Exploration begins

So I'm approaching one week since I've left the grand ol' US. It's been both busy and boring. All the international students were basically given four days to run around Hong Kong without a care in the world. The question became "Who is there to run around with?" Luckily everybody is just as new as I am. First night here, I went out with a group of people from Canada, Mexico, Germany, Switzerland, US, and Indonesia.We went to Temple Street Market, one of the tons of open air markets around. I can't count how many times I was asked "You want purse? New watch? Good price." After one such encounter, I told the man I already had a bag and didn't need another. He took one look at my purse and said, "You never get husband with that ugly bag. You need new one. Good price!" Although I was almost convinced by that line, I didn't end up buying bag from him.

I did buy a wallet at Ladies' Market. Bargaining is pretty common at the open air markets. Even though I don't speak a lick of Cantonese, with the help of a calculator, even I can bargain with the locals. At first I was very intimidated - afraid I was going to offend someone or make a fool of myself. However, the first time's always the hardest, so after my first successful bargain, I felt like I'd just passed an impossible exam (Tom Carroll's class, anyone?)

I've officially moved into my permanent housing. My roommate's from Austria and my next door neighbors are from Taiwan and mainland China. I've certainly had to brush up on my geography since moving in. I've got a room with a view!

Living on the 9th floor has its perks. 

During the move from the orientation hostel to our permanent hostel, we were locked out of the buildings from 9am to 5pm. My orientation roommate and I spent the day at Sha Tin mall. Shopping is crazy here, and I better slow down my spending if I don't plan on being destitute at the end of the semester. So while wandering around the mall, which is packed, I had a group of locals run up to me: "Can we take a picture with you???" My hesitant response was something along the lines of "uhhh......" so they explained: "It's for a scavenger hunt. We must take a picture with a foreigner." Who was I to say no? I was approached not once, but twice for my picture at the mall. I guess I don't quite look like a local.

Can you find me?