WAHHHH!!!! last china page!!!

And an update long overdue... it's been what... 2 months? i forgot how to even make these pages... I'll just sort of throw this page together... cause my memory is definitely faded now... enjoy anyways.
Saturday, August 24 - Hong Kong
Scotty adds his entry to my China Journal... it was originally a diary type deal... but then i got bored and changed it to a book where everyone expressed some thoughts about the trip... as a keepsake. Martha Stewart would say... "it's a good thing"
Kung-Fu Acadamy's last breakfast together... they were all scheduled to least that morning except for Tim and Dan. Look how sad everyone looks.
After breakfast... it was time for... "create your own adventure" cause there were no more tours we were dragged along. So the posse was Me, Scotty, Phil and Tim. We decided to take the Star Ferry to Hong Kong island and see what fun we could find there. Actually... most of the time, we were futilly trying to find the "Olympic Store"... after a couple hours of waking up and down the same streets, i think we gave up.
There we are... the gang. This is waiting for the ferry... unfortunately, i didn't actually take any pictures during the ferry ride. It was comfortable and scenic. I probably didn't take any pictures cause by this point in the trip, we already had 4 boat tours. This picture if from the Kowloon peninsula side of Hong Kong... there was a nice touristy boardwalk behind our hotel that led straight to the Star Ferry.
Some other things we did... that i didn't take pictures of...

Go to 7-11... honestly... there is one on every blcck. I actually tried to take a picture, but then some lady was yelling at me in Cantonese... luckily, phil was able to communicate that i was just being dumb tourist who would actually take a picture of a 7-11.

Go to that convention center thing that everyone says looks like the Sydney Opera House. It was cool in there... literally, cause it was steaming hot outside. But inside we saw a car show... and there was a bunch of other exhibitions that we chose to just walk by.

Take a taxicab... told the guy we wanted to go to the Olympic store, but he just brought us to some cramped mall that sold mostly videogames and stuff... Rich would've gone crazy in there.

Go to an arcade... i kicked some guy's butt in Tekken... then we played that drum game, Beatmania... where you hit the drums to the beat they give you... it was sad, cause we cheated by each only taking a few of the drum pads... and we still lost. Man... good times.
Another picture of Hong Kong Island
...and another... from the ferry boat... look at the pretty reflection.
Some scarry bamboo scaffolding... all i could think was... Jacky Chan fight scene.
We took the Ferry back to Kowloon, and then had "dinner" at Pizza world... honestly, that was the saddest pizza i ever had. A "large" was as big as a small over here, and the crust was like a cracker. Imagine one of those personal frozen pizzas you buy at the supermarket. The "loaded" potato skins were made from the smallest potatoes you can imagine. Worst of all, it was quite expensive... but then again... if it was it all went smoothly, there wouldn't be a story to tell. :)
After dinner, we entered the "dome" which we found out to be an Omnimax theatre... the show was about Shackleton... some guy that lead his crew from disaster in Antarctica... it was pretty boring... but hey... it was THE dome. There was also a funny incident how when we bought the tickets, we bought the it at the student price. But then when we tried to enter with the tickets, they asked for out student ID's... guess how didn't have their student ID... me of course.. why would i bring it to China? so like, this lady was being all scary to me, but they eventually let me in.
Hong Kong at night.
After the show, we went to the mall area around our hotel to hang out... there was some crazy teddy bear store fair thing... it was quite disturbing, i wish i took some pictures of us next to the giant stuffed teddy bears.
Tim needed a teddy bear for his... forgot, girlfriend or sister or something.
AWWWW..... Our last night in China... so sad... BWAAAAA!!!!!
That night, we decided to have an all nighter... and enjoy waking moment... This was in Rocky's mom room... she was there, as well as Rocky, James, Samantha, Me, Scotty, Phil and Timmy. Here, we're playing cards... seems all fun and all... but i have video evidence of a bunch of pranks and just pure wierdness, Scott and Phil being more trouble makers than they let you believe, Tim videotaping our roomates that we had access to in their sleep, knocking on hotel doors and running for cover, painting fingernails, toenails, and in my case when i let my guard down... my belly button... and Scotty trying to get James to sleepwalk. It was definitely a fun night.
Sunday, August 25

Homebound
Tim gives the thumbs up... we're reluctant, but ready to go home... good bye China.
Domes Hong Kong Airport... 2 hour flight to layover in Japan
Narita Airport

Oh god... this was embarrassing... they were playing some card game, i don't know what it was. but when it was over, the loser had to stand up and do a a section of the Hokey Pokey... and everyone sang along and clapped... i was embarrassed for America at the moment... we created such a scene.
Boarding the plane... with those spiffy seat TV sets.
One more fight and we're "home". It's great how you can check-in together with your friends... changes a dreaded long plane ride to a time to spend with friends. Here we are having...uhhh... dinner i think, time is so lopsided when you're flying with the spinning of the earth to a day ahead of where you began. One of my best memories of the trip was when Scotty woke me up in the middle of sleeping and told me to look at the monitor. We were chasing the sunrise as we were moving east, and the sun was moving up and down the horizon line for a while... wicked cool.
New York - Same Day... techinically
Home at last!!! actually, not quite. We got to the airport at around 6 PM... but there were "complications" with the bus arrangements. I don't feel like going into details... But pretty much, we waited around for 3 hours to find a ride back home... there was something about a limo, a van, a bus, not having money, calls were made, tears were shed, but we all got home eventually.
Do i look a little pissed? I was probably hungry.
Yup... Home... South Windsor, CT... China 2002 in the record books. Oh the memories... the friendships. Man, what a good time. Life is too short to live in the past i think... but when times are tough, it's the good times that get us through the bad. This trip was definitely a good time that made me aware of how precious every moment is.