Oh How Sweet It Is To Be...

DONE! I finished up my last exam today. What a relief. It actually wasn't as difficult as I imagined...stay tuned for grade updates. Who am I kidding? I have barely kept this thing updated since I have been here; what makes you/me think I will when I return. Side Note: I won't. This could very well be my last entry on "The Lunz in Hong Kong...Maybe." I hope you all have enjoyed our time together. I will be seeing many (if anyone even reads this anymore) of you very soon I am certain. To be honest, I am not sure anyone other than my parents reads this. If so, please keep it to yourself. I wouldn't admit to reading this if I was you. Not exactly the cool thing to do. I would read something else for sure. Like the classifieds section of the newspaper or the stock quotes page. Surely those are more exciting! Now that my time is winding down I am having trouble finding things to fill my day with. Tomorrow, I will sleep in late and go shopping. Thursday is up for grabs. Any ideas anyone? Friday-Sunday morning - I could also use some help. Sleeping is always the best advice if anyone feels so inclined to make a suggestion.

It is getting quite warm over here. The humidity is picking up (especially today). I was able to go out to lunch with a friend that was studying at Purdue last semester. It is sad to already start saying goodbye as kids are already leaving and others have so many exams, even up until late Saturday night, that I won't be seeing them again.

It has been a good run. So until we meet again...nah...I don't have anything cool to say in a situation like this. hahahahaha

The Lunz

Oh Lovely Exam Time

I can't study. I have come upon my newest conspiracy theory: College administrators collaborated to make Facebook and Youtube so as to make students fail courses. This will increase profits as students have to retake courses and will increase the drop out rate, making the school look more difficult than it actually is. I know this is true. It has to be. I spent 3 hours on Youtube last night...you don't even want to know how much time is wasted on Facebook. Seriously, you don't want to know. If you don't have Facebook, don't get it. If you do, you are a lost cause by now. As I sit here in the academic building "studying" (this means getting on Facebook and Youtube, among others) I decided to write a little blog entry to explain my struggles. At this point in time, I am just ready for tomorrow to come. This exam is covering Transportation Logistics. Let me know if you have any thoughts on the topic...it is very exciting...uhh. I don't care what the most efficient way to fit containers on a shipping vessel is. This stuff could be nice to learn. It interested me when I signed up for the class. Not anymore. Now I think i will take my degree in Facebook-ology and Youtube-omics and be satisfied.

On the bright side of this topic, I am done on Tuesday with all exams! What a glorious day that will be. I will surely celebrate with a short (2-4 hour) nap after sleeping for approx. 12 hours the night before. I am not going to let the flu get me! I will hide away from it under the covers in my bed, which isn't that comfortable but always has treated me quite nicely.

Information Management and Technology followed by Shipper Strategies and Processes beckons. Back to the trenches...maybe.

OH MY! H1N1 FLU IN HONG KONG!!!!

I'm terrified. I have started wearing a surgical mask everywhere I go. I don't leave my room out of fear of instant death. Hopefully by now you have realized that I am joking. One case in a very large city is not my most pressing concern. The government has officially flipped out over this though, as they recall past SARS and avian flu issues. Everything is being sterilized hourly (it seems) and they are being very proactive to keep this "pandemic" under control. The school has sent out numerous emails concerning the topic. The original one reminded us to be clean and sleep. Luckily, all of you know that sleeping is not something I struggle with. Unless more than 12 hours per night is the new norm, I am in the clear. I also shower at LEAST every 4th day so I think that classifies as being clean. All students will be required to wear surgical masks during exams, which start on Monday. We will all also have our temperatures checked at the door before we can enter to take the exam. If I refuse, will I be failed? I am thinking of refusing. I don't like breathing warm air; I like crisp and cool, fresh air. Rebreathing through this surgical mask will cause me to perform more poorly on this exam than I would have previously. Mom and Dad, if I fail, it is the surgical mask's fault. One "positive" thing that may occur is if any student in any school comes down with H1N1 flu, all schools are shut down. This means that exams will not happen!!!!! YAY! Since approximately 35,000 people die yearly from the common flu, the current number of death isn't staggering. If this indeed turns into a pandemic, like those of past times, I may be here longer than expected. Who knows I will be able to fly home...I may have to swim. Hopefully this has reassured you that I have kept my awesome sense of humor through this "pandemic" (they could have not used this word yet...but then the media wouldn't be doing their job scaring people) and will be just fine. Not much longer now. Some kids have already started going home! Weird.

Hopefully I will have more blogs for you this week as we have entered the homestretch. Maybe I will write more to avoid studying. Joke! Well...kinda. Maybe...

For your enjoyment - Picture of me on the Great Wall. I haven't told you guys about that have I? Oh well. It was cool.

Good times in China

Since my last post I have been quite busy. For those of you who don't know, my favorite band is Coldplay...and they just happened to be in Hong Kong last Wednesday (25th). Wow. What an amazing show. I forgot how fun they were in concert. Unfortunately, they will be in the US over the summer which means I WILL see them again, spending too much money on tickets. Ahh, the sacrifices I make in life....food or Coldplay. I choose Coldplay. Too add to the excitement of seeing the concert, there was a big international rugby tournament last weekend. 3 days of people going nuts, dressed up and yelling at the matches. We went on Friday night for student night. It was a lot of fun. I'd never been to a rugby match so it was cool.

Now to the boring stuff that no one cares about. School. Boring. Ridiculous. Obviously, being the 21 year old college student that I am, I procrastinated until the last minute to do my work. Clearly this was the best course of action to keep stress low at the end of the semester. Coordinating groups of people, half of which are speaking a language that isn't quite as good as you would hope, is difficult. Let's call this a "learning experience." So this "learning experience" consists of editing pages of words that have poor grammar and sentence structure. Now, I am not saying they should drop out of school (well...maybe), I am just trying my hardest to understand that they are writing in a language that isn't their first. So, this is me being tolerant. Currently, instead of working on my papers (by the way...there are 4 in addition to the 2 presentations I still have) I am filling you all in on my life. Feel special. You are.

One of my friends is DJ-ing at a venue tonight. So, for all of you who like classic rock, current rock or more pop music....be sure to stay home because you will hate this. If you don't know what House and Electro music is I recommend not listening to it unless you want a headache (Mom & Dad). A thumping bass beat and computer generated tones generally don't strike your fancy if I recall.

I will try to write again soon...but this is all for now. Enjoy a picture from the Coldplay concert until next time....

Well Let Us See What Has Been Happening...

Last week was pretty fun. Monday morning I had a presentation. Monday afternoon I had an exam. Tuesday morning I had an exam. Judging by my previous statements, my weekend running up to that wonderful few days was spent in the library or sleeping. Well, now that week is over and here I am: still breathing. I got my grades back in this weeks class and it wasn't as great as I wanted to do. Oh well, they are small portions of my overall grade. School is boring...let's move to something else.

My hall had a formal dinner on Monday night. It was...fun. Half of the time they were speaking in Cantonese or English that was not exactly perfect. Needless to say, I zoned out for a fair bit of it. Not much excitement other than that with the residence kids.

Last night was St. Patty's day. Always exciting. A bunch of students went down to an Irish Pub for a bit. I love how everyone claims to be Irish on this day. Real Conversation last night...
Guy: (Yelling) Who here is actually Irish?
Girl: (Raises hand) I am!
Guy: Where are you from?
Girl: New York!
Guy: Have you ever lived in Ireland?
Girl: No.
Guy: (Still Yelling) Is anyone here ACTUALLY Irish?
Never lived in Ireland? Parents never lived in Ireland? Grandparents never lived in Ireland? In my book, your family may have been Irish but you aren't. I'm not. Call me a half-empty kinda kid, I don't mind.

For those of you who didn't hear, we took a fieldtrip to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange last week. It was pretty uneventful but still an interesting thing to see.

That's about it for now. The picture is of myself and the kid who was sitting next to me at our dinner thing.

The Uneventful Month of February...

Some of you may have realized that I haven't added anything new for a while. While this may irritate some, confuse others, or fail to strike any sort of emotion in some...it is for good reason I haven't added anything. That reason is....Nothing has happened. We are now in full swing with this thing 'they' call school. Apparently, group projects, midterm exams and busy work (though very little of this) are things assigned to 'students.' I fail to see the benefits of such things when I am trying to travel, not study and take frequent naps. These 'Professors' don't realize how important napping is to young, college-aged males from Indiana. I must exert excessive effort trying to fix my schedule as to allot time for a 3-hour daily nap. Instead of aiding me in this effort, 'Professors' assign tasks to create distractions. However! I have disciplined myself regularly over the past 2 1/2 years of college studies to look past these distractions to find time to rest my mind and body. Mom, Dad...are you proud? I thought you would be. I know I will look back one day and hopefully be able to teach my children the value of napping instead of doing school work. Instead of drinking coffee, I take a short rest to rejuvenate myself for the next 2 hours before bed. Coffee sure is tasty though...I think I may go get a cup.

Something that may be interesting to some is my recent adventure with a few Purdue grads and other Purdue exchange students in Hong Kong. We were able to get together for dinner for some Vietnamese cuisine. It was pretty good...but obviously they didn't know that there was fine dining just a short walk from my campus at Cafe de McDonalds. Next time....

If you have any book recommendations, please forward those to my email inbox. I just finished one today and am trying to put off reading Capitalist Development and Economism in East Asia by Ku-Wai Li (my professor for Asia-Pacific Economies).

That is about it for now. Stay tuned...You never know when something exciting may happen?!

Oh Yeah! I went to see Top Gear Live. A car TV show based in England that airs on BBC. For more info...refer to Google. That is where the picture is from. It is a Zonda.

And another week is starting...

A fairly uneventful weekend for me.  In an effort to cut costs (taking a page out of the current American mentality...everyone's but the government that is) I have not eaten for 3 straight days.  I have gone all Ghandi and survived on lemon water only.  Since everyone knows I am again joking, I will continue.  I have spent the weekend catching up on sleep even though I haven't lost any.  I am just planning for the future here.  A nap here and there never hurt anyone.  I also have been watching a few movies (Slumdog Millionaire is very good), a bit of light reading and attempting to open a textbook or two.  Currently, I am putting off reading the textbook that is currently open on my desk.  Too bad I am typing on my computer which is setting on top of that very textbook.  Priorities.  I have nothing really spectacular to share, so I suppose I will ramble for a bit.  We did go to 10,000 Buddhas on Friday.  There are apparently actually 12,000 Buddhas.  I cried False Advertising, realizing that was illegal.  Unfortunately, I quickly realized I was in China and my lawsuit was met with deaf ears.  Another one in the loss column for Matt.  Bummer.  Anyways, 10,000 (12,000) Buddhas was not very interesting.  You walked up 400-500 steps with Buddhas all along the sides (note picture).  Then you got to a level where there was a building with floor to ceiling mini-Buddhas.  Yep, that's about it.  I guess it got me out of my room for a bit.  Hmm...I have a quiz this week in Organizational Behavior.  That should be fun.  Nothing else is going on this week.  Pretty uneventful.  Maybe I will have something for you next week.  Until then...