Saturday Night

I slept at 7am this morning.

The last day of finals was yesterday and the EE kid finished their math150 exam in the afternoon.  We met up at McDonalds to mess around for a while and then Mav, Alex, Tony, and I headed to the halls to help pack.  Tony's hall was surprisingly small.  Its about half the size of the room in HallIV with two people living in it... The beds were bunked and the desks were next to each other.  I thought that I could live in a small space, but that was really too small even for me for two ppl.  After we headed towards Alex's hall and I promptly KOed on the bed while Alex packed for home.  By then it was close to 7 and we headed towards the atrium to meet with yp and todd.  We went to Hon Wo in MK for krn bbq.  At MK we met up with Tai Hung who i have not seen regularly for the past three months.  Everybody was just so much happier now that exams and the semester was over.    

The beef was delicious.  Mav and I went insane eating the beef.  We ate so much.  Afterwards, I still had two bowls of chocolate ice cream and a bowl of dau fu fa... Damn nice.

We took some retarded pictures in the streets of MK.  Afterwards we wandered around for a bit and then decided to head towards TST to hang around Victoria Harbor.  We bought some beer at the 7/11 nearby and went to sit down.  I bought this drink called Diamond Black which was a black currant wine cooler.  It tasted exactly like carbonated Ribena! =D

We loitered there for a good two hours until it was about 2:30.  Then we went back to MK and Mav took the minibus home.  We decided to walk Tai Hung back to Cheung Sha Wan.  By the time we got there it was about 5am.  We sat down and a cha chan tang to eat some stuff.  I was still damn full from the night before but the noodles looked really good.

We didn't get back home until 7am upon which I promptly KOed and slept until 12. 

After getting up, spent some time getting oriented and then headed off to eat lunch.  I was originally going to go to McDonalds and eat something random but somehow I ended up on the minibus to Sai Kung.  I walked around for a bit and didn't see anything on the afternoon tea menus that looked all that great.  I was about to give up and head back to the place where I always get breakfast when I walked past the most amazing place on earth.  It was a bakery and they had fresh pinapple bun.  It was straight from the oven.  I thought that nothing could beat the bakery at school at 8am but I was clearly wrong.  This bakery puts every other bakery that makes pineapple bun to shame!  It was SO GOOD.  I burned my hand on it twice because it was so hot... and because I ate two... and then I bought a portugese tart which was also fresh out of the oven and burned my entire mouth.  It was so good. Omg. 

They had some events going on in the town center today.  There was some tai chi and dance performances along with some booths for kids to play at.  I took the 792m back to school and am going out for dinner in a bit.  

Tai Po Adventures

Went to Tai Po today to visit the Kadoorie Farm and Botanical Gardens.  I actually woke up quite late and had a late breakfast at LG1 with Kurt and his friend.  Didn't leave school until past noon though.  I took the MTR to Tai Po Market and then 64K towards Yuen Long West.  I wasn't really sure where to get off and I passed this little place that seemed to be interesting.  I hopped off the bus at the next stop and walked back.  It turns out that is where the Wishing Tree is.   Some old lady came up to me and asked me if I wanted to write down my wishes and pray and what.  At first I said no cos I didn't want to buy the paper but then I figured it was only $5hkd each and I may as well have some fun with it.  It wasn't until after I bought the paper and wrote down my wishes that the lady told me I had to buy the insense to go with it which was $60hkd each... So handing her $120hkd, I followed her as she showed me how to do the prayer.  She then had another lady do the second one and told me to tip her.  I handed the lady another $20.  These wishes better come true.  I just paid $20USD for it lol.  

Afterwards, I realized that I had not yet gone far enough to reach the Kadoorie farm so I hopped back on the bus and kept going.  I actually missed the stop but I figured the stops before that were quite close together so I would be able to walk back from the next stop.  It turns out that the next stop damn far away at the bottom of the windy hill.  I somehow made it back up alive and paid my $10hkd to get into the farm.  There were reptiles, birds, and lots of plants there.  I was much surprised to see Davin and his roommate there as well. I mean, of all places to see somebody, you would not expect it to be on a mountain, in a park, in between Tai Po and Yuen Long.  

There was an aviary with alot of Black Kites and various species of owls.  Most were injured somehow and rehabilitated here.  They are permanent residents of the aviary because they are not able to be reintroduced to the wild.  

We tried to walk to the top where there was a Kun Yum temple but we did not make it there before the park closed.  The park was alot bigger than I expected it to be and there were alot of small trails to the side with gorgeous scenery.  Mosquitoes were killer though.

Took the 64k back to Tai Po Market MTR and then headed towards Mong Kok for a night of shopping... bought three pairs of shoes -___-" and lots of gifts for people at home. My hand hurt from carrying stuff back to hall. 

Packed as much as I could into a suitcase.  Will have to bring this home to Tai Koo and switch it out for an empty luggage.  Its going to be interesting.... 

Poooo

The elec kiddies have to study today and have exam tmrw.

As a result, I'm left alone to wander HK.

Normally I would have been fine with this.  I love exploring on my own.  But somehow, I feel like I need to be with people now.  I don't like the thought of going off by myself.

Choi Hung to donate clothing and then off to an unknown place! =D

Dragonboat!

Got up damn early this morning and headed out to Sha Tin to meet Maverick.  I had some random bread things for breakfast.  There weren't that many people at 9 but it started getting really croweded by 10.  UST had a few teams there but nobody responded to our UST cheers.  -__-"

  There was a park at the top of the mall and we were being retarded for a while.  There is also a Snoopy World right outside the mall.  Went to have dim sum nearby in the Sha Tin town center and then walked around the mall for a while.  Its interesting to see what other people usually order during dim sum.  My family usually eats the same few things when we go.  Mav ordered fried shrimp wonton and err a chinese pizza like thing.  It was sweet and damn nice.  We also ordered the rice thing for the festival today but he made me eat it all b/c he doesn't like rice. -__-"

After that we called up YP and headed over to MK to meet her.  We hung around Happy Lemon for a damn long time and loitered in Argyle Center.  After that we went to find some street food.  I had stinky tofu, cheese sausage, a damn big cup of bubble tea, and some uhh custard/red bean things.  I love mk food.  Its the greatest stuff ever.  The cheese sausage was deep fried. Omg so good.  

After that, we spotted a giant Lucozade bottle.  It was for a promotion that they were doing around MK earlier that day.  They were giving out free drinks and what.  They had run out by the time we saw them but we followed the giant bottle back to the truck it came from.  We were in awe at the Lucozade truck and took a billion of pictures.  The driver of the truck thought we were probably INSANE.  He kept giving us this funny look and we kept laughing our asses off every time he looked at us.  After about 15 minutes of loitering around his truck we gathered up the courage to ask him to take a picture with us.  For some reason, Mav and I pretended that we were both from the US.  I spoke to the driver in canto and Mav spoke in english.  I'm pretty sure the poor guy thinks US kids are retarded now.  Which is partially true.  But it resulted in us getting this awesome picture.  

When we don't have exams....

Yesterday: Sai Kung for bfast. Went to the same place that I had bfast before wargames last month. Got the ham sandwich with oatmeal and amazing milk tea.  There was so much food I actually couldn't finish it.  I walked around Sai Kung for a short period and then took 792M to TKO.  I never really walked arount tseung kwun o before but I guess I wasn't missing out on much.  There wasn't much there and I ended up taking 792M back to school.  By then it was afternoon and I didn't really have any other plans.  I spent the afternoon and evening in Barn A with Kiwing and Alex.  My original plan was to do my chinese workbook but I ended up watching Origins of Wolverine instead.  The movie was okay, not great but it was the much needed filler for the story line.  Kurt and I were going to go out after dinner but we ended up hanging out at LG1 w/ Alex and YP until 9pm and decided to head to bed early and go out early the next day.

Today: Got up at 8am and met up with Kurt by 8:30 to go out.  We took the mini bus to Choi Hung and I brought him to the dai pai dong to eat.  We had sui mai and cha sui churng fun.  Deliciousness.  

After that, we took the MTR to the brown line all the way down to the end at Wu Kai Sha.  From there, we started to walk up the brown line.  Ma On Shan has this really pretty pier that we hung out at for a good 20 minutes.  We saw this old guy catch a mini fish.  It was pretty funny cos he turned to us and goes "BIG FISH!" 

There were people swimming really far out in the ocean.  It was quite cool to seem them all out there.  We reluctantly continued on our journey and walked thru MOS town center.  They have a freaking water park.  It looks super cool but it was closed :(.  I bought a steaming hot dan tat and we continued on our way.  Kurt got a kick out of the bicycle roundabout so we took some pictures with it.  Apparently Mav lives right next to it!

We walked to Shek Mun then got distracted by a sign that pointed to Tai Po.  We crossed a bridge and headed up the KCR line.  As we crossed, we noticed a colorful building on the hill. 

The bicycle paths were really nice.  I want to go cycling here before I leave.  As we walked, we got closer and closer to the colorful building. 

We were headed towards Tai Po when we decided to suddenly cross the road and pursue our dreams of finding out what this building was.  Leaving the bike path, we went through alot of subways and crossed a few highways.  Thats when we ended up at....

Surprisingly we ended up at CUHK.  Realizing that the colorful building was on the campus, we set off to find out exactly what it was.  The campus was on a hill like UST and we didn't really know which way to go so we started to wander around.  We took several sketchy flights of stairs behind some buildings and got closer and closer... you can see our progress from the photos lol. 

When we finally got to the top of the hill, we climbed a set of side stairs and ended up at LG3 of the building.  Not really knowing what else to do, we got in the lift in front of us and as the doors closed, I realized we needed an access card to go to all floors.  I seriously thought we were going to be stuck in the elevator for a long time because none of the buttons were responding.  Luckily just a second later, a lady got in the elevator and we followed her up to the ground floor.  She realized we had no idea what we were doing and explained to us that we were in a laboratory buiding and we would not be able to go anywhere.  With that, we left the pretty colorful building behind and took a super high footbridge to the 9th floor of the engineering building.  We also got a nice view of the building we had been pursuing for the past hour and a half.

Thus concludes our adventures of CUHK.  There was alot more to campus that we did not explore but the rain was starting up again and we had not really eaten anything since breakfast.  We got down to the MTR station again and sat down at Maxim for a late lunch.  

I had curry beef brisket with rice and iced milk tea.  I love milk tea.  So delicious.  Kurt went off to Shenzhen after that to pick up his suit and I met up with Mav since he finished his exam.  We went to Sha Tin and wandered around the mall for a bit.  Mav got noodles and I finally got to try these crepes that I have been staring at for the past few months.  Damn nice.  It was peach, cream, and ice cream.  Sooo good.  Mav inhaled his noodles within five minutes and then we went wandering the mall for a bit.  

We somehow ended up eating ice cream again at mcdonalds.  Green tea red bean sundae is absolutely delicious.  I forgot to get a picture of it thought -__-" No worries, I will have it again soon.  Very soon. =P  Took a bus back to ust.  Had dinner w/ Alex at seafront.  Tmrw I have my Sosc166 exam in the evening.  Hopefully I will finish early and be able to go out afterwards.  I don't know what my plans are for the morning yet.  Most likely breakfast at Sai Kung or something else delicious.  ^___^

I'm Done!

...with the exception of that tiny exam next week.  Tmrw I am going to Wong Tai Sin with YP for breakfast at a dai pai dong.  The guys taking 102 will be done around lunch so maybe I will come back for lunch with them or I might head down to Mong Kok to finally get my hair cut.  My hair has needed cutting since last month but I never got around to it.  It seems to be tradition though, finish the 210 exam and then get it cut haha.  

I can't wait to play! I need to start planning out my days and make the most out of them! Tmrw is Li Xiang's farewell dinner at a sushi buffet that is only 4xhkd.  Its recommended by the local kids so it must be really good!

I'm super excited to spend the next 11 days hanging out here in UST.  I have to move out of hall on the 4th of June.  I cleaned up some of my stuff today in the room.  I have already packed my suitcase and its full.  Sadly, I haven't packed any of my clothes or random things in the room.  It is mostly stuff that I am not using and winter clothes that I brought with me.  I'll bring it home sometime this week an empty it and bring back an empty suitcase to fill up again haha.  

I also have some stuff to bring to Choi Hung to donate. Okay I have alot of stuff. Like stuff that my aunt bought me that I will never wear.  And clothes that I wore once and then they shrunk two sizes in the dryer the first time I did laundry.  

Make the day the most it can be. Keep busy.  Don't think about the fact that each second that passes is one second closer to leaving.  The more I do, the slower time will pass. 

Sigh...

210 Exam trmw! After that its time to enjoy what time I have left here.

A call home to work last night jerked me back to reality.  I had completely forgotten about work since I got here.  I totally forgot that invisible and incredibly short leash I am on.  Now that I have been reminded of it, just the thought is suffocating.  

It makes me want to stay here just a little longer in this paradise.  Blissfully ignorant of the future. 

After 152, Alex, Kiwing, and I went to Sai Kung for lunch. Thai food is delicious.  It was next to the stall that we got sui mai the other day.  Sauntered back to school by 2:30.  With 2 hours to kill, I headed over to barn A to start looking at mgto notes.  I didn't do a very good job at it because after about 30 min, I had a food coma and promptly passed out in front of the computer.  Tai Hung was there and pulled up the screenshots of the computer barns and downloaded the picture of me KOed by my computer.

I haven't gotten any studying done after blowing off the mgto exam.  I flew thru the exam in about 35 minutes not bothering to think about the answer for any of the questions.  Alot of the fill in the blanks were stuffed with some random word i found somewhere else in the exam.  The class doesn't map back to cp as anything other than an elective that i don't need.  I used my time wisely and studied for 152 instead which I think was a wise move. 

After mgto, I decided to treat myself to a delicious and filling dinner that I have not had for a few days now.  Noodles at seafront are always good.  It has been quite a while since I have had them. 

I have to figure out what I am going to do starting 7:30pm on Friday.  I will officially be done with any and all studying for the year.  I am thinking maybe a MK/TZ trip that evening w/ yp.  Then Saturday there is some history tour thing that I may join since most people are still taking exams.  Or I should probably start bringing some of my junk in this room home... -__-"  I also need to bring alot of the stuff to Choi Hung to donate since there is alot of stuff my aunt bought me that I am never going to wear.... 

I can't wait to be freeeeeee again! =D

My Last First Final Exam in HK

Elec152 is over. It was not pretty. I didn't know how to do number 8. That was my bad cos I didn't study that portion. I don't really remember going over it in class but oh well. Luckily I did the L2 hw yesterday which helped greatly on problem 5. It was essentially a homework problem but with a four block word instead of one block. Questions 1-3 were expected altho not really helpful towards my grade. I'm not gonna lie tho, number 9 was pure bullshit. He asked us to redraw the damn diagram. I really expected him to at least give us the diagram and then give us some problem using the diagram. That was what the homework was based on and that was what the TAs had stressed during those days that we questioned them. But really, all he wanted was for us to regurgitate a drawing for him... the part that disturbs me is that it was worth 30%. Seriously... I think that the other problems should have been worth more if just memorizing some lines names is worth 30% of a final exam. At most problem 9 should have been 8-10% of the final. I cannot believe this nonsense.

Oh well its over now. Hopefully I won't have to retake this course back home. If I do, well that sucks but I guess it won't be too bad. I sort of deserve it for not knowing that damn diagram.

Went to Sai Kung with Kiwing and Alex after the exam. We had Thai food which was delicious. Will upload pictures later tonight or tmrw. Back now and in Barn A studying for mgto which is in an hour. I haven't even opened the mgto book since the midterm. I think in this whole semester, I only opened that book once to read before the midterm. I was going to read it today but I decided it was too heavy to carry out since I knew I was going out for lunch. I'm really getting lazy. Oh well. I am reading the lecture notes for the class now. Its not really helpful because I feel like all of this is common sense.

After the mgto exam, probably eat a good fattening meal and then go back to the room to pass out for a bit. Gotta get up later tonight and start on 210. 210 is seriously going to be a problem. The final exam is worth 55% of the final grade... which really is quite a bit.

After 210, I'm finally free. Soscy is on the 27th but there isn't much I can do for that. I'm looking forward to exploring the rest of HK before I leave.

I'm going to be so sad to leave. There is so much I haven't done yet. There are still so many people to hang out with. There is just too little freaking time.

Its here.

Three hours before the first final exam... 152 was fun. I regret not paying attention in class.  The material in the class was really quite interesting.  I just was distracted by other things during my stay.  I think I would have really enjoyed taking this class in cp.  Well, all is done now.   Up at 5:30am for some last minute review and then to take exam...

Its going to be a long day. I have a second exam at 4:30pm too... Its mgto and I have not yet cracked open the book for that course.  I might review between the exams, but not before a delicious meal to make up for having to get up so freaking early.

Durrrr.

One semi-productive day of studying.

One more day, and then exams commence.  

Had a delicious panini sandwhich from the cafe for dinner. 

We took retarded screenshots of ourselves working in Barn A today....

Exams are getting closer.  The end of exams is getting closer. =D

asdfadfasfasfadsfsf

Friday, exams will be over.  I will be going out everyday.  Technically I have an exam on the 27th but I will not be worrying about it.  I feel like I have not been out in HK for a long time.  I need to go explore places like Ma On Shan, Tai Po Market, CUHK... there are still so many things I have not done.  Time is starting to run out.  

I'm beginning to feel desperation not from exams, but from the thought of needing to leave this place soon.  I am going to miss it.  It will be a while before I get the chance to come back.  Air tickets are so expensive and I need to see how classes and winter/summer break 2010 turn out.  Ideally I want to be back next summer... Its a long time but at least there is something great to look forward to.  

I'm terrified of just getting up and leaving everything behind. 

I fixed the aircon by banging on the side three times. 

Squid Fishing

Spent the morning in the library yesterday, not very productive.  Gave up around 4pm and decided to head down to Sai Kung early to have a walk.  I haven't been to the Sai Kung town center since the beginning of April when I went to play war games.  They had some decorations this time and there were some primary school students doing some sort of play inside the stage set.  

I ended up buying two shirts there for really cheap.  Then I went to have dau fu fa and tong yuun at a place called Just-A-Dessert.  I've had it before and its really good. 

 I saw a guys fishing from the sidewalk and he caught a two foot long eel.  It was pretty scary. The thing had a huge mouth and the guy was screaming at people to stay back because it would bite.

  

 Met up with YP, Todd, Li Xiang, Desmond and company.  The boat was really damn cool.  We got on the upper deck which was open and a nice view.  The ride out to sea was only about twenty minutes but we got plenty of retarded pictures in during that time.  After we stopped, the boat turned on the lights and we grabbed our gear to start squid fishing!  Surprisingly we did not need to use any bait.  It was simply a line with a jig that was white in color.  The color and the light from the boat is enough to attract a bunch of squid.  

The squid itself was only about three or four inches in length.  The first one I got squirted a bunch of ink in the water when I hooked it.  It then proceeded to squirt some more ink on my hand as I tried to free it from the hook.  Its really very pretty and I felt really bad after I caught it.  I wanted to throw it back in the water but it was already too late... :(

Here is our result of 23 people fishing for four hours lol.  A small plate of squid with 23 mini squid on it.  Sadly, it was the boat owner's wife who probably caught half of them haha.  

It tasted really good!

After we alighted in Sai Kung again we came across an ice cream truck.  Phillip, Joe, and I were talking about the differences between American and HK ice cream trucks.  HK ice cream trucks are really damn delicious.  Even though they only have three or four different kinds of ice cream to serve, the creamy deliciousness is irresistable.