11/30/2004
Tuesday

I had a meeting with my International Business group at 11 this morning. We spent about 20 minutes discussing our project and delegating the final tasks to each other. Again, only the 3 girls in the group showed up. They 3 guys in the group have never came to a meeting.
After the meeting I met Johanna in the computer lab, and we then went to the roof and sat there until my Business Communication class at 12:30. After class, I gave the teacher a note requesting to take my final exam early. I had earlier received an email from my Statistics teacher today, which said that I would be allowed to take that final exam early if I provided a copy of plane tickets showing I would be out of the country by exam time, and I expect the same situation with this class.
We had to fill out a teacher evaluation form before the end of class, and I should have given terrible marks to get her back for kicking me out of class 2 weeks ago, but I evaluated fairly anyway. At 2, I went to the canteen and sat in the full-service section, where I ordered a beef, rice and curry sauce plate, and studied for a Mandarin test.
After lunch, I sat on a bench in front of the university and continued studying for the test. Johanna came to meet me at 3, and she snuck up to scare me. We were planning on going to Macau together because I needed to pick up my student visa, and she needed to buy Christmas cards. As we were walking, I got a message on my phone from AirAsia, saying that our flight to Bangkok tomorrow was delayed 3 hours. When we got to the bus stop, we realized that we needed to go to different areas of the city and that I would have to come back to Taipa soon to take my Mandarin test, so we got on different buses.
Unfortunately, I got on the wrong bus, which took me over in the wrong direction for 30 minutes. I was going to get off the bus as it passed back by the university, but when we got to that stop, the bus just continued going. It went all the way over the bridge to Macau before it stopped. I was then worried that I would not be back in time to take my test at 4:30, but I transferred buses and made it just on time.
I first went to my Mandarin teacher’s office, and she took me to another room to take the test. It consisted of her showing me flash cards with Chinese characters and me saying the words, and her asking questions and me answering. It took about 30 minutes and she seemed to be pleased with my performance.
After the test I went to the computer lab and used the Internet for an hour and a half, then walked back to my apartment. I was planning on going to Mcdonalds for a Big Mac dinner, but I remembered that I had some bread left that would surely be bad by the time I got back from Thailand, so I made toast out of it and had some noodles as well.
After dinner, I fell asleep for a few minutes, and then Johanna called and woke me up. I was glad because I would probably have slept for a long time, and I had some schoolwork to do. I got up after the phone call and spent an hour doing the work, which was an intoduction and a conclusion for my International Business group project. After that, I watched “Kill Bill”, then spent a few more minutes using my computer before I went to bed.

Monday
11-29-07

My first class was cancelled today, so I did not walk to campus until noon. At that time, I met Johanna and we walked there together. I had my International Business final exam at 12:30. It was not hard because we were told exactly what to study and I spent time preparing for it during the weekend. I did not know it was the final exam until someone told me after class. I thought it was just a regular test because it did not cover material from the entire semester. I am glad I studied.
When I turned in the test, the assistant told me that I could not leave because I would have to fill out a teacher evaluation form at 1:30. I complained and the assistant told me I could leave if I would come back at that time. I went to the courtyard store to buy a sandwich, but they were out. They are always out of sandwiches. I then went to the computer lab and found Johanna there by coincidence. We walked to a roof and sat there until I had to go back to class at 1:30.
The person never showed up to class with the teacher evaluation forms, so the assistant told everyone they could leave at 1:35. I again went to check for sanwiches at the store, but still none, so I went back to the computer lab until Statistics started. In that class today, we spent the whole hour and a half learning how to read some kind of complicated table , and I still don’t fully understand it. After class, Dash and I went to the canteen for lunch, and I ordered the beef and noodle dish that I often do. Next, we both walked to the computer lab, and I helped dash write a short letter to a teacher in the United States.
I went to Mandarin class at 5:00, and Hana brought her parents to class today. When the teacher was speaking to us individually, she told Kaisa to “take it easy”. It is the first time I have ever heard her use any slang phrases. After class, Hana’s parents said that they had been considering taking Chinese classes at home, but had now decided against it.
After class, Johanna and I took a walk to the Pagoda on the top of the hill nearby. We sat there for a while, then walked to the supermarket. I bought a some vaccum packed cured chicken feet and and huge peice of dried squid to bring back home in January. I was going to buy a steak for dinner, but the store near my apartment that sells them was closing when I arrived. When I returned to my apartment, I just cooked noodles and two peices of toast. After dinner, I watched a movie I found in the apartment when we moved in, called “Hope Floats”, and I did not think it was very exciting.
Milan called during the movie and I stopped it and she came over. We drank a beer and talked for about 30 minutes, then she left and I finished the movie. Next was sleep.

Sunday
11-28-04

After I got up and took a shower this morning, I walked to the supermarket to buy some bread, so I could make a sandwich at home using the last of a package of ham and cheese. After lunch, I spent 2 hours reading my Consumer Marketing book and taking notes in order to prepare for writing the introduction to my group project.
Sometime around 2, I walked to the computer lab and spent about an hour there, then returned to my apartment. I then spent more time reading my Consumer Marketing book and I wrote the introduction that I had been preparing for. When I was finished with that, I spent some time working on my group project for International Business class.
Johanna called me just after dark, and we met in front of her apartment building and walked to the computer lab. I printed out some of the stuff I had been working on, then both of us left spending 20 minutes in the lab. Before we left the campus, we spent 30 minutes sitting on a roof with a good view.
I stopped at Mcdonalds on my way home and got a McChicken meal to go. Back at home after eating, I watched parts of a videotape I recorded in Shanghai in September, because I am editing a video about that trip. At 10, Uli came by to get a shirt from Raj’s room that he had earlier agreed to borrow. After that I watched Spiderman 2 and then went to bed. I could not sleep, so I got up at 2 and walked to the computer lab to make phone calls. I called my brother at work, and we talked for about 30 minutes. I also called Mike and Carolyn, and I called home and talked to Clara. I tried to call Amanda and Ericka, but I only got their answering machines.

11/27/2004
Saturday

I walked to campus at 12:15 today and stopped at the courtyard store to buy a tuna and a ham and cheese sandwich. After eating, I went to Business Communication class, and there we had to form groups and write a persuasive paragraph that convinced people to donate money on international AIDS day. I joined a group of 4 girls and we spent 30 minutes planning our paragraph. During that time, they spent a lot of time giggling, but in the end, we came up with good ideas.
After class, I spent an hour in the computer lab, and then met Johanna by the Nine Dragon Wall at 3. We took a bus to Macau so we could pick up our student visas and get a gift for Kaisa’s birthday party tonight. Our student visas have been delayed almost 2 months, and it is kind of pointless to give them to us now, because most of us are leaving in a month. On the way to the immigration office, I realized that I had forgotten my passport. I tried to pick up the visa with my student ID, but they would not accept that. Johanna was able to get her visa, and after that we bought some Kinder bars(a really good brand of chocolate candy bar) from a convenience store across the street, and then we walked through the city for 30 minutes. I had a Consumer Marketing group meeting at 5, so I had to take a bus back to Taipa at 4:30. Johanna stayed in the city to look for Kaisa’s gift.
My group meeting only lasted about 15 minutes, and I spent 2 hours in the computer lab afterwards. There, I sent emails and booked a hotel for my last night in Thailand. I found a five-star hotel by the airport for about $30. I was looking for something cheaper, but I have never stayed in that kind of hotel before, so I want to see what it is like.
I left the computer lab at about 7:30 and decided to walk to Mcdonalds for dinner. I stopped at an ATM on the way there, but it was out of Macau currency. It did have Hong Kong currency, but that money is worth a little more than Macau’s, so you loose a little bit when you spend it here. Since I could not get any money, I just decided to go home and eat some food that I had there. I cooked 3 eggs, sausage and toast.
After dinner I got ready for the Kaisa’s birthday party. Milan and Lisbeth came to my door at 9, and we walked to there together. We stopped at the supermarket on the way there to buy our drinks. The party lasted until after 3 and it was great. Everyone realized that this was one of the last parties that we would all have together, so they were all in an especially friendly mood. There were also quite a few mainland Chinese and a Japanese that came, which really made the party very international. It is so fun to be in a party setting with people from other cultures, because they open up and talk more than usual.
At 3 the police came to the party, so we all decided to go to night club DD’s. The party had been on the 23rd floor, and when we got down to the lobby of the apartment building, the guard’s room was unoccupied and the door was open. About 20 of the exchange students went inside of it and started playing with the phones, security camera system and everything else. They took the clocks of the walls and really made a mess of everything the room. I just happened to have my camera on at the time. The police came out of the elevator as the room was being invaded, and I thought that someone would surely be arrested. But, to my surprise, the police looked amused. Everyone ran away when they appeared, and they just grinned at us.
To get to the nightclub, I shared a cab with Johanna, Kaisa, and 2 other people. We did not arrive at the club until almost 4 A.M. It was crowded and there were a lot of western girls there, but not many western guys. At 5, I was sitting at a table with Johanna and eating peanuts, when a Chinese girl came to us and did something strange. I had two nuts in the palm of my hand, and she sucked them out of my palm like a vaccuum cleaner. Her, Johanna and I all laughed like it was the funniest thing ever. I spent the next several minutes shelling nuts and then letting her suck them up, and each time it was just as funny as the first.
At 6, Johanna and I decided to take a cab back to Taipa. We could not find any of the others that came with us, so we went alone. When we arrived, I walked with Johanna to the lobby of her building, then we spent another 30 minutes talking in the lobby. At 7 I walked back to my apartment and the sun was coming up. It seems amazing how fast the sun rises here, but I don’t understand how it could rise any faster here than other places, Maybe it is just my imagination.

Friday
11-26-04

I walked to campus at 12:15 today and stopped at the courtyard store to buy a tuna and a ham and cheese sandwich. After eating, I went to Business Communication class, and there we had to form groups and write a persuasive paragraph that convinced people to donate money on international AIDS day. I joined a group of 4 girls and we spent 30 minutes planning our paragraph. During that time, they spent a lot of time giggling, but in the end, we came up with good ideas.
After class, I spent an hour in the computer lab, and then met Johanna by the Nine Dragon Wall at 3. We took a bus to Macau so we could pick up our student visas and get a gift for Kaisa’s birthday party tonight. Our student visas have been delayed almost 2 months, and it is kind of pointless to give them to us now, because most of us are leaving in a month. On the way to the immigration office, I realized that I had forgotten my passport. I tried to pick up the visa with my student ID, but they would not accept that. Johanna was able to get her visa, and after that we bought some Kinder bars(a really good brand of chocolate candy bar) from a convenience store across the street, and then we walked through the city for 30 minutes. I had a Consumer Marketing group meeting at 5, so I had to take a bus back to Taipa at 4:30. Johanna stayed in the city to look for Kaisa’s gift.
My group meeting only lasted about 15 minutes, and I spent 2 hours in the computer lab afterwards. There, I sent emails and booked a hotel for my last night in Thailand. I found a five-star hotel by the airport for about $30. I was looking for something cheaper, but I have never stayed in that kind of hotel before, so I want to see what it is like.
I left the computer lab at about 7:30 and decided to walk to Mcdonalds for dinner. I stopped at an ATM on the way there, but it was out of Macau currency. It did have Hong Kong currency, but that money is worth a little more than Macau’s, so you loose a little bit when you spend it here. Since I could not get any money, I just decided to go home and eat some food that I had there. I cooked 3 eggs, sausage and toast.
After dinner I got ready for the Kaisa’s birthday party. Milan and Lisbeth came to my door at 9, and we walked to there together. We stopped at the supermarket on the way there to buy our drinks. The party lasted until after 3 and it was great. Everyone realized that this was one of the last parties that we would all have together, so they were all in an especially friendly mood. There were also quite a few mainland Chinese and a Japanese that came, which really made the party very international. It is so fun to be in a party setting with people from other cultures, because they open up and talk more than usual.
At 3 the police came to the party, so we all decided to go to night club DD’s. The party had been on the 23rd floor, and when we got down to the lobby of the apartment building, the guard’s room was unoccupied and the door was open. About 20 of the exchange students went inside of it and started playing with the phones, security camera system and everything else. They took the clocks of the walls and really made a mess of everything the room. I just happened to have my camera on at the time. The police came out of the elevator as the room was being invaded, and I thought that someone would surely be arrested. But, to my surprise, the police looked amused. Everyone ran away when they appeared, and they just grinned at us.
To get to the nightclub, I shared a cab with Johanna, Kaisa, and 2 other people. We did not arrive at the club until almost 4 A.M. It was crowded and there were a lot of western girls there, but not many western guys. At 5, I was sitting at a table with Johanna and eating peanuts, when a Chinese girl came to us and did something strange. I had two nuts in the palm of my hand, and she sucked them out of my palm like a vaccuum cleaner. Her, Johanna and I all laughed like it was the funniest thing ever. I spent the next several minutes shelling nuts and then letting her suck them up, and each time it was just as funny as the first.
At 6, Johanna and I decided to take a cab back to Taipa. We could not find any of the others that came with us, so we went alone. When we arrived, I walked with Johanna to the lobby of her building, then we spent another 30 minutes talking in the lobby. At 7 I walked back to my apartment and the sun was coming up. It seems amazing how fast the sun rises here, but I don’t understand how it could rise any faster here than other places, Maybe it is just my imagination.

11/25/2004
Thursday

I met Johanna at 10:45 this morning and we walked to Consumer Marketing class together. Today the teacher told us that his American ex-wife once wanted him to wear a special suit that made him feel like he was pregnant. The suit was designed to press on your organs and put pressure on your back, which was suppost to dupicate the effects of prenancy. She was pregnant at the time and wanted him to feel the same way. No wonder why he got divorced.
After class, Johanna and I walked to the computer lab. There I talked to my would-have-been-dorm-mate, because he wants me to help him prepare for a job interview soon. There were no free computers in that lab, so Johanna and I walked to another one, and then I went to International Business class at 12:30.
Today in that class, we had a discussion about the world diamond market. We were told that China was the biggest market for mens diamond jewelry. The teacher asked one of the mainland Chinese guys if he would buy diamonds for himself, and this student said “no”. The teacher replied, “Why not?”, and the student said, “because I would rather buy other things”. The teacher then enquired about what those things would be, and the Chinese student said, “A modern car and a robot”. It then took everything I had to control my laughter. Towards the end of class, the teacher was discussing the American concept of “metrosexuals”, and he asked me if I considered myself one. I said, “No, do you consider me a metrosexual?” He just looked at me like he didn’t understand.
Next, I went to statistics class, and the teacher had graded the exams we took on Monday. She first put up a bar chart showing how the class had done. The highest bar was showing grades from 90-100, and almost half the class had done that well. The lowest bar showed grades from 40-50, and one student fell into that category. When my paper was handed back, I discovered that I was that one student. I could not believe that was right at first, but I looked over my paper and found that it was. The main reason was that very little partial credit was given. She had taken away almost all the points for each problem with even a slight error, and I did not answer the last two problems. Oh well, I have to take statistics again at SIU whether I get an A or an F here. After the tests were handed back, the teacher presented us with a new lesson. The problems in the new lesson require calculus computations. I should have known better than to take even a seemingly simple math class in China.
After class, Dash and I ate lunch at the canteen. He told me that the two gifts he is going to give me are ready, and he will surprise me with them soon. After lunch I walked to a roof and studied for the Mandarin test that I was suppost to have today. In class today, we learned how to count above ten and talk about students in schools. After class I walk to Johanna’s apartment with her because I told her I would help her with a group project that was bothering her. We picked up some information about the project, then walked back to my apartment. We stopped at the supermarket on the way there and bought some noodles and bananas for dinner. After eating the food, we worked on the project, which is for the consumer marketing class that we both have. I helped her create questions for her tourist questionaire.
After Johanna left, I sat at my computer for a couple hours. After 11, Milan came over and we drank a beer on the roof together. After an hour on the roof, we went back to my apartment, and Raj came home. The three of us sat around and talked for a while, then I was asleep by 1.

11/24/2004
Wednesday

Johanna called my at 9:15 this morning because her, Kaisa and I had planned on going to Zhuhai together for the day. I took a shower, then met them at the bus stop a little past ten. We first went to a travel agency to pick up our visa(which they had given to us for free since they messed ours up last week), then took a cab to the border.
We first walked to a massage parlor that we had been to about 2 months ago when we spent the night in Zhuhai. Johanna and I had planned on getting a one hour massage, and Kaisa wanted a manicure, but they did not offer manicures, so she left while we got the massage. It was much better than the one I had last week in Zhuhai, and it was cheaper. The ladies were older and probably more experienced.
After the massage, we met Kaisa in front of the building, then walked to the Mcdonalds down the street for lunch. While we were eating we saw the results of an attempted robbery outside. A kid no older than ten had tried to rob a western businessman, and a police man was holding on to the kid. The older business man grabbed the kid by the ears and head and shoved him down, then slapped him in the back of the head. The cop did nothing to stop him, and handled him violently also. I got out my camera, but by the time I started filming, the beating had stopped - You can click here to see the video I did get. The business man is the guy at the end of the video in the brown suit.
After lunch we walked to the underground mall. This was the last time all of planned on being in China, so we wanted to spend what money we still had left(Macau uses different money). I came to China today with the equivalent of less than $40, and for that I got the massage, dinner, a jean jacket, one pair of blue jeans, two cartons of cigarettes and two packs of gum. I will miss this country when I start spending money back home.
When we were ready to cross back into Macau, Johanna still had 6 and a half Yuan, which is worth about 90 cents, and she decided to give it to one of the many homeless people which inhabit the area by the border. She decided to give it a very young kid that collecting cardboard and trash for recycling. The kid had something wrong with him, which was causing most of his hair to fall off the right half of his head. As we approached the kid, and old homeless lady saw what we were about to do and steped in front of us. Johanna told me that she had given this lady money once before and she was very ungrateful. As Johanna tried to walk around the lady, the lady suddenly lunged at the money and tried to take it out of her hand. Johanna held the money high above her head, and the lady started jumping at it. The kid had noticed Johanna meant to give the money to him, so he ran up to her at this time. The lady pushed the kid back and became more aggressive at trying to take the money. I pulled the money out of Johannas hand and tried to quickly hand it to the kid, but the lady got between us before he could grab it. I was finally able to block the lady’s path and give the money to the kid, who quickly ran off and abondoned the cardboard be had been collecting.
After this situation was over, we crossed the border back into Macau. We walked to the large bus terminal by the border, but it was closed for some reason, so we walked down the street until we found a bus stop. The driver of the first bus that came would not let us on, and I do not know why, because the bus was mostly empty. We were able to get on the next bus.
Once we were back in Taipa, I walked back to my apartment. I put away the things I had bought and talked to Raj for a while. He left sometime after I got home, then I spent some time typing on my computer. Riitta sent me a message at 7, inviting me to dinner with her and a group of others at 9. At 8 I walked to the computer lab and spent an hour there, and at 9 I met Johanna, Riitta, Kaisa, Toumas, Kent and Lisbeth at the bus stop, and we went to Senado Square. There we went to a sushi restaurant that was a little larger than a closet. I felt like I needed a little more to eat than sushi, so I bought something from another vendor in the same building. It was a mixture of chicken, lettuce and mayonaise wrapped in a kind of large pankake. I took this thing back to the sushi restaurant and ordered 3 pieces of sushi to go with it. There was barely enough room for all of us to sit in the tiny room. The lady that owned the place was very grateful for our business, and she talked to us the entire time we ate.
As we were leaving the restaurant, 2 vendors on opposite sides of the hallway were having a loud argument. A man and a woman behind one of the booths was screaming at a man behind another one, and this man was screaming back just as loud. It looked like things were about to get violent, but we just watched for a minute, then walked back to the bus stop. Once I was back home, I quickly went to bed.

Tuesday
11-23-04

I walked to campus with Milan at 10 this morning, and we both went to the computer lab. I spent 2 hours there typing and making phone calls. I tried to call my brother and Ericka, but could not get ahold of either of them. In Business Communication class, I sat at the very back today. I have always sat in the front, but the teacher kicked me out of class last time because she thought I was reading papers for another subject, and I hate her now. We had to form groups in class today and write a paragraph that would convince people to donate money on AIDS Day. One of the other groups first sentence read something like; “Our blood getting very dirty, our bodies getting very sick. The human condition have problem and you can help”.
After class, I walked to the canteen and ate a plate of rice, beef and cabbage, then walked back to the computer lab. Johanna came to the lab while I was there, and we later left together. We stopped at a supermarket, then decided to go hang out at my apartment for a while. After Johanna left, I talked to Raj for a while and worked on my group project for International Business.
I walked to the computer lab at about 9 so I could make a phone call to American Airlines. My return flight was not scheduled until May, because I had originally planned on staying in Macau for 2 semesters. I spent almost 30 minutes on the phone with the airline and they had no flights available on the days I wanted. I had planned on being in Hong Kong for New Years, but the only flight I could get was on December 26th at 8 AM. But, this means I will be home for New Years!
After I booked the flight, I then booked a hotel for my trip next week to Thailand. I am staying in a really nice looking place for less than 8$ per night. I also spent some time planning my schedule for the Spring Semester at SIU. At 11:30, I walked to the supermarket and bought 2 beers, then went to Roberts apartment on the 15th floor of the building next to me. Hana, Milan, Quintin and Anders were also there, and we talked and played games until 2. At that time, Milan and I walked back to our building together. We smoked a cigarette on my balcony, then she left and I cleaned up my bathroom because it was developing an odd smell.

11/22/2004
Monday

I met Johanna at the bus stop this morning at 9:15 and we went to the airport to try and book our tickets to Thailand on December 1st. We had tried to do this on Friday, using the Internet, but had been unsuccessful. Once at the airport, we looked for the Air Asia ticket counter, because this airline has far cheaper tickets than the others. We didn’t see that counter, so we enquired at the information desk. They said that it was upstairs, but would not open for another 15 minutes. We decided to go into a travel agency while we waited, so we could look into options for our late December trip, but nobody there spoke any English, so we just went upstairs to wait. The small Air Asia counter was open early and there were two people working there. We talked to them about our flights for ten minutes, but buying them there was more expensive than the Internet, so we decided to leave the airport and try again on the Internet. We took a cab back to the university.
There, the Air Asia website declined my card again, so I tried to call the company, but the phone number would not work. We then decided to go to Macau and try buying the tickets from a travel agency. Last night, Lisbeth had told me about a good agency near the nightclub DD’s, so we took a bus there. We did not know exactly where the agency was, so it took us a few minutes to find it. We asked a lady there to book the flights for us, but she just used the same website that I had been trying to use, and it again declined my card. She said there was nothing else she could do, so Johanna and I left and went across the street for lunch. While we were waiting for the food, we decided to just book the flights with the airport, because they were still affordable, even though they were more than the Internet prices. I called the Air Asia airport counter that we had been to earlier today and told them I wanted to book the flights. They did not understand me over the phone, though, so they gave me a fax number, and I told them I would send the order in a couple hours.
During the meal, Johanna decided that she would first ask to borrow her sisters credit card. We took a bus back to Taipa and met her sister at the computer lab. The Air Asia website accepted her credit card, and we now have our flights booked for the cheaper prices. I can’t wait to leave next Wednesday! 3 nights in Bankok and 5 nights in Phuket, which is on the beach in southern Thailand(thats pronounced fooket)!
I stayed in the computer lab until 3, then went to the courtyard to study for my Mandarin test, which started at 5, and my Statistics test, which started at 6. I studied until 4:45, then Johan came to the bench I was sitting at and we talked until my Mandarin class started. In class, the teacher decided to let me take the test on Thursday, since I had to leave early today to take my statistics test.
I 5:50 I left Mandarin class and walked to the Business Administration office, because I had to check a list and see where I would be seated for the test, but my name was not there. I then went to the giant test-taking classroom, called X-hall. Dash brought a calculator for me to borrow, which we had earlier arranged. I looked for my name on the lists there, but still nothing, so a student worker gave me a test and a place to sit. I worked on the test for an hour and a half and I think I got a C or maybe even a D. I answered about 75% of the questions well, but the others had not been covered in the reviews, so I was not prepared and could not even attempt to answer.
After the test I walked home, and then walked to a nearby Portuguese restaurant to meet other exchange students that were having dinner there. They had the entire small second floor of the restaurant reserved, and there were about 20 of them there. After dinner, we decided to go to the Irish Pub, but everybody wanted to leave when we got there. We looked for another bar, but could not find one that everybody could agree on, so we all split up. Milan and I went to the supermarket and bought a bottle of wine, which we took back to my place. There we watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade while we drank our wine.

Sunday
11-21-04

I got up at ten today and spent some time catching up on this weekends journal entries. At noon I left my apartment because I wanted to go to Macau and see the Formula One races that are taking place today. The races started last Thursday and this was the last day of them. Barricades have been placed along-side certain roads all over the city and many different kinds of races have taken place. There have mostly been Formula car, motorcycle and scooter races. There have been many bad crashes televised in the news, and one motorcycle driver is not expected to survive.
On my way to Macau, I stopped at Mcdonald’s and ate a Big Mac meal, then got on a bus. Traffic in the city was all messed up because most of the roads were closed for the races. When my bus stopped I tried to find a good place to view and record the racing, but was very disappointed. Every potential public viewing point was taped off and guarded by police. At first I thought it was for safety reasons, but now I’m not so sure. There were sets of bleachers set up along the roads, but it was very expensive to get a ticket, and I think that they were trying to force people to buy tickets. In many other spots, the police had even put up barricades that blocked the view. I did find a couple good open spots, but the police came and blew their whistles at me each time, and motioned for me to move on. I can not believe how many cops this city has, because there must have been thousands of them on duty this weekend, guarding every conceivable place to watch the races from.
I finally decided to quit looking for the perfect place, and I walked to a nearby hill in search of a place I could at least see something from. I knew that there was a trail around the side of this hill, which could give me a descent look at things. When I got to the top of the hill, I could not believe that the trail had also been taped off and was being guarded by police. There was absolutely no public risk at allowing people to view the race from this location.
After I saw the closed trail, I just decided to go home. I thought it was wrong that the people who live here are inconvenienced so much by the traffic jams that this race creates, and then they are not even allowed to watch it.
Once I was back in Taipa, I stopped at the supermarket, and then went home. There, I did some writing on my computer, then started studying for tomorrow’s Statistics test. Raj woke up at about 3, cooked and ate, went back to bed at 4 and then left about 6. I continued studying for my test.. Lisbeth stopped by at 6:30 to thank me for helping her create the video for her fathers birthday. She said that at least 30 family members were at his party, and a couple of them had called her to say how much they liked it.
Milan came over while Lisbeth was there, and the three of us talked til about 7:30. They then went home because the plumber had arrived to fix their toilet, which Milan had accidentally flushed a bottle cap down. Milan came back to my apartment at about 8:30, because I told her that she could use my computer. She typed for the next 2 hours while I studied. There was a fireworks display at 10 to celebrate the end of the Formula One races, and it shook the building. They really love their fireworks here. Our building shakes at least once a week, and I just always assume it’s the fireworks. If there is ever an earthquake I will just think that it’s fireworks at first.
At 10:30 I walked to the supermarket to buy a couple drinks, then Milan and I decided to explore the roof of our building. I had heard that it was unlocked a few weeks ago, and had wanted to find out ever since. Sure enough, it was open, and the view is great. I will be back there on nice days and during future fireworks displays.
Raj came home at 11, and the three of us drank a beer and watched the movie “One Flew Over the Cookoos Nest”.

Saturday
11-20-04

Maria, Johanna and I woke up at ten this morning in our hotel in Guangzhou. After getting ready and taking some pictures of our 22nd story downtown view, we paid our bill and set out on the street. We had no specific destinations for the day, which is sometimes a great way to travel.
We first stopped at a bank so Maria could change some money. While Johanna and I waited on her, we tried to read as many of the Chinese characters as we could on the banks signs. I thought it said something about apple-juice, but I somehow doubt that. Next, we walked to the river and explored that area for restaurants. We passed a couple, then decided on a huge seafood place. It was two levels, well-decorated and full of hundreds of people. After we were seated, the waitress began to speak to us in Chinese and there appeared to be no menu. She left and brought back an English speaking waitress, who told us to follow her so we could pick out our food.
This waitress led us to the other half of the restaurant, which we had not yet noticed. This part of the building was filled with thousands of living sea creatures in tanks and boxes. There were fish in a tank by the entrance that appeared to weigh well over 50lbs, and they were some of the ugliest I had ever seen. We walked on further and found prepared plates that were ready to be taken and eaten. Much of the contents on the plates was shocking, but I was especially surprised to see whole turtles that had been cooked in their shells, then placed next to rice or pasta.
After passing the turtle plates I went to the live reptile section. There, I first found two shallow uncovered tanks with a combined total of at least 1000 snakes, each of which looked violent and angry. I was so captivated by the large number of snakes, that I didn’t even notice the 5-foot alligators until I was right on top of them. This was the closest I had ever been to that animal, so I was very interested in getting a closer look. They were in a box on the floor that was only about 12 inches deep. The top was mostly covered by a piece of wire fencing that was not even fastened down. Each of the gators had wire holding its mouth shut, but they could have easily gotten out of the box if they had wanted to.
After looking at the gators, I went back to our table. I did not order anything because the prices were not listed and our English-speaking waitress had vanished. The girls had a hard time ordering too, but they did get some pumpkin tarts and mangos. When we paid for the tiny meal we were surprised to find that it was almost $10. We investigated the bill and found that we had been charged extra each time our tiny teacups had been involuntarily refilled. The cups were the smallest I have ever seen, and were just a little larger than thimbles.
After the meal, I still needed to eat, and Johanna had not yet had enough, so we went to the 711 across the street. There, we bought some instant noodles and prepared them with a boiling water dispenser in the store. There was one small table there, which we ate at. After the meal, we bought two Kinder bars, then walked on down the street.
We soon came to a big square that was full of gardens and people enjoying the perfect 75-degree sunny day. The sprinklers were on, and their reach extended well past the sidewalk, so all the people scattered each time the water came their way. We stopped at a nearby ATM so Johanna could get money, and then began looking for a market that was listed on a map I had obtained from the Internet. We needed to find an English-speaker to help find the place, and that was rather difficult. Then, I saw a McDonalds, and I knew that plenty of English speakers would be there. The first person I asked was a girl that was sitting on the stairs of the front entrance, and she not only spoke English, but she also walked us to the entrance of the market, which was just across the street.
We spent about an hour in the market, which, just like the other big ones I have been to in this country, was an indoor maze of thousands of small vendors. I purchased a wallet, cigarette case and tiny lighter for about a dollar each. I also bought a military style bag with a picture of Mao Zedong on the side for about $4. The girls bought two rather large vases and some plates, so they wanted to get a hotel room early in order to drop off their merchandise there.
So, we left the market and walked around for about 30 minutes trying to find a hotel. During this walk, we came across a small 3-story building that was being demolished in a very interesting way. The narrow walls were all that was still standing, and men with sledgehammers were precariously balanced along the top. This looked like one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. It was the equivalent of tightrope walking while swinging a sledgehammer.
We could not find a hotel, so I finally asked a man, and he directed us to any area with several. The first two were full, then we got some really bad news at the third one. The government requires that each hotel to check the visas of all foreigners, and they discovered a problem with ours. The travel agency that created it had entered the wrong departure date. The visa was suppost to be good for three days, but they had mistakenly only made it good for two. The hotel clerks just said, “Sorry, no help you”. After the girls and I discussed our options for a minute, we decided to go to the American Embassy for help.
I had a hotel clerk write the name in Chinese, and we gave that writing to a cab driver. The embassy was located in a very nice European-looking area near the river. The embassy building was not large and closed gates surrounded it. While we were trying to figure out how to get inside, an English speaking Chinese guard came to us and asked what we needed. He told us that the embassy was closed for the weekend, but told us that the Chinese government could extend our visa for us. He wrote the name of the place to go in Chinese, and we gave that to a cab driver.
We arrived at this police building about 15 minutes later, and a guard at the door said “Come back Monday”, and that appeared to be the only English he knew. We thought that we were at the wrong building, so we walked around the area, but there appeared to be no other police facilities nearby. We went back to the first building and showed the guard our visa, and he again told us to come back Monday. We then pointed at the expiration date on our visa, and he went to his desk and made a phone call. After the call he again said, “Come back Monday”, so we pointed at the date again. He called another guard to the desk and they discussed our situation for a minute, and then made another phone call. After he hung up, he just said, “Come back Monday”.
We decided to take a taxi back to the embassy and see if we could get any more help there. The cab let us off at the back entrance to the property, and a sign there said, “Guards Execute, an Order”. The gate was not closed all the way, and there appeared to be no guards ready to shoot us, so we just walked on in. There were guards at the other end of the parking lot, and one of them jumped on a motorcycle and came towards us. The guard that we had talked to the first time today was still working, and he radioed for the one on the motorcycle to leave us alone. We told him what had happened at the police station and he radioed the person that was in charge of the embassy today. He then gave us some chairs to sit in and told us that this person would be down in 15 minutes.
The guy that came to talk to us was Chinese, but had almost perfect English. He first asked us what he could do for us, then looked at our passports. When he saw Maria and Johanna’s Finnish passports, he told them that he could not assist them. I told him that extending the visa for me would help all of us, and he agreed to make some phone calls, but said that he could promise nothing since there was no medical emergency.
We waited in our chairs in the parking lot for another 20 minutes while this man made the calls. Stray cats came from every direction to investigate us while we sat there. The guard who had been helping us was sitting nearby, and he told us that the cats come every day at exactly this time because it is always when he orders lunch. When the man in charge came back he told us, “It is almost impossible to get any government employee to work on the weekend here……”. He went on to tell us that there was nothing he could do for us.
I was very surprised that the embassy would not do anything in this situation. I had always thought that they would protect their citizens abroad, and not let them be forced to sleep on the streets. Luckily we had caught the problem early enough in the day that we would hopefully be able to make it back to the Macau border before it closed at midnight.
Before we left, Maria wanted to buy some fabric she had seen at the market earlier, so we took a cab back there. As we were walking through the crowded market, an insane white long-haired stray cat went on a rampage. It came up from behind me at full speed and crashed head on into a girl walking towards me. She screamed, and the cat rolled a couple times, but this barely slowed it down. It continued on its path by jumping from table to table and knocking products over, and then it disappeared.
Johanna and I decided to eat at KFC while Maria finished her shopping. We ordered two chicken sandwich meals, and Maria met us at 7. She got a meal to go, then we went to find a cab that would take us back to the bus station. When I flagged the taxi down, I accidentally walked into the bike lane, and almost got hit by 2 two of them
At the station, we bought our tickets and boarded the bus with little incident. We spent the two-hour trip back to Zhuhai reading and talking. We arrived back at the border an hour before it closed, so Maria wanted to go buy a suitcase at the underground mall there. She found the one she wanted, and we then crossed back over the border with no problems. We then took a bus back to Taipa and returned to our apartments.
Raj was home when I arrived. I unpacked my things and was surprised to discover that I had somehow lost my sunglasses and the cigarette lighter and case I had bought today. After I was done unpacking, Bora came over with another guy, and I talked to Raj and them for 30 minutes. They left at 1 and I went to sleep.

Friday
11-19-04

I had a meeting at 11 on campus with my International Business group. There are 7 people in the group, but only 3 girls showed up. We discussed the project for about 15 minutes, then the meeting was over. I then bought two sandwiches and a bottle of water from the courtyard market, and ate it outside. Next, I went to the computer lab. Dash called me just before 12:30, and then brought me a copy of an old Statistics test that he had copied for me.
I walked to Business Communication just after I saw Dash. I carried the papers he had given me into class and sat them on my desk. About 5 minutes into class, the teacher stopped talking and said to me, “You can take that and leave”. I wasn’t even touching or reading the papers on my desk. I was just staring at them and thinking about other things. I looked around the room and saw that the other students were doing all kinds of things other than giving the teacher thier full attention. The teacher is Japanese, and I think that she might just not like Americans. She is married to one, and maybe he is mean to her or something. I left just quietly left today, but if it happens again I am going to give her problems.
I went home and packed a bag for the weekend after I got kicked out of class, then I went back to campus and met Johanna in the computer lab. We tried to use the Internet to book flights to Thailand on December 1st, but the website asked us for our passport #’s, which we did not have with us. I was able to find some information about Guangzhou, China, which we needed for our trip there later today.
Johanna left the lab when her class started, and then came back to meet me afterwards. We walked back to her apartment to pick up our passports(she still had mine because she had used it to get a visa for me). At 4 I walked back to the computer lab to try to book the flights again. This time, the website would not accept my bank card, so I still do not have the tickets.
After this failure, I walked home to pick up my bag, then met Johanna and Maria at the bus stop because we were leaving for our weekend trip to China. All the buses were packed so full that the three of us would not fit on, so we took a cab. The border crossing went smoothly today. I was worried that we would have problems because we used a group visa that mistakenly had Kaisa’s name on it. We did have to step out of line and take the visa to another desk, but they then just crossed out Kaisa’s name and put an official stamp over it.
Once we had crossed over into Zhuhai, we decided that we needed dinner before we took the two hour bus ride to Guangzhou. We went the the same restaraunt that we had been to on Wednesday, called E.S. Kimo. Afterwards, we went out in search of the bus station. We knew it was very nearby, but could not find it. We found an lady that spoke a little bit of English, and she walked us all the way to the front door of the bus station, which was about 10 minutes away. That is good service, especially considering she did not even know the word “bus” when we first approached her. I offered her a little money for the help, but she would not accept it.
A bus was leaving for Guangzhou just about five minutes after we arrived at the station. The two hour ride was over by about 10:30, and we were then in middle of the 2200 year old city of Guangzhou; population 7 million. I had printed information about a certain hotel from the Internet, and I tried to ask people about it as the bus was pulling into the station. Nobody seemed to speak english, but just as the bus was coming to a stop, the woman sitting next to me offered to help us. She walked with us to the street and told a cab driver where to take us.
About 10 minutes later, we arrived at the hotel Lido. The rooms were more expensive than they had been advertised on the Internet, but we got a triple room for less than $20 each. The room was on the 22nd floor, and it was nothing special, considering we had payed more than usual for a room. We did not get to our room until almost midnight, so we just decided to go to sleep.

11/18/2004
Thursday

After I left my apartment this morning, I stopped by a supermarket and bought some Oreo’s and water. I then went to Johanna’s apartment before we walked to class today, because I had to drop off my passport so her sister could take it to the travel agency and get our group visa for tomorrow fixed.
After consumer marketing class, I spent a few minutes in the computer lab, then went to international business class. Today I gave a PowerPoint presentation about selling on Ebay, which lasted about 15 minutes. People seemed at least mildly interested. Next, I had a mid-term exam review in Statistics class.
When statistics was over, I went to a roof to study for today’s oral Mandarin exam, and Johanna met me there at 4:15. In class, the individual tests were taking longer than expected, so the teacher told the students at the bottom of the list that they could take the test next week. I then spent a few minutes in a computer lab before going to the canteen and getting a rice-curry-meat dish to go.
I found Raj, Santiago and Poy at my apartment when I arrived. They had the table pushed to the middle of the living room and a candle was in the middle of it. They were all eating a romantic take-out dinner from the supermarket downstairs. I brought my take-out to the table and joined them. After dinner, we talked for about 20 minutes, then Poy and Santiago left.
At that time, I began studying for my Monday statistics test, and Florian came over to work on a group project with Raj. I was so tired that I could barely stay awake, so I went to sleep when Raj and Florian left at 10. At 4:15 Raj called me and asked me to let him in the apartment because he had forgot his keys.

11/17/2004
Wednesday

I was up at 9:30 today, and after a shower I had an orange and two pieces of toast for breakfast. I walked to campus just after 10, and went to the Business Administration office. There, I asked Grace if could take my final exams early, because they take place the same week classes begin at SIU. She told me that I could not do that, but I know that some students have been allowed to, so I guess I am just going to have to call their bluff, because I do not want to show up after classes start and then not even yet have a place to live. I need some time to get organized before school starts or I am going to be behind from the beginning. These classes are not transferring anyway, so my work at SIU is much more important.
At 10:30 I went to the computer lab, and Johanna called me at 11 to say that she was ready to go on our planned trip to China today. I met her, Maria(her sister) and Kaisa at the bus stop, and we then took a bus to the travel agency to pick up the visas we applied for last night. After picking them up, we took a cab to the border.
Everything that happened there was a mess. The first problem happened when I went through the Macau departure section. I did not have the proper stamps in my passport because the government is late in processing my student visa. I showed them a form that explained this, but they did not know what they were suppost to do. Two guards took my passport away and made us wait for about 15 minutes before coming back to say everything was OK.
The next problem happened at the China section of the border. We had two visas from the travel agency; one for today’s trip and one for Friday’s trip. When we gave today’s visa to the customs guard, she called someone else to look at it, then that person took it away and told us to stay in line. About 20 minutes later, this person came back and told us that we would not be allowed to enter the country because the date of entry on the visa was the 19th, and today was the 17th. I immediately realized what had happened; the travel agency had switched the dates on the two visas. The 4-person visa for today was dated for Friday, and the 3-person visa for Friday was dated for today. This is the second time that travel agency has messed a group visa up, so I think we are done with that company.
We decided to go back to the agency to try and get the problem fixed, but we then realized another problem. We were not allowed to go back the way we came. Police are posted everywhere, and they only allow traffic to move one direction. So, we couldn’t get in China, but we also couldn’t go back to Macau. It suddenly appeared that our fate was going to turn out like Tom Hanks’ in The Terminal. We were finally able to find a guard that was willing to investigate our situation, and he radioed someone else for help. This other person came and looked at our documents, then let us enter the Macau section of the border.
Then we were faced with problem #1 a second time! When I showed my passport to the Macau guard, he looked confused and pushed a button under his desk. Another person then came and took my passport away again. He came back about 5 minutes later and motioned for me to come with him. I followed him to a room and he told me to wait outside the door. He came out several minutes later and took my passport back to the original guard. After even more inspection by this same guard, he finally stamped it and let me re-enter Macau.
As we were leaving the border building, we realized that there was probably no way that they were going to be able to fix the visa quickly, because a transaction has to take place with the government. There was another option though, but taking it meant that Kaisa would not be able to go with us. The Friday visa had only Johanna’s, Maria’s and my name on it, but it was dated for today, so we discussed this with Kaisa, then said goodbye to her and re-entered the border building. We then entered China without incident - Click here to see a video
Once inside the country, we went to the underground mall that is in front of the border building, and went to the massage parlor there. We requested a two-hour massage and were taken to a small room with 3 tables. Three ladies soon arrived and started the massage, and they did some interesting things. A few minutes into the massage, my masseuse started to lightly rub my butt, then they all started giggling and she stopped. She then climbed on top of my back and walked on me with her knees, which felt good, but it was never done during my past massages here. She then picked up my hand and sat it on the table next to me, and another person’s hand started holding it, but was quickly withdrawn. I looked up and saw Johanna’s masseuse just smiling at me. I just laughed and put my head back into the hole on the table. My masseuse then put my hand in her crotch, but I ignored it and they stopped messing with me.
I cannot be completely sure, but I think that they were teasing me because they saw Johanna and I holding hands when they came in. They probably just thought it would be fun to see how I would react to these things when she was laying on the table right next to me. After they stopped playing with me, they then turned on a TV and started taking phone calls while they massaged us, which continued until the end.
After we left the massage parlor, we decided to find something to eat. As we were walking out of the mall, a guy in a shoe store came up to me and said “47”. I had been to his store about 6 weeks ago and had asked him for size 47 shoes, which he did not have. I cannot believe he remembered me. I looked at his size 47’s, but they did not appeal to me. We then walked up to the street level and went to E.S. Kimo for lunch.
After the meal, I looked at blankets in a store underneath the restaurant. I was cold for the first time last night, and all I have at home is a sheet. I decided to wait to buy one, in case I could get it cheaper. We then went back into the underground mall. There, Johanna bought some jeans and a hat, Maria bought a purse, hat and scarf, and I bought a blanket and CD case. Maria then decided to get her hair cut at the massage parlor we had been to earlier. Johanna and I rested in the lobby, and it took an hour and a half for the hair cut, but it didn’t seem like we waited that long though, because we easily amuse each other.
We could see into the hair salon from the lobby and we saw a girl sitting in there with her back to us. This girl had long blond hair, and we assumed it was Maria because that kind of hair is very unusual here. The hair was much shorter than Maria’s had been though, and we thought that they had mistakenly cut off too much, because this girl had tissues in her hand and she appeared to be crying. A few minutes later we saw Maria come out of the salon from another direction, and we then realized we had been looking at the wrong girl.
The three of us then decided to go back home. As we were leaving the mall we saw the Consumer Marketing teacher, Francis Piron, who is always eager to make conversation, and is always interesting to talk to. We then crossed over the border with no problem, and got on bus #25. As we were waiting for it to leave, a woman was puking heavily on the sidewalk outside. Once I was back in Taipa, I parted with the girls, then got a Big Mac meal to go. After eating the food at home I put my things away and did some writing on my computer.

11/16/2004
Tuesday

I got up at 10:30 today and took a shower, then made myself a ham and cheese sandwich for breakfast. Johanna had earlier called when I was getting up, and told me that she was going into Macau at 12:30 to apply for our group visa to China, which we need on Friday when we go to Guanzhou with her sister. She needed my passport in order to apply for the visa.
At noon I took the passport to campus and waited for Johanna by the goldfish pond. It was almost cold today, with temperatures at about 60 degrees, cloudy skies and a strong wind. It was the first day I wore a long sleeve shirt since I have been here, and I unfortunately only brought one of them here with me.
While I was waiting for Johanna, I saw a perfectly round, golf ball sized bird on the ground. It was the funniest looking bird I had ever seen, so I went closer to take a look. It tried to fly away, but flew only a short distance, then landed again, just like chickens do. Johanna met me at that time, and I tried to show the bird to her, but it had disappeared in the bushes.
I had not seen Johanna since Friday, so I decided to skip my 12:30 class and go to Macau with her. As we were walking down the hill, we saw her sister, Maria, walking up it. I had never even seen a picture of her before, so her appearance was a complete surprise to me, and she is beautiful. I promise to have a picture of the sisters together on the front page of my website by the weekend.
Maria told us that there had been a fire alarm in the apartment building, which had forced her to leave. She decided to come to Macau with us, so we all took bus #22 to an area near the travel agency, then walked the rest of the way there. When I first saw Johanna today, she had also invited me on a trip tomorrow to Zhuhai with her, Kaisa and her sister, so I applied for both a Wednesday and a Friday visa.
After we left the travel agency, we ate at a Japanese restaurant called Happy something. I ordered eel and rice and it was not bad, but I don’t think I will get it again. Next we walked to Senado Square and looked at some warmer clothes, but decided to wait till we are in China to buy them, because they are a fraction of the price there. We then walked to St. Paul’s Cathedral and the fort that sits on the hill above it.
Next we got some ice cream at McDonalds, and then decided to randomly walk the streets. Most of the roads here are narrow mazes filled with small businesses and street vendors, and I have only seen a small portion of them. Today we discovered some very unique areas that I never knew existed. We first found some tiny alleys where businesses were selling antique Chinese and American products. One of them had a lot of advertising memorabilia from the 50’s and 60’s. Most of it seemed to be overpriced, but it was all covered in dust and looked potentially valuable, so I am curious to go back and take a closer look.
After this series of alleys, we found ourselves at a Catholic church, which we sat inside of for a few minutes. We then walked across the street to an area with a garden and park, and this was the nicest area I have seen in Macau. The grounds were perfect, with large boulders and stone paths that were surrounded by a dense assortment of large tropical plants. People of all ages seemed to be enjoying themselves everywhere. The kids were playing, and the old people were doing Yoga-type exercises on the boulders or sitting and talking. Many of the old men carried small birdcages, and they just sat cross-legged and stared at the birds. We found a cage hanging from a tree, which had noone around, so we decided to stand there and try staring at the bird for ourselves. Afterwards, Johanna and I commented to each other that we were surprised at how relaxing we found it.
The girls and I explored the park for a while, then I took a bus back to Taipa, so I could get some school things done. I first went to the computer lab, where I stayed for about 2 hours, then walked to Mcdonalds and got a McChicken meal to go.
Raj was home when I arrived. After eating my meal, I began studying for a Statistics test that I have next Monday. I took some breaks and talked to Raj and watched parts of Terminator two with him. He went to sleep around 11, and Milan called me and came over at that time. We smoked a cigarette together, then she went back to her apartment. Dash called me soon after she left and asked me if I would help him write some letters to his teachers. After that, I spent another hour using my computer before going to sleep.

Monday
11-15-04

I got up at 7:30 this morning so I could talk to my consumer marketing teacher during his office hours. On my walk there, I stopped at a small store to buy and orange and some crackers. When I went to the register, the clerk said “I need your help. Must go to toilet. Please watch store.”, he ran away and I stood there for about 2 minutes until he got back.
I got to the campus about about 8:30, and spent a few minutes in the computer lab before going to talk to my teacher. An door alarm in the computer lab was broken, and it kept continuously beeping loudly, which was driving everyone there crazy.
My meeting with Francis Piron only lasted for about 5 minutes. I just showed him a tourist questionaire that my group had devised for our final project of the semester. He made a couple strange suggestions for questions, like “Could you please describe Macau as a person?”. After the meeting, I spent a while longer in a computer lab, then sat in the courtyard and did some studying.
I was suppost to read an article for my International business class, but I couldn’t find it in the book, so I started studying for a Mandarin test. I stopped at 10 to get a sandwich and a bottle of water from the courtyard store, then continued studying. I was surprised how much the weather had changed today. Yesterday was rather hot and sunny, as have been 99 percent of the days for the past 2 months, but today was cloudy, windy and about 65 degrees.
I walked to consumer marketing class at 11, but left before class started because I realized that I needed to copy a file off of my computer that I needed for an International Business presentation. I walked home and copied the file, then fell asleep. I woke up ten minutes before International Business started, so I rushed there. When I arrived, the class had already started discussing the article that I could not earlier find in the book. I tried not to look at the teacher so he would not ask me any questions about it.
I gave my Sealand PowerPoint presentation at the end of class, and it got some laughs, which had been my goal in choosing that topic. As I was leaving class, Joseph(teacher) asked me if I would speak to a group in Macau next week about America. He didn’t give me any details, but I told him I would do it anyway. This is the second extra thing he has asked me to do, so I hope I get a good grade in his class(the other extra thing was give a presentation about doing business on Ebay, which I am suppost to do on Thursday).
Next, I went to Statistics class. After class was over, Dash gave me a note in the elevator. It was describing the bottle of liquor that he gave me as a gift last week after class. The letter also said that he had 3 more gifts to give me before the semester was over. After talking to Dash for a minute, I walked to the canteen and had a bowl of beef and noodles. It was so good, and only $1. After lunch I spent some time in the computer lab and then studying Mandarin on the roof.
We learned to say the names of some foods today in class. After class, I walked back down the hill with Kaisa, then went home. There, I cooked eggs, toast and sausage. After the meal, I had planned on working on a paper, but I fell asleep for 3 hours. I woke up around 11 and was dissapointed that I had slept so long, because I would have been done with the paper if I had stayed awake. Raj and Pedro were in the living room watching my cemetery video when I got up -Click here to see the video
I drank a beer with them, then started working on the “My Favorite Things” paper for consumer marketing class. They left around midnight to go out in Macau. I continued working on the paper, and Raj came home shortly after he had left and said he decided he was too tired to go out. A short time later, Boro and an out-of-town friend of his rang the doorbell. I talked to them and Raj as I finished typing my paper, which turned out to be 15 pages. Raj and the others left at about 3 because they had decided to go out in Macau. I went to bed.

Sunday
11-14-04

For the third day in a row, I slept later than usual this morning. Milan came over at lunchtime, and I cooked us ham and cheese sandwiches. We watched two episodes of South Park, then walked to the computer lab, where we spent about two hours. After that, we walked to the Portuguese supermarket near Mcdonalds and bought some food and drinks.
After the supermarket, we returned to my apartment, where we drank a beer and played some Playstation games. I was surprised how competitive Milan became when I kept winning. After an hour of games, we walked to Mcdonalds and got two Big Mac meals to go, which we took back to my place.
After the meal, we watched the movie “City of God”, which is in Spanish with English subtitles. Raj came home from his weekend Hong Kong trip towards the end of the movie. After it was over, he showed us a new digital camcorder he bought there. My camera is working very poorly lately, so hopefully he will let me borrow it sometimes.

Saturday
11-13-04

I went to the supermarket before lunch today and bought enough food to last for several meals. Instead of just buying instant noodles like I usually do, I bought some pork chops, hot dogs and sandwich materials. When I got back home, I made a ham and cheese sandwich and a bowl of noodles.
I took a shower after lunch, then walked to a computer store nearby, where I bought a headset that I can use when I phone conversations on a computer. I then walked to the computer lab, where I called Jen and checked my email.
I left the computer lab at about 4, and I walked to the nearby mountain with the cemetery on it. I had brought my camcorder with me today so I could film inside of this cemetery. It has hundreds of graves in it and takes up a whole side of the mountain. I spent about 2 hours taping around the graves and along a trail that follows around the top of the mountain.
I started walking home when it began to get dark, and I stopped along the way to buy some eggs for dinner. Back at my apartment, I cooked the pork chops I had bought earlier today, along with some scrambled eggs and cheese. I ate so much that I couldn’t eat another bit, then I spent 2 hours editing the video I shot today in the cemetery. I will get it on the website on Monday.
After making my video, I watched “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, then walked to the supermarket to buy some drinks, because Milan had sent me a message saying that she wanted to have a beer at 12:30. Back at my apartment, I worked on a consumer marketing project while I waited on her to get there.
She showed up at about 12:45, and we drank a couple beers, talked about the bugs that we hate most in our countries, watched my cemetery video and an episode of South Park.

Friday
11-12-04

I got up late again today. Raj and I spent some time cleaning the apartment up, then I took a shower and walked to Mcdonalds for lunch. Next, I walked to the campus and checked to see if I had any real mail. I got my first letter today, and it was from Rufus. I then walked to the computer lab, where I found Raj smoking outside the door, and he told me that he was getting ready to go to China for the weekend.
I spent an hour using the computers, and I learned how to use the color printer that makes posters. My would-have-been-roomate was on duty, and he got another worker to show me how to do it. I left the computer lab at about 6:30 and walked back towards my apartment, stopping only to go to the supermarket.
When I got home, I watched the movie “Papillon”, then worked on an International Business group project for an hour. Next I watched the movie “Heat”. Just not much to write about today.

Thursday
11-11-04

I had vivid dreams all night long, and I did not wake up until just before my first class started. I have never had to set an alarm since I’ve been here, but I overslept today. When I woke up, I felt that I had only slept for a few minutes……sleep can be a wierd thing. When I did get up, I felt like I was on drugs or something, and I think I might have been abducted by aliens or chinese last night.
Johanna called me and came over for lunch at 1. We ate some noodles together, then spent the afternoon just hanging out in my apartment. We talked about hiking in Coloane, but never found the energy to do it. At 6:30 we met Kaisa and went to dinner at Top Taipa, then had ice cream from Mcdonalds while we sat in front of the building.
Afterwards, Johanna and I walked to the computer lab, where we stayed for about an hour. I then walked back to Johanna’s apartment building with her before going home. Raj was gone when I got there, and I started watching the movie “Papillon”, but Raj soon came home with Bora, Thibeau and Pedro. We all watched the movie “Along Came Polly” together, then I went to the supermarket to get us some drinks. I called Johanna on the way there, and I sat on pedestrian overpass for about 25 minutes and talked to her. At the supermarket I bought a bottle of whiskey that the others had requested, and some Coke and ice.
Back at the apartment, we stayed up til 3 and drank all of our whiskey, and the security guard came up at 2 to tell us that our music was too loud. We just talked and played some video games. I gave the guys a riddle and Raj guessed the answer.
Here is the riddle; You are at the bottom of a set of stairs and there are 3 light switches on the wall. There is a room upstairs with 3 lights bulbs. Each of the bulbs is controlled by one of the switches downstairs. You must figure out which switch controls which bulb, but you can only go upstairs to look once…………..can anybody guess. If so put the answer on the message board.

Wednesday
11-10-04

Lisbeth and I began editing the video for her dad’s birthday at 8 this morning. I had told her to come at that time, because I knew that it would take a while. We worked on the video until she had to go to a school group meeting at 10:30, and got about two-thirds of it done by that time.
After she left, I completed my Sealand PowerPoint presentation, then walked to the computer lab. I spent an hour there, then Lisbeth called to say that she was ready to continue working on the video. On the way home, I stopped at the supermarket to buy some noodles and bananas
We started editing the video again at 2, and stopped at 3 to eat some noodles that I cooked. We continued working on the video until I had to leave at 4:30, and had about ninety-five percent of it done at that time.
I met Thibaud at the bus stop after I left my apartment, and we headed to Macau because we had an English teaching job there tonight, which had been arranged by the university several weeks ago. We were told to wait for someone to meet us at the bank of China at 5, and a van from the Kiang We Nursing College pulled up at that time. Two girls got out of it and introduced themselves to us, then we all got in the van.
On the way to the college, the girls chatted with us and described the work we were suppost to do tonight. When we arrived, a professional-looking Chinese woman greeted us and gave us more details about our job. She led us to a large courtyard area, where two large round tables were set up next to a refreshment area. While I waited for the students to arrive, I had some milk-tea from the refreshment area and continued talking to the girls who had been in the van with us.
The other students arrived at 5:30 and I was placed at one of the tables with about 15 students. My instructions were to talk only enough to keep an English conversation going among the table. Our topic was European countries, and everyone had a list of country names and their adjectives. I was suppost to go through the list with the students, then get them to discuss what they knew about each country. I was told to notice which students were the quietest, then ask them direct questions.
There was also a native speaking teacher at my table who helped me keep the conversation focused. We talked about European countries for about 30 minutes, but the group was not picking up on the conversation very much, so I then tried talking about other things in hopes of getting a more enthusiastic response. The 2 guys in the group seemed very interested in political conversations, but the majority of girls remained quite. So, after a few minutes of political discussion, I then changed the conversation to family life. The quiet girls then began to speak a little more.
The session ended at 6:45, and 4 of the girls asked if they could have my email address. I talked to one of them for a few minutes after class, then the professional-looking Chinese lady gave Thibaud and our $15 payment for the hour. She was very friendly and spent several minutes in conversation with us before we left.
On the way to the bus stop, Thibaud and I passed through Senado Square and bought some sandwiches from a store there. I ate one of them, a ham and cheese, on the walk, then carried the other with me. We took a standing-room-only bus back to Taipa, and it took about 25 minutes to get us back to our apartments. I ate my other sandwich, a fried chicken, as soon as I got home.
I knocked on Lisbeths door at 8 to see if she was ready to finish making the video for her dad. She came over and we spent about 2 mores hours finishing it. It is my best video editing work ever, and I am proud of it, but it is all in Dutch, so I won’t bother posting any of it on the website. After we finished, Milan and her parents came over to view it with us. Everyone left after it was over, and I started watching the movie “The Manchurian Candidate”, which is a very creepy movie about mind control. About 20 minutes before the end, the DVD quit working. I told myself a few days ago that I would never watch another chinese DVD without checking the end first, but I forgot. I will never forget again. I put a note inside of the DVD case that said “This is a movie about mind control and it may cause violent behavior. The end will make you so angry that you might break something or hurt someone. Seriously, do NOT watch this movie.”

11/9/2004
Tuesday

I cooked some instant noodles and talked to Raj a few minutes before going to Business Communication class at noon. We got our midterm exams back today and I was surprised that I got a B on the test, because the class is meant for people that speak English as a second language. I though that the test was graded ridiculously, but I am not going to bother complaining about a B.
I went to the computer lab at 1:30. I checked my bank account online, and found that my dad had deposited the $1000 I had asked to borrow into my account. I had felt very uncomfortable being so far away from home with just a little bit of money in my account, so seeing that money there made my day.
While using the computer lab, I also printed out some full-page pictures on the color-laser printer. As a joke for Johanna, I printed out one of Tarja Holonen, the President of Finland. I am planning on having her and her sister over for dinner next week, and I can’t wait for her sister to see it hanging in my apartment.
Johanna met me at the lab a little after 2, and we later walked to my place for lunch. We made some instant noodles and ate those along with apple-pears. Afterwards, she helped me hang up the picture of the Tarja Holonen and one that I printed of her on the beach. I don’t know why I think the president of Finland is so funny, but everytime I see the picture I laugh.
Raj came home with Thibaud soon after Johanna left. Raj and I spent a few minutes cleaning, then we talked and played Need for Speed on the Playstation. We then walked to Mcdonalds and brought the food back to the apartment. After eating, I worked on the Consumer Marketing project, “My Favorite Things”, and I am close to being done now.
Raj and Thibaud left around 8, and I continued doing homework on the computer. I started building a Power Point presentation about Sealand for International Business Class. Each student has to do an individual presentation about any international business topic that they choose.
Sealand is a basketball-court sized deserted British Navy base from World War II, which was claimed by a British family in 1967. A British Navy vessel tried to evict them in 1968, but they fired shots and drove it away. The family was summoned to court, but it was decided that Britian had no jurisdiction over the deserted navy base because it was in international waters. In 1976 a German man tried to take over Sealand, and he took the ruling families son hostage. The family staged a pre-dawn armed helicopter raid to retake the “country”. Now the family is using Sealand to host web sites and provide data storage. The only Internet laws that the country has are no child pornography or Spamming, so it can be an attractive place for unscrupulous people to do business. Fascinating!
At 11, Lisbeth asked me to come to a student party and film everyone singing happy birthday to her dad. The party was at Sergio’s 13th floor apartment, and I stopped at the supermarket to buy a beer on the way there. There were not many people inside when I arrived, so Lisbeth decided not to ask them to sing. I talked to a visiting German friend of one of the students, who was a ball-bearing salesman. He told me about the different kinds of bearings that he sold. I asked him if he sold any pure gold or silver ones, but he said those metals were too soft to make a good bearing. I learned that ceramic bearings are needed for devices that spin over 100,000 rotations per minute, and that bearings used in automobile axles have to measured correctly to within thousandth of an inch.
During my bearing conversation, Tobi told a story about a dead body that he saw today when was walking along the shoreline of an area that is separated from mainland China by only a few hundred feet of water. There, the Chinese try to swim to Macau because the standard of living is much higher, but they are not always great swimmers. Before Macau was returned to China by the Portugese in 1999, these swimmers were shot on site, but today they are allowed to swim, but then are returned to China. Who knows what happens to them after they are delivered back there.
At 12:30 Lisbeth and I walked back to our apartment building.

11/8/2004
Monday

I met Lisbeth at noon on the roof of a campus building so we could film the last part of the video that I am helping her make for her dad’s birthday. After I recorded her, I then had her film me in the same spot because I needed the footage for a campus tour video that I am working on. I should have it posted on the Internet in a couple weeks.
My International Business class started at 12:30. Joseph(teacher) was not there today, but one of his assistants played a video about Japanese families. All the Chinese students snickered throughout the show, because the Japanese are made fun of here. I am always hearing the Chinese say bad things about Japanese people. After class, I bought some crackers and a small bag of chips from the store at the courtyard. I ate these things while I used a computer lab for a few minutes.
Statistics class started at 2, and we had a quiz at the end of class. Johanna had sent me a message during class, and I called her at 3, then we met at the computer lab. While I was waiting for her to get there, Dash called and told me he had a gift for me. He came to the computer lab and brought me a small white bottle that was full of liquid. It had a label on the outside of it, but it was printed in Chinese. He said that he would call later to inform me of the contents. I saw that it had a picture of rice on the side of it, and I asked him if it was alcohol. He told me that it was alcohol, but it was a special kind, and he would explain later when he called me.
When Johanna got to the computer lab, we used the Internet for about 30 minutes, then sat on the roof of the building until Mandarin class started at 5. Afterwards, I walked back to the apartments with Kaisa.
At 7 I went to Milan’s apartment, because she had invited me to dinner with her parents, whom are in visiting from Holland. Robert, Quintin, Lisbeth and Hana also came there, then the whole group walked 10 minutes to a Portugese restaurant. It was a very small, but nicely decorated place. I ordered a steak and potato dish, which turned out to be a small thin piece of beef, French fries and little salad on the side of the plate. The food didn’t look like what I expected, but the taste was great. We also ordered quite a bit of wine with our meal, and it took each of us several glasses to finish all of it.
At 9:00 I walked back to my apartment, then met Johanna in front of her building. We took a walk down some streets that we had never explored before. The area we went was full of sick looking stray dogs and mountains of industrial garbage. After walking for about 20 minutes, we sat at the base of a small cliff for a while, then walked back to our apartments.
Raj was just waking up from a couch nap when I arrived home. He had been sleeping there since I first got home from school at 6:30. He started the movie “Equilibrium”, and I became interested and watched all of it.

Sunday
11-7-04

I got up about 10 today, and first picked up the apartment and took a shower. Johanna called at noon to and asked me to go to the computer lab with her. She told me that she would come to my apartment, but she did not show up, then she called and asked me where I was. She was waiting at the front entrance because she thought I was going to meet her there.
I went downstairs and offered to make her some lunch before we left. She accepted the offer and we walked back up to my apartment. We decided not to go to the computer lab after our lunch, and we watched a movie instead.
She left at about 3, and I then did some laundry and spent a couple hours working on the Consumer Marketing project, “My Lucky Day” – - click here. I then called Kaisa to see if she would like to eat at Mcdonalds with me, but she had already eaten. I then walked there and took a Big Mac meal to go at about 6 o’clock. Afterwards, I noticed that Raj had brought back a whole pile of DVD’s from his trip to Zhuhai yesterday, and that was the end of doing schoolwork..
I started watching the movie, “The Borne Supremacy”, but Raj then came home with Santiago and Carla. I started the movie over so we could all watch it together, but then Johanna called and we decided to go to the computer lab together. We spent an hour using the Internet. She read the part of the “My Lucky Day” that I posted on the site, and she thought it was hilarious.
We sat on the roof of a campus building after we left the lab, where we talked and looked at the Macau skyline for about 30 minutes. We then walked back to our apartments, and I decided to start watching The Bourne Supremacy again. Raj came home just before I began the movie, and then quickly left again to go to the computer lab.
Lisbeth came over to talk to me for a few minutes just before Raj left, and Milan came over also. Milan just got back from a trip to Thailand with her parents, and they are now staying in her apartment for 4 days. She invited me to come over and have tea with them, and I accepted the offer. Her parents were very friendly, and I spent about 20 minutes talking to them, Milan and Lisbeth.
I walked back across the hall to my apartment at 10:30 and attempted watching The Bourne Supremacy for the 4th time today. It was a great movie, and the DVD started skipping badly about 20 minutes before the end of the movie. It was so bad that I could not even fully understand how it ended. At least 50 percent of all the DVD’s purchased in China do not work, and it is usually the end that has problems. I am now going to start checking the end before I start the movie.
Raj also bought a broken Playstation 2 in China yesterday for about $130. It plays most games in black and while, and it would not even read the movie I was watching. When the movie started skipping, I tried moving it from the DVD player to the Playstation, but it would not even read the disk. Trash! The DVD’s only cost about a dollar, but the Playstation was full price trash.

Saturday
11-6-04

I walked to the computer lab with Johanna at 11 today. We walked to my apartment at noon and worked on some homework together. We met Kaisa on the street at 2:30, and the three of us went to lunch together at Top Taipa, a restaurant 2 blocks away. We had been to this same restaurant together a couple weeks ago. It contains a nice bakery and is very well kept. It even has a large water wheel in the window that always has water turning it. I ordered a good-tasting rice dish that came with my drink of choice, and I ordered Rose Tea. The tea tasted like perfume and had a rose floating in it. The taste was strange, but I did not hate it. Johanna and Kaisa told me it tasted like chemicals.
We had ice cream at McDonalds after the meal, then I walked to a barber shop. A long haired, non-English speaking Chinese man did a very good and quick job at cutting my hair. Afterwards, I walked home and finished watching the movie Eyes Wide Shut. I did not really like the whole movie, but there is a very unexpected cult scene that found very entertaining. I took movie breaks when Dash and Johanna called. I had sent Dash a message asking him when the statistics test was, and Johanna had a question about school.
After the movie ended, I spent an hour working on the Consumer Marketing project, “My Lucky Day”, and I love how odd it is becoming. I will post the interesting parts when I finish it.
At 7:45 I walked to the supermarket and bought a bottle of Vodka, 6 Red Bull cans and a small bag of ice. I took these things to Lisbeth’s apartment at 8 because she had yesterday invited me to a pancake dinner. Johan and Kent were also there when I arrived, but Kent soon left. Johanna, Kaisa, #2 and Toumas came over at 8:15. I made drinks for everyone who wanted one, and Lisbeth cooked while the rest of us talked.
The pancakes were very thin and flexible. We put different kinds of jam on them and I rolled mine up before I ate them. We went back to the supermarket at 10 to buy more drinks. At 11, Johanna, Kaisa, Johan and I took a cab to Macau. We walked to the shorline and sat at the outdoor area of a restaurant by the water for an hour.
Kaisa and Johanna then took a walk by themselves, and Johan and I moved to a different spot by the water. We later met the girls by Bank of China building and took a cab back to Taipa.

Friday
11-5-04

I walked to school early this morning so I could use the campus computers to make phone calls. I set up an account with Skype.com and got 10 hours of international talk-time for about $12, which is ten times cheaper than using a regular phone card.
I called my grandma first and talked to her for about 30 minutes, but my voice was cutting out, so it was hard for her to hear me. I then talked to called American Airlines about changing my plane ticket date, but they couldn’t help me without the flight number and they were rude about it. I then called Jeff for a minute, but I was cutting out so bad that he could barely understand me.
I decided to move to a different computer lab at 11o’clock, in the hopes of getting better phone service. The computer labs are always full this time of day, so I had a hard time finding an unoccupied computer. I did eventually find one in a corner at the lab by the courtyard, but there was no chair with it, so I sat on the floor. I called my home and talked to Clara for a minute, then talked to my dad for about 30 minutes.
At noon, Johanna called me and I met her in the courtyard. We went to the library café for lunch and I ordered a baked potato and a tuna sandwich. The potato also unexpectedly came with a big salad, so I had more food than I could eat. After finishing the potato, I had them package the sandwich to go. After leaving the café, Johanna and I walked to the roof of one of the campus buildings. She had to study for her third test of the day, which was at 2, and I studied Chinese characters.
At 2, she went to take her test and I went to the computer lab. I tried to call Jen, but I was cutting out and she could not tell who was calling her, so she hung up. Johanna met me again at 2:45 and we decided to go on a walk up a mountain behind the university, which has a cemetery on it.
We first stopped by a grocery store and bought bananas, chocolate crackers and candy bars to eat when we got to the top of the mountain. We walked along a road that ascended the mountain until we came to a staircase leading up into the forest. The staircase was covered in leaves and branches, and appeared to have not been cleaned in years.
At the top of the stairs was the cemetery, which was unlike anything I have ever seen. Each monument consists of a small alter that is build upon a floor of brick or cement. The floor extends 10-15 feet out from the front of the alter. There are dozens of these monuments on the side of the mountain. The area is maintained poorly and many of the graves have not been cleaned in a long time. The grass surrounding them did not appear to have been mowed in months. Each monument was surrounded by the dense forest, and there was a series of dirt trails connecting the many grave sites. Absolutely no people could be seen anywhere.
Johanna and I both commented to each other on how unusual of an atmosphere that the environment of the strange cemetery created. We kept walking uphill until we came to the main hiking trail that circled the mountain. This trail was in the same shape that the cemetery was, and even had small trees growing in the middle of it. We sat down at the collapsing remains of a pagoda to take a drink.
As I was opening my backpack I looked over and noticed that Johanna was covered in at least 100 mosquitoes. She noticed it at the same time and we decided that we had to change our location. We went to the park at the bottom of the hill, which had been two on a couple other occasions. We sat there for about 45 minutes and talked while we ate our food. We then walked to Park-N-Shop and bought some groceries before returning to our apartments.
Raj was home watching “The Transformers” when I arrived. He borrowed dozens of episodes from Bora and has watched several over the past few days. I watched part of one with him, then Bora and Florian came over, and the he left with them. I then fell asleep for an hour and a half.
I got up at 7:30 and took a shower, then did some writing on my computer. Raj came home at 8:30 and I talked to him for a while, then he left again at 9. I cooked some noodles for dinner and continued writing on my computer.

11/4/2004
Thursday

As usual for a Thursday morning, I walked to consumer marketing class with Johanna. Today our teacher discussed how it was becoming a trend for western people to come to Asia for “plastic surgery honeymoons”. After the wedding, the bride and groom buy each other plastic surgery. They do this in Asia because of the reduced prices, but it is probably not a good idea to get the cheapest surgery.
Next, I had a mid-term examination in International Business, which was very easy. There were 30 multiple choice questions and a short essay. He had told us exactly what areas to study, and that is what the test covered. I finished the test in about 20 minutes and was the first person to leave the classroom. I don’t like to be the first person to leave because I feel that I might be forgetting something, but in this case I think it is because English is everyone else’s second language. It just takes them longer to read the questions and write an essay.
As I was leaving the classroom I noticed that I had a message from Johanna. It said, “You should skip statistics class and go to Hac Sa(black sand) beach with me”. It was a beautiful day, as usual lately, and I could not pass up the idea of spending it in that way. I went home to pick up a beach pad and change into shorts.
I met Johanna at the bus stop at 1:30 and we took a standing-room-only bus to the beach. After arriving, I first bought a grilled chicken leg quarter and wing from a vendor, then we walked to the quiet area by the rocks that we usually sit. We had both planned on studying, but decided not to soon after we sat down. We stayed in our spot for about 2 hours, then had to head toward the bus stop so we could go to Mandarin class.
Johanna bought a grilled leg quarter from another vendor, then we took the bus back and walked to class. Afterwards, Kaisa, Johanna and I spent 30 minutes at the computer lab, then walked back towards our apartments. I saw Chloe walking in front of me, so I snuck up behind her and hit the metal fence that is next to the sidewalk. This made a loud sound which caused her to jump a couple feet. She had been reading as she walked, and was completely shocked. I was hoping that she would laugh after the initial shock wore off, and she did.
When I entered my apartment, I noticed a rotten smell, which I traced to the kitchen sink. Raj had done some cooking a couple days ago and had never cleaned up. He was asleep on the couch and didn’t seem to notice. A few of the dirty glasses were mine, and I could not stand the smell of the other stuff, so I did all the dishes and cleaned the rest of the kitchen.
I then had some instant noodles and a banana, and Lisbeth came by to drop off some headphones that I had lent her. I spent an hour typing another page for my consumer marketing paper, “My Lucky Day”, in which I have to describe what I would do with one million dollars.
At 9:30 I walked to the computer lab to make some phone calls using Skype.com. Many of the other exchange students have been using this site to call around the world for just a couple cents a minute, so I thought I would try it out. When I got to the computer lab, I realized that the plug on the headset I use for my phone would not fit into the computer.
I then checked my email and the news. On CNN.com I noticed that the user-poll was asking, “Are you satisfied with the outcome of the US presidential election?”. The main page of that website has a different poll on it every day. I clicked on the link that said, “View results”, and noticed that the current poll had received 35,000 votes for “satisfied”, and 55,000 votes for “dissatisfied”. All the exchange students that I talked to today made a negative comment to me about the outcome of the election. The local English language newspapers featured the election on their front pages today, and tomorrow they should report the outcome. I am interested to see how they report Bush’s win.
I walked home from the computer lab at 10:30 and knocked on Lisbeth’s door so I could ask to borrow the headset she uses when she makes calls on the Internet. She was not home, but she came out of the elevator as I was entering my apartment. She had just come back from jogging and she let me borrow the headset.
When I got back to my apartment, I talked to Johanna on the phone for a while, then watched 2 episodes of South Park and used my computer a while before going to sleep.

Wednesday
11-3-04

I was not awake until 11 today because I stayed up until 3 last night. I spent some time editing video, then walked to the computer lab at 1. At 2 I went to the bus stop and met the Finish girls, their friend Johanna #3, Toumas and Lisbeth. We took a bus to an area in Taipa were we wanted to have lunch. It was the same hotel restaurant that we had been to during exchange student orientation week. We did not know exactly where it was, so we got off the bus in the wrong spot and walked 15 minutes.
The restaurant was closing when we arrived, and the employees did not look happy to see us, but they did seat and serve us anyway. This restaurant is in a large hotel, so we did not expect it to be closing at 2:30. We also expected English to be spoken, but none of the waiters or waitresses knew any. After several minutes of ordering confusion, the English speaking manager came to help us, and he was very nice. As the waitress set our table, she threw some of the plates onto it.
We received 8-10 different types of food, which we all shared. Everything was descent, and some of it was really good. After dinner, we all walked back home together. Johanna, Kaisa and I went to Mcdonalds for ice cream. Afterwards, Kaisa went home and Johanna and I went to the computer lab.
We stayed there for about an hour, then sat on the roof of the administration building for a while. That building has the nicest roof on campus, with lots of flowers and benches. We walked to our apartments at about 7.
Bora came over shortly after I got home, and he borrowed some DVD’s. He also left some of his at our apartment, and I watched his copy of The Bourne Identity when he left. Raj came home during the movie, and he was soon followed by a Chinese guy and girl. They all watched a movie together while I used my computer.
After the movie, Raj and his guests left the apartment, and I cooked some instant noodle. I ate them while I finished watching the rest of the Bourne Identity.

11/2/2004
Tuesday

This morning I had to meet with my Consumer Marketing group at 10A.M. to discuss a tourist questionnaire that we are developing. Only one of my 3 group members showed up, and it was Summer. We were all suppost to bring a list of potential questions and then decide on the best ones to ask the tourists when we do our interviews. Summer did not have any questions prepared, but I at least had one page. We discussed them for about 20 minutes, then I walked to the computer lab.
I spent 3 hours on the computer, and I used most of that time gathering information I needed to build a Power Point Presentation about Ebay. My teacher asked me to spend half on one class teaching the students how to sell products this way. It is a completely voluntary assignment, and I agreed to it because I enjoy giving presentations about things that interest me. Maybe I should be a teacher. I recorded the entire selling process by using screen captures of the Ebay website. I used screens from my dad’s account to show sales and feedback examples, and screens from my account to show payment and shipping examples. I added a couple of subtle jokes into the examples of my account – - Click here.
I went home at 2 and ate a banana and instant noodles for lunch, then I spent an hour and a half building my Ebay PowerPoint Presentation. Lisbeth came over at 3:45, and we talked about the video project I agreed to create for her dad’s 60th birthday. We left the apartment at 4 and took a bus to Senado Square.
There, I first filmed her speaking in front of the fountain, then we recorded a mime show for just a couple minutes. We then filmed the Mcdonalds and Starbucks at the center of the square, and us buying fudge Sundays there. Next, we shot some footage in front of St. Pauls Cathedral, and unsuccessfully tried to convince groups of Chinese people so sing “Happy Birthday” in Chinese.
We then walked and filmed from the fort on the hill above the cathedral. From there, we had a great view of the Chinese mainland, and we also taped an old woman swinging a sword around in a corner by herself. I was worried that she might get mad and attack us.
As we were walking back down the steps of the cathedral, we saw a large tour-group of about 30 old Chinese people, which we decided to ask about singing happy birthday. I noticed that one of the ladies, who was at least 60 years old, was wearing a red-checkered mini-skirt. We were initially too slow with our request, and the old tour-group got away from us. They then stopped on the staircase to take a picture together. Lisbeth and I tried to find someone who could translate to them, but we accidentally kept getting in the way of their picture. Each time we interfered, they would all make funny Chinese noises at us.
After the third time, they all began to motion for us to come and stand in the picture with them. I guess that they thought it would easier to just put us in the picture. They had us stand in front of them, and they all laughed hysterically while the picture was taken. When we were done, I turned around and said, “Please sing happy birthday”, and one of the old women understood and repeated me. The whole tour-group them began singing the song, and it was perfect. Lisbeth stood in front of them and directed as I recorded the action.
After the singing, we thanked the people and walked on to a store that sold souvenir food, where Lisbeth bought some local things to send to her dad for the birthday party. We then filmed a few more minutes in front of the Lisboa Casino before catching a bus back to Taipa. There, we walked to the pagoda on the top of the mountain next-door. We filmed the Macau skyline at night, then walked back to our building. Lisbeth offered to take me out to dinner later in exchange for my help.
Back got back home at about 7, and I saw that Raj was just getting up and cooking breakfast. I talked to him for a few minutes, then Lisbeth and I went to dinner. We went to a place on our block called Double Happiness. The food was more expensive than usual, but it came in large servings.
After the meal I met Johanna at the computer lab. At 8 we decided to go an a walk around the base of the mountain. We had previous walked along the trail at the top of it, but had never explored the road at its base. It took us about an hour and a half to get around the whole thing, but we spent about 30 minutes of that time sitting on a bench and talking while we enjoyed the Macau skyline.
At 10 I walked with Johanna back to her building, then bought some groceries at a supermarket before going home. I had the apartment to myself for the rest of the evening. I sat at my computer until I decided to go to sleep. I finished video #2 of International Food Day.

11/1/2004
Monday

I walked with Johanna to school this morning and we stopped at the campus bookstore on the way there. Our “My Favorite Things” project was due today, so I bought a clear plastic cover to put on mine and Johanna had hers stapled. After class we walked to the computer lab, then we both walked back to my apartment.
I helped Johanna reduce the size of some picture files so she would be able to email them to her family. After that I cooked us some instant noodles. We ate those and a banana for lunch. Lisbeth came over for a few minutes to show off her collage for the “My Favorite Things” project.
Johanna had to go home and let the maid in her room at 2. Her roomates and her hired the maid at the beginning of the semester. She comes every other week and the cost is only about $4 per roomate for each visit.
At 2:30 I met Johanna again and we walked to the pagoda at the top of the mountain behind my apartment. There we spent two hours studying. I did some statistics problems, then the two of us studied for our Mandarin test together. Me were suppost to be able to recognize 16 chinese characters.
At 4:30 we walked to Johanna’s apartment so she could eat before class. I think she experiences cases of temporary insanity each time that she gets hungry. She is not unpleasant at these times, but it does give her a one-track mind…..food. It reminds me of living with my friend Lee in Decatur because he was the same way when he would get hungry.
Johanna and I walked to Mandarin class after she had devoured some instant noodles. The class was first given the characters test, but it was not what I expected. Instead of matching symbols to words, we were given just words and we were suppost to remember the symbol.
After class I walked to Mcdonalds with Johanna, Kaisa and Toumas. There, Toumas told us a crazy story he read in the news about a Japanese supermarket. The employees of the store had little prior exposure to the concepts of Christmas and Christianity, but they thought they knew enough. They made a storefront display of Santa Clause being crucified! Now that’s a disturbing Christmas image, just image putting it on your lawn.
After dinner I walked back to my apartment, where I began burn CD’’s of the music I collected yesterday from the hard drive that was left at my party. My hard drive is almost out of space, so I had to move the music onto discs. I have collected about 10,000 new songs since I came to China.
Johan came over to get a mask he had left at the party, then he stayed and talked to me while I copied music. At 8, Raj came home with Tibeaut and Pedro, and they were soon followed by 2 others, so we had a full house. While everyone else talked, I spent almost 2 hours copying music, then cooked some instant noodle, studied for an International business test. Lisbeth also came over for a few minutes and gave me some information about the test.
Everyone left at a little after midnight, then I sat used the computer to prepare pictures of the Halloween party