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!

Time for a few pictures? I think so!

Hey everybody!
So, I've finally adjusted to Hong Kong I think. I'm back to sleeping my usual hours, eating three meals a day, and exploring the city. Even the heat seems to bother me a little less.
I figure that this is probably a good opportunity to include some of the things that I've learned or noticed since I've been here in HK.
1)You can use a spoon to eat rice, but you should use chopsticks to put the food onto the spoon. Also, one should eat the rice with the accompanying meat etc., not as separate dishes
2) Not even the local people drink the tap-water without boiling it. Water can actually be ordered steaming hot at restaurants, and bottled water is sold with the distillation temperature on it.
3)One should stand on the right side of the escalator, and leave the left side for walking down. Also, the MTR (underground) escalators are the fastest I've ever seen.
4)Octopus cards are the most ingenious payment method I think I've ever seen. It's a little card used to pay for small purchases and public transit, but all you have to do is tap it to the reader. Best part? You don't even have to take it out of a bag/wallet to use it, just tap whatever the card is in to the reader
5)Rain storms in Hong Kong are insane!
6)A meal at a fast food restaurant is called a 'set', not a 'combo', and the latter will just confuse the staff.

And now, how about a few pictures of my escapades?
Here we have: The View outside my window; the first Chinese meal I ate in Hong Kong,The Castle I live in, and the route that we took on the plane. If you look closely, you'll notice that it goes right over the North Pole!We also have: The A temple we found in the SoHo neighbourhood; The Mid-Levels escalator, which connects some hillsides in the city; The cascading water caused by the massive rainstorm we got caught in; The first of several Geckos I've found in my room; and, last but not least, Bamboo scaffolding, which is all I've seen here thus far!
Hope everyone is well!

First Post!

Hello Everyone!

Well, it's been a busy few days, but I've finally found the chance come online and update a blog with what's been going on over here in HK. There've been a lot of adjustments to make, most of which are, of course, still in the making. I arrived a little more than 48 hours ago already.

Basically, I arrived here after a 15 hour flight from JFK. I was actually awake in Halifax around 3:30 AM local time, and then had to connect in New York. By the time I landed at the airport, I had been up for exactly 24 hours, having only slept a little bit on the plane. Surprisingly enough, I actually didn't go right to bed. Rather, I went and introduced myself to a few other foreign students, and went to the mall with one of them.

Yesterday, I met up with a local buddy assigned to me by the university. She and I went to the campus so that I could register, then we went to an area called Causeway Bay, where I bought a local cell-phone, and then again I went to the mall and went to bed.

By far, the biggest adjustment so far, and the one that's probably going to continue for the longest, is the temperature. HK is not only very hot, but quite humid. On the plus side, the climate being so different than that of Canada makes for a lot of interesting flora and fauna. There is bamboo growing outside my residence, and yesterday a gecko ran into my room, so there's an experience in and of itself.

Another big adjustment is the time change: 13 Hours ahead of Nova Scotia. Currently, I'm about half-way through, going to bed around 8 or 9 PM and waking up around 5 or 6 am. As my friends and family all know, this is not near my usual routine, which is usually closer to sleeping at midnight and waking at 10. Hopefully, though, I'll have my sleeping pattern a little better adjusted within the next couple of days.

Well, I think I'll do more updating later. Hope everyone is well!