Month: October 2006

post–National Day update

Having relatively important classes on Monday, Friday, Tuesday, and every other Thursday is not doing wonders for my travel plans. I may try to restrict myself to local travel, even on these three-day weekends. The low United fare to Ho Chi Minh is tempting, but the return flight is once a day in the morning—too early to see anything in HCMC that day if I leave Monday, but too late to get me back in time for Tuesday morning class if I leave Tuesday. I guess the three-day weekends may need to stay within ferry range. Zhuhai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen/Shekou, Dongguan, hmmm.

I am officially done (until I panic and send more in November) with law school applications for now. One recommender’s letter is the only obstacle to my application’s getting tossed in front of the committees that will determine my destiny (next Fall, anyway). Some committees, fortunately, are impatient and already reviewing my application with the two letters currently in: cheers to them.

I have an informal presentation in a tutorial on Friday, and a larger one two weeks from tomorrow. A dictation exercise threatens in Mandarin next Tuesday. I guess it’s not exactly a mid-term crunch, but it may be as close as I’ll get here.

Mandarin was distressingly distressing on Tuesday—the teacher led off by asking me a question using a particle she hadn’t taught us. I never really recovered. We ended up getting her on a long tangent with words for different countries (how to express your nationality: I [to be] [country] person, so Wŏ shì MÄ›iguó rén). I need to get a binder and organize all my floating workbook, textbook, and chicken scratch note-taking pages.

National Day

It’s the PRC’s National Day today. I’m not that excited.

There might be some cool fireworks over the Harbour tonight—hopefully I’ll get out to them—but as communist as I’m sometimes accused of being I have a hard time celebrating anything to do with the Beijing government.

64.

About Macau

I guess a full-length bloviation on Macau won’t be coming any time soon. Brief notes, instead, follow:

I suffered four passport stamps for the journey, including a re-stamping of the half-page Hong Kong student residency stamp. I hope that doesn’t happen every time I come back in but I think it does. Ouch.

It was very cool to see mosaic sidewalks and Portuguese signage everywhere. The Macanese may be better than Hong Kong people at making sure the second-language version is available, though fewer actually speak Portuguese. This may not be as cool if you não fala Português, but it was cool for me.

Prices are quite touristy, at least on the Peninsula, even leaving aside the inconvenience of Patacas (pegged slightly under the HKD but virtually unconvertible outside of the MSAR). Egg tarts for 6 MOP? Come on.

Stanley Ho’s ailing monopoly even owns the ferry terminal. That’s pathetic. There’s a post on dysfunctional SAR politics (never mind the US, I don’t even want to read the news now) coming some time.

Many colonial buildings were painted in garish colors. Tourist guides seem to think this is a feature. I am unconvinced.

The Portuguese and Brazilian food selection is very good, though not very well priced (again).

I really didn’t get much out of the visit. I’ve heard that the islands (well, they were islands until being connected by the “Cotai” reclamation) of Taipa and Coloane are beautiful but I didn’t have the time or motivation to see them. If they are they might balance out the peninsula.

Zhuhai could be cool—I may never know since I’d have to burn a PRC visa entry to find out. Maybe as part of a longer Southern Mainland trip.

If you like to gamble I guess you could have a good time—I didn’t even look as I didn’t feel like shelling out for a locker to hold my camera and bag.