Look at this stuff! Isn't it neat!

(Warning: Stream of consciousness exclamatory observations from my first week in Hong Kong to follow.)

Hong-Kong style milk tea tastes just like proper masala chai! And it comes free with meals at the canteen on LG1! Guess what I'm drinking 3 times a day?

For the first time ever, my CTY shirt is not ridiculously large on me or a hideous shade of yellow! Guess the seventh time's the charm... And yes, you can bet I'll wear this shirt way too often to make up for lost CTY shirt time.

For the first time ever, my CTY lanyard broke- twice! My first one broke on the third day, so I got a new one which broke today. If CTY switched to a cheaper lanyard manufacturing company to save money on their 99% profit margin, I am not amused.

Dragonfruit (the part you eat) looks and tastes kind of like a kiwi except white! And at $6 HKD in the canteen, I plan on eating many, so today I stole (er, borrowed) a metal knife and spoon from the canteen to facilitate cutting and scooping.
Later this month, members of the HKUST community are putting on the Broadway musical "Aida," which I've wanted to see since I was in sixth grade! And tickets are only $80 HKD, so I'm definitely going to go!

Also later in the month, there is a special lecture at HKUST from a Hopkins neuroscience professor on light detection in the retina which I totally plan on attending! And I even understood the gist of the lecture description- yay for remembering what retinal ganglion cells and melanopsin are! Dr. Brainard would be so proud.

Kiwi juice, with all the pulpiness and black seeds of the fruit, is delicious!

So is Yakult!

Bugs here are huge! They're like American bugs (cockroaches, stick bugs, butterflies, etc.) on steroids!

Yesterday I was a part of a man's cute, creative wedding gift to his wife!

The popular, ubiquitous Cantonese dish known as "congee" is also a poor man's food in Andhra called "ghanji" in Telugu! (Exclamations for the cross-cultural connection; thumbs horizontal/down for the food itself, which is edible but bland.)

Grilled bananas sprinkled with brown sugar + melty vanilla ice cream + chocolate syrup + graham cracker bits = to-die-for-delicious!

For the first time in forever, on Friday night of orientation, I sat around a campfire and attempted to roast marshmallows while singing fragments of Disney songs with a fun group of people!

I'm pretty sure the Mavericks jerseys aren't orange, but I am impressed that they got Nowitzki's number right!

And finally, I'll leave you with some reminders for your next "nature's call," courtesy of HKUST Hall 6: