Reconnections

The preparations!

            I must say that this week has been a lot more fun-filled than last. Some students in our dorm invited us to a Hot Pot, which is a very popular dinner style. You just buy a bunch of stuff, cook it in a boiling pot, and eat while you cook other things. It was so so good, and we ended up spending the entire night buying food, preparing them, cooking, and eating! Well to be honest, I was just a bit uncomfortable because Hugo, one of the local students, bought squid to put in the pot, and I'm a little squeamish about that kind of food (at least when it's not fried.) It didn't help that the squid was essentially taking a bath with all the food I wanted to eat, but I guess I'm a bit of a baby. As for the rest of the week overall, I went out a lot (and spent a lot of money 😅 😓 ) and was able to hang out with some people that I either haven't been able to see for a while and/or haven't gotten much of a chance to in the past. It all started on Monday night where I returned to shop at the Venetian with two local students that I met a couple months ago.

This is Nick and Hugo, the Hot Pot specialists.

            Last semester, the study abroad office put Connor and I in touch with two twin girls named Natasha and Vanessa who were exchange students from UMAC to Susquehanna. We were able to have dinner together once, and it was cool to talk to them about the school and what to expect during our semester abroad. However, we didn't really have too many opportunities to see each other after that until we arrived at UMAC ourselves. After I told Vanessa about my troubles finding shoes for the high table dinner, she and Natasha offered to take me shopping and hang out, which I mentioned we'd do in the last post.

This place looks so cool!

Natasha (middle) and Vanessa (right)

            It was very fun! We got to the Venetian and got dinner at the food court, which wasn't easy at all because there were so many options! We eventually settled on Japanese food and I got a curry beef ramen, which was good, but I got a stain on my shirt and anyone who has gotten curry stains on their clothing knows how hard it is to get out. But anyway, we walked around and after a while managed to find some decent looking and priced shoes which is a miracle on its own. 
            After a while of looking around the stores, we decided to leave the Venetian to get some dessert, and I was very excited. Vanessa and Natasha led the way to this place nearby that sold Serradura, or Sawdust Pudding, which is, again, a very popular local food. Oh my God, it's so good. It's essentially frozen pudding and biscuit crumbs in all of these different flavors. It's so simple, but I'm going to have to get it again.

Serradura, yum!

            Thursday rolled around, and I was able to catch up with a couple of other local students that came to study at Susquehanna over a year ago. Their names are Henry and Alan and I met them in the last week of the winter semester in 2016. We kept in touch all the way up until I came to UMAC, so we were all very excited to see each other again. I met up with Alan a few times over the last couple weeks, but Henry only just returned to campus this week. We decided to get dinner together at a Japanese restaurant, where I got ramen again along with a bunch of other stuff. I can't believe I forgot to take pictures of it! Anyway, we all talked and talked and talked and I'm very happy that I have such great friends here. After that, we got dessert (I love dessert a lot, can't you tell?) at a gelato place where I actually took pictures.

Henry (left) and Alan (right)

            I think this was the first time I got gelato, and it was pretty good. I mean, I think I still prefer regular ice cream like at the thousands of Haagen Dazs I've seen in Macau (seriously, there are so many Haagen Dazs' here! I don't really understand it), but it was really refreshing. Anyway, we got back to school with the intentions of definitely getting together again soon. We even made up some ridiculous handshakes, hopefully we will remember them.
             Other than meeting up with all these lovely peeps this week, I went to the high table dinner for my Residential College on Wednesday night. High table dinner is basically a formal event where everyone dresses up, eats a nice meal, and listens to speeches. It's pretty much an opportunity to practice Western dining, which of course, as an official Western, I know how to do in spades. However, my roommate and I along with the other girls in our hall had to attend "training" for it, which was generally knowing what to do and say at different points of the event and what eating utensils to expect, like the rare fork, knife, and spoon. So we got all dolled up and sat at our tables to

Me and some of my hall mates. Aren't we cute?

listen to a speech from an alumni which wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be, and the dinner was quite good. There was also DESSERT. Tiramisu. My love. There seems to be an unwritten event after the dinner wraps up where everyone takes pictures with everyone they see. It was like 30 photoshoots broke out with selfies and automatic picture filters which make you look cute. I took a good number of pictures myself, but I think it was more herd mentality than anything else.
             I had even more fun today since Natasha, Vanessa, my friend Margarida, and I spent the whole day hiking and exploring Coloane. We saw and did so much, so I think I'll save that for next time. I'll probably post my pictures from today onto my Gallery soon though. Speaking of, I have a ton of pictures and videos that are really awesome that I don't have room to add onto this post or previous posts, like from the Hot Pot, our night at the Venetian, and the high table dinner just to name a few. I really encourage you to look though them if you want to see more from my trip, because the few pictures that I'm able to include on these posts simply don't do it justice. Anyway, I'm excited to share more about my adventures here, and possibly include more creative and fun content in the near future!

再见！

TL;DR: I don't really want squid in my Hot Pot, I'm probably spending too much money, I returned to the Venetian, curry stains are really tough, why are there so many Haagen Dazs', I love tiramisu, these students take a lot of pictures, Nick and Hugo are great, Natasha and Vanessa are great, and Alan and Henry are great.