New Years day

I will deny it all to my death. That's all I'm going to say about that.

Anyways, we were at New Years day. Man I am way behind on this. So after going to bed at 9am, I still woke up at 2pm (damn jet lag) and tried in vain to go back to sleep until 4, whereas lucky Justin slept until 6. Since I had some time, his parents and I went on a walk around the botanical gardens, zoo, and HK park. His parents took me to the zoo hahaha. I am well on my way to getting adopted by them and taking over his spot here. Soon, Justin will be saying, dad, I want to come home, and his dad will say, well that's nice but we'd like that nice girl Natasha to come instead. MWUAHAHAHA!
Ok back to my story. I saw the most beautiful views of HK that I had seen up to that point from the parks. They're on a hill so you see nature in front and the modern buildings behind. You'll see pictures later (they include my first family portrait with my new 'rents). By the way, to my credit, I did try to get a USB cable today, but they didn't have any appropriate ones. At the park, we tried to go to the aviary, but it was closed. We came up with this whole theory about the avian flu season now and how even though the aviary is completely enclosed the bird poop can still infect the birds inside. It turns out it was just past closing time. Talking with his parents was cool, they are really laid back and nice.
My tour of fine HK cuisine began that evening at a Chinese "private club," which means you pay a fee to be invited to dine at this restaurant, which you still have to pay for, but then you feel special. We had all sorts of stuff I can't even name/describe, but it was really yummy. My most disgusting thing I've eaten now is fermented tofu, which smells like shit. literally. If any table in the restaurant orders it you can smell it. Of course I have to eat it anyway because I was told it's good, and it's actually pretty good. It reminds me strangely of cheese souffle. But man does it smell horrible. I felt better because Benson also doesn't think it's a normal thing to eat.
That night Justin and I met up with some of his friends at Causeway Bay, which is another giant mall. One of the inside malls is called Times Square, which has a giant TV and billboards outside at the entrance. But it's not located at an intersection. By the way, the National Geographic travel guide has a picture of a marina for Causeway Bay and the description sounds boring. Initially I wasn't even going to go there, but it's actually just an out/inside shopping area with really good deals. They had like one sentence about that part. I feel gypped.
So hanging out with Justin and his friends is like trying to read lips all the time from really far away. They usually speak Chinese, with a couple English words here and there, from which I sometimes extract the gist of the conversation. Most of the time I just look around and take in the sights. Also, there's a lot of walking to one place, seeing some people, then retracing your steps and seeing new people with some of the old people, then deciding to go back again. And when the plan changes, usually it's done in Chinese, so I make a lot of sharp turns. Today is Friday, so I guess it's been 3 nights (new years doesn't count) of hanging out. It's really entertaining to watch crazy Justin and his friends sing karaoke (and do some myself hehe) and to see all the sights, but most of the time I don't understand what they're saying, so it gets boring after a while. As Justin put it, it's like watching a movie over and over again. However, during the day it's just us, so it's really fun, and in the evenings we're eating amazing food. And I definitely get what life here is really like. I think if there was one more english speaking friend with us it there would be no flaws with this trip at all, but it's still awesome.