 13th floor and there was this area where you could go and look down at the mall. There was glass there so you couldn't fall over the edge, but I couldn't go up to the glass because I was way way to scared! I had to hold onto the railing by the stairs and just peek over! We walked through the mall a bit and then headed home, we were all so tired! That was pretty much the day yesterday, it was quite filled and lots of fun!
Today, I went for Dim Sum with Joe and Judy, it was quite tasty, I did enjoy it. Then after that they had to go to the Bank of China, it was the headquarters I believe, and take some stuff to the safety deposit vault. I went with them, this place was soooo big! Every piece used to build the bank was brought from China, let me tell you that was a lot of building material! We went down to the vault and I wasn't allowed to go in, but I sat in the chair and looked through the glass, it was pretty cool. It is really high security in this bank so you had to get a visitor pass and everything. After that we went to the HSBC one and that was also cool, very architectural and such. These buildings are quite famous apparently. The HSBC building can be taken apart piece by piece and built up exactly the same somewhere else. There were also these large gates that come down if there is ever a typhoon. After that adventure Joe had to go to work and Judy took me to get a tourist visa for China, they are going to take me into Guangzhou one day to see what China is like, I guess its quite different from here. They actually eat dog, cat and snake there, for real. They eat pretty much anything Joe told me. So we are going to go there and venture around sometime. After the visa, I went home and took a nap, man I was really tired today, I was barely functioning at all. Judy took me a few nights ago to get this chinese herbal tea, it is supposed to help you sleep. It worked really well, so she took me to get some again today, and when I got back I passed right out for about 2 and a half hours, felt good to take a rest. But I am still really tired! All of the not really sleeping sleeps are catching up to me. That pretty much concludes yesterday and today, pictures will follow..

Today I actually half slept in! I woke up at about 8 and then fell back asleep, but woke up every hour until 10 ish. I felt good after I woke up, I wasn't groggy and tired like I usually am. So I got up, really anxious to go purchase my iPhone! I talked with my mom for a bit on skype, then went and had lunch with Joe and Judy, then Judy took me to go get my phone at around 2pm. BEST TIME EVER! I love it! It's flippin sweet! We went to this electronics mall thing and I got a few cases for it and some screen protectors, so it won't get scratched or anything. I have already started downloading apps and all that fun stuff as well! I pretty much played with it all day, I feel like its not actually mine, that I'm just using someone else's or something! But I do thoroughly enjoy it! So after the phone and accessories purchase, then all of the downloading, me and Judy went to a couple of stores by Joe's work to look around. Then we went for supper at this local chinese restaurant, it was quite good. The place wasn't so nice and you would probably never go there by choice if you didn't live there, but the food was good! After supper we walked around the area for a bit and then now I'm home! That pretty much sums up my day, nothing to interesting, either than the fact that my iPhone = love, but thats about it. As usual, I have some interesting points:

1. Walked by the hex ladies today, they were really hard at work, one lady at 3 people at her station and the other 5! Now the one with 5 at hers, whoever they are hating is really in for a ride.. But I wonder if it actually works, I know that sounds weird of me to even think so, but I mean, how weird would it be if it did?!

2. I saw another asian hooker. These girls are seriously not what you expect a hooker to look like. I mean, she was probably mid to late 30s or early 40s, had to be. And she was literally standing on a corner (possibly her corner, but who knows..) and I watched her try to pick up this foreign guy. She got rejected, no surprise there. But it was actually quite entertaining to watch this.

3. Tomorrow is the Big Buddha and crystal cable car day! 268 stairs here we come...

4. After supper we went to this one mall and there was this store with all of these prank toys and such, so there was this one where it was a package of gum, and I expected it to just be a fool "ha ha, the gum is stuck you can't get it out", so I tried, pulled the one piece and BAM, a shock went through my body. Let me tell you that was NOT fun. It seriously went right from the one hand all the way through to the other. I did not enjoy that to much

5. There are sirens here 24/7. They are always going off. What the heck are people doing that there is always a flippin fire?

Well, that's all I have for today, tomorrow should be a little more interesting

Unfortunately today started at an early 6:45 am, not by choice, once again. I wasn't planning on getting up until 8, but lucky me I woke up at 6:45 and couldn't fall back asleep. So I got up, ate breakfast sat around for awhile, then got ready. I ended up being at my job about 20 minutes early, I didn't know exactly how long it would take me to get there so I showed up early. I was practically falling asleep as the lady was doing my makeup! There were two racks full of outfits for me to shoot, hence the 8 hour job. It was a fun shoot, started going good then in the middle I thought it was an epic fail and then by the end I felt like it was going good again, so hopefully the pictures turn out just dandy. After the job I had a casting for a bridal shoot, so I made my way over there. I think it went pretty good, the lady seemed to like me, and she told me that she would call my agency next week, so I am not sure if that means I got the job or if that means they are still making a decision?! Anyway so after that I went back to the apartment then went out for supper with Joe, Andy and Joe's friend. Judy was out with some friends so she met us after. Right now I am DEAD. Like unbelievably tired, but unfortunately this probably still means I won't sleep that great. Maybe wake up really early again tomorrow? I feel like that would be just a joy! Thats about all I have to write for now, as I am 75% asleep, minus a few fun points I shall throw in:

1. Tomorrow I will be the proud owner of a brand new iPhone 4 :D

2. It was really really really hot today, I was outside for approximately 5 minutes and was sweating like I had just ran a marathon. This was at about 7:30pm may I mention, nighttime is supposed to be cooler, not as hot as during the day!

3. The hex ladies were hard at work again today!

4. My feet are just blister central after the shoot today. For real though, I have them on the back of my heels/Achilles, my toes, my instep or whatever its called. Its really not that much fun.

5. Thats all I have for now, I am to tired to think of anything witty or anything else that may have occurred to me today, so if I happen to come upon something that I forgot, I will add it tomorrow!

So today started with an early 8:30 am, as I had a call time for my Nikon job at 11, but the studio is about 45 minutes away. I had to shower and get ready and all that jazz before I went, plus I don't have a blow dryer so I had to get up extra early so my hair would be dry by the time I got there. So I made my way over to the studio, it was the same place where I did my test shoot a few days ago, so me and all the people that work there are pretty much best friends by now! Just kidding, but seriously, everyone just knows me by name now, I don't know all of theirs because there are like 15 of them, and I'm not THAT good with names. So the shoot was 4 hours, I pretty much had to stay in the same position for the whole time, with the occasional slight bit of a turn in the head or just small adjustments like that, but my body stayed the same the whole time. Talk about getting a tad stiff after about the first hour! They had the one pose they wanted, it wasn't just a free do whatever you want shoot, it was a this is what we want, so thats all your going to do. How fun! My hair was to the side, and the hair stylist kept fixing it, so I decided to stop moving my neck so it wouldn't wreck so easily. After 4 hours of not moving your neck, and moving your whole body when you want to turn to look at something, your neck/shoulders start to harden into place pretty much! Lets just say it was a good shoot, we got lots of good shots said the photographer, the clients were pleased, but I left a very sore human! After that I went over to the agency and picked up my job voucher for tomorrows catalogue job and then headed back to the apartment. I hung out there for a bit, then went and roamed the streets of Hong Kong. After that I stopped by Joe's work for a bit, where we discussed the iPhone 4. He was on a waiting list for one and it finally came in, so he went to go pick it up after he was done work. The iPhones are in such demand here that not just anyone off the street can go into a provider and buy one, they will only put people on the waiting list that are already members, like long term contracted people. So if i wanted to get an iPhone, I thought I would have to go through Apple and then wait my 3-4 weeks to get it. But this isn't the case! Judy has a friend that is a higher up person working for Apple, and each customer can get 2 each, so Judy got her friend to set one aside for me!! Which means I don't have to wait 3-4 weeks, I only have to wait 2 days, aka I'm getting it on Saturday!!!! YAY! I am sooooo excited!! Let me just inform you of what this means:

1. I can contact people back home now, for real this time.
2. Anywhere I go in the world, it will work and I can still continue to contact people back home.
3. I can play sweet games on it.
4. The gym will no longer feel like a lifetime to get through, as I can watch movies etc on my phone.
5. I'M SO EXCITED! :D

Anyway, so as you can see I can hardly wait for Saturday to get here! Hopefully it will go by fast as I have a job all day tomorrow (a whopping 8 hour shoot), then we can go pick it up anytime after 11! So Judy said she would meet me at my apartment and we would go! YAAAAYYY!!! Saturday I have nothing planned yet, but then Sunday Judy is going to take me to the Big Buddha, which I think is the largest in the world, but I am not exactly sure. We are going to take the crystal cable car up to the Big Buddha. It is glass all around, the floor the walls, everything! I'll probably crap my pants because I'm afraid of heights, but it will be so cool! Also, to get up to the Big Buddha is 268 steps...talk about getting my exercise on! But it should be a fun day. That is about all the exciting news I have for now!

Alright, so the day started off with me having a very interrupted sleep aka I woke up 30000000 times before I really wanted to get up. So after I for real woke up, I made breakfast and the morning ritual stuff, then talked to my mom on Skype for a bit. After that, I made my way to the agency to pick up the voucher for my Nikon job tomorrow :D On my way back, it started to pour, I had my umbrella but I still got wet! I was going to go walking around and shop and such, but since it was raining pretty hard that changed my plans. I went back to the apartment and chilled for awhile, got my exercise on, got ready and then went over to Joe's work. Judy bought him an iMac for his birthday, I think it was for his birthday anyway, and it came in today, so I went to go check it out! It is soooo nice, so new and just delightful to look at. So I hung out there for a bit, then we ordered in supper and walked around for awhile and now Im home, gotta be up early tomorrow for the big day! A few interesting sightings:

1. Two people stationed at one of the Hex lady's areas, at this point in the hexing process, something was being burned. I wanted to stay and watch but didn't want the bad spirits to follow me or anything bad to be put upon me...

2. I don't think I have ever seen an ugly baby in my entire life, until I came here. MY GOD. No offence, but this child was just so unfortunate looking I can't even describe in words. It was also crying at the time, so the distortion in the face from the crying situation did not help at all. I was chillin on the mtr and was looking around and BAM, I saw her. I just couldn't stop staring, but then the mom saw me looking so I had to try to stop. It was almost like what the grinch looked like when he was a baby, in the movie, but like black and asian mixed or something. It was just weird, thats all i can say.

3. Another accented asian! They are just popping up everywhere these days! Today this one was really really heavily accented english, it was just wild.

4. Many white people, I saw many tourists today, more than I've seen since I've been here. (this point isn't that interesting, but I thought I'd throw it in just for kicks)

This one isn't a sighting, but an occurrence. So I'm just chillin in my apartment after coming home from the agency and the door bell to the apartment rings and no one ever comes here, so I was instantly like OH CRAP IM GONNA DIE. So I go over to the door, look through the peep hole thinger and it was a girl, through the whole she looked harmless, so I opened the door. Im going to assume about 2.5 seconds after I opened the door, my heart was pounding so hard she could hear it. I was freakin out. First of all, she had bags under her eyes, these kind of bags were the ones where you look at the person and they just slightly give you the shivers. Second of all she was russian and I have never seen here before. Ummmm please don't kill me. So she is asking for one of my roomates, who happened not to be home at the moment, she was out at a casting, so she asked if she could come in and wait for her. I didn't want to be rude, so I said yes, but I was like FLIP MY LIFE IS GOING TO END RIGHT NOW. I was seriously afraid. How would you feel if a random russian woman entered your place of living? Anyway, turns out she was another model from Shanghai (she did not appear to be model like at all) and had to come here to get her visa. She isn't able to pick it up until tomorrow, so her agent contacted Yulia and now this girl is staying here over night. But man did it make me nervous for a small amount of time.

I skipped yesterday because nothing that interesting happened, and if it did I will fill you in on this one. So today I woke up, didn't know what time it was, so decided to get up and check, lucky me it was 8:30 am, whooopeee. I look at my phone and have a message from the one agent from my agency here, it said something like "sorry I forgot to tell you that you have a test shoot on Monday at 10:30 am". Oh and to throw in here, the message was sent at 1 am, good timing, do you really think I am awake? Well it is Monday and it is 8:30 am and the place where the test shoot was is about 45 minutes away, perfect. What would they have done if my sleeping schedule was back to normal and I had slept later? GIVE ME MORE NOTICE PEOPLE. Geez. Anyway, so I made my way over to the place, and did the shoot. The photographer is one of the best in Hong Kong, her name is Connie. It was kind of funny because I thought she said Courtney, but she didn't. People here can't pronounce my name, so sometimes it comes out sounding like Connie instead of Courtney. Anyway, so I discovered it wasn't Courtney when one of the people working there called her name and said "Connie", they spoke english as well because they used to live in Toronto, so that was pretty much the only person I talked to, as it was the only person I could understand and actually communicate with! Coincidentally, this guys name was Jason, from Toronto as I mentioned above. This is coincidental because on my first casting I met a model there named Jason also from Toronto. Weird huh? The two people I have met from Canada both have the same name AND are from the same place, odd I thought. So the shoot finished and then I had a casting to go to. It was for a camera commercial and print ad. I had to pretend that I was in a really nice place and was taking pictures and was all amazed by the place and stuff. But the cool thing is..if I get the job, it  will be shot in Europe!!! So I'm really hoping that I get it, obviously. Good thing I bought my camera before i came, otherwise I wouldn't have known how to pretend to use this camera and such. Anyway, that would be just lovely if I got the job! After that, the usual, got some groceries then went out for supper with Joe and Judy. That was my day, but the blog is not finished, just some interesting sightings I have seen since I have been here and possibly forgot to mention:

1. When we went to see Inception, we were walking around the shopping centre the movie theatre was in before hand, and on display was a white Mercedes Benz covered from front to back in Swarovski crystals. Every inch of the outside of the vehicle, not including tires or lights, were covered in the crystals. First, talk about expensive! Second, imagine seeing that on the road, what the heck. And third, that would SUCK to clean!

2. I watched an asian hooker pick up an old man on the street..that was one odd sighting let me tell you. You wouldn't know this lady was a hooker either, the only reason I knew is because i watched this occurrence happen right infront of my eyes (the picking up part, not the rest....)

3. A BLONDE HAIRED ASIAN GIRL. All I have to say is wtf?! First of all, asians are not meant to be blonde, no offence to anyone out there who is, but for real, take a look at the asian population anywhere in the world and they are all born with dark hair. Obviously it is meant to be that way. Just try to picture me blonde or any other asian person blonde and thats what it looked like...weird right?

4. An asian with an English accent......almost as weird as the blonde asian. When your in Hong Kong, a place populated with EVERYONE speaking chinese, meaning they have the accent and all, you don't really expect to talk to a local with an english accent. English as in like "would you like some tea and biscuits" (obviously with the accent attached). It was really really weird, caught me off guard at first. Oh and also, they spoke chinese as well, but they could also speak english. He is a photographer and when he went to talk to me BAM, english accent.

5. Australian accented asian. WEIRD

6. An asian look alike!! Flip I totally forgot about this one. But I went to this one casting, and one of the guys that was like a worker/help the photographer type people at the place my casting was at, looked like my brothers friend Colton, its flippin weird you have no idea! Like identical pretty much, just that Colton is white and this guy is chinese, soooooo weird!!

I'm writing yesterdays blog today because I got home late last night and was to tired to do it then. Yesterday I got up, got ready and went to a casting that was at 2pm. At the casting I had to try on different outfits and take a few pictures in each outfit. It is for a catalogue job, this lady is started her own clothing line. So after I finished all of that, she told me that we would shoot next Friday, which caught me by surprise because you usually go to the casting, leave and then have to wait 1-2 weeks before you hear if you got the job or not, but she gave it to me right then and there! I was so excited! So I left the casting happy as a clam obviously and dropped my stuff off at the apartment then headed over to Joe's cafe. I hung out there for a bit, then went and bought my ticket for the FIVB World Grand Prix thats on August 22! That was also really exciting. Im right in the centre of the court, row 12!! Its one of the 3rd preliminary rounds, there are 3, but the other 2 are in different places, one in Taipei and the other in Tokyo. I will be watching China, Thailand, Germany and the US. After I bought my ticket I went and met up with Judy in Mong Kok to go shopping. HOLY that place was busy! Some of the streets are blocked off, so cars cannot go down them and they were filled! All you could see was heads, you couldn't see the ground! It was crazy! So we shopped a bit, then met up with Andy. After that we went to a shopping centre called Elements, where our movie was also playing. There we met up with Joe and Andy's brother Eddie and we went to a Japanese restaurant for supper. We ate and then headed over to the movie theatre to watch Inception! I was so excited because all I kept hearing was that it was sooooo good, and it was! The movie theatre was so nice, and the seats reclined a bit and were really really comfortable, not like anything you would see in GP, or even Edmonton I don't think. Oh also, at this theatre, the seats have some kind of sound technology where the seats vibrate with the sound and whats going on in the movie. So when there is a big crash or anything like that, the seats vibrate. It was so cool and made the movie experience way better! The screen was also really clear and the movie almost looked 3D sometimes. All in all it was a really really good movie, I recommend everyone to go see it!! So that was pretty much my day, and I pretty good one I'd say!

Alright, so today started a little later than the previous days, I was up at about 9 am, woohooooo finally a sleep in! Except one problem, it felt like I had barely slept, I was soooo tired. So I got up did the normal morning stuff, then had to go to the agency to do a video casting for deodorant to send to Bangkok. After that I came back to my apartment then hit the gym to work on my fitness. The gyms here are so boooooring! I didn't realize the importance of a small tv monitor infront of you while your walking at the pace of a turtle on the treadmill, geeeesh. Back home, there's a tv on every treadmill, elliptical and bike, it really does help make the time go by faster. Here in Hong Kong, there are a few tv's placed throughout the gym, so you can watch, but one problem, Im from Canada, in other words, I don't speak Chinese, therefore I don't understand whats going on on the tv, whoopee, my time on the treadmill feels like weeks instead of minutes. Also, the tv shows here are weird, they do re-makes of shows that are in Canada, example 1: Ugly Betty. They have a chinese version of it, and it is really just dumb. Even though I don't understand it, I can tell its just stupid anyway, much better at home! The shows here seem to be super cheesy and really goofy, so it slightly annoys me to watch them! Anyway, after the gym I went and bought a few groceries, fuuuunnn.... Then I came back to the apartment, showered and had nothing else to do, so I resorted to cleaning the apartment, another fun activity! Man was the microwave dirty, and I haven't even used it yet! Like come on, after you use it and your food has splattered, all you have to do is take a cloth and wipe it off, do you not realize it takes a bit more work once the food has dried, you actually have to scrub instead of just do a light swipe! Anyway, I cleaned everything, what a fun day. After cleaning I went over to Joe's cafe and hung out for a bit. This large family or group of people or something came in to the cafe and so Joe used this really cool coffee maker to make them coffee. It is called a "Coffee Syphon". Apparently this coffee maker is also in the movie The Bucket List. I took a video of it, so I will post it under all the writing. It was sooooo cool!! After he was done work, him and Judy took me to Mong Kok and we went for supper there. We went to this place called Modern Toilet, it was probably the coolest restaurant i've been to! All of the chairs were toilets, the tables were either sinks or tables with a piece of glass over top and there were shower heads on one wall and urinals on another. It was just real cool. Joe is going to send me the pictures, so once I get them I will post them! Oh also, the food is served in little toilets and different bathroom related items, its so funny! After that, we walked around Mong Kok for a bit, then I headed back to my apartment, and now I am here. A few side notes here: 1. I passed the old hex ladies today, one was hard at work, with not one but TWO people at her little area, someone is really in for a bad luck spell there... 2. I'm going to watch the FIVB World Grand Prix for womans volleyball on the 22, i'd probably be jealous if I were you... ;)

Cool coffee maker video: (Sorry that it is not upright, but I don't know if I can turn it on the computer?)

Today started quite early in the am once again, I woke up at 5, went back to bed, woke up at 730, went back to bed, then woke up again at 930...what a good sleep huh! After that I got ready, as I had a casting at 12 for a jean commercial. I got to the casting and was told I had to pose like a warrior..what the heck? My first thought is, uhhhh since when do warriors wear jeans...? I thought they wore like metal shrapnel and all that jazz, but apparently I was wrong. Also, the lady told me not to be a model, to pose like a warrior, no model posing at all. Soo I'm trying to be as warrior like as I can, not so sure how I did with that... I leave that casting and get off the MTR, leave the station and am about to cross the crosswalk. Side note here: in Hong Kong, pedestrians do NOT have the right of way, the people here have the mindset that vehicles have the right of way, so as a pedestrian you always have to be looking for oncoming vehicles, even if you have the little walking signal to go across the street. Anyway, so I'm about to cross the road, and the light turns red for cars, and the signal for people to walk is about to go on so people start to cross the street, when all of a sudden a vehicle comes flying out of the intersection (yes they had a red light, so they ran a red light) and clipped the umbrella of a pedestrian who happened to be about a meter away from myself. I do believe this hit damaged the side mirror of the vehicle and there were many screams as well as I almost had a heart attack. WHAT THE HECK?! I was aware that a red light meant stop, not go through the light and see how many pedestrians we can hit? Goodness. So anyway, the lady driving the vehicle gets out and yells at the old chinese lady she almost hit, even though it was the drivers fault, like hello, you ran the red light and almost killed someone, don't get angry at them, geeesh. I cross the street, am on my way home and I hear the pounding of a shoe on a brick, meaning the old ladies are at work, putting a hex on someone, hope its not me! I had the rest of the day to do whatever I wanted, so I went to the gym and just hung out for awhile. The first thunder/lighting storm occurred as well, that was fun. After that I went over to Joe's cafe and hung out with him Judy and Andy for awhile. Some things I learned about cellular devices aka cell phones from Joe today:

1. Buying an "international" phone in Canada has strings attached:

-first, the phones in Canada are all locked, meaning it may be difficult to use in other places other than Canada. It might have to get unlocked before all of its capabilities are able to put to use. Example: my blackberry is said to be an international phone, meaning I should be able to use it over here aka "internationally", but when i got here, it didn't work. The sim card was in, my mom had activated the international roaming, but it didn't work! Judy took me to a phone store and we discovered that it was locked, and that it needed to be decoded and unlocked before it was able to be used here. LAME!

-second, roaming charges are expensive, everyone knows that

-third, international phones are expensive in Canada, they are cheaper in Hong Kong, also, I believe most phones here have the capability to be international, where as in Canada there are only a select few.

2. Getting your phone unlocked here is noooot easy. Not many places are able to do that, so you have to really do your research to find somewhere that does, plus it probably is quite expensive to get it done

3. iPhones in Hong Kong are the cheapest in the world currently

4. Phones here come all unlocked, so if you buy one and take it anywhere else in the world it will work. All you have to do is put in a sim card from the country you are in and it will work. No roaming charges, no worrying about if your phone will work or not, it just will, as long as you have a sim card in it that is from the country you are in, you are good to go.

5. Sim cards can be bought pay as you go, so all you have to do is buy one with money on it and your good to go, re-loading when needed. You can also get sim cards with plans attached so if you are staying in the place permanently you might do this, so you won't have to keep re-loading, you will just get a bill every month like a normal plan.

So my final thought here is, why the heck don't I buy a phone here? I can use it anywhere I go and it just seems to be less of a hassle then the one I currently have. As far as I'm concerned, my phone from Canada is of no use to me while I am away. Buying a phone here would save me the trouble of having to pay to rent a phone from the agency in each place I go to! The next decision is, what phone am I going to get?

Today was quite a busy day, I had 2 castings and a job, all back to back. I woke up at an early 7:30 am, not by choice, definitely not by choice, way to early for me. But I couldn't fall back to sleep so yay me I was awake for the day. I went to my first casting at 11, it was for swimsuits, then at 1 I had a magazine job, but the two places that those 2 appointments took place were on complete opposite sides of Hong Kong. I got to my job, and it was a step by step skin care ad thing for a magazine called New Monday, which personally I haven't heard of, but i'm thinking it could just be a more local type magazine! There they applied, removed and applied makeup about 3 times, doing different skin care stuff in between. By the end my face hurt and was burning and slightly red, fun right? After that I went to my last casting for the day, it was for a camera print ad. I think it went pretty well minus my face situation probably wasn't to appealing! I finished the casting and went home, took a shower immediately to detangle my slicked back hair from the shoot and then wash my face! Oooh I also played with an iPad today, that was pretty cool. Judy's brother in law has one and he was at Joe's cafe today when I was there, so I played with it a bit. It is pretty much just like a giant iPod touch, but still pretty cool! I think that is about all of anything I can think of that occurred to me today, I am exhausted and currently probably about half asleep, so if when I wake up tomorrow and I think of something, which will probably be around 7:30 as that seems to be a nice reoccurrence for me, I will come back to this and add on to it!

Alright, so today started with me finding the gym I was referenced to, that was exciting...yay. Then after that I came home and was getting ready to go to the agency and then to my first casting. I had a shower, then went to plug my blow dryer in, one which I bought in Thailand, and I used the converter and everything and it didn't work! I tried many times and it failed on me every one, so I went and asked my roomates if I could borrow their blow dryer, but to my luck, they don't have one, greeeat right? So here's me with wet hair, having to go to the agency and then show up to a casting with who knows what as a mop on my head. Luckily, the heat and humidity dried my hair pretty fast, so I was able to fix it a little bit while I was at the agency. Oh yea, and when I was on my way to the agency, GOT LOST. I missed a turn and had no idea where the flip I was! Turns out I was just on the wrong side of the road and down a bit, but still, took me a good 15 minutes to figure that out! After that I went to my casting, got lost for a few minutes around there too, all the while it being hot as ever outside, so Im lost, sweating, and I have a casting to go to, great huh? I found the place eventually, so I sat outside for a few minutes and touched up so I didn't go in looking wet and sticky, because we all know that would be a nice first impression! The casting went pretty good I thought and I even met another model from Canada, he is from Toronto. Casting finished, I went home, took a quick shower and then went to Joe's work and hung out there for a bit, I went there and got directions to the castings I have tomorrow and I also have a magazine job tomorrow as well! My day is pretty much packed full, 11 to about 6:30 jam packed! And each place I need to go to are pretty much on the opposite sides of Hong Kong, so thats just grand, should be an adventure. Joe Judy and I went out for supper and then walked around a bit, then I came home. Some interesting things I came across today:

1. While I was on my way back from my casting, I was on the tram and this family or something was also on, they all had flippin long long long hair, I mean to the bend in your knees long, no exaggeration, for real to your knees! It was unreal. The girls had it and so did the boys, I wanted to take a picture but thought that would be weird... My hair is like at my shoulder blades and it gets hot back there, imagine all the way down your back and past your butt!

2. This area I walk by to get to Joe's work, there are these old woman that have these little stations/areas set up with incense and candles and chinese things. There are also a few stools there as well. A few times I have seen people sitting there and the old women banging a shoe or something against a rock or something hard like that, and I never understood what they were doing. I just assumed it was like some weirdo asian good luck thing that they do. Turns out I was COMPLETELY wrong. Joe told me that people go there when they want to put a "hex" or like bad luck on someone! I guess it's like a voodoo thing! So what they do is if you don't like someone or you wish something bad upon someone, you take their picture or something to one of these ladies and they do some weirdo bad luck spell/voodoo thing! Wild right?

Okay so when I said that Saturday was the hottest day I had ever experienced, I lied. Yesterday, which was my Sunday, was THE hottest, for real this time. It was sunny, clear skies, not one cloud to be seen and it was 34 degrees I think, but add the humidity and everything, I was dying! Joe and Judy took me around Hong Kong to show me different things and we walked everywhere! My feet were soooo sore by the time I got home! First we went for Dim Sum, where I tried chickens feet...not my cup of tea, but had to try it anyway! And then we went to this shopping center and looked around. Next we went to the Peak, which is a building you go to that overlooks hong kong and I took a bunch of pictures there. We couldn't stay for to long though because it was outside and it was just to hot! After that we went to IFC, which is the tallest building in Hong Kong, it was huge!! We went into the shopping center that is attached to it, because we weren't actually allowed to go into IFC, you have to be authorized and all that jazz to go in. So we shopped around a bit, then headed to take a ferry over to the Kowloon side. Hong Kong is an island, and if you cross the water, then you get to Kowloon. So the ferry was only about 5 minutes and we were there. We went to Harbour city, which is a shopping center right by the water and were there for a bit. After that we went for supper, we had Japanese food. I tried everything except for the octopus, just couldn't do it. I had raw salmon, tuna, scallop, and tried some eel too, which was cooked! It was actually all pretty good, not saying I would go and eat it all the time, but it wasn't to bad! When we went for Dim Sum, I learned that when someone pours you tea, you tape your index and middle finger on the table lightly and it means thank you. Apparently the Emperor did this when his servants brought him tea at a dinner or something, so it would not make a scene and he could still say thank you without interrupting. Oooh and also, when we were on the Kowloon side, before we went for supper, we were walking around this shopping area where they had stores like Chanel and Gucci, and there was this store where there were stairs going up to it, and the stairs were a tv! Each stair had a little bit of the LED screen on it, so when you looked at it as a whole it was tv, at the time it was playing a fashion show! I think that was all, if I remember more I will add it later!