China is a very special place.

1. I was told I was/look (can’t remember) “very special” by two Hong Kong girls the other day. I said thank you, but I’m still not sure whether it was a strange compliment or a blatant insult. 

Call me Special Justine.

2. We rode a ferry to Mainland China from Hong Kong, and I saw my first real life cockroach. It was quite large and inspired me to gag profusely and shiver with disgust: the first encounter with my many new friends. According to Jenny, (who happens to be the Jennifer Lawrence, BTW. I’m rooming with a celeb, NBD. JKJK LOL. Her name really is Jennifer Lawrence though.) Utah is the only state in the US that is a safe haven from the crunchy creepy buggy guys. I hate them. I love Utah. I hate cockroaches. What do we find in our apartment upon arrival? 8 cockroaches so far.

3. At one of the stands in Stanley Market by the Hong Kong harbor, I found this hilariously terrifying cat. 

4. I had my first experience with squatter toilets. 

    A. No light. 

    B. No lock on the door. 

    C. No toilet paper. 

    D. No soap. 

    E. Aunt Jamima is here for a visit. 
        F. No actual toilet. 

Needless to say, it was quite the experience. I got through it. I’m over it. I can do hard things. HA. I <3 Special China.

Hong Kong!!

After multiple flight delays, thanks to typhoon Bolaven, our group finally set foot on Hong Kong soil, drove to our hotel, and showered for the first time in two days. I love showers. Although I don't believe I will ever be completely dry again until I fly back to the Salty City. Yummy humidity.
Once I was squeaky clean, I set out on an adventure with Max, Katie, and her twin sister, Allie.

Max and I. Mookie would appreciate our peace signs.

We stopped at a restaurant on the street near our hotel and ordered breakfast. The twins ordered a Panda Express style dish, a club sandwich, and Coke. LAME. I asked the server what his favorite was, and he showed me a fried dough stick wrapped in rice noodles. Not too adventurous, so I tried to find something else. There was a picture of some meat with carrots or something, called “Barbecue Something Something Phoenix.” In my jet-lagged state, I thought, “Huh, ok, I can deal with eating a weird bird. Phoenix can’t be that bad. Probably tastes like chicken.”
Earth to Justine: Phoenix is a mythological creature, NOT a real bird.
I point to the picture, and the guy says ok and mentions something about chicken feet. After saying “no way, Jose” to the chicken feet, he leaves to get our food.

            When the food comes out, he brings me “honey water grass” with lemon (his suggestion) that was absolutely delish, but a little sweet. My fried dough stick wrapped in rice noodles was kind of meh but good, as well. The Phoenix- mythological creature, NOT real bird- was in a bowl and looked pretty good. Then I pick up a piece with my chopsticks and realized with horror that I had ordered chicken feet. MY FIRST MEAL IN HONG KONG, AND I ORDER CHICKEN FEET.

Offending chicken feet are pictured in the upper left hand corner.

I was mortified and in no way mentally or emotionally prepared for the dire situation. After some deep breaths, Max offered to take a bite. I said yes. He said it wasn’t too bad, very soft meat, eat around the bone. Eat around the bone, you say? I don’t even eat chicken off the bone. I like my meat white. I like it with the fat cut off. Actually, I don’t even like meat.

I ate the chicken feet.

Not that bad. I couldn’t pick it up with my fingers, or I would be reminded I was eating a previously alive, scratching, clucking, chicken’s scaly, padded, taloned foot. Pretty tasty, overall. 

CHINA DREAMBOAT

It's happening. I am living the dream. EEK I'm so excited. Ah I'm over the moon. I'm going to China!!!!!! Wooo woo woo. I leave in T minus 2 days. Ek Ak Woah Wha Wah Ok. It's going to be oh so so much fun. :) I intend to keep this blog up to date with all my latest adventures, pictures, errythang. I even checked blogger.com to see if it would work in China with this handy little website. You may be wondering, why are you going to China, Justine? Well, I'll tell you. I'm going to teach little Chinese babies English!

^ Like this little guy ^

 I'm going with the International Language Programs, and I'll be in the south of China, which will be nice and muggy. It's 50°F at night in January over there, which will be soooo nice, compared to the freeze-off-your-toes weather that will be happening here in Utah. 
First stop on the China dreamboat: Hong Kong!
xoxo Justine

Boy Hair!! :)

Allllllll that hair donated. Aww yeah.

I finally did it. I got boy hair. I chopped it all off, and I'm so happy. Seriously. This was the best decision I've made in a looooong time. I've been thinking about it for literally months now, and I finally got the courage to do it. I have an awesome coworker who was telling me about the time she shaved her head just for the heck of it, and I was utterly inspired. Who shaves their head for no reason? This girl. So I decided if she could shave her head, I could at least cut my hair short for now and then maybe shave it later on. I have to say, I think I'll keep it for a long time... in fact, I'm cutting it shorter in a few days, because it's too long for me now haha oh the irony.

Before

After

I am a believer of short hair now. I think everybody should cut their hair short at least once in their lives. It's so FREEEEEEEE! :) Love it.
XOXO Justine

Andy Warhol the Oracle

It's said that Andy Warhol was once caught and accused of saying, "In the future, everybody will be world famous for 15 minutes." In fact, I even bought an "Andy Warhol" purse/sack from good old TJ Maxx that had that very quote printed on the strap. It was a great bag, by the way; it had a baby banana coin pouch- in the shape of a banana (eeeee toooo cuuuuute). Anyway, point is: Andy Warhol foretold the future. We are literally seeing that happen. The Internet is this incredible ginormous world wide web (I do love a good pun) of everyone in the world. Granted, at this point you're probably thinking, "why haven't I had my 15 minutes of fame yet?" To you, I say just wait about mmm 10 years, and you'll have it. In the meantime, video record every stupid thing you've ever done (make sure to do LOTS of stupid things), post it on every means of social media you can, and consider investing in video camera implants in your forehead, so you'll always be prepared. Don't worry, little one, your 15 minutes of fame will come.
xoxo Justine

Dropping like flies

It seems like I hear of another girl from my high school getting married every week.  Literally.  I can count two in the last week.  You girls know who you are.  And this is for you:

I'll admit, this meme may not be fair for some of the girls.  They could be 19.

Of course, I'm only joking, and I'm sure they all are quite mature and happy, etc.  As for me, I am 110% happy being single.  Really.  I honestly can't see myself being married for another 4 years at the LEAST.  I wanted to make sure that this claim was indelibly floating around the internet so as to keep me to my promise.  I see no point in rushing into marriage, especially considering the fact that my maturity level is comparable to a 12 year old.  I really am happy for all of them and wish them well with their new hubbies, as I sit at home alone on Friday nights content with my cat and Netflix. Still working on getting that cat.
xx Justine

Free round-trip airfare to Japan!!!

Best news of my life: The Japan Tourism Agency has proposed offering 10,000 free flights to Japan to convince the people of the world that it is safe to visit Japan, despite the recent earthquake and radiation crisis.
I'm totally down.  They're trying to target celebrities/internet celebs to get the word out to as many people as possible.  Good thing I post frequently on my blog, which is extremely well-known (by the 2.5 readers who happen to come across it once in their lives by sheer dumb luck ;)).  Good thing I have a Twitter account.  Good thing I post regularly on Facebook and have a bajillion two hundred and three friends who all comment and read my posts.  Yeah, I'm pretty much set....  Japan or bust, baby.
P.S. In case you don't believe me, here's the actual article:
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/10/11/tourism-remedy-10000-free-flights-to-japan/
P.P.S. You actually have good reason not to believe me, because I lied about three things on this post....(see above paragraph)

Visiting Japan has always been my dream.  Actually, visiting any eastern Asian country is my dream.  I would lovelovelove to live there one day; I'm not picky about where, specifically- I just know I want to live somewhere in China, or Japan, or Taiwan, or Thailand, or South Korea (North Korea's a little sketch-sketch at the moment, in case you're spending more time than me in the musty fluorescent-lit basement of the USU library these days, which is actually where I'm writing this ha how embarrassing)

The plan is to take Mandarin Chinese next semester, so China would probably be a pretty good place to live, considering my plan.  I would love that.  A real dream of mine would be to work for the U.S. Foreign Service in China.  That would be beyond cool.

 <-- That's where I'll be going. NBD.

Can't wait for this to happen.  Sometimes, it's so hard to wait and just enjoy life now.  I just want things to be sped up by a few years, ya know?  I mean, my life is fantastic right now-- couldn't ask for much more, except maybe a good pair of winter boots.  I have nothing to complain about, but I do sometimes find myself wishing that I could skip ahead to the part of my life where I'm some big-shot, traveling the world, speaking 5 different languages, buying expensive clothes all around the globe, and eating divine delicacies from all over.  Yeah, that'll be the life. 

Of course, my life now really isn't bad at all: I am taking the most interesting classes ever (I'm completely biased) Macroeconomics 1500, Intro to International Politics 2100, Sociology 1010, Business Statistics 2300, Creative Arts 1330, and Yoga 1010 (hands down best class ever)

I'm also doing research for these professors who are presenting to Congress in D.C. and I might be going with them sometime or something... (OH MY FREAK, IS THAT NOT THE COOLEST THING EVER?!!?!?!?!?!) 

I have the best friends in the world, who are so so so much fun.  Seriously, I don't think you could have funnier, nicer, and overall better friends.  My friends have shaped me so much in helping deal with hard things in my life, strengthening my testimony of the gospel, and reminding me to have fun and loosen up.  They are positively incredible.  Really.  (I would post a picture, but I don't have one with everyone that needs to be there in it. Awkward...)

I have the most wonderful family.  CONFESSION: this maybe will sound a baby bit pathetic, but sometimes, I turn down invitations to go hang out on the weekend, just so I can play with the fam.  They're too much fun. 

Also, I'm in a bunch of clubs that make my schedule that much more hectic, but so much fun.  I'm seriously in love with life at the moment.  It's too great.  

To add to all of that, it's fall, which is my favorite in the world.  It's gorgeous outside-- even when it's raining.  And I have a crush on scarves, trench coats, pea coats, coats in general, boots, gloves (particularly, red gloves) and hats.  

I want that.

Phew! That was a really long post.  And really mostly about nothing at all.  Whatevs.

Tata! Hope your week is fabulous!

Lovelove, Justine