To respond to Mark's question, the blue barrels are used for both fishing and rafts here, however those particular ones were all for fish paste. They make loads of it there.

I decided that I am going to go see a Chinese traditional Dr. and see if there is some herbal remedy that they use for Migraines. They are a little more expensive because they are private Dr.'s, but still they are only $80HK for a visit, which is less than just a co pay back home. I also want to go because when I hurt my throat surfing, I had damage to the soft tissue in my trachea so one of my friends (Who sees a Chinese Dr.) here got this herbal medicine called Arnica and after a day of taking that there was no more bruising or pain. I guess its specifically for bruising and soft tissue and muscles.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HKG84541.htm

For some reason the link didn't show up that i tried to post on my last blog, so above is the link.

The other day I got to drive the standard work van. It was crazy, I had to sit on the right side of the car and then drieve on the left side of the road, and also shift gears with my left hand. I had to bring some beds to my apt, and they just gave me the keys, it was interesting. Right hand turns were the hardest becuase you had to remember to cross the road like a left hand turn at home.

2008-8-14
(Thursday) EQ07 19:15 (so 7:15am NY time)
Team Dressage Grand Prix & Individual Dressage
1st Qualifier - Day 2
Team Dressage Victory Ceremony

2008-8-21
(Thursday) EQ13 19:15 (7:15am NY time)
Individual Jumping Final Round A
Individual Jumping Final Round B
Individual Jumping Victory Ceremony

This is a link to a story about the weather/humidity/pollution in Hong Kong and the Horses in the Olympics....

The past few days has been the hottest weather I have ever felt, which casuses the air to be really hazy. The humidity is incredable, sometimes it feels like your breathing straight water! My roommate and I worked all day moving everything out of our house up to the roof becuase the bed bugs are back again (the sun kills them). With moving stuff up and down the stairs all day and the heat and humidity I was dripping wet and could hardly breath. But I guess becuase of these weather conditions countries are concerned about their horses and riders.They made some state or the art airconditioned facilities for the horses and everything, but I guess they are still concerned.

I have also been reading things about Hong Kong and China's solutions to possible terrorist attacks/ralleys/protests.
There was an article published in the South China Post about how China is going to be banning black people from Bars during the Olympics and that Middle Eastern Looking people are not going to be allowed into the Olympics. This seems to really contridict their "One World One Dream" Slogan that they have to the Olympics this year. I have also seen a response to this article that says that the chinese word fro black people also means criminal gangs so they mean banning criminal gangs not black people, however I doubt this becuase I have heard many stories about rasisism against blacks in China. My one friend was in a market and one stand was cutting up fresh fish and a western black family walked over to watch and the chinese man started yelling and chased them away with the knife.

Also, if you haven't heard Iraq has been banned from the Olympic Games.

Banner/signs/and things like that have been banned (you can't even have a sheet of paper that says "Go USA"). T-shirts about your country, political views or religious shirts are not allowed.

I think that if there are any problems with the Olympics that they will be more in Beijing where majority of the Olympics are held and not so much in Hong Kong.

http://community.webshots.com/user/megmoosue


This is a link to a website called webshots. It allows me to easily upload photos and create online albums. It is a lot easier to do it on webshots than it is on here. So I just uploaded a bunch of new pics! Go check them out.

On Thursday all the Treasure Island staff, because we are sponsored by Quicksilver, were invited to a VIP Invite Only Quicksilver fashion show and after party in Hong Kong. There was a DJ and the club was underground, it was really cool.

My day off was yesterday and I went to Tai O and the big Buddha. Tai O is this old fishing village and it is the closest thing to real Chinese living in Hong Kong, very traditional. In Tai O I took a boat ride to see the pink dolphins. I guess some people go out and don’t see any dolphins at all, but I saw at least 6 and they were all jumping out of the ocean right by our boat. They are a white color and have a pink tint, it’s amazing! The whole village by the water is on wooden stilts, I don’t even know how some of these places are still even standing. They make fish paste in Tai O and it is made in bit blue plastic bins and then put in the sun, then it is stirred and spread out on these circle screen things and put in the sun. It had to be one of the most foul smells I have ever smelt. They also dry out a whole lot of seafood and sell it. I think I am ok with never trying that. We ate at this restaurant called “The Good View Restaurant” but it was really funny because there is no view in the restaurant, its just the front windows looking out to the brick wall on the other side of the path. The food was pretty good though.
After Tai O I went to see the Big Buddha. It was big. It was really cool to see, when your taking the bus to it you can see it from far away sitting on the mountain top, it’s amazing.

Last night me and a few friends went out to Hong Kong to go to a Karaoke bar. IT was so funny. All the songs were Chinese so we couldn’t understand them, but it was great to experience that.

One of my good friends here, Katy, (she is one of my bosses friends, she worked at treasure island last year for a little bit) called me today and told me that she has an extra ticket to the Olympics on the 14th and 21st of Aug and asked me if I wanted to come! The Equestrian events are being held in Hong Kong, so I get to go to that! It’s so awesome! I’m very excited.

The snake I saw was indeed a Burmese Python!

I just got back home, I walked back from a friends house, and I look over to the road and see the biggest snake I have ever seen in my life. Like something from the zoo. It was stretched across the road, and too up about 3/4 of the road, thats how long it was. And if you wouldn't be able to put both hands around the girth of the snake. I think it was a python or something! I am going to look it up and see what it was. Anyways, A bus comes down the road and all I could do was stand there and watch the bus come right for this HUGE snake. at the last second the snake tried to coil up and got most of its body out of the way of the tires, but I think the tail end of the snake got hit. an ambulance was driving by behind the snake (not going to a scene or with anyone in the back or anything) and they saw the snake in the road and stopped to get out to see it, so I'm assuming it isn't common to see one that big? Anyways, it was really cool. I wish I had my camera on me at the time.

This week has been pretty busy at work. I have been doing the coordinating for about 15 different school tribal camps that we are going to have from September-November. Its pretty tedious work. There are 12 different tribes in three different movements, so I have to make excel spreadsheets to show where each tribe goes at each time. I am almost finished with that though. I have also been working on a corporate program. The program is a sand sculpture contest and then a dinner party on the beach with salsa lessons. I met with them yesterday to go over the program with them and the decorations and everything.

Saturday is my day off so I am going to go to Tai O, a small fishing village on Lantau Island, and then I am going to venture over to see the big Buddha and explore some of the temples. At one of the temples there are Shaolin Monks and they hold like Martial Arts type classes. I think they call them Body Healing Exercising, anyways I really want to take some of those classes.

It has been super hot lately. Well, the temps are only about in the mid 90's but with the humidity it is sooooooooo hot.

Sorry guys, I can't see to get the video to upload.

Yesterday I bought a new computer! It is a newer version of the PowerBookG That I used to own. I got it from a huge electronics store that sells new and used things. I got it used, but not a scratch or anything on it. It looks brand new. They showed us the tracking of log ons, and the old owner only logged on 91 times. So it was hardly used. I got it for only $4,500 Hong Kong, so about $560 US. That is a steal. I only went to go looking and pricing, but this one came in that same day, and it was such a good deal that if I waited it wouldn't have been there anymore. My boss took me to the shop, so she did all the dealing and stuff since she speaks chinese, so she helped me get the best deal. They tend to sell westerners things at a higher price, so it was good to have her there.

After shopping my boss took me to this Nepalese place to eat. It was soooooo good. For a starter we had fried cottage cheese with grilled tomatoes, onions, peppers, and cabbage. It was so delicious, I have never had anything like that before, it was great. Then I had chicken curry, garlic naan, and cauliflower with potatoes in some sort of spicy sauce. I am really enjoying the food out here.

Today I met with a local grandma (Popo in chinese) and she is giving us her piece of farming land (gardening spot) for us to use with the school camps in the fall. It hasn't been used in awhile so it is going to be a lot of work. There is a wetland type thing where all the locals grow veggies and stuff, and the spot is in the middle of all the locals gardens so its really cool. We need to build a fence around it so the buffalo do not get in and we also need to clean up all the garbage. They put wood and beds down ontop of the land so weeds do not grow, so it is really really a mess. Myself and a few others who work here have to get it up and running so when schools come they can help plant and take care of the garden and learn about growing your own food as part of the sustainability program we are going to start to teach here. Along with gardening they are going to learn about solar energy, composting, carbon footprinting, recycling, organic cooking,and things like that. It's really cool because we don't just teach them about it, the school does that, so they come here and they actually do hands-on things such as build toy car that runs on solar power, building fences for the garden out or recycled material, and making and caring for a compost pile.

A professional surfer is up for the weekend, he arrived last night and is here at Treasure Island till sunday. His name is "Wingnut" and he starred in a few popular suft movies, such as Endless Summer II. My boss invited me out to dinner with them last night. Today he surfed with the kids and signed posters, and on saturday there is a big surf party for him, and I think it is some sort of promotional thing for a movie or somthing. Anyways, it is pretty cool.

The video I guess didn't upload right, so no video till I figure it out.

The pictures are all of Pui O. So all these are where I live. One is of a wild buffalo, there are about 30 left and they roam around, mostly in the wetland thing, but they go out into the strrets and sidewalks too. There is also pictures of the marsh and the trails tht go through it. Then a picture of me surfing! Shawn - I tried calling you a few times, do you still have the same number??? Get a ticket home on the 22nd.... because its a weekday and I can only have a flight home on a weekday. This video is of the villiage and my walk home from work. It moves around alot, but I was trying to walk home without people seeing I was video taping.

A few days ago in the middle of the afternoon when everyone was at work our atp. was broken into. They got everyones electronics and some peoples cash. They took my computer, ipod, the ipod for emma, my old camera, my gerber letherman, cords, chargers, and all that kind of stuff. I had my credit cards, cash and passport well hidden, so none of that stuff got taken. One guy here is a filmmaker, he worked for Survivor last year, and he got his camera and all his tapes which he had 4 completed documentaries on. They got like atleast 25 of his tapes, pretty much his life's work. The police came and (it was crazy!) They finger printed all the apts and took pictures and stuff, it looked like CSI or something. I doubt anything will be found, all our belongings are most likely are sold on the streets of China already, but our boss is checking with the locals to try and find who did it (it is a very small town located on an island, people have to know who did it).

My new camera was with me at the time, thank god, so I did not get that stolen. The day after we got everything stolen I broke my phone... I have been having some pretty bad luck. But it's not just me, my one boss Phillipe, he was watching the new in a taxi on the way home and he saw that a building was on fire, and it turned out it was the laundrymat that he just had brought ALL of his clothes to that morning, and every article of clothing he owned was burnt. Pretty crazy. An no there is no insurence to cover either his clothes or any of my stuff. I guess 2 of the girls have travelers insurence and they might get some money back.

Yesterday was my day off and I did some shopping and some site seeing. We went to some outlet stores, actual stores not sketchy streetside shops. Seeing that it rains a lot here I finally bought some rain gear. I got a really nice lightweight waterproof colombia rain jacket, it was about $40US, but still better price than back home. I got some skirts and stuff too. I didn't pack enough shorts and stuff but the asian shorts and pants sizes are way too small, so I have to do with skirts. After those outlets we went to Koloon, it is part of the New Territories in Hong Kong. It is not actually an island I think; I believe it is attached to mainland. I bought a very nice camera in Koloon. It is a Olympis 8mp waterproof up to 3meters and shock resistant. Seeing that I broke 3 digital cameras already from dropping them or getting them wet i figgured I should just invest in one that is shock resistant and waterproof.

After shopping and spending a lot of money we went to a temple. It was beautiful. The buildings were amazing and they were surrounded by a stream and pond filled with turtles and awesome looking fish. Then in the main temple they dive you a container of sticks and you kneel on a mat in the temple and shake the sticks while you think about a question. There are numbers on the sticks so you shake the container till one stick falls out then you remember the number on it and each number has a meaning and then you can get it translated and they tell you what it means related to your question. It was pretty cool.

Now that I have a camera I will try to add more pictures soon

Hong Kong is made up of several different islands. I am on Lantau Island, but it is a part of Hong Kong. There is a Hong Kong Island and that is what makes up the city of Hong Kong.

Treasure Island, Corporate Adventures and Ooh La La resturant are all located in the same place, so I don't have to hike at all to treasure Island. The tress are all pretty meshed together and each person helps out in all 3 areas. For instance on Sunday one of the ladies who works at Ooh La La is away so myself and another person from Treasure Island are waitressing. It doesn't happen often, but if theres like a big party or somthing we may have to work in the resturant.

To answer Mark and grandpa's question, surf camp is not just surfing. The younger kids surf before lunch and the older kids surf after lunch. The remainding of the time the kids do beach games, crafts, kayaking, hiking and stuff like that. I won't actually be a surfing instructor, we have staff that are surfers and know how to teah surfing. I will most likely be leading a game or activity.

The rain finally stopped. It hasn't rained in two whole day! It was very very very hot today. My day off is Sat. and I think I wil go to Tui O which is an old fishing village on Lantau, and then to the big buddah.