Vegas meets China

Hong Kong is a special place. I was only there for a weekend and I spent the vast majority of that time playing frisbee, but the little I did see shocked and intrigued me. HK seemed like a city of contradictions and odd juxtapositions. Everywhere I looked there was opulence (BMWs, mansions, Louis Vuitton (sp?) stores, etc...) and there was squalor (beggars, ghettos, etc...) When we first arrived in Hong Kong I was taken aback by the bright lights and the Vegas-like atmosphere of Kowloon. The diversity of Hong Kong's streets was a shock for the system as well. I've adjusted to Suzhou (and China in general) which is an incredibly homogenous place. I'm not sure what the actual demographics are, but everybody here is Asian (no surprise, really). This is not true in Hong Kong. There were tons of people of all different races and from all different countries walking around the streets drinking, eating, and socializing. It was like NYC. Anyways, I wish I had been able to spend more time in Hong Kong, but I'm sure that I will return to explore it later...

Here are a couple pictures from the weekend:

O-line (Sherry, Nutt, Sam, me, Robin, Sara, Jono)

Joann, Robin, and our cabbie on the way back from the fields

Emma helping me prepare my costume on the subway (who knows what I'm doing...)

The tournament was a blast. We lost to a team from the Phillipines in the semis. Our team's performance varied from nearly perfect to downright sloppy. There were definitely some flashes of brilliance and I think a lot of hope for the future. The tournament party was pretty fun too :) Highlights include a lot of couch dancing (hard to describe), Double Dragon skit, and eating a HUGE pile of McD fries in the middle of the night!

- Jon