Looking back...

Can't believe this 5 month adventure has come to an end.  Can't believe I'm back in Canada, it kind of feels like I've never left but there's this unfamiliar feeling to this place. 

It's hard to sum up the last 5 months.  The first few weeks were pretty tough; it was hard for me to adjust to the new environment, new transportation and just not knowing anyone.  I remember going to Queen Mary Hospital and eating dinner by myself every night for a week... it was rather lonely.

Things picked up though.  After the first week we had an organized tour around HK and I got to meet tons of people there - my first Waterloo friend Karen, my first photographer friend Wei Png, the first guy I met from their to-be-boy-band Christian.  Soon after we had Karen's birthday dinner where I met fellow food enthusiasts John and Danny where we exploded over food topics during dinner.

I also remember during the first month, I explored quite a bit by myself.  I would take the minibus randomly to Central or Causeway Bay (because I didn't know how to call out the stops or tell where I was) and my adventure would be to find a bus that would bring me home.  Now if you ask me I can name TONS of buses and bus stops that can bring me home from both places, but during that month I would literally walk almost all the way home before I found a familiar bus.  Fun for the first 2 hours but tiring and frustrating by the 3rd... haha.

Chinese New Year in HK was a really good experience.  The atmosphere is really exciting and there`s lots of things to see like the parade, the huge night market and of course crazy fireworks!  It was nice to spend it with my family in Hong Kong. :)

Can't forget our Thailand trip... got to get to know people alot better and had lots of fun too!  Rode an elephant, banana boating, parasailing, 2 hour massage, insane eating.  Also got to venture off on our own during the last day and took a boat ride with the locals to the main city, saw the Grand Palace and some other main attractions.  Interestingly that day was the first day of those Thailand protests and we had no idea... glad we got home safe and sound :P

Also can't forget my Taiwan trip with Soyeon and Wendy.  Insanely fun, insanely packed itinerary, hotsprings, teahouses and tons of amazing food and scenery.  By the last night our feet hurt so much from walking that they were actually numb, we were limping back to our hostel and it took about 20 mins of lying on our beds for us to feel our feet again.  Pretty brutal but so worth it... it was such a memorable trip!

March and April were littered with shopping trips, trying to find boots, eating tons of froyo, bubble tea at Gong Cha, and just eating eating eating.  I think in March, Wendy and I was just breathing shopping and BBT during every minute of spare time.  It was intense I tell ya =P

Also just remembered volunteering at Worship Central with Jacq, The Ageless Melody CD release at The Vine and just going to The Vine Church in general.  I had such an amazing time there and it was really eye opening.  Can't wait to go back =)

Oh and at school, I took squash lessons which was apparently difficult with my short pinky, aerobics class which was super fun (think dance & exercise!), and was an English tutor for a couple kids at King's College.  Good experience overall, the boys were pretty funny :P

Although April got really busy with exams, the huge gang still got to go out to eat some good food (thanks Openrice!) and have a couple adventures.  We had an epic "final" exchange students dinner with over 30 people and we called every dinner and outing our "last" after that lol.  The most adventures came after exams though... We went to 3 or 4 destinations per day to make the most of our remaining time in HK.  We ate awesome things like High Tea at the Mandarin Oriental hotel ($50CAD for 2!), went hiking at Time Magazine's best urban hike in Asia (Dragon's Back) and chilled at some beautiful beaches.  Oh and can't forget the multiple times we had epic Mcdonalds Delivery, especially with Louise at 5am in front of the Library =D


Some other random memories:  First meeting CK and Danny during the Infernal Affairs photoshoot, Kathy and froyo/food adventures, Carmen and Chinese class, Fiona, Laura, Jenny and all the girls in our lil Monday prayer group, Connie and Louise aka Amy and Anita the A-team, 11 hours (minus 2) of Kareoke with the girls on the 2nd floor, constant attempts to go 3am dim sum with Swee Lee and Karen, Milktop ice cream obsessions - especially sesame, milk, cookies and hazelnut flavours *drool*, awesome Marketing group and our awesome presentation, and honestly the list keeps going on...

I never thought I would meet such amazing people and have such an amazing time in HK.  In the beginning I thought I would have a terrible time, with all the rude people, polluted air and stuffy humid weather, but in the end it was more than I could ask for.  I feel like I've learned alot from my time here, my Chinese reading improved (unfortunately not so much my speaking) and even my tolerance for bugs rose! =P  Glad the Internet makes it easy for us to keep in touch, just hoping that we will all see each other again soon =)

Side note: I'll probably be publishing a couple more posts on some thoughts I still have on HK.. hopefully soon!  And... even if I didn't give you a shoutout I'm still thinking of you :)