Things I'll Miss About HK (Part 1 - Caf Food)

I can't believe I'm leaving in less than 2 weeks. Everyday as I try to study for my exams I'm constantly distracted by things I want to eat, things I still want to see and do and thinking about all the friends I've made and how much I'll miss them.  To painfully remind me of these things, here's a blogging series on things I'll miss about Hong Kong where I can reminisce on the best parts of this exchange :)

One thing that I'll really miss is the cafeteria/canteen food. You heard me right. Yes I do get sick of it after a while but some of this canteen food is better than what you can get at home (at least Waterloo or maybe Ottawa :P). Here are some of the regulars that I'll miss sooo much:

The $10.50HKD lunch special. Comes out to about $1.40CAD, you get a bowl of sauce with some type of meat and some type of veggie with a big scoop of rice (different every day). I look forward to this all the time, sometimes I go late to class on purpose so I can eat this, lol. I really like saucy foods :P Some of the combos that I can recall are - tomato with beef and potato, cream with chicken, tomato-y sauce with pumpkin and beef, Portuguese sauce with chicken/beef, etc. Yum =)

Fried fish fillet tea time set, with sausage, toast, tartar sauce and a choice of soup macaroni. My favourite is the soup macaroni with tomato/minced meat sauce. About $20HKD or $2.50CAD. Always look forward to this around 3pm =)

Baked pork chop rice. Huge slab (or 2) of pork chop covered in tomato sauce, tomatoes and pineapple. My favorite comfort food... hehe. About $30HKD or $4CAD.

Sigh.. this blogging series is going to make me so depressed!

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?  :)

Exam Taking @ HKU

Just had my first 2 exams here at HKU. Thought I would totally bomb them but turned out okay thank God! :)

Most exams are taken in the two gyms similar to PAC in Waterloo.  The difference is that everyone is assigned a seat, which you can check in your student account online ahead of time.  They also have a list posted on the wall outside of the exam room.  I feel like exam taking is more structured and strict here - they actually have everyone's student number and seat number printed out and they compare it with your student ID card.  They also get really anal about you finding your seat number, I came into an exam 1 minute late and thought I knew the seat number but the whole row was empty, and when I went back out to check they spoke really rudely at me commenting on how I didn't check.  Hong Kong culture...

If you can see in the left picture, there's actually a person/instructor standing on the platform watching everyone during the exam.  They give them a really interesting name on the name card, something very official sounding but I can't remember at the moment lol.  There's also huge LED boards showing the time which actually really helps.  Hate it when I sit in a spot where I can't see the clock in Waterloo (especially in the SYDE room)!

Got more posts coming up, just trying to find time to write them.  There also seems to be a (flying) termite problem in my building... they keep flying, crashing, taking off their wings and running around places... and swarming.  There's also tons of them just dead on the ground/in the sink/in the shower.  Help.  :'(

For now I will leave you with a snapshot of a beautiful purple sky that I saw after one of my exams :)

Exams in Full Swing!

My first exam is in a couple days so I've been cramming for the past little while.  Necessary even if you're on exchange, especially when you haven't done much work throughout the term :P  Today's the second day of doing full day in the library (ie. 10am - 11pm).  Wanted to do a day-in-the-life-of post, I tried to make it as interesting as possible considering that I was in the library all day =P

KOI POND!!

Good morning - went to school, dropped off stuff at the library to save spots and then went for breakfast.  Surprisingly, if you get to the library after 10am ALL the seats are taken - not kidding.  Some people just leave one piece of paper or one book to save spots, it's kind of ridiculous.

 Breakfast of Congee and "Ja Leung" =D

 Yes I have embraced the fobiness of HK and got fob glasses.... o dear.

Had a doctor's appointment today because of spraining my ankle when we went hiking a week ago.  Still swollen =( May take 3 weeks to heal but doctor said progress seems good so far!

Stopping at Park N Shop (supermarket/convenience store) for some water.

Back to the library~ Jokes... somehow we all bought the same water bottles at different occasions :P

 4 hours later - "Tea Time".  All the canteens have tea time (as do the rest of the restaurants in Hong Kong) which is around 2:30pm - 5:30pm.  Cheap small tea sets.. yum.  Got my favourite tea set - fried fish filet.  Comes with a sausage, toast and soup noodles.  Also got an extra pork chop bun on the side :P

Back to studying... 2 hours later... Starbucks break! haha.

We get 40% discount (or so?) at the school Starbucks.  My "usual" venti Java Chip Frappucino... well 2nd day in a row =/  I'm totally breaking my no caffeine streak of 3 years...The food at Starbucks is quite good, I've had items like spinach ricotta pie, chicken/mushroom pie, various domes (bread with filling). So goood.

Leaving the library for dinner at another canteen.  I wasn't even hungry so I didn't eat.

 Walking home from the bus stop is always a risk... haha

Decided to head to the other library near home after that.  Have to take a 5 min very-fast-minibus to get home, or a 20 min slight uphill walk.

lolol.  Stayed for about 30 min (fell asleep) and decided to go home :(

 
Got hungry so I ordered KFC delivery.  Wanted to try their new "pizza pocket" OMG, worst thing ever, I wanted to hurl :(  It was a crispy chicken breast with sauce, corn and pineapple on top wrapped in a tortilla.  :( Did not want.


Going to head to sleep now, I feel slightly sick from all the caffeine I've been taking :P Hoping for a more productive day tmr!

 

PS.  This is what happens from boredom in the library (this was yesterday...)  I got a free Dragonball Z toy from Mcdonalds :P  If you don't get the joke, see explanation here...