Fried apple pie

After an entire summer of playing, it's hard to get back in the swing of things. I almost forgot that I came here to attend school. This past week in Hong Kong has been filled with shopping (mainly for necessities), eating yummy food, and touring. No homesickness yet, but I do miss people! I've met some really nice kids from all over, but I think everyone tends to bond with people who are from the same country. My roommate is Swedish, and we have had little interaction in the past week.

Registration is a huge mess. They registered me for a class that I did not request, and it turns out to be the equivalent of MIS 365, so I dropped that and I'm not considered a full-time student right now. A lot of exchange students seem to be stressed out over registration. :(

So HKUST uses a lift system because the university is built on the side of a hill...or mountain. I think it's just a large hill. I have to take 5 elevators to get to class. Isn't that ridiculous?!? I take an elevator to get to the ground floor in my dorm, another to go from Ground to 11 in another building, walk across the bridge, take an elevator from Ground to 10, walk across the bridge, take an elevator (now I take the escalator) up 4 or 5 stories to Ground, and then take another one up to class. All elevators go to different locations, so I have to know beforehand which elevator to get in. Whose brilliant idea was this?

I heard they have fried apple pies at McDonald's on campus. Do you remember FRIED apple pies? McDonald's stopped selling them in the US a long time ago, but they still make them in Europe and apparently Hong Kong. I'm "egg-zzzzited"! (That's for you, Kat!) And I bought an egg tart at KFC yesterday. KFC!!! It was really greasy - egg tart KFC style!

I got my hair permanently straightened. No me gusta! I miss the option of having wavy hair, AND my hair is too straight! So we went into this salon, thinking it was going to be $298 HK, but it ended up being $688. The guy told us it wasn't going to be $298 after he had already washed our hair, so what were we supposed to do? Walk out and just pay for the shampoo?? I figured it was still cheaper than doing it in the US, so I coughed up the $88 USD. This is the third time I think I got gypped because I'm a dumb American.

Keep me up-to-date with everything that is going on! If you want a postcard, please give me your address.