Random Thoughts

            As always, I've been having a great time studying here in Macau with all the friends I've made. Actually, I think I make at least 1 new friend a week. Because I'm popular 😃. Just kidding. But despite all the fun, I couldn't come up with a specific topic for the blog this week; I guess nothing really inspired me. I do have a few things I want to write about, but each one isn't enough for a full post. So this week, you'll be getting a little bit of everything. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Random Thoughts!

Going Shopping is an Intense Experience

            You know how whenever you walk into a store, you always encounter a sales associate asking you if you need anything and you always say no? Well think of this, but amplify it by 10 here. If I'm just walking around without wanting to specifically buy something, I feel like I'll be jumped by these associates if I linger at their shop for just a moment. This is especially true in local stores and flea markets where bargaining is the way of life and people are eager for a sale. In any shopping situation, I hardly ever buy anything and just like to look. It's really hard to do that when I feel intimidated by the sales people. I end up not even wanting to look due to the fear of feeling obligated to actually buy something if they notice me. So I've learned to quickly glance at things while continuously walking around. I didn't think I had to employ any quick observation tactics just to look at souvenirs!

Hostels are Good for Making Friends You'll Never See Again

            This title is a little sad I'll admit! I remember when I was in a hostel in Hong Kong before my trip to Beijing. I'm still a little new to them, but I think that people mostly use them when they are only going to be in town for a night or if they have a plane to catch, at least in a city like Hong Kong. That was the case for me as I managed to become friends with this random Australian girl who was living in my dorm for a couple of days. We talked a good amount and actually got breakfast together one day, and it was really fun. But neither of us made a point in friending each other on FaceBook or anything since there wasn't much point. On my last night, I talked to some other girls too and it's kind of weird to think that if we were under different circumstances, we would have hung out properly.

Long Flights are the Enemy

            The longest flight I've ever been on was my first one. To here. After a 4 hour flight to Texas, we got on a 16 hour flight to Hong Kong, and the last half was torture. When you're groggy, achy, and have had a nose bleed for the past several hours from the high altitude, it's not as fun as when you first boarded. I tried to keep myself busy with writing my first blog post, reading, playing games, and watching movies and TV on the activity monitor thing, but after a while, I just didn't feel like doing anything. Sleep is a little difficult too. This is why I recommend having a playlist of acoustic or soundtrack songs to listen to while you try to sleep. It helps to drown out all the other people on the plane and make you calm down. Podcasts are good too, if you get bored from the TV and movies like me. I'll be going on another super long flight soon for some traveling, so I'll be back to face the enemy soon!

I Might Be a Little Homesick

            This is a given for anyone who is 8,000 miles from their family and have been for three and a half months. As much as I have been enjoying myself and will be very sad to leave Macau, I can't help but look forward to being with my parents and sisters again. My friends have commented on just how much I video chat with them, I don't think any of them do it as often as I do, so that's a little embarrassing. Before now, I don't think I realized just how close we all are. So I'll just try to experience everything that I can here so that I can come back home with a lot of stories and hopefully be able to travel with everyone instead someday.

Why I Like Solo Traveling

On top of Victoria Peak

            I've mentioned before that I went to Hong Kong by myself for a few days and that it was a very good experience for me. I've never really been independent before, but I managed to do pretty well on my own. I saw that while I was really disappointed nobody would come with me at first, I realized that there's some merit to being on your own rather than with others. For one, I could choose to do whatever I wanted without worry that others might not want to, or they that wouldn't be able to. Secondly, I could take my time doing these things and wander around without any concern over what others would have wanted. If I had gone with my friends, I don't think I would have been able to spend so much time on Victoria Peak just gazing at the sights. I tend to want to linger longer than others, and I can imagine that it's annoying for those who want to go to the next big thing. But I had no worries, and I could go as I pleased.

Greeting Some Foreigners is Weird

"No hands."

            It's been awesome to meet so many people from all over the world. Not only have I met many of the international students, but their friends who don't go to our school as well. But no offense to any of them, but it's still very uncomfortable greeting people I only just met that minute by kissing each other on the cheeks. Can't we just shake hands? 😄

The Seniors Graduate in March

Are you happy, Henry?

            So for some reason, all of the graduation festivities that you expect to happen in May or June happen very early here. Over the past couple weekends, seniors have been all over campus wearing caps and gowns, holding flowers, and meeting with friends and family. Their actual ceremony isn't for another couple months, but it's common for people to get all of the extra activities out of the way at this time of the year. By "extra activities," I mostly mean taking photos. Most students use both weekends to take photos with their classmates, friends, and family, and I'm pretty sure that it's an all day event! I think the reason why everyone does this is because the actual ceremony isn't as big of a deal as it is in America, and many students tend to not go altogether. That, or they might have further schooling or job opportunities to tend to at the time of the ceremony. Either way, people like to do all of the graduation activities while they are still in the middle of the semester. I took some photos with a few of my local student friends today, and Henry begged me to include this photo of us in my blog post. So here it is. 

            I hope that you enjoyed this very choppy post! I realized that I still had much I could talk about from my daily life, it's just that there was no way I could write about these as individual topics. Maybe I'll make another one of these sometime in the future since I still have a couple of other anecdotes I could tell you all about. As for next week, I have plans for a special post that I'm sure you all will be very interested in! By the way, how are your language skills? That's it from me!

再见！

TL;DR: I've compiled little anecdotes that I wanted to share with you all but were too small to make individual posts, like how shopping is actually an intense activity, how to survive on long plane flights, and at what time students here actually graduate.