Supposedly the two are very different. I leave for China today though! A 3 hour ferry ride and I shall be home, hopefully.
Hong Kong is amazing. I've never seen anything like this before. 7 million people on this tiny island. The buildings are huge, the largest one 118 stories. The buildings look old, yet still amazing. Everything is a skyscraper. For being such a large city, it's very green. The city is craddled between the jungles of the mountains. We drove to the top and I swore I was in the jungle. We drove past Jackie Chans house and office, very cool. We rode and saw the worlds largest Buddha. He was amazing. We took a trip down to Stanley Market. It was like shopping at Mexico, but better! We didn't buy anything as we were told it would be cheaper in Zhongshan. At Stanley Market I really wanted to play in the water. I asked an old man if I could go in, he laughed at me. I'm not sure if it was a stupid question or if he didn't understand, regardless, I went in. It was AMAZING! Dirty, yet really cool. I found a seashell and kept that as my souvenior from Hong Kong. Food is interesting. Hawaiian bread has become my favorite. I could eat a whole loaf in one sitting. Other food is questionable. I tried a pork dumpling, that was not very good. Maybe because I hate pork. Who knows. I did fall in love with Korean Style pan fried dumplings. Perhaps I shall live off of those for four months?
The city here is so great. There is so much to see. The people are so friendly and love to talk to you. We rode the metro, it was the most crowded thing ever. I've never seen so many people. I was told China would smell, but I had a hard time believing a whole country could smell. Now I know. Everything smells in China. It's so humid, you sweat a ton. Your clothes feel like they weigh 20 pounds. It's ridiculous. Some of the restaurants smell horrid, I can't fathom eating in them. One soup shop we've passed a million times and everytime I think I'm going to die when we walk past. Other parts smell like top ramen, and burger king always wreaks of ketchup. These are the smells of Hong Kong.
Last night we went on a great adventure. We each had a 100 hong kong dollars to spend, about 15 American dollars. The money can't be converted back to anything else, so we had to spend it or lose it. We walked the streets and bought all the food we could find and share it. Sometimes we'd take a bite and throw it away, other times it was amazing! The ice cream was interesting, more peculiar was the jello ice ball. I'm not even sure what it was, but it was disgusting, We quickly threw him away.
The people here truly are great. You fall in love with them so fast. They just want to talk to you and tell you everything! One man we met yesterday at Stanley told us not to teach the children freedom, only success. They all impart their wisdom onto you and it's really cool how quickly you become friends with them. The old men are adorable, they talk the most. The women seem to keep more to themselves.
Yesterday we were able to go to the Hong Kong temple. I think that was my favorite part of all of Hong Kong. The city is so loud and the temple i just nestled in between the buildings of the city. You enter and the temple and immediately it's quiet. I instantly felt at home there. I felt welcomed and loved and am very grateful I had that opportunity. The temple is so small compared to the Utah ones. Only one shower and about 20 lockers in the baptisimal font. Whereas the Draper temple has about a million lockers and the girls changing room was probably 3 times the whole Hong Kong baptistry. There were 4 Chinese girls there doing baptisms as well, it was really cool to see them reading their church manuals in Chinese. It was awesome to think I had something in common with these girls I was so drastically different from. We had an awkward moment in the bathroom when I told one of the girls her dress was cute, she didn't seem to quite understand what I was saying to her, but her friend quickly explained. Ha ha. All in all, the temple was amazing and a testimony builder!
I'm really excited to move today and get settled in our apartment. Although we will have to move again, and rumor has it our first apartment will only have squatters, no flushing toliets. Wish me luck! I love you guys and miss you all already!
Cam
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