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 :)

Exchange Students' Farewell Dinner

22.04.10, Thanks Laurent for taking the pic

It's becoming more and more real.  As more and more friends leave Hong Kong, reality begins to hit and yes... exchange is almost over...

A couple of my friends organized a farewell dinner for a bunch of exchange students that we have met (and stayed in contact with) during the past 4 months.  If you thought Chinese people were loud, having 30+ English speaking friends in the corner of a Chinese restaurant is something else... haha.

(left) In front of Patrick Manson, oh how I will not miss living there. (right) Making fun of my fobbiness...

Canadians doing the moose and the beaver... haha

Had some really delicious food at this Shanghai restaurant, all for about $120HKD ($16CAD)!

Above is this "tofu pocket" dish - tofu stuffed with cabbage.  Had to order this one day in advance!

After dinner we just chilled in the area, loitered around and went to admire the Hong Kong skyline, even though many of the buildings turned off their lights by that time.  Still nice to reminisce about the good times we've had so far :)

Food buddies... thanks for getting fat with me... haha

Alter egos:  Agnes, Amy, Anita... :)

Taken on the way down an escalator.. lol!

 Near Avenue of Stars, TST

We stayed out until 2am and it was kinda hard to find a way home, especially when not all the taxis go across to Hong Kong Island where we all live.  We've heard of a 24-hour minibus from Mong Kok which is supposed to be one of the craziest minibus routes in Hong Kong (someone read it from somewhere, very reliable ya?  Unfortunately in this aspect the ride was a complete letdown - it takes the same route I take every week to MK haha.).  Ended up taking a taxi to Mong Kok and found the bus stop with a huge line, even at 2am.  Our party pretty much filled the whole minibus and the driver had to tell us to be quiet... haha!  We all got home safely in the end in our fancy clothes and sore feet :)

Really really REALLY going to miss everyone here.  I met so many awesome people and it's just unreal that we'll be leaving in a few weeks and may never see each other again.  I really think that the best part of this exchange was all the friendships that I've made... sigh... Reunion in 3 years right guys?  :)

Birthday in HK

Yes today is/was my birthday!  Had a nice small celebration with people, not a big deal anyway :)

Had lunch at Spaghetti House with my relatives.  So much food...  BBQ ribs, seafood angel hair pasta, smoked salmon salad, veggie/lobster soup with baked pastry top, pizza... yum!

Then met up with my roommate and she secretly bought a cake for me WHILE I was there!  I always thought I was good at finding out surprises.... dang :P  Met up with 2 other friends for dinner and after wandering for a long time we decided to go to Pizza Hut.  Pizza Hut is pretty crazy in HK.  Tons of selections for appetizers, pastas and pizzas.  They had escargot on mashed potatoes as an appetizer, and pizzas with a mushroom sauce base, curry base, and thousand island base!  For dessert they had a chocolate pizza... I think it was a pizza crust but with chocolate spread in the middle topped with M&Ms and other chocolate candies.  Death for me...

We ended up ordering a meaty mashed potato appetizer (looked so good on the menu, turned out being so small...), the Bollywood Delight pizza (eggplant, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, pineapple & corn), and the creamy chicken mushrooms angel hair pasta.  Everything was pretty good, except that the menu was kinda deceiving and everything looked bigger than it was.  However when we tried to eat the cake in the restaurant they informed us that we have to pay $50 extra to do that!  Ridiculous.... so in the end we just went to the mall across the street and ate the cake in the food court surrounded by really amazing smelling food =)

Us taking a pic before repacking the cake -_-

Thanks to my awesome roommate Soyeon for the beautiful cake!! (repacked at this point :P)

With a touch of Korean :P

And of course, you can't end the night without some Hui Lau Shan!!  Best Mango (& coconut) drinks EVER and for pretty cheap (even cheaper if you buy 2 at once), and make sure you get a rewards card - buy 6 and get 1 free!

UWaterloo Exchange Process

6 days left? I haven't even unpacked from Ottawa yet...

Just wanted to write a post on the Engineering exchange process at the University of Waterloo (for future exchangees).   The process was actually quite easy and painless, here were the general steps you have to take if you are thinking of going on exchange:

1. Book an appointment with Cindy Howe (exchange co-ordinator in the Engineering Undergrad office) 2 academic terms before your exchange (if you're going in 3B, talk to her during 2B or earlier)
2. Figure out what country you want to go to, check out the Engineering Exchange site for info such as where students have gone, what courses they took, semester schedules, etc.
3. Make sure your average is about 70-75% for the 2 terms previous to your exchange term
4. Figure out your academic plan (if the exchange term fits into your current plan, or you have to move around co-op or stay back a year)
5. Go to the Exchange site and fill out the UW Application form and hand it in during the academic term before you leave (Chat with Cindy and she'll direct you).  You'll also have to hand in the Student Exchange Scholarships Form
6. Get all signatures needed for the application (CECS, PDEng, Undergrad Chair)
7. Find courses that are equivalent to what you're supposed to take in UW during your exchange term, get them approved by the Associate Chair in your program.  They seem pretty relaxed about this though, as in, they're flexible about moving courses around and trying to make things fit so you can go on exchange.
8. Get UW Application form approved by Cindy and the Director of Exchange for your country (and will get approved by the Dean)
9. You will receive instructions for the application form for the host university in your email.  Hand in everything they tell you to (application, scan of passport, application for visa, rez etc)
10. Buy your plane tickets!
11. You'll receive a reply/admission package from the host university about a month before your term starts.  They'll send it to Waterloo and you can either pick it up or they'll send it to you.

I'm not sure if the process is the same for going to other countries but it should be pretty similar.  I actually bought my plane tickets before I got the acceptance package from HKU so I was a little concerned that I would get rejected, but the people at UW reassured me that there's no reason for them to reject my application.  That was probably the most stressful part of the process, not knowing if I was 100% in or not.  Other than that, the forms weren't very hard to fill out and there was always enough time to get everything done - just don't leave it to the last minute!

Why HK?

Some of you may be wondering why I chose Hong Kong to go on exchange.  I mean, I could have chosen France, Switzerland, Singapore (like many others :P), why Hong Kong when I've been there before (and was born there)?

Three main reasons starting with F for fun:

1. Family - I have a bunch of family over in HK namely my grandparents.  I doubt I'll have much of a chance in the future to visit them so I really have to take my opportunites and spend time with them when I can.
   
2. Fluency - If you know me at all, my Cantonese SUCKS.  Like a vacuum.  So I'm trying to take this time to make my Cantonese skills awesome (and maybe some Mandarin too, I'm hoping to take a Mandarin course for "foreign students" :)
   
3. Future - After school finishes, it's unlikely that I can stay in Hong Kong for more than 1-2 months (especially if I start working).  I really want to experience living in Hong Kong and the culture for a longer period of time.  I also want to know if I would like living there, like live there.  You never know what could happen... keep options open?
   
4. Food? - Yes, HK food is awesome =)
   

Pretty excited, it'll definitely be a good experience and hopefully I can take lots away from it :)  Packing right now, leaving Ottawa in about 3 hours!  Eek!

It begins!

After planning and setting up this blog for a month it's finally up and running! I'm assuming you all know me but as a quick intro, I'm a 3rd year Systems Design student from the University of Waterloo who will be studying at the University of Hong Kong for five months starting in January.  I'll be leaving for Hong Kong from Toronto on December 29 and staying there until May 25th.

The top banner is a vector image I found (via Google) of the Hong Kong skyline.  The hardest part of preparing this blog though was choosing a name. Didn't really want a generic name like "Adventures in Hong Kong", needed something a lil more creative :)  I asked around a bit for some ideas and got a whole slew of names and so, after much consideration I decided to choose Jeff's suggestion of "Hungry for HK". Check out Jeff's blog on his co-op term in New Zealand!

Why did I choose "Hungry for HK"?  Two reasons - one is that obviously I love food and I love to eat, as you can tell from my other food related blogs. You can also take "hungry" as another meaning which is my second reason - I'm hungry to learn more about Hong Kong, explore every little part of it and find all its hidden gems :)

I loved all the other blog name suggestions though!  Some of those were:

• Other side of the world
• Janice Choi and Her Adventures Abroad
• Adventures in the Motherland
• 30000 Miles Across the Sea
• The Adventures of Janice Choi: Chapter X - Hong Kong!
• JC INVADES HK!
• FOB ^-1
• janice24@hk.com
• Ming is a noob. (My fav)
• Queen Kong
• Hong Kong 2: This Time it's Personal
• From China With Love
  

Just 2 weeks left, less than one week left in Ottawa and one crazy week back in Toronto to go!