First Rugby game!

My first rugby game was a complete adrenaline rush. I was only in the game for the last couple minutes, but during those ten minutes I tackled two people and got tackled twice. I also assisted the ball twice and participated in the rucks where I basically had to grab on to two of my teammates (one who was in front of me and the other who was on my right) and push the other team away from the ball, so that when the ball is thrown in the middle of both teams, our team would get it. The rucks and tackling were definitely the hardest for me but after only two weeks of practice I was extremely happy with how I played and about how encouraging my teammates all were.

I did have to take a break from rugby because of my allergies to all of the pollution in Hon Kong, so I won't be playing my next game for another month or so which will be in Taiwan. :)

HKU campus: Main building and library.

I know this post is a little late but here is my "new" school. Although most of the campus doesn't really look like this because they're constructing it to look more and more modern, I am usually around this area everyday. My favorite part of the campus is basically that it's different then any other campus that I've attended or been to (On one side of the campus there is a pond and on another side there are skyscrapers). There is a lot more to the campus and once I take more pictures, I'll make sure to update this post. Oh, and pictures from my Thailand and Cambodia trip are coming soon!

Shanghai: Day 3

On my last day in Shanghai I wandered around for pretty much the entire day. I hopped onto the subway and ended up at a garden and from there I walked along the Bund. I then finally got to the Bund sight seeing tunnel where I paid 180 yuan (around twenty U.S. dollars) for a two-way ticket to the Oriental Pearl Radio & TV Tower. When I got to the top of the third tallest building in the world I remember trying to figure out why my brother, Andrew, thought it was scary and took a couple pictures. But as I walked downstairs there was another viewing floor that had see through floors! I was extremely terrified and didn't dare to step on it until someone asked me to take a picture of them (I kept telling her how extremely scared I was). I then decided to face my fears and step on the see through floor and walked straight to the railing and grabbed on, I did this knowing that if for some reason I did fall holding onto that rail was not going to help at all, but it somehow helped me relax a little. I eventually let go of the rail and walked around without being scared and I kind of didn't want to leave. The next level that we were brought to had a arcade and a roller coaster in it which was very bewildering, but I continued along onto the Shanghai Municipal History Museum. The displays were very interesting and I almost had to force myself to leave because I only had that day left to explore Shanghai. After forcing myself out, I went back to the Bund sight seeing tunnel and although I didn't explain it on my journey there that does not mean it was not interesting. I didn't really know what I was expecting but it turned out to be a very odd experience. When I entered I was guided towards a clear slow moving tram that took us through the tunnel with a huge array of lights, creepy voices, and randomness. Fast-forwarding to the end of my trip something that really stood out to me was when I was checking-out and the man who was helping me with my bags asked if my taxi was waiting outside or if he needed to call one for me and when I replied "No, thank you, I'm going to take the subway" he was immediately shocked and slowly handed me my bag. And even though it may not seem like a big deal it made me think of how lately I've been doing things that are unexpected and I will forever remember my first trip to Mainland China.

Shanghai: Days 1 and 2

The view from my hotel

         

Boat to the Shanghai's oldest river town

Silk Factory

Step: ?

Final product

 The first night in Shanghai I was a little disappointed because the girl that I had originally booked the flight and hotel with was told that she could not get a visa to go into China. So that meant that I was going to Shanghai ALONE!  My flight departed 12:30pm and by the time I arrived in Shanghai and was  at my hotel it was around 10pm. I then met up with some girls who I had never met before that were also attending HKU for dinner and walked around in thirty-eight degree weather for a couple hours (Not the best idea). The next morning I took a tour of Zhu Jia Jiao Water Village. When I signed up for the tour, I guess I thought I was in London because I imagined on being on a big red bus with a whole bunch tourists, but instead I was surprised to find it would just be my tour guide and I in a black Nissan Altima (I also thought it would be a bigger group because you could pay more for individual tours if you wanted to). But after getting over my commercialized expectations, I was excited that I was about to see the more rural part of Shanghai. When we arrived I asked the tour guide if I could take pictures of the chickens they were selling and she responded "sure, go ahead" but when I proceeded to take out my camera, I was yelled at by lady who was selling them because I wasn't going to buy anything from her. So I apologized for not wanting to buy any live chickens, and then continued along on my way. After a few minutes of walking I was surrounded by like ten ladies trying to sell me little fishes because there is apparently a Buddhist ritual of throwing these fishes off a 400 year old bridge and into the river. I however declined and got on the boat to go to the other side of the river and once I got off I  tried some odd dishes like stinky tofu, which smells horrible but doesn't taste that bad. Once we finished the driver in the Altima was ready to take us to a famous silk factory. Inside, a different lady showed me a step by step process of how silk was made and there was even people reenacting the steps for me. What surprised me most about the silk making process was that every part of larvae cocoon was used and absolutely no part of it went to waste. Once she was done explaining how silk was made I was guided into a store where absolutely everything was made of silk and even though  I had never thought of buying anything made of silk I ended buying myself a twenty dollar scarf. They did try to put a lot of pressure on me to buy a something for my Mom, so in order to get out of it, I told them "she doesn't like silk" then "she already has too much of it" and then "I'll give her my scarf when I go back home"(They probably thought I was the worst daughter ever, sorry mom).

Food II

 

 

Sushi, egg tarts, hot pot, Korean BBQ, Dim Sum, cream puffs,  Lamma Island seafood.

Happy Valley

I went to Happy Valley Racecourse with my friend Vivian because visiting was part a project was assigned (I'm such a good friend.) :) While there, I saw a couple races but since I'm not really into gambling, I, of course, didn't really have a preference on who won the race and therefore left a little early. The highlight of the racecourse was definitely the man randomly dressed up in the pink horse mask. I think watching the many middle-aged men get either extremely happy because they won or extremely angry because they lost was pretty entertaining as well.  

Lamma Island

Lamma Island is located about half an hour by ferry from downtown Hong Kong. During the time I was awake on the ferry I remember the entire ferry yelling because we went over a wave created by a much bigger boat who had passed by. Nevertheless, this somehow put me to sleep and before I knew it we had arrived at Sok Kwu Wan. When we arrived I was wearing a jacket, a beanie, and jeans expecting it to be as cold as it is in Hong Kong, but of course it was around 80 degrees and after a couple miles of hiking I was exhausted. I eventually gave in and took my beanie and jacket off. The trail on the island was very easy to follow because of the concrete sidewalk and because of all the signs pointing towards our destination. On the island, bicycles are the mode of transport and there are absolutely no cars! Besides all the beautiful scenery, not needing to worry about crossing any streets in Hong Kong was relaxing enough. There were also no skyscrapers and all buildings were low-rise. After about two hours of walking and taking breaks we had made it to Yung Shue Wan. Yung Shue Wan is  famous for it's sea food and I was not disappointed. The garlic prawns, clams, and deep-fried squid were better then any sea food I have ever had. I will definitely be back to Lamma and I am glad to know if I ever wanted to escape Hong Kong's fast-paced and crowded lifestyle for a day or two I'd have the option to. *(The names in this post can be interchanged, I actually have no idea where we started at first.) :)

WOW

As you can tell from the pictures above it was just another regular day in Hong Kong (or not! ). These pictures are actually from the World of WearableArt (WOW) performance. I guess this was the first time they performed outside New Zealand. The show itself was "A unique fusion of art, fashion and theatre, where hundreds of performers don magnificent artworks created by designers from around the world in a spectacular of dance, music and light." I doubt I could have explained it better, but sorry for the quoting. It was absolutely amazing and unlike anything I had ever seen! As you can tell they didn't allow us to take pictures during the show and the only photo I was allowed to take was once it had ended (Probably not too hard to tell which one I took!). The show consisted of people dressed up in extremely weird outfits shaped like hamburgers, cars, and french toast. The woman dressed up as a horse reminded me of my dad and Ali, an example of one of the many random things that remind me of my family. I think my favorite was outfit was the Funky Fungi, but it may be just because he was shuffling ;). And I know this is not going to make much sense but my favorite part was when the glow- in-the-dark stick figures starting dancing. But before I confuse you all even more, in sum, it was a great experience! I honestly thank my late grandmother for introducing me not only to performance art but to everything else because without her, I don't know if I would be able to truly appreciate these types of experiences.  

Hong Kong

Coming to Hong Kong I had no idea how big Hong Kong actually is. There is so much to do and see here even if I'm not in Mainland China. Just in case people are curious, I live on Hong Kong Island. On the map above ^ I am a little below Victoria Peak. Since Hong Kong is separated from Mainland China   it is easy for me to see the differences between the two. My friend, Vivian, has even told me that the tension between people from Mainland China and people from Hong Kong continues to grow. I can also tell that citizens of Hong Kong take a sense of pride in the way that they carry themselves and the freedoms they have. Yet more and more freedoms continue to be taken away from them since the British government ended their rule of Hong Kong. Hong Kong is also criticized for it's lack of culture, but I feel like I came during the best year because it is the year of the Dragon and almost everything has some kind of Chinese New Year decoration. Yet, I do feel like I am in a very Westernized city when I see all of the malls and fancy restuarants, especially in Central. Overall, I still think there is a lot of diversity and I am really glad I am here!

A closer view of Hong Kong Island. I live where the arrow is pointing to on 7 Sassoon Road.