Jess visits ASIA

Jess is loving law school. Sure he's got tons more kids then the average none that his classmates have.  And sure he's got ADD and his mind is ridiculously busy all the time and has an extremely hard time focusing it to read bajillions of books every night.  BUT--he's amazing and still somehow finds time to spend time with us.  He's awesome.

He was picked as part of a small exclusive team he called VIS 

(Willem Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot to be precise)

From the sound of it, their competitions were similar to debate teams.  They'd get an issue, and as a team of 2 debate another schools team and both would be judged for their performance and material presented and law cited and what not....(I'm kind of guessing here...I've never seen it but it seems? like it was like this???)

He had competitions at school, one in California, and one it, WHAT? HONG KONG! 

Now, for anyone who knows Jess, he's not exactly a jabber-mouth, but here are some fun things that I was able to get out of him.  (chatting with him and then furiously typing to get the gist of it :)

The team, plus a couple of parents who came along (10 people) stayed in one tiny apartment.  Their days consisted of competing until about 2:00 each day.  Jess felt pretty good about his rounds.  He said the competition was fun.  And that he learned a bunch about the types of things he might really see in that field (which is his favorite at the moment--International commercial arbitration---How to really help companies with arbitration disputes and what not.

After the competition each day they were able to go site-seeing!  

He saw some really interesting rural communities but his favorite place was visiting the giant Buddha. 

 "It was at the top of a giant hill and we got to see lots of rain forest-y type jungle."  

The surrounding area was a group of monasteries.  It had such a reverent and holy feel in the monasteries.   It was fun to walk around and see the care they had taken for the gardens and see the mist rolling through the valley.  The atmosphere couldn't have been better.

While there, Jess paid an old lady the equivalent of .50 and got to pick a stick out of a big bundle of sticks-it matches with  a fortune in this giant book.

This was his:

They rode a gondola that had a glass bottom that was 'pretty neat'.  

(Julie and Emily--do you hate the idea of this sooo much?)

Jess said that the most shocking thing to him was: "The density of the people!  I was really anxious the entire time. Everywhere I went someone was touching me.  So many people." And seriously! Look at this picture! Even if there was no one on that entire street, with all those signs and advertisements everywhere I might have gone crazy!  Wowza!

He LOVED the horse races. "It was a drizzly night.  They have a big huge ornate track right in the middle of Hong Kong. The horse races are a big important business event for Hong Kong. People go there to talk shop and make deals.  We stood right up against the fence and watched. It was fun to see them go past so close."  

"I lost $2 betting on a horse"

Monkey Mountain: "Poop everywhere and the monkeys were super mean."

Jess and the other guys were fitted for suits at a little custom shop out there. He got to pick out EVERYTHING.  The lining, stitching, outer materials.  His was a subdued blue and green plaid suit--I love it !  It was super cheap comparatively.  This is what he had to say about it: "My friends at Andover Tailors (Paul and Mohammed) did a great job of making me feel like I was the most important customer in the world. :)  It was lots of fun."

 They tried lots of interesting foods.  This is something he had for breakfast one morning (gag) that he said was actually pretty good:

His favorite food though was a chicken dish that he at in a little fishing village.  They got there by taking, "the worst bus ride in the world" (through the mountains in the fog in such a turn-y road that they were nauseated quite a bit by the sounds of it) and walked into a restaurant in the middle of the lunch rush and were surrounded by locals.

 

Jess picked something that he saw someone else eating, and said it was delicious! 

Best choice ever: Upgrading to a larger seat for the 14 hour flight home!

The end.