La dolce vita

In six hours, I'll be on a plane going to the island of Cebu in the Philippines!  With all the tsunami alerts and terrorist attacks in the south, I hope all of that won't be a factor in our vacation for reading week (a week off when we're supposed to "study" for midterms).  It's my cheapest round trip flight so far at $163USD.  I never even thought of going to the Philippines, but after googling pictures of Cebu (and the persistence of Kevin & Kenny), I was sold.  From what I saw, it's like a postcard perfect, paradise, island kind of place I'd vacation in when I retire.  Will it really be like that?  I guess I'll find out!

I'll be going with one of my roommates--Laura from Chicago, Kevin from Florida, and Kenny & David are from Britain...a semi-international group going on.  Surprisingly, I'm the only Californian (we seem to dominate the HKU exchange program).  We plan on scuba diving (apparently Cebu or specifically Moalboal is one of the best places in the world for it), snorkeling, and doing any water-related sports besides being lazy and chillin' on the beach.

Within the past six months, I've been lucky enough to travel to Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan and now the Philippines.  Oddly enough, I've yet to go to mainland China (I will when I get my visa stuff sorted).  I've always had a longing to tour Europe and since I accomplished that, I'm now exploring this side of the world--something I honestly never put much though to before.  How is it so far?  Amazing.

I mentioned to one of my roomies' boyfriend that I studied abroad in Tuscany, Italy before, to which he responded, "Wow! You've had a great life!"  It made me think about it and yeah, I kind of do ; )

No Fondue

Tonight Kiran rounded Paris, Laura, Kevin and I to go to The Melting Pot in SoHo on Elgin St. & Hollywood Road.  I googled it beforehand and expected to arrive at a jazz bar, but to my surprise, it was salsa night!  It was a diverse crowd, mainly middle aged folks who went to have a good time and get their salsa on.  I think we were probably the youngest kids around.  People were shaking their hips and showing off their fancy footwork everywhere.  There was this "man in orange," who could move it like no other.  The scene was definitely something we didn't expect to find in Hong Kong.   I think expats hang around SoHo a lot because it's like they never even left home considering everything is "western" there.  At the same time, I wonder if they ever experience "very local" areas of HK?  To our amusement, the spot was also great for people watching (awkward looking couples or this girl who who just had a "save me!" look on her face when this old white guy dragged her out to dance haha).  The highlight was the live salsa band--the trumpeter definitely made me want to get back, re-learn, and make use of those 5 years I spent learning how to play.

On another note, I have two left feet.  Coordinated dancing is definitely not my forte.