It was Wednesday night when we landed in Macau by Viva Macau Airlines. As soon as we landed we were let off not into the airport, but outside. I’ve always wanted to get off a plane and go down the stairs onto the runway like in the old movies, and I finally got my opportunity! We took a very crowded shuttle bus to the airport building where we checked in through Immigration. No customs line, no visa purchase, just a short line to stamp your passport.
We got a taxi at the airport, but there was a little confusion in communicating with the taxi driver. We later learned that whenever we were going to take a taxi, we needed our destination written on a piece of paper in Chinese for the taxi driver to read.
The drive to the hotel was amazing! Since it is so much like Las Vegas, there were flashing lights everywhere! It was very shiny and eye-catching. We also took a bridge from Taipa island, where the airport is, to the Macau peninsula. It was a remarkable drive over the water. The bridge had a great view of the brightly-lit peninsula as we drove across. It was a fantastic first impression of Macau.
Daddy and I made reservations at the Educational Hotel at my new school. We got checked in and ate at the Educational Restaurant, which was probably one of the classiest dining experiences I’ve ever had. After we got back from the restaurant, around 10:00 pm, the front desk told me a student from the IFT was coming to greet me. I felt bad that he came close to 11:00 pm just to welcome me, and I also felt especially bad when I found out that there was some confusion about when I was arriving. I had told them I would be coming in on Tuesday, but that was before I’d actually bought my plane tickets. I never told them my new arrival time. Oops.
The Educational Hotel was really nice. It was set up to feel like a small, Portuguese villa, with fountains everywhere. But apparently they’ve never heard of the Americans with Disabilities Act, because there are stairs all over the place, and not ramps or elevators. We had to go up and down small flights of stairs just to get to our room.
Because the Educational Hotel was booked over the weekend, we had to check out on Friday and move to the Casa Real casino hotel. Casino hotels are everywhere in Macau, in the style of Las Vegas, but the Casa Real was much smaller than the other big-names, like Wynn, the Venetian, Sands, and the Grand Lisboa, to name a few.
Wallace, the student that came to greet us at 11:00 at night, showed me my new apartment the next morning and gave me my keys. Daddy and I were in and out all weekend as we went shopping for various things. I bought a nice HP printer for about 500 MOP (Macau patacas), which comes out to about USD $60.00. Needless to say, the exchange rate here is pretty awesome.
Daddy and I also had some fun, too. We went to two movies, Avatar and Edge of Darkness, as well as the Cirque du Soleil show Zaia at the Venetian. We went to the Hard Rock Hotel to eat at the Hard Rock Café, but they didn’t have it! How can you have the Hard Rock Hotel without the Hard Rock Café? I mean, no one stays at the hotel for the hotel, they stay for the café!!! Anyway, we walked around the hotel at all the shops and ate at a small restaurant.
We also got lost and found ourselves in Senado Square, one of Macau's most recognizable landmarks! The entire city is getting decorated for Chinese New Year on Feb. 14, so Senado Square was all decked-out. A pair of Asian guys asked Dad to take their picture in the square, and then they asked if Dad would be IN a picture with them, haha!
We also ate at Blue Frog at the Venetian (which is friggin’ huge, by the way, and we kept getting lost). It is an upscale Western restaurant, so it was nice to eat American food for once. Unlike Jakarta, American restaurants are few and far between in Macau, with McDonald’s being the only exception. But the main reason we ate at Blue Frog is because one of my NAU professors, Glenn Hansen, personally knows the owner that founded the Chinese chain, and so we went just so I could tell Glenn about it. :)
Now I’m settled into my apartment, and I start the exchange student orientation tomorrow morning. I have really nice, friendly roommates, and I think we will all live really well together. Maria and Hannah are friends from Sweden who share the room at the end of the hall. Stella is from Korea, and she shares a room with Cindy, our Chinese, Cantonese-speaking roommate. She’s already been so helpful in helping us figure things out, like talking to the concierge about how to take out our trash. I’m going to ask her to go with me to buy a microwave tomorrow. I tried to buy one cheap today at the supermarket ($60), but communication was an issue with the staff.
I’m still waiting for someone to show up to share the bedroom with me, but no one has come. On the one hand, it would be soooo nice to have my own room, and take over the other person’s storage space as well, but at the same time I feel a little left out of the two pairs (the Swedish girls and the Asian girls). But I’m sure it will work out great no matter if they show up or not.
Until next time!
Kati
P.S. I had an interesting time doing laundry today! We have a washer, but no dryer. Instead, we have to hang everything on the balcony to dry, but it’s very humid here. We’ll see if my pants are dry by the time I run out of pants after tomorrow…
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