A month after leaving HK

So it's been a month since I left Hong Kong.

After some time you usually start realising what things you miss about the place.

Of course, the thing I miss the most is using chopsticks everywhere. I understand that not all food can be eaten with them, but after such a long time using chopsticks, it's hard to imagine life without them. They are so amazing and in many cases much easier and more comfortable to use than a fork!! =))

But luckily I bought enough of chopsticks sets and brought them with me back to Europe.

On the streets, in public transport etc every time I see Asian people, it feels so strange to only see small groups of them and not being totally surrounded by them hihi!:) And I want so badly to talk with someone (who knows and understands) about HK and how I miss that city and especially WHAT I miss about it! Sad I am too far now to meet many people who would understand me.

I know that one day, maybe in a year, after I'm done with my bachelor studies, I will definitely come back to HK and travel around other countries in Asia. After spending so much time there, I understood that the culture is rather different and sometimes hard to understand, but there were those things that I liked and don't see now in anyone here in the Western world. And I want to return there and travel to different places of Asia to find even more cultural differences and similarities, to try to understand more of them and most importantly just enjoy them ;)

So, HK... It's not over yet =)

"Dutch Love"

The semester in Hong Kong is coming to an end, classes finish already in the end of April, in May there will only be exams. Meanwhile sometime this month (maybe earlier) I came to an idea of becoming a raw-foodist. After reading thousands of Internet pages, consulting Johana and walking around the whole city in search for raw food, I am now slowly moving towards becoming a real raw-foodist, though it is extremely hard in this city. I still haven't found most of the things that I want to include in my new life style, but I am looking forward to returning to Europe where it should be easier... 

The other day I was participating in a Dutch Evening in the university, organised by local students. They invited me and another exchange girl, Louise, to help them by putting on the traditional Dutch dress (and hat!) and just being there during the event for guests to take pictures with us ^_^

We had heaps of fun while walking from one part of the University to another which partly consists of a foot bridge, where there are hundreds of people walking by. You can only imagine their looks ;))))

In the university we met our friend Sasha, to kindly took some pictures for us. The best part of it was when she saw us coming towards her. It was the best possible reaction! hahaha

As you can see, we found some orange things on the territory of the university and of course we had to pose with it:)

The whole evening was just great. I think I never took so many picture with people who I don't know and will possibly see never again... 

Oh, and I have to say... it took me awhile to understand how to put on that hat! I actually had to google it =)

The only thing we were really missing were those amazing Dutch shoes!

Cultural HK, radiation clouds and evil street lamps

So... it's been awhile since I last posted here...

Many things have happened. But I won't list it all...I'm lazy.

What I must say  is that now I am trying to concentrate on a cultural side of Hong Kong. All those famous ladies nights are great, no doubt...,but you also get tired of all this pretty fast. So what I realised is that in this city you can find so many great offers! And it doesn't necessarily have to be another drinking offer ;).
There are several websites which time after time offer free tickets to different concerts, performances etc. You just need to be quick enough to notice the offer and send an e-mail with the name, sometimes postal address. So far I was lucky:)

So a few weeks ago I went to the ballet. Last week I finally saw the 'Vagina Monologues'. This Friday I am planning to go to the Chinese Orchestra concert. Looking forward to it. Finally smth local ^_^

Oh, and I should complain about smth... Two days ago I was walking on the street with 3 other ppl. We were discussing the radiation clouds from Japan when suddenly ...I hit the street lamp!!!! Does this really happen???? I couldn't believe it happened to me in the middle of the street full of other people! Please, don't laugh at me! Poor me, haha
But actually it was really funny (and painful as well- Dr Corey knows ^_^)...
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;)

+++ and ---

This time I'll start from bad and will move on to good.

So...there are a few things I want to complain about...

First of all life in the student halls. The local people are crazy! They never sleep at night!

I wouldn't complain unless they had those posters "quiet between 24.00 and 7.00"all over the building! I can understand that this is the place where students live, but usually the loud nights are on Fridays and Saturdays, here it's every night! These students start running around the corridors and screaming after 12pm. If they stay at someone's room to play some board games, they never close the door. + they don't really talk, they scream!!! I start to wonder if they are actually able to talk with a normal voice... If they stay in a common area, they seem to forget that it has doors as well... But staying in the common area is not the most popular activity among them.

On some floors they play with the gums which shoot plastic bullets.... and when do you think they do it? Right! After 12pm!!! Of course!

One exchange student once ran out of his room to calm them down. But he wasn't very successful - all the locals ran inside their rooms and closed the doors. Like in a kindergarten, seriously! When he told them: come on, let's talk, noone came out (hehe).

Yesterday a girl came and knocked on our door around 12pm to invite us to some stupid volleyball game. And it was Wednesday evening, which means everyone has classes next day.

Why can't they do these things earlier???

Another thing which freaked me out: on the pantry the cookers don't accept my frying pans!=( It's because of the surface. It just doesn't detect it or smth like that. So now I can through them away or will have to return to the shop and exchange/return them.

OK, I let it all out, now I can concentrate on some positive things that happened here.

The other day I had a lot of fun with other exchange students while dancing with Matt (from the famous youtube videos "Where the hell is Matt?". He came to HK and gathered a huge crowd of people wanting to take part in his new video:)

So maybe my jumping head will appear in his new video in a year or so ^_^

We also asked him to make a video with only him and PolyU exchange students (we were a big crowd, fans haha). I almost fell down on that one, not mentioning that I hit the guy standing next to me, great vid!!

It's somewhere on Facebook.

So what else?

I met some Spanish speaking students. They, my local friends and I try to meet each week. Last time we went to a Mexican restaurant. Next time we'll go to the place where they have the biggest pizza in Hong Kong and we gonna order that pizza! And will also try to eat it all... We'll see what happens ;)
On this photo we tried to make a group photo, but some random people decided to join us. Soho on a Saturday night, what to say? O__o

Looks like tutoring is possible here. There are a few people interested in learning Russian and English.

Next week will show if it all works out.

There is something that I love about this city! It is actually pretty international, like I heard before coming here. You just need to know the places and the time (evenings). In central I found my favourite Chimay and soon will check out the Belgian Bar. Wow. In Hong Kong. Crazy. It has everything. Maybe one day I'll go to that Russian restaurant I saw in Central as well. Interesting to see how Russian it is, because the "Russian Borsch" which they have all over HK is actually just a tomato soup. Ridiculous!  ;)

Yesterday went to the Lunar New Year fireworks. They lasted for 23 minutes! Crazy! This were the most expensive fireworks I've ever seen in my life! I think from now on I will never again go to the fireworks in St.Pete. Why should I disappoint myself?=) I heard someone saying it costed the city 7 million Euros... 

Here's the youtube version of what was there. Captured 20 minutes out of all 23.



The day before the fireworks there was a parade. Extremely boring and  very bad organised! Between the groups sometimes there were pauses of 10 minutes or so. We left before it ended. Some of us were too hungry.

As I mentioned before, last week I was ill. So not much to say about that week. But one thing is worth mentioning. There was an event called City Hunt. There were 5 teams: mix of local and exchange students. We were given small booklets with tasks. 6 sections. Each task gives you points. If you accomplish all task from one section, it gives you extra points. My team was pretty chilled, were just enjoying our time, not trying to get the highest point... Well... and we did not=) But I enjoyed that day so much. Even though I was still rather ill. The picture on the right shows me being suspicious about that turtle jelly... Don't even ask how they make it! I personally don't wanna know! ;))

I also tried the stinky tofu! It actually tastes normal. But I don't find it anyhow special, so I don't think I will become a fan of it...
Most of those weird things we tried in the part of the city called Mong Kok. There are loads of street snacks... And you won't find hotdogs there! At least not easily ;)
When you suddenly feel as if somewhere nearby the sewerage got broken - know that you are very close to the stinky tofu! Don't be afraid to try it. That's the best part of travelling. You get to find some strange local things, food or places.

Like the one I went to yesterday after the fireworks. It is THE place to go if you are in HK!!! It is called Chungking Mansions. One of the couchsurfers went to one the local Indian restaurants many times and knew the place well. You first go inside the big arch of the building. The people, who work there lead you, because the competitors can easily drag you to their place ;). Then you walk up the stairs, where the windows are non-existent anymore - just some pieces left, reminding that some time ago they were there. The experience is amazing! You just have to be there. Then you come to the restaurant, wait till they find seats for 17 people (CSers... ;)). And OMG! They have my favourite masala tea and chicken curry and chicken masala and what not!!!! Food is just a-ma-zing! I felt like home there ;))) Mostly because of my big love to that Indian restaurant in St.Pete ;).
Today some exchange students and I are going to watch some movie in the common area of my floor, which BTW has a huge Plasma TV. Hehe, when I first saw it I was pretty shocked...;) So that's where I am going now!

Intro

I came to Hong Kong in the beginning of January.

I flew with El Al through Tel Aviv. Should say they check you very detailed! Before even giving away your bags and checking in, their people talk to you.  My trip started in St.Petersburg, Russia. There two people talked to me, asking where/what/when/why etc. And the most common question (as I found out later) was WHY I was flying to Hong Kong though Tel Aviv. (Why not???) So to keep it short, it took them one hour to find out everything what they wanted and let me check in. 

At the check in the lady was surprised with the St.Petersburg - Tel Aviv - Hong Kong thing again. And she didn't even know what to do with the bags. Meaning, if she should send them straight away to HK or I would need to take them in Tel Aviv and give to them later again. The other lady helped her with that question. Unfortunately it turned out I had to get the bags in Tel Aviv. 

I had a lot of time in Israel - from around 6 am to 9 pm. So I arranged a meeting with a local couchsurfer in the city of Tel Aviv. He was very kind to keep my bags during the day at his work place. Too bad he had to work that day and couldn't show me around the city, but he introduced me to another CS traveller, who was free. So I joined him. Will never forget how he told me about that CSer before I met him: "he is a British Airways crew attendant, but he's not gay."  :))  How nice.We took the bicycles and spent the day riding around the city. I should say, I am not that experienced in that... At some moment I got scared of riding on the road next to the cars and tried to get back to the pavement. Fail. Injured knee. A week of hobble. But anyway I enjoyed my time in this beautiful city! And especially I loved the long picturesque way along the shore. I will definitely visit that city again! Next time will try to see Jerusalem as well. 

After a day in Tel Aviv - back to the airport. They say you should come to Israeli airport not even 2 or 3 hours in advance, but 4. I arrived something around 3 hours before. It was enough. BUT! This time the security spent 2 hours talking to me and inspecting all of my bags and even myself. I can't say I hated them for keeping me for that long. I was even enjoying the process since I am studying tourism and I am specially interested in the airport security systems. Thus I took all I could out of the process. Paid attention to each detail and was always asking why they were doing this and that. I even discussed my bachelor thesis subject with one of the security women:)))) Weird me. 

After all of that - an 11 hours flight! Tiring! As I found out few days later, I set right next to some other exchange students, who study now at the same university as I do. Well, I was too exhausted to talk to anyone after 2 nights without sleep anyway...

When I arrived to Hong Kong, I followed the instructions given to all the exchange students on how to get to the student halls. First take the train to Kowloon, then - a taxi which is relatively cheap here. It is true. The taxies are cheap. But the taxi drivers can only drive me crazy! Most of them can hardly speak English and often don't know where to go. I would really suggest them equipping their cars with the GPS navigator! That helps!!! My trip with that guy ended up in a wrong place. He brought me to the university instead of the university student halls. Fortunately I met a very kind person who helped me with getting to the right place and even led me to the reception. After that - SLEEP... 

Wait! NO! When I came into my room, it turned out that there were no duvet or pillow or anything! I was not the only one surprised, because before arrival all the students got an e-mail saying we should take our own covers etc, but they forgot to mention that there would be nothing to put those covers on. So I had to go out to the city to buy all of the necessary things. Plus I also forgot to think of a different socket - had to look for an adopter as well. 

My first day here finished and I finally could go to sleep. BTW it was freezing! Unlike most European countries, where the weather can get cold, HK is not used to low temperatures, hence there are no heaters! Anywhere! 

And just by the way... it is still pretty cold here. Around 10 degrees, I think. Last week I spent being ill. One of the reasons why I got ill is the local people being crazy about the air conditioning. In most cases it is just too much! In the university classrooms it is freaking cold and windy! You HAVE to wear a scarf here all the time. Not that I mind...but still. Coming to HK I was expecting the temperature to be around 18-20 degrees. 

WHERE is that global warming everyone is talking about???:(

OK, now I will have some more tea and go to sleep. Later I will write about some things which I have already done here. Don't change the channel, hehe ;)