Christmas Eve in HONG KONG!!!

Hong Kong was my very last stop before I started my winter break. It was a super short visit, only two nights, but it was still memorable. My mom met up with me in Hong Kong so we could spend winter break together! I spent that night wrapping presents, working on the Pac Rim video (I’m on the media group and am in charge of documenting our time aboard), and waiting for her to arrive. At around midnight there was a knock on my door… it was my MOM! It turns out her only checked bag had been lost aka all the Christmas presents and all her clothes were missing and that very next night was the Christmas eve party! We were more than upset, we were devastated. We kept going down to the reception desk of the hotel to call the airport and inquire about her bag- every time we called we just got a busy signal- it was infuriating. We finally sent them a fax with URGENT stamped all over it. We received a call from the baggage claim in less than 15 minutes- who knew faxing actually worked?! We were promised that that bag would arrive the next day, so all we could do was wait. The next day we decided to take our minds off the missing bag by exploring Hong Kong. We began by finding coffee (at McDonalds, don’t judge us), viewing a giant Christmas tree and wondering around the busy streets. After that we went on a ferry boat ride around the different islands of Hong Kong. It was fun and relaxing and just what we needed after the missing bag debacle.

Mama Bear and I

We arrived back at the hotel fully anticipating that my mom’s bag would be there just waiting for us- IT WAS NOT!!! This meant that we had to pull together an outfit for her for the Christmas eve party using only my clothes. Lucky for her I have impeccable taste and have clothes that everyone looks good in. She wore an eloquent tan pants and black shirt combo set off with a splash of color by a purple, green, and blue scarf - she looked fierce. The party had an open bar till 8pm, Christmas songs, and a visit by a Chinese Santa clause- we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  It was really nice getting to introduce my mom to all my new pac rim friends and spending time together. Along with that, it was indeed a Christmas miracle because very early on Christmas morning we received a call telling us they had received my mom's bag and that they were bringing it up! Hooray, and just in time before we left for our flight to Bangkok! That’s right Christmas in Bangkok! You’ll hear more about that soon!

Darling Kariann and I

Double fisting it!

And now here's a link to the video the media crew created to give you a taste of my first semester abroad!  Just click,  Pac Rim Video

Enjoy!

xoxo Audrey

Fuzhou, China

After my many adventures in Vietnam I headed to Fuzhou, China. While there I studied and lived at Hwa Nan’s women’s college. We stayed there for a month and really got to experience Chinese dorm life. Us foreign students were in a separate dorm than the Chinese students but we had the same layout except we only had four girls per dorm room instead of 8 girls!!!!!! I was able to visit a Chinese dorm room and it’s like sardines in there, I don’t know how the women stand it. Our academic focus was on Chinese philosophy so we read the Dao De Jing , The Art of War, the Analects of Confucius, and other old Chinese dudes (joking). For our time in China I got to room with the lovely ladies- Veronica, Monica, and Kristi.

Hwa Nan Campus

The college is about 20-30mins outside of the city of Fuzhou so I didn’t go into town too frequently but I did go to old student street, 7 lanes and 3 allys, the Confucian  temple, and of course the mall! Besides that we had a few weekend field trips where we visited Wuyi Mountain and the city of Xiamen. While on these excursions we hiked mountains, floated town rivers in bamboo rafts and I learned to like eggplant! What was really great about our time in China was that we were paired with a Chinese student who was your buddy. I got Joanna and we became besties! She has the same birthday as my mom so we really complemented each other. She understood my sense of humor perfectly, which is amazing! Her English was great and I just had the best time with her. She took me on adventures around town and always was a superstar at ordering me vegetarian food. 

Joanna and I at dinner

Joanna and I sharing mittens :

Confucian  temple

 

One of the coolest things we did together was set off Chinese wish lanterns. One time while we were out together we saw a couple setting them off. I thought it was so cool so I told Joanna how it would be awesome if we could do that together. Next time I saw her she had ten lanterns! I got together some peeps from my program and we met up with Joanna and her friends. We then proceeded to head over to the boys college! Did I mention that Hwa Nan is an all women’s college- this was the first time I saw boys my age in days, I was excited! So there was a whole gang of us out on the track field. We each got a lantern and took turns writing our wishes and releasing them to the sky. Joanna wrote on her lantern ‘Audrey and Joanna 4-ever.’ I released a lantern for compassion. I cannot explain just how cool it was, it was probably one of the most magical things I gone. Also this was the night I met Oh Brother… tee hee but more on that later :)

Making a Wish

Releasing it to the world!

Another extremely epic event we had while in China was thanksgiving or what I like to call a day of 21 pies. Since it’s an American tradition us pac-rimmers decided to cook up an epic thanksgiving feast for our hosts at Hwa Nan. We were going to have to feed all the pac-rimmers, all our Chinese buddies, and the entire faculty at the college, that’s over 80 guests!!!! I was on the pie crew and we made over 21 pies!!! Most of which were pumpkin pie- which is my favorite! Some ladies stayed up to 5am to finish cooking the pies. We decorated, cooked, and were on the local news! It turned out really well and I got to eat mashed potatoes with cranberry sauce! 

Now I bet you’re wondering who Oh Brother is….. well he’s my new Chinese Boyfriend. Ha ha, I’m joking, he’s not really my boyfriend but we did walk with linked arms which is a pretty big deal in China. The dating scene in China is totally different than in the US, everything seems to revolve around group dates (which reminds me of the time back when I had a Mormon boyfriend lol!) and very low amounts of public displays of affection. My buddies Monica, Kari, and I got to go on a real Chinese group date. It was a lot of fun and the boys even paid! We ended the night by sneaking into the boys dorm room and having a jam session on a hand-make ukulele and guitar! We generated quite the crowd of Chinese boys :) 

For my research project that I’m forced to do while on this trip I decided to study divination and fortune telling. I’ve now decided to narrow my focus to Vedic astrology but while in China I was able to do Chinese fortune sticks! I went to a temple, I offered incenses, I prayed, introduced myself to the Goddess, and asked my question. After this, I shuffled a jar of sticks three times and picked one stick. Each stick has a number that corresponds to a text that gives insight to your future. I drew stick number 26. I had our tour guide translate for me and give me my fortune! It was a really cool experience and I’m curious to see if it comes true! I'll keep you updated, it said things will become more clear in the spring- and that's right around the corner!!!!

I enjoyed my time at Hwa Nan so much that I have applied to work as an English teacher there next year! I'll find out by the end of this month if I get the position. Well, that was China- I'll leave you with a photo of my cutest new little friend! Her family owned the noodle food booth in the Cafeteria- Kari and I became very good friends with the family :)

xoxo, Audrey

Back in 'Nam

Vietnam went by so quickly! It’s hard to believe that I’m already half way done with my trip and I feel like I’m just getting started. But let me just say, living in Hanoi Vietnam was such an awesome experience.  It’s so busy and fast paced. There are a zillion motorbikes, usually with four people on them. It was always terrifying when you saw a little two year old just sitting between mom and dad. The traffic is just amazing there- everybody just zooming in and out but the amazing this is- everyone just keeps moving and it works. It was really polluted there and the smog covered the sky most of the time. I stayed in Vietnam for a month, while there I took an international business class. I actually learned a lot and thought it was all pretty interesting. At the end of the class we had to propose a business idea-  a business you  wanted to start up and run in Vietnam. There was a prize of $25 and this little lady won! I pitched the idea of teaching theater classes. My professor said that I was most likely to get hired! Boo-yeah, another opportunity to add to my list. 

Roomie, Roomie, and third Roomie!

While in Vietnam we celebrated Halloween- it was fun to see all the interesting costumes us pac rimmers were able to create using our limited resources. I managed a flower child and gypsy. We went to this big Halloween party put on by the Vietnamese business school we were attending. All our Vietnamese program assistants were there and we were able to start a huge dance circle! One of the things I liked most about our time in Vietnam was becoming such good friends with the program assistants and getting to know them. On the actual 31th a group of us ventured out to our new hang out the Bucket bar! I’m pretty sure I don’t even need to explain the name to you :) Many adventure were had at this bucket bar- new friends and lots of dancing! Anywho the exciting part of Halloween was when we got invited to a 5 star hotel for a huge Halloween party by this guy from Dubai. Now I know what you’re thinking- this sounds dangerous…but it really wasn’t, there was a huge group of us, so it was fine. We headed to this hotel, entered into the ballroom and found that it was decked out to the extreme! However, no one was there, everybody had left!!! That, however, did not stop us from dancing and doing model walks down the stage with fog machines. The Vietnamese cops hanging out there found us extremely amusing. Everyone made it back safely but it was quite the night. 

Sarah and I riding in the Vietnamese rickshaw on her birthday!

Besides, Hanoi we visited Halong Bay- which was beautiful and stayed in really fancy hotels. We also went on field trips visiting, the Ho Chi Minh monument, an Ikea factory, a print making village, and attractions around Hoan Kiem Lake. This included riding around in these fun Vietnamese rickshaw type things! We also had a fine dinner at the North Korean restaurant and were sung propaganda songs. 

Halong Bay

Ridin' the boat with The Hangnail aka Monica at Halong Bay

Ho Chi Minh

The fierce fashion group!

Well those were just some of my many adventures from Vietnam. I will now leave you with the blog I wrote for my University’s webpage. If you’re curious you can follow our Pac Rim group blog at http://www.upspacrim.org/blog/ My blog is about an experience my roommate and I had one Saturday evening. I had to change my story a little to make it more appropriate for a public audience- the real version included a bit more swearing and a lot more sass :) If you want to hear the FULL story, let me know…. And without further ado…

The Taxi

There are many benefits from travelling with Pac-Rim: you get the chance to try new foods, make new friends, see the world, and gain an enormous amount of street smarts. My Saturday night began by venturing out with my roommate and new best friend, Miss Anna. We walked around Hoan Kiem Lake, browsed the night market, and indulged in a chocolate sundae. Feeling guilty after consuming so many extra calories, we decided to walk part-way home. We made it to Vincom Mall and agreed that we had worked enough of the sundae off to justify getting a cab to take us the rest of the way home. We hailed the first taxi we saw and hopped in, showed him our address and we were off.

Now it is important to mention that Anna and I had been living in Hanoi, Vietnam for about three weeks now and knew very well that Vincom Mall was only about a kilometer away from our home and that that a taxi ride should not cost more than 20,000 dong, tops! Chatting about Lady Gaga and our new favorite Ke$ha remix, we almost failed to notice that our taxi driver had taken a left instead of a right turn and that we were now speeding down the high way. We shot each other concerned looks and began to panic when we noticed that the taxi meter had already climbed all the way up to 33,000 dong! “Anna, I think this guy is trying to scam us” I whispered. Our 5 minute taxi ride was now turning into a 15 minute joy ride of downtown Hanoi. We did our best to stay calm and were both relieved when we finally caught sight of our guest house up the road.

           By the time he pulled the taxi over and parked our meter was at a whopping 82,000 dong! Shaking myself out of shock, I told Anna to get out of the taxi, we slowly walked around to the passenger side window. Sweet, darling Anna was trying to convince me that we should just pay him 40,000 dong and let it be that. However, I being a woman who needed fairness and justice, knew that even that would be too generous of a payment. I calmly looked at him and said, “This is too much! We will only pay you 20,000 dong.” I asked Anna to give me the 20,000 dong- “Anna, the dong!” Anna handed it to me and I offered it to the devious taxi driver. Realizing that he had been caught, he reluctantly took the dong and with that we began our victorious walk up to our room. I looked back just for a second to see the taxi driver smile and nod at me- he knew that we were not ladies to be messed with because we were Pac-Rimmers! Anna and I felt proud that we had avoided being scammed by using our street smarts—not to mention that with the extra 42,000 dong we were able to treat ourselves to another chocolate sundae.

Rush hour, Hanoi

Truly Asia: Malaysia

Dearest Followers,

Malaysia was amazing- I flew into Kuching and stayed there for only 4 short days. We stayed at this awesome backpackers hostel that had it's own bar on the rooftop. I might have visited it a few times :)  I started my biodiversity class the second day I arrived in Malaysia- we visited some museums and explored the city a bit, we also met with the World Wild Life Fund- that was pretty interesting hearing about their projects in Borneo. A fun fact about Kuching is that the word means Cat- so I was staying in the city of cats and it was quite fitting because I had never seen so many stray cats in my life. After Kuching we headed to Matang wildlife center a Orangutan rehabilitation center just a few kilometers outside of Kuching.

Sarawak River- Kiching Malaysia

We were greeted at the Matang Wildlife center by this friendly guy- Arman. He is a dominant male orangutan and he would probably kill you if he got the chance. It was amazing being so close to these amazing creatures and getting the chance to work so closely with them. Another fun fact- did you know that Orangutans have around a 97% similarity to a humans genetic make-up? This means that we run a high risk of spending diseases to each other which is why you should never hold a baby orangutan. NEVER!

Arman- A dominant male Orangutan 

My group went to the Matang wildlife center to volunteer for 2 weeks. I stayed in a long house and had two other roommates- which worked out just fine. The accommodations weren't fancy and it was pretty much just like being at summer camp. We had a pretty demanding daily schedule- Breakfast at 7:30am, volunteer/projects from 8:15 to 12:30, Lunch, A one hour break, Class, Dinner, then free time/ homework time. It was pretty grueling so I usually went to bed every night around 9pm. As you may or may not know the island of Borneo is predominantly rain forest and it was amazing being there. I remember going on our first hike and it started raining and it was the first time I really realized why it was called a rain forest. Without any warning it will begin to down pour and there will be thunder and lighting. It was amazingly beautiful. Something else I was surprised to figure out was how freaking hot it is by the equator. Holy crap! I have never sweated more in my whole life- like seriously- I didn't even know you could sweat in some of these places lol. It also didn't help that we were doing a lot of physical labor- which was part of our volunteer work. Everyday I was divided into a group and assigned to work on a certain project. You could either be on construction, wood, maintenance, Orangutans, quarantine, and sun bears. For construction you worked to clean out and build new enclosures for some of their animals there. Wood crew carried lumber into the Jungle because the center is working on building a new ranger station- this was probably the hardest crew. For maintenance I carried gravel up to a feeding area for orangutans-also very hard. Orangutans, quarantine, and sun bears was when we got the chance to work with the animals and do husbandry with them. We got to clean out their cages and feed them. 

The center had more than orangutans and monkeys they also had sun bears, deers, and crocodiles! 

Mr. Crocodile

At the center we worked with Leo and Tasha primarily- they are both from the UK and are dating so they were pretty cute :) Below is Leo during one of our hikes showing us a buttress tree. Fun fact about the buttress tree- if you are ever lost in the Jungle and need to get attention the best thing to do is bang the end of your machete against the buttress trees roots- it will make a loud noise allowing anyone who is looking for you  to locate you quicker! I did a whole project about jungle survival- if you are ever curious! 

Leo with Buttress tree

Veronica and I working hard on construction crew

Veronica and I were on a lot of the same crews and we both thought it was funny because we were the two people with the worst backs- we made it through though- one bag of gravel at a time. Below you can see me doing orangutan husbandry- I'm in the cage cleaning it and I have a little friend to my left. She liked to watch me while I cleaned and whenever my water hose got near her she would stick her hand out and play with the water. You had to be very careful though when you were in the cages because orangutans have very long arms and will grab you if they get the chance. It was really tempting to touch them but I resisted and just looked! 

Me doing orangutan husbandry 

This is a semi-wild orangutan with her baby. She lives around the wildlife center and is still fed by the center but she sleeps outside in the trees. The day I was hauling gravel I got to see her and her baby. It looks like the baby is smiling at me :)

Semi-wild orangutans

We took two field trips while we were staying at Matang. Our first field trip was to Semengoh- which advertises itself as a place to see wild orangutans. It has around 26 "wild" orangutans living in the area- however they are not really wild because they are habituated to humans and are fed by them everyday. It's a big tourist attraction.

"Wild" Orangutans

This is me in my tourist pants at a traditional long house

The second part of our field trip was visiting a traditional long house. Traditionally in Malaysia many different families would live together in one long house. 

Woman weaving in Long house

Sun bear

Above you can see a sun bear- the character winnie the pooh is suppose to be a sun bear- and its true they really do love honey. Our second field trip was an over night stay at Bako National park which is famous for its mischievous macaque monkeys. Seriously they will steal the food or soda can out of your hands- they were a bit scary. While at Bako I went on a few hikes and found this amazing private beach. Emma, Luisa, and I hiked there the first day and went swimming. It was pretty magical until the naked old American man showed up. lol. We went on some night walks and I got to see some beautiful fire flies! I also got to see some "wild" boars and by wild I mean they'll come into your front lawn and fall asleep. 

Taking the boat to Bako!

Bako

Macaque monkey with baby

Bako-Private Beach

Bako was a lot of fun even though it wasn't very well kept and the monkeys stalked you. We headed back to Matang and only had a few days left before we left for Mulu National park. On our last night we had a huge going away party and danced up a storm. Below you can see me with my new children and the lovely ladies from the kitchen crew (at least I tried but I couldn't get the photo to upload) They taught us the Malaysian version of the electric slide that night and there might have been a dance off- the Americans won! It was so much fun and I'm very thankful for meeting such amazing people who are extremely dedicated to what they do. 

Me and my child

Me and my other child!

The next day we headed to Mulu National park- where on the first day we hiked through some of the largest caves in the world. We went on a all day hike and swam in a river- we saw lots of cool bugs and saw lots of leeches! Believe it or not I managed to live in the forest for 2 weeks and never got a leech! Some tried but I was too quick for them! 

Mulu National Park

Sadly I forgot the name of this guy but he's still cool

While we were at Mulu we celebrated my 23rd birthday! Here I am at my birthday breakfast! After that I enjoyed a canopy birthday walk, a plant walk, and a night walk! The group was extremely nice to me and I woke up to a group birthday card and a bag full of tasty goodies! 

Birthday Breakfast

Rachael and I before the Birthday Canopy walk

Birthday Canopy Walk

Birthday girl and Buttress tree!

This is the really cool spider that they found on my birthday. At first they thought they had discovered a new species  I suggested that they should name it after me since it was my birthday :) Turns out it already had a name- I still think they could rename it in my honor! 

Don't touch this spider!

After my exciting walks I enjoyed a delicious curry pumpkin soup for dinner. It has been a tradition since I was born to have a pumpkin pie every year for my birthday. I didn't have a pie but I was so excited to find the pumpkin soup and keep the tradition alive! The group got me a tasty piece of chocolate cake and make a group cake out of cookies. 

Birthday cake!

My lovey group got me this awesome Malaysian circle dress thing! You can make it into a skirt, a dress, even a shirt- it is beautiful! After cake and presents we had a movie night and watched the Audrey Hepburn film Sabrina. It was a lovely birthday and I felt very loved by my group :)

Birthday girl in birthday dress!

We only stayed in Mulu for 4 days then flew to Kota Kinabalu where we stayed for another 4 days. In Kota us ladies got to stay in a very fancy hotel which was so nice after spending weeks in the jungle. Getting my clothes actually washed like in a real washing machine was the best thing EVER!!! While in Kota we presented group projects and explored the city a bit- I of course found the market and did some shopping :) On one of our days there we went snorkeling. I saw so many amazing colored fish, drank fresh coconut juice with Annin, and avoided the sun- (the malaria medication I'm on makes my skin super sensitive to the sun.) It was an awesome day.  

Island where we went snorkeling 

Kari and I on our way!

Malaysia has been one of my most favorite country's so far. It was super easy to get vegetarian food, the people were so friendly (even the guys hitting on you were nice-my favorite pick-up line is  "Hey Girl") it was fun to explore, and just amazing. I can definitely see myself coming back here. The jungle was hard at times and the volunteer work was really challenging physically but the people and food were so amazing that I couldn't help but fall in love a little. And with that I leave you with little Dillion the cutest little monkey ever who nearly jumped on me and petted my arm a little bit while I was working in quarantine :)

Dillion