Half. Way. Point.

I regret to inform you all that I don't have too many crazy shenanigans to report on this week as promised in my last post. However, it was still a great weekend! The Dragon Boat Races weren't exactly what I had in mind, but it was definitely an experience worth paying $100HK cab to get there. The races were held at Stanley Beach, which I was very excited about finally exploring. Man was it packed! There were hundreds, maybe thousands, of participates and spectators that it made it difficult to even walk on the beach. I apologize I don't have many pictures to show at the moment seeing as my card reader just crapped out on me 5 minutes ago. Damn. Looks like that has now jumped to the top of my To Do list before Beijing this weekend. So for now, I'll upload what I have and for the rest, just use your imagination :-)

After the races we ventured into Stanley Market where the shopping was cheap and touristy - right up my alley. Needless to say, I BOUGHT CHOPSTICKS! I told myself this would be a good souvenir. If anyone else has any requests, I'm all ears. After Stanley Market, we continued to Stanley Plaza. The Plaza was right on the water, complete with fun pubs and restaurants; great for people watching. There was even live music and dancing! From there, my group and I started to venture back towards the city, but decided to make a pit stop at Repulse Bay. Cute beach with fun docks to swim out to - Again, wonderful for people watching! I ended the day back at The Sky Bar in Wan Chai were we watched the sky line fade from day to night...

                                               Dragon Boat Races at Stanley Beach

                                                     Stanley Market

 

Live music and dancing at Stanley Plaza

Sky Bar in Wan Chai during the day...

...And lit up at night

Sunday (6/24) Macau was scrapped so instead my friend and I decided to head back to Dragon's Back for round two. We hiked to Big Wave Bay, then continued to Shek-O where we had amazing Thai food and Tsing Tao's! Much needed! After lunch we made our way to the beach, enjoyed the sun and the refreshing water, and then even joined in a local's beach game called Spud. So much fun! I'm hoping to take the rest of the interns there at some point so they can experience Shek-O too. Another destination marked off my list! After that Sunday Funday, I was ready for my 4th week at Ketchum...

Monday (6/25) the brand team had a product launch event at a bar in Central. Considering it was all in Cantonese, I was put at the media table... again. Hopefully sooner than later they'll realize I'm actually the event master, but until then I'll hand out media stickers.  The event was the revealing of the 2012 hair trend... (yawn).

Tuesday (6/26): I should have made my first Prezi not as awesome because now I've set the bar too high for myself HA! I worked until 7:00pm last night on a Prezi that our GM asked me personally to compose from the Communications Proposal for this local art school. I was happy to oblige, of course. Let's just say it definitely kept me busy and I wish I was getting paid for the over time now :-) My deadline was 2pm Wednesday so I went in early Wednesday morning to get a jump start...

And congrats to me -- Noon time Wednesday was the half way mark for my internship! Not that I'm counting or anything :-P Thank goodness work has improved and I'm very busy now... Hope it keeps up.

Tomorrow (Thursday) is a half day of work and then it's off to Beijing! This is the weekend that sold me on the entire HK program. I'm so excited to see the Great Wall of China I can barely contain myself - Woooooo!

A brief itinerary looks as follows:
Thursday (6/28) - Train to Guangzhou, overnight in Guangzhou
Friday (6/29) - Walking tour of Shamian Island, Ersha Island, Pearl River and Opera House, Chen Family Temple and the Temple of Six Banyan Tree, Fly to Beijing
Saturday (6/30) - Tian'an Men Square and Forbidden City, National Museum and Hutong Tour with Rickshaw
Sunday (7/1) - GREAT WALL!!
Monday (7/2) - Fly back to Hong Kong

Good bye for now -- I'll be sending love from the Great Wall on Sunday!!

No more pizza!

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days... This week seemed to slip away from me. I'm hoping that's a recurring theme for these next few weeks as well ;-) Don't get me wrong, I LOVE traveling, but I'm ready to explore more of Asia. So here is this past week at a glimpse, since thats what it was for me...

Monday 6/18 - Invited to dinner at a friend's apartment to discuss helping them with their start-up business: export-to-china.com. Their apartment is located in Causeway Bay, which is a popular and fun area (if I would have opted for the single occupancy housing I would have lived here. Damn.). We walked in the door, and HELLO HK SKYLINE!! Now THIS is what I'm talking about. No wonder people love this city - if they have a view like this I mean. At least compared to my "slum", this place was a mansion. Oh and I finally got a harbor side view of the famous light show. Unfortunately, it still wasn't THAT impressive, but cool to see once or twice :-)
Side note... Common theme for this week: Pizza (Pretty certain I've had more pizza in the last week then I have in the last year)
Also, bear with me. These pictures are all from my phone.

Tuesday 6/19 - It rained a lot this week. Apparently we're getting close to typhoon season and if the typhoon warning level gets to an 8, no one has to go to work!! Tuesday was only a 1:

After work I was supposed to go to a Women in the Media workshop, but by the end of the day I was exhausted. This would be my only free night of the week so I needed to take advantage of the downtime.

Wednesday 6/20 - Class dinner at Edelman PR in Central. Interesting stuff for PR students, but nothing I didn't already know before. Oh yeah, and pizza again. But we did take the ferry home and had a gorgeous view of the skyline from the water too!

Ok let's move on...

Thursday 6/21 - KARAOKE! I finally got to experience where this wonderful pasttime was founded and boy was it an experience. As some of you may know, karaoke bars in Asia are very different from the ones in the states. Here you have your own private room to sing in with only your group. Better make sure you go with a fun group! We walked in and our room was HUGE! People started singing right away (mostly the Chinese, and all in Mandarin). I watched for a bit, but then Adele came on and a mic somehow found its way to my hand. Next thing I know, Hello Broadway! Kind of embarrassing since I don't really know these people all that well (not like Sarah and Ryan's last night out at Lakanuki), but what the hell! The waiters also brought in a three-course prix fixed meal during our session and it was actually pretty good. Definitely different from home, but I welcome the change :-)

Friday 6/22 - Presentation day!! Today I gave my Prezi tutorial to the entire Corporate team at Ketchum. Everyone seemed to be very impressed, including one of the VPs who now wants me to teach him personally how to use Prezi, along with the company graphic designer. Moving forward, he wants all of our client decks to be done in Prezi. Pretty exciting! Hoping I've started to prove myself now and will be given much more responsibility and possibly even the chance to present and pitch to clients - fingers crossed! I am also taking the lead on another client's deck and coordinating a beauty event on Monday with the brand team. Nice to finally be busy at work. Note: pizza for the third time this week since Pizza Hut is one of our clients we had to taste their new products. Rough (fat) life.

This weekend I have some pretty fun things planned that I'm looking forward to, including the traditional event, Dragon Boat Races, and a day trip to Macau, the gambling capital of Asia. Stay tuned for the shenanigans that are sure to follow...

                                                              Dragon Boat Races

                                                                  Macau, China

From Dusk till Dawn

Alright friends and family... I'm 1/4 of the way done with my internship and 1/3 of the way done with my time here in Hong Kong. Time seems to be going a little bit faster now, which is nice, but I'm sure I'll wish it would slow down during week 7 :-P

Thursday (6/14) we had our class dinner at another private kitchen. This one was Indonesian inspired. So far I've explored many cultural meals: Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Indonesian, and American of course. The food this time was... interesting. Up on the 14th floor, we had a nice view of Kowloon, chatting and catching up on the week. Then our final dish came out... and it was chicken feet (a Chinese delicacy)!!! I figured, When in Rome! Now that that's crossed off my bucket list I never have to try it again :-P Warning: The pictures below may not be suitable for sensitive stomachs.

Friday (6/15) was a good day at work! I was given a task and had to create a presentation for a potential client. My boss wanted it to be more design/image focused and less wordy. Naturally, I suggested Prezi (For those of you that don't know what Prezi is, it's another presentation format to replace PowerPoint. They use it a lot at USC). But silly me, I've never used it before. My boss wanted to see the presentation done in both Pp and Prezi and then she would decide which she liked better. I had to teach myself how to be a Prezi master before Friday when I presented both formats to her. She is now in love with Prezi! And because of this, I am giving a tutorial to the entire department on Prezi next week. Pretty cool, huh?? Who knows, maybe I have a future career in design :-)

Friday night a group of us went out in an area called Wan Chai. It's known for it's dive bars and pub food. A local took us to this incredible rooftop bar, Wooloomooloo Sky Lounge, with gorgeous views of the entire city and harbor! As I've mentioned before, the nightlife doesn't get started until midnight and people stay out till 7am. I made it till 3:30am then my body said enough is enough, and I took my tired self to bed. 

It was a rainy, lazy Saturday (6/16) and just what I needed. YAY! I absolutely love a rainy day in San Diego, but it sure isn't the same comforting feeling walking around in it here. I think my umbrella did more harm than good as I came back to my apartment completely soaked. Time for a replacement, I believe.

And to wrap up Week 3 and redeem myself for my unproductive Saturday, today Sunday (6/17) I was off on another hiking adventure! This time the trail lead me to Tai Long Wan. It's a remote island with white sands, but it was quite the trek to get there. After taking the MTR, bus, taxi, and a ferry to Wong Shek Pier, we finally started the hiking portion (Please note in the picture below that the driver of the ferry is literally sitting in an actual Taxi seat. Very interesting). We hiked up and over the hill, which took about an hour, and then came to Ham Tin beach on the other side. Gorgeous! After fueling our bodies with some delicious Chinese food (by far the best I've had all trip!), we finished off the hike climbing up slippery trails, holding onto ropes, and emerging from the greenery, which finally dropped us at a beach all to ourselves. I thought this only happened in movies! It was so incredible laying on the white sand and swimming in the warm water to think that one of the busiest cities in the world was only a few miles away... This is what I love about Hong Kong. I still can't get over how lush and green the landscape is here. Especially at this beach, I felt like I was in Jurassic Park or a scene from Lost :-) After a refreshing dip in the ocean, I took a nap and to my surprise, woke up surrounded by none other than COWS! HA and a lot of them! It all just made the experience that much more authentic. We're planning on retuning later this summer to camp over night. Apparently you rent a tent and gear, buy your food and drinks there and enjoy the beach. I'm ready!

                                                                  Our Ferry

                                                        Please note taxi seat...

                                                    First view of Chek Keng

  
                                                    The beach to ourselves....

                                                                     

                                                                 Cows? Yep.

                                        Good bye for now Tai Long Wan. I'll be back...

 Reminder: You can see all of my pictures on Facebook.
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So here I am, half way around the world, getting ready for week 4, and wishing my dad a VERY HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!! I love you Daddy-O!! Can't wait to golf with you again when I'm home :-) xoxoxox

 And on that note, I hope all of your dads have a wonderful Father's Day as well -- So Good morning, sweet dreams, and everything inbetween. Love you all!

Find Your Beach... I did

Hi everyone!! I hope you are all enjoying your summer so far... Even though I am not partaking in the usual summer activities that I've come to love more than life itself (lake, wake surfing, hiking, beach BBQ, San Diego County Fair, camping, baseball games, etc.) I'm still doing my best to make sure I get some of those things included in my routine here. Starting with...

Sunday I hiked Dragon's Back! I'm checking things off my "Must do" list already! We met up with some friends, took the MTR to Shau Kei Wan station and a mini bus dropped us off at the trail head for Dragon's Back. I read about this hike before I came to Hong Kong, but it completely exceeded my expectations. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't quite cooperating (that morning it sounded like it was hailing outside - Impossible I know. Must be the tin roofs next to us), so throughout our hike it was drizzly and windy, but at least it made the humidity more bearable. We had a lush landscape all around us with the trail following the hilltops as they fall up and down with views of tropical beach villages and even a golf course! It was probably only 3 miles or so, but with the stairs and steps, it was definitely a good work out and I'll be back for sure. At one point towards the end, I was asking if there were any snakes in Hong Kong. One of the guys who lives here said he hikes regularly and has only seen 2 snakes in the 8 years he's lived here. After expressing my deathly fear of those slithery suckers, one crossed the trail in front of us! You could only imagine my shock/fear and reaction as I quickly jumped to the back of the group screaming. Subtle I know. But besides that, the rest of the hike was incredible with ocean views all around us as we made our decent to Big Wave Bay. You wouldn't know it that day, but apparently the waves do actually get big enough to surf. Maybe next time!
We ended the hike with great food and Coronas on the beach. The water was so nice, just wish I had brought my bathing suit. Next time for sure though! Can't wait to go back!
After that I was recharged and ready for round two!

                                                           Dragon's Back trail head

                                             Views on either side of the South China Sea

 
                                                   Gorgeous golf course right on the water!

                                                                     Big Wave Bay

                                                               I found my beach :-)

 

                                                                      - - - - - -

I was so pumped for my second week of work only to be slightly discouraged on Monday. I attended one of the largest conferences in Hong Kong with over 800 attendees, delegates, speakers, and government officials. It sure is a wake-up call to be the minority and having no one that wants to talk to you because you don't speak their language :-/ Back to the office at noon, optimistic about the day and then had nothing to do... Sigh.

                                  View from the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center

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                                                               Yes, that's 65 Wongs!

Thankfully, Tuesday (6/12/12) was much better as I was finally given a large project for a client presentation that will hopefully keep me busy for the rest of this week. Time to be creative - I like it! After work, I planned a group of the interns to grab dinner on the harbor and watch the famous lazer light show that happens every night at 8pm. We enjoyed 2 for 1 Carlsbergs, had some delicious fajitas (considering I'm in HK they were good), but the show was a flop. Lasted about 20 minutes, but we couldn't really see it. I'm trying to stay optimistic that I just didn't have a good vantage point, but from what I've been told, it's not that exciting afterall. Damn. At least I had a good meal, live music, and a great view of the skyline! Not a bad way to end the day.

Wednesday (6/13/12), the rain came. If I thought walking around here normally was difficult, umbrellas make the streets deadly. I paid $20HK which is about $3USD for an umbrella. Probably should have splurged considering typhoon season is just around the corner and my puny thing can barely open. It's almost like bumper cars with people's umbrellas; no one moves out of the way. Very odd.
Another thing I've noticed is that people here don't have a problem staring. Now I know how foreigners feel in our country. How rude.

And I'll end today's blog with this fun fact: the Chinese love hot dogs! They are served everywhere. Here is a typical authentic Chinese breakfast -- yes, thats a hot dog inside a breakfast role. Don't get me wrong, it's delicious. Just funny looking :-) 

Until next time!!! xoxoxo