Track Workout

7 am - My phone alarm goes off and I waken from my slumber...

7:15 - After throwing on some workout shorts and a wife-beater, I met Yichieh on the ground floor and we headed to the track.

-Some background on Yichieh's track skills - Nashville's newspapers called him the "Rice Rocket" as a result of his incredible sprinting ability; he ran a 10.62 second 100m dash as a senior in high school; 21.9 second 200m; 2004 National Junior Olympian in Track and Field; 2005 State Champion in Track and Field; 23' 1" long jumper.

Yichieh is pretty much an abberation when it comes to Asian track and field potential...I am trying to come up with the right words to describe his speed, uhhhh, fast, quick, lightning speed, blazin', fast-twitch acceleration, etc, etc.

Basically, he can run very fast, and he researched ways to increase his speed all throughout high school. He and I have really clicked as friends with the whole health/fitness/sports/track area of life and sometimes that's all we talk about.

7:30 - Ran 2 warm up laps and then stretched for a good 15-20 minutes.
7:55 - Ran 2+ more miles and I probably lost about 2 lbs. of body weight in sweat!

8:25 - Ate a big breakfast of dragon fruit and mangos, toast, and chicken...

9 am - emailed, skyped, blogged, and AIMed, etc...

Photographs:

Some structure by the waterline...I ran up one of those angled brick braces that you can see by the base - fun stuff

That's definitely a dirtbike...lovin' it.

There were so many shops of this scale or higher...

Thursday

Today has been pretty straight forward so far: awaken, breakfast, go to computer orientation, email, eat an eight-course lunch at Renfrew Seafood Restaurant (still trying to figure out the name as we didn't taste a bit of seafood!), tour the library, etc, etc.

Here are some more photographs from last night.

Enjoi...

...just returned from Tsim Sha Tsui again, the area in southern Kowloon, just above and across the water from Hong Kong Island. We found a Bank of America there to withdraw some cash from the ATM. Then I bought an $8000 dollar watch for about $50! OK...MontBlanc, black face, etc. No big deal, haha.

And then we ate at probably the most upscale Pizza Hut ever made; I truly did not realize Pizza Hut's could be that classy. After that, we walked around another mall for quite a bit. One of these days I think I will devote an entire blog to Asian fashion/style/shopping. And then one to Asian architecture; seeing it in person, I am under the strong impression that it is some of the best design in the world. Every detail is aesthetically perfect and flawless in its design.

Gotta hit the sack soon...early day of running planed for tomorrow.

Here are some more photographs from Thursday night...actually they loaded above, haha

Incredible View of Hong Kong Island

So after having a meeting with Dr Iga (the visiting professor from Pepperdine) and Bonnie (my fellow RA) about the plan for the semester, I got to talk to my mom and sister for the first time on Skype...by the way, if you have a Skype account, we can talk for free (my name on Skype is 'jonhipp). It was great (and if you have a webcam we can see each other).

That night we (Yichieh, Andrew and Dr Iga) decided to hit up the city and take the bus to Tsim Sham Tsui in Kowloon, to the water's edge and have a look at Hong Kong Island. It was the most incredible thing I have witnessed first-hand in my life. It was simply astonishing. We spent some time along the railings soaking it all in and anticipating the trip we would take over there on Saturday. Unbelievable...

After spending a significant amount of time with our jaws on the sidewalk, we brushed off our chins and started walking towards one of the malls in the area. The malls here are massive. You would not believe it. There are hallways lined with shop after shop farther than the eye can see - literally. This one was no different.

After walking the extent of the closed shopping mall at 2300 hours, we reboarded bus #3C. Now this was truly an experience. The buses are double deckers and seem like a roller coaster! To get the full experience, you need to ride on the upper level at the very front; sometimes it seemed as though we were going to either run over some locals or hit the walls - it was craziness!

Can't wait to ride it during the daylight hours...

Days One and Two

Now I'm awake... So yesterday a few of us got cell phones, ethernet cords and various other one time purchse items. We were mainly in Kowloon, one of the three main areas that comprise Hong Kong SAR.

One of my experiences that was on the shadier side of things was when a guy I walked past started saying "watch" and "Rolex, Rolex" to me. I said, "Sure" but then he proceeded to lead us through to the end of the store and out to the alley way behind the store. After following for a bit we decided that our lives and belongings were more important than a Rolex knock off. I think we made the right decision.

The last place we visited on Tuesday was an area called Festival Walk, basically an enormous mall. This mall was the biggest mall I have ever seen in my life. There were about 7-8 floors, and so many escalators and stairs, etc. As one of my friends, Alex, put it, "It kind of feels like Harry Potter, where all the stairs go every which way and you never know where or which floor you're going to end up on." Crazy... And the kinds of shops and stores there, were extremely upscale: Armani Exchange, and a gazillion more I barely knew how to pronounce. There were hair stylists that would charge about USD $100-200!

After going to a grocery store called 'Taste', we trekked home on the bus, exhausted. I basically ate, blogged, emailed, and went to bed at 11:30 or mid-morning in the States.

I was fortunately able to sleep straight through from then until 6:45-7 and fell back to sleep 'til 8ish. Today was our first day of International Student Orientation. There are exchange students from Asia, Europe, US, and Australia primarily, 184 in all. First, there was an information session and then we went on a walking tour of the campus. The facilities seem to be decent and they have an incredible 9-lane track. You know I was lovin' that! The campus is pretty vertical with a few very tall buildings.

On the tour I met a girl, Christine, from Denmark and a guy, David, from Switzerland, near Zurich. David is a snowboarder and is studying Business Information Systems at a technology school in northwest Switzerland.

After lunch we'll be having our pictures taken for our Student IDs...

Day One

After eating breakfast in the cafeteria of Hong Kong Baptist University ( the university we will be studying at), our visiting professor, Dr Kevin Iga, took us to see his apartment and then the International Office. From there, it was off to Mong Kok to get a cell phone and begin exploring our new home.

I have never seen so many cell phones in one place in my life, nor could I have imagined that there would be this many to choose from. This made picking out a single cell phone quite difficult. I eventually settled on a white Panasonic A210, a phone that is quite small. I got quite a deal too, paying HKD $500, roughly USD $65. It was also necessary that I get a SIM card so I can make calls primarily within Hong Kong. That cost me HKD $68 (USD $8.70) for the SIM card and 45o minutes.

Lunch was after that at a fine Taiwanese restaurant. My meal (shredded chicked over white rice and white sauce) with a glass of Strawberry Green Tea (delicious) was HKD $27 or USD $3.50! Incredible.

I wish I could write more at the moment about the rest of the day, but right now I can barely hold my head up....the jet lag is not yet finished. Orientation for international students begins tomorrow.

arrival in hong kong

Just got to hong Kong International last night, or monday morning for you, something like that. right now it's 9:30 am in HK, 6:30 pm in CA Monday night, and precisely half a day behind on the East Coast. Moved into my room last night but have yet to get a roomate. Met up with everyone at 10 pm (you do the math this time) and went to buy sheets and pillows and then some authentic chinese food; good stuff. By the time I went to bed it was about 10:30 am in CA. The bed is pretty much a rock, but I could've cared less.

Tuesday morning (still Monday night for you all), I woke up at around 8 and attempted to get my room in better order. I ended up taking the elevator to the top floor of the North Tower (19 stories) and ws taken aback by the view of the city...it is breath-taking! Surrounding a side of the city, there are mountains more or less covered in green...

Time to check out the 9-lane track and then meet up with the group...more to come

summer vacation (part two)

We arrived in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania at about 5:30 PM EST, to a scrumptious dinner prepared by the best Grandma in the world! It was a happy reunion and our cousins also came over later on (My two youngest siblings, Troy, 9, and Joelle, 11, are the same ages as two of our cousins, Jason and Danielle; they had a blast!).

We all slept very solidly that Sunday night following the weekend full of non-stop driving and fun acvtivities. I awoke around 8 'o' clock the next morning to drive my grandpa to a doctor's appointment. After that, all of us (Mom, sister Heather, 16, Joelle, Troy, Grandma and Grandpa, and myself) spent the remainder of the day before supper perusing copious bookshelves in both Hackman's Bookstore and Barnes & Noble; in between those two visits, we had a delicious mid-day meal at Panera Bread.

My grandfather, the generous fellow that he is, bought each of us some books as all of us are, or are becoming, voracious readers. The Messenger, by Daniel Silva, is the one I chose. Probably my favorite novelist, hands down, his books can only be described as part espionage thrillers, part art history forays rolled into one, written very artfully with a provocative style. His writing even controls the pace at which you read - some pages slower, to absorb every detail; some faster in anticipation of a climax. I highly reccomend reading any novel by Daniel Silva.

Tuesday (8 August) was a slower day, but on Wednesday, Heather and I went boating at Blue Marsh Lake with a good family friend, John Mann. We left his house at 8 am and didn't return until almost 5:30 pm! Slaloming was first, followed by dropping the wedge and filling the ballasts, adding 2,000 lbs. to the rear of the Malibu V-Ride boat, creating a monstrous wake. This action was to ensure the maximum launching potential for the second activity of the day - wakeboarding.

Heather and I had both wakeboarded on numerous occasions before, but Mike Landis, a friend who came along, had yet to experience it. After jumping the wake on the slalom ski, he caught on to wakeboarding pretty quickly, attempting to catch air at all costs. We were all sore the next day (no one more than Mike, though) but always anticipate the next outing on the Malibu with John Mann.

Exhasted as I was, I trekked down to Philly International to pick up my dad when he flew in from Tennessee at 10:30 that night. We didn't get back until 12:30...what a long day - 17.5 hours!

Thursday, Heather and I drove out to the Shady Maple Smorgasbord to meet our cousins there for lunch. It had been a while since we'd seen them and it was good to catch up. Later that night, my grandparents had some of our friends over for a little get together at their house.

It rained on Friday, but not before I went on a long bike ride around the Center Valley area. It was a great ride on my Uncle Chris's Trek 2200 road bike.

Saturday we went to a wedding, attended the reception, packed up the van, and then hit the road for Topsail Island, North Carolina early that evening. Our stay in Penna had come to a close...

summer vacation (part one)

...just got back from vacation late saturday night. We had been away for almost 2.5 weeks. It was definitely good to be back home in Tennessee. We had left on the 27th of July, going east on I-40 towards Crossville to pick up my dad at his dental office there. We arrived there around 1 pm as he was just wrapping up his half-day. We left the office at 3:30 and stopped at Ozone Falls State Natural Area after about 30 minutes. This incredible waterfall is 110 feet high and ends in a pool with a stunning display of spray. After hiking around the area for a bit, we ended up at the base of the fall by the pool. A few of us even decided to experience the 'natural shower effect' that the waterfall creates.

...after staying the night at a Comfort Inn just across the border of Tennessee and Virginia and taking a quick dip in the hotel pool, we started this time along I-81. The plan was to spend the weekend with the Sicher family, friends who live in a lakeside communty on Smith Mountain Lake in Moneta, Virginia. Dr Sicher went to dental school with my dad and our families have kept in touch ever since then. It had been a year since the female half of my family had been to the lake-front home and more than a few since either my dad or I had traveled there. It was good to be back at Sicherland, a name my dad coined during this trip.

We spent the weekend boating, swimming, slalom skiing, water skiing, kneeboarding, tubing, jumping and diving off of the 11' and 14' pilons, relaxing, burning under the sun, eating, catching up with friends, and other such jovial activities. The weekend was much too short; it was simply not enough time to spend with life-long friends - I am sure we will be back there before too long and they know that our home is always open to them.