travel guide!

to mark the official-ness of my travel, the logical thing to do was acquire a guide and phrase book! and on a recent dinner adventure with jac and travy, i did just that.



turns out my cantonese is even worse than my french. there are 6 tones (which involve raising and lowering of pitch) which i cannot even begin to grasp. i barely understand the terms pitch or tone and i have no sense of sound or music, as lauren can attest to from our tap dance adventures. But, ive got 2 months and a 20 hour plane ride to work it out.

and as for the travel guide! it has provided me with the most exciting of adventure ideas. Ready for this? SQUID HUNTING!! thats right, squid hunting. can you imagine anything more magical? you hunt the squid and then they cook it for you to eat right on the boat! it costs 500 HKD, or about 65 USD. i intend to make multiple trips in my search for architeuthis, the mighty kraken.

other exciting adventures include: multiple temples, the goldfish market, the light show, traditional villages, and a whole lotta hot pot.

this is shaping up pretty well.

Camera Time

Departure date is looking like January 2nd or 3rd (in order to get my small, lost self from the airport to school, hkbu recommends arriving on the 3rd/4th so they can pick you up). this puts the countdown around 2 1/2 months!

So, in celebration of this I've begun researching cameras (as mine tragically was claimed by the powers of the Far Rockaways.)So options!

Canon PowerShot SX200 IS Black
12.1 MP 3.0" 230K LCD 12X Optical Zoom 28mm Wide Angle Digital Camera. But is this pop-up flash an issue?





10.1 megapixels ; Optical zoom: 12 x, but fewer manual controls than choice #1


Samsung HZ15W



12.2 MP, 24mm wide angle lens (a really great quality lens as well), 10x optical zoom


Also to consider..the battery. AA or a rechargeable. All the travel blogs say AA( it might be hard to buy your specific rechargeable on the road if battery runs out and you have no way to recharge), but I'm stuck on the rechargeable ones. Is my anti-AA feeling without merit?

Anyone else have any camera opinions or thoughts?