Lamma. With one L.

Hello Everyone!
So, this weekend, my friend Drew had what turned out to be a fantastic idea.
Let's go to Lamma Island!
Where? Exactly!
It's an island off the coast of HK. We took a ferry from central, and 25 minutes later we were on an island with no high rises, no hustle bustle, and nope, not even cars.
Basically, one lands in one of Lamma's two villages, and then follows a cement path across the island to the village on the other side. For us, this trip took several hours and involved a wonderful stop at the beach. But why tell you? I'll show you! Enjoy the pictures!

Chung Chau Fai Lok!

*Translation: Happy Mid-Autumn Festival.

So, let's start with some Background on the festival. Mid-Autumn festival celebrates the moon, and the harvest, similarly to our Thanskgiving. People light lanterns, eat mooncakes, gather with their families and watch the moon (Not so much last night because of clouds, but I did see it!). Our Chinese professor told us that many people with family overseas enjoy this holiday because when they look at the moon, and then their relatives in the UK or US or wherever look at the moon, they're looking at the same moon. Awww.

My festival fun started last Saturday when I participated in a volunteer project to deliver mooncakes to Senior citizens. A friend and I went to The New Territories, Hong Kong's suburban area, to a 'town' called Tsuen Wan, the very end of a subway line! There, we went to a seniors' centre, and were split into groups of two, one of whom would speak Cantonese. My partner and I visited two different Apartments. The woman in the first apartment was so friendly, she felt bad not to speak English, but smiled big and gave me a thumbs up when I stumbled over a few Cantonese words. The couple in the second apartment were friendly too, and so impressive! In their 70's, they bike two hours every day to the ocean! I was so lucky to have a fantastic partner who translated better than the translators at parliament-Wendy, if you're reading this, thanks so much!

Some of the seniors had mentioned a fruit called a Pomelo, which, when they were young, they would carve to make the lanterns. So, I purchased one of those, along with a lantern and a mooncake.

Minor Segway here in the middle of the week-Arabic class was set to start Tuesday, but instead we got all dressed up and went to a fancy reception hosted by the Saudi Embassy at the four seasons hotel, with important ambassadors, and even the chief-executive (governor) of Hong Kong!

Back to Chung Chau Fai lok. Wednesday, the day of the festival, my buddy Tracey ,and her Friend Francesca, took me and a few other foreign students from my hall to Victoria park to see the festivities, including a 'fire dragon', chinese acrobatics, and of course many lights and lanterns. We took my lantern (although candles were banned this year), and a few of us ate our mooncakes.

It was a great time! I'll post pictures soon, I promise!

Lay Ho!

*Translation: How are you? (Hello)
Hello Everyone!
I apologize for the delay in updating; I've been too busy enjoying Hong Kong!
Over the course of the last few weeks since I updated:
1)I visited the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens (HKZBG for short, not that it's that short anyway). Already, this is one of my favourite places in Hong Kong! The gardens are beautiful and the animals are fascinating!
2) I visited the beaches on the south side of the island: Repulse Bay and Deepwater Bay. The beaches here are absolutely amazing! The sand, the warm water, staring out at islands on the South China Sea. Life's Good!
3)The Hong Kong Museum of history, where my roommate Andrew and I got better acquainted with the history of HK.
4)Rode the Mid-Levels escalator from bottom to top. The world's longest escalator, people actually use it as a way of commuting, sort of like the Rideau Canal, I suppose?
5)Went to the Horse Races at Happy Valley. Gambling feels better when you realize that loosing thirty Hong Kong dollars is only losing 4 Canadian.

Also, I've hiked to the Peak, twice, and it's something that a friend and I are endeavouring to do daily, if possible.
Also! I've seen a fair bit of 'Canadiana' Here, and will be making a Facebook album, so check for that.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Gam Yat Ho Yit Ah!

*Translation: Today is very hot.

Y'know, I wondered why the Learn Cantonese Podcasts I listened to before coming here (which have proved invaluable, by the way!) Only taught me two types of weather:
Gam Yat Ho Yit Ah
and Gam Yat Lok Yu Ah (It's raining today).
I no longer wonder-these are the two options for weather in Hong Kong.

So what've I been doing?
Well, School, for one! Classes are going well, pretty much every class has a tutorial (A small discussion group), which is rare in Ottawa (or was in second year, at any rate). Also, very few text books to buy, which makes me happy (My most expensive was actually an Arabic book I already owned but left at home-and even that was cheap!).
I've also been exploring. I've been to the markets in Mong Kok, the big shopping centres in Tsim Sha Tsui (pronounced Chim sha Choy), Admiralty and Tai Koo, the waterfront in TST, the golden Bauhinia square, Dim Sum with my local buddy and another local friend...the list goes on!
I really like taking the MTR (Underground): it's such a novelty, since we have none in Ottawa (Or Castlegar, or Sydney, or Hali, etc.). I've also been enjoying the bakeries: as some of you know, baked goods are like crack to me, and here you can buy a slice of chocolate cake for about 2 dollars Canadian, even less for Tiramisu etc.
I've even mostly adjusted to the heat (except today, which was excessively hot, even for HK), and have endeavoured to walk home from school instead of taking the bus.

I'll post some pictures of the tourist sites I've seen in another post soon. Also, I'm going to start making posts in French on a regular basis, but these won't replace anything in English, so don't worry.

Leave comments, hope you're all well!