standing in the centre of the universe

dennis and i hit one of the on-campus canteens for breakfast yesterday... i got pork buns and dim sum, he ended up with a giant breakfast of eggs, ham, toast, pork buns and a mysterious noodle dish. it's hard to eat a lot in the heat, but we seem to manage two meals a day in the air-conditioning. the food on campus isn't bad, and it's pretty convenient. i think we're going to be eating a lot more of it once school starts and we're not just taking off to the mall 3 times a day.
hong kong really is a city of malls. i thought some canadian cities were crazy with all the tunnels/+15s and indoor spaces, but they've got nothing on this city! everywhere you go, you find a brand-new sparkly shopping centre. dennis made a good attempt to go outdoors in shatin, but there's nothing out there - it's all in the mall! downtown, some areas like mongkok or central have a lot of outdoors shops and sights, but generally, it's a mall culture. dreamy! is it the need for air-conditioning? the love for shopping? desire for clean spaces?
we decided to have a bit of an adventure yesterday and took off for lantau island. we heard there was a path to enlightenment there, and a buddhist vegetarian restaurant. after our meat fest on thursday night, veggies were the order of the day!!! took the train out past the airport and disneyland and thought we could hop on a cool gondola up the mountain to the monastery but lo and behold, it's still in the testing phase. had to take a rickety citybus around the island which was probably a good thing, cause we got to see the southern beaches and little resort towns... they look sooo much like south-east asian towns. i felt like i was in thailand.

the buddha was cool - reminded me of kamakura.the restaurant was great - so nice to see some veggies! we were so excited that we got the deluxe meal. it was kind of strange to be seated in the VIP room at a buddhist monastery - but i certainly wasn't complaining.
went and stood in the centre of the universe, but to honest, i didn't feel any more balanced or enlightened than anywhere else i stood. was sooo tired when i got home that i just sat in my room, watched a little prison break and then went out for dinner. i even ditched early on karaoke... unlike me! the first year class seems really tight, and they seem like nice people. being around them last night made me really miss my class at home though...i can't wait for school to start so that i can meet more people and get into a routine. my time here is going to go really fast once we get into it.