Some Parting Words for Hong Kong...

So, the day is finally here. The end of an era! I can't believe I'm saying this, but this is the last day of my study abroad adventure. In roughly twelve hours, I will be getting on a plane and heading back to California. The best way to describe my feelings right now are a savory blend of excitement, sadness, anxiety and a tiny dash of nausea. I've been anticipating heading back to home sweet home for awhile now, but when all is said and done, I'm really, really sad to be leaving.

I'm going to miss a lot of things here- the walk to school, the cheap food, the surprise in locals' faces when I kinda sorta speak Cantonese, the weird desserts, my little dorm room, the constant supply of noodles, the mini-buses, Lan Kwai Fong nights out... but what I'm really going to get heart-sick over are the people here. My international friends, my local friends, my professors, the security guard at our building, the kind strangers helping out silly foreign me- Hong Kong has become a place synonymous with kindness and benevolence for me. So many people have touched my life here, and I am so sad to leave them behind. Thank God for Skype, am I right?

I now have a slew of international friends, contacts and connections. Everyone I've met here has contributed a new perspective and a new way of thinking to my worldview and I don't think I'll ever think in quite the same way again. I don't know if it's silly to say, but living in another country, even for a short time, gave me a sense of a much, much wider world than I previously understood. And now I have couches to sleep on in tons of other countries! It's awesome!

I came here with nothing but fear and excitement, I'm leaving as a confident, slightly less awkward lady. I feel like I can do anything! I made friends with all sorts of people! I'm independent! I bought my own food and learned to cook like a champ! I've seen a little bit of the world and I can talk to backpackers without feeling intimidated! I have actually been a backpacker! Wow!

I also feel that I've gained a new love and respect for my California home. I miss my family and friends all the time, and consistently reminisced with other Cali locals about our awesome people, food and beaches. I remember growing up in Huntington Beach, enjoying bonfires and being silly with my friends so fondly. I always talk about my friends back in Santa Cruz, and how much I appreciate their kindness, humor and generosity, and the magic of the UCSC campus in the woods. Everything I look back on is colored with a rosy light, and I can't wait to be reunited with so many little parts of California I've missed while I've been abroad. Don't get me wrong- I love exploring and trying new things, but it seems as though in the end I'll always want to go back to my Redwoods, beaches and Mexican food. I don't know where I'm going, but this experience makes me think I know where I'll end up.

And this is my last schmaltzy thought, I promise. This experience has taught me that anything is possible. Life is always more interesting when you say yes and take chances, rather than saying no and feeling safe. I don't know what's in store for me next, but I definitely want to live abroad again at some point.

For my last day here, a few of my friends and I braved the unbearable humidity to hike Dragon's Back, and here are a few of my favorite photographs of the afternoon. Thank you for sharing this journey with me! I really appreciated all of the support from my friends and family throughout this experience and I can't wait to be reunited with all of my lovely Californians! Until next time!

I'll miss you Hong Kong!

The Charms of China and Vivacious Vietnam

A wet city street in Guanzhou

Lately, life has been a bit of a whirlwind. I haven't really had time to extensively blog about my last few explorations because 1) I was overwhelmed by schoolwork and 2) I was too busy exploring! But these are just excuses. I said I wanted to create a complete and cohesive blog about all my studying abroad adventures and by golly, it's going to happen!

So! Here is a neat little photo recap of some of my favorite moments from my past two trips: first, I'll show you my visit to the Guangdong Province in Mainland China, and second, Hanoi in Vietnam.

Guangdong Province: A group of my friends and I left for Zhaoqing, Guanzhou, and Shenzhen on Easter weekend (March 29th-April 1st). We had very little planning time beforehand, and basically expected to spend our vacation exploring, eating and hiking. Even in the continuously pouring rain, all our wishes came true! Zhaoqing was my favorite stop on this adventure for the incredible food (it was better than Hong Kong and I didn't even try any noodles), awesome locals, and the fact that no one could understand any of the English speakers at all. Miming things out and hoping that people got what you were trying to say was really, really funny. I practiced my Cantonese with a few nice people who kind of understood me, and in Guanzhou, we completely soaked riding bikes through the rain around a lake! There was also a neat moment when we were on a tour of a mountain temple, and the rain was so heavy that we had to stay there for an hour and a half! It was beautiful and appealed  to the romantic side of me.

(Note: I just realized I didn't take ANY pictures of Shenzhen. Sorry about that! I really just had dinner and looked at art galleries with my roommate, Fiona, before heading back to HK...)

Zhaoqing cloudy skies 

Chris playing a local (and winning) at Chinese chess

The tastiest dish I've ever had! Steamed chinese sausage, vegetables, and chicken over rice. In the overcast weather, it was nothing short of perfect.

Our stylish tour vehicle around Guanzhou

Sugarcane juice machine! For just under 25 cents, a bottle of this stuff was incredibly refreshing.

The mountain temple we visited, just before it was too wet to leave. 

After the worst of the rain, we were treated to this gorgeous view.

Outside of another Guanzhou temple

We found a neat waterfall and koi pond outside of a swanky hotel in Guanzhou...

I love koi fish, so I couldn't resist taking as many videos and pictures of them as I could! 

And of course, everyone looks on expectantly for dim sum at said hotel...

I didn't take too many pictures since it was raining so hard throughout the trip, but all in all, I couldn't be more pleased with the amount of sightseeing and hostel jumping we were able to do in such a short time! Guangdong is a nice, nice area and if you ever get the chance to visit, go straight to Zhaoqing. Just be sure to bring your Mandarin dictionary and a set of rainboots...

Onto the next trip:

Hanoi, Vietnam: The weekend immediately after my trip to Guangdong, two of my girlfriends from my hall and I had planned a weekend trip to Vietnam! This was the smallest group of people I had ever traveled with, and, as a result, the experience was totally different. We made a ton of friends from our hostel including Brian, the Minnesota English teacher, Sarah, the super cool British lady, two lovely Swiss-German girls whose names I can't remember, weird guitar guy who slept above Rafaella, Marie, the lone British backpacker, and Eva, the lone Australian backpacker. I loved Hanoi for the insane nightlife, weird water puppet shows and hoardes of students and backpackers eating food and drinking beer on tiny sidewalk streets at night. Some delicious things to try are (of course) the pho (which is everywhere and CHEAP!), french fries, deep fried cheese, and one of the many local Vietnamese beers.

During the day, we took inexpensive tours to Halong Bay and the small village of Mai Chau, and at night in Hanoi, we danced until the midnight curfew. All the bars and restaurants close down at this time, but if you ask the right people you can find clubs in back alleys that break those curfews. Going to a secret curfew-breaking club was probably one of the coolest experiences of my life!

All in all, Hanoi was incredible. I didn't bring my camera as we had expected it to rain throughout the trip like it did in China, but we were actually blessed with sunny skies all weekend! So instead, here are some strange photos I took on my roommate's (broken) point and shoot camera. It gave all of Hanoi a kind of weird, ghostly effect, so... beat with me... I guess...

The average street in Old Quarter. This was taken in the morning, so there weren't too many people out and about, but at night, it's hard to walk anywhere  because of all the crazy scooters!

Trying to cross these streets is like playing Frogger, but your life is on the line.

The lake in the middle of the Old Quarter was beautiful and many people spent their time leisurely strolling around it at night. 

We treated ourselves to a fancy meal on the lake!

Notice the "Bia Ha Noi" beer

A rest stop on our way to Mai Chau, where locals sold snacks and other goods. Sugarcane and glutinous rice in bamboo sticks were my favorites.

When we arrived in the village of Mai Chau, we ate a delicious lunch, and I couldn't help snapping a quick photo of this cutie!

Mai Chau was my favorite destination by far. We took a bicycle tour of the rice paddies and I was overtaken by the lush green surroundings. I couldn't stop smiling!

I <3 Mai Chau!

The next day we took this lovely vessel on a cruise of Halong Bay. It was a lot colder and more overcast than we were expecting for our day on the water, but it was still a lot of fun.

While taking this photo, I met an art buyer from France named Pierre who bought me a Vietnamese coffee and talked to me about internships in the film/art industry. I just kept thinking, "Does this mean I'm cool now?"

We also had the chance to kayak through one of the floating villages. I like excursions where you get to interact with your environment. I loved waving at locals like a dork and seeing their dogs barking at us!

At the end of the tour, we were taken to this neat cave, though the colorful lights did make everything feel a bit artificial... 

I LIKE CAVES.

So there you have it! A quick look into my final two study abroad travel adventures. Now I'm pretty much out of money so I'm living thrifty for the last thirty days in Hong Kong (which is difficult because even taking the bus to school from my dorm costs a BILLION DOLLARS). Egg noodles and peanut butter on bread anyone? I'm living the high life!

Even though I spent a lot more money on this trip than I expected to, I figure I'm probably not coming back to Asia again for a long, long time. I feel very blessed for getting to do and see all the things I want to while I'm still here, and I feel like a more well-rounded, relaxed person because of that. It's amazing how getting out of your home country can make you a lot less worried about being somewhere unfamiliar. If nothing else, I feel a lot more comfortable talking to people of diverse backgrounds and cultures than I ever was in the states.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little peek at my travels! I've got to go fold laundry and try not to think about how little time I have left in Hong Kong...

Have a great lazy Sunday, everyone!

Drizzly Days and A Few Good Films

A screenshot from Pane E Tulipani by Silvio Soldini

It's typhoon season in Hong Kong, and my shoes are really suffering. I think my least favorite feeling in the world is the squelch of walking around from class to class with wet shoes. One thing I definitely didn't plan for was the rainy season here.

But honestly, the grey city skies are fairly romantic in my opinion. As someone who enjoys taking the mini-bus and watching the world pass by, it could be worse. I bought a pretty sturdy umbrella in a Walmart in Shenzhen (yes, there are Walmarts in China, weird right?) and as a result, I'm pretty well protected from the elements. HKU is a fancy plexiglass maze of a university, specifically designed to make sure you can walk from one side of campus to the other without even realizing it's raining, so that comes in handy as well. Really, the whole campus is something out of a sci-fi movie so don't be too surprised about this.

My week has been fairly stress-free, which is nice considering I basically have two weeks until the essay-writing/final-taking apocalypse of the last week of April. I have a final every day of that week and I don't feel very prepared or coordinated or in-control of my curriculums so I guess I'll have some intense cramming sessions to do before then. But such is the life of a college student! Cramming and cramming and cramming some more.

On Monday, I had a presentation on gender representation (my absolute favorite topic) in Italian Cinema in the 1970s and 80s for my European Cinema and Society class. The two films I chose to talk about were Pane e Tulipani by Silvio Soldini (an absolutely fantastic film about a women who accidentally gets abandoned by her family on a road trip and hitchhikes to Venice, I highly recommend this) and Sotto... Sotto... by Lina Wertmüller (a sexist, yet intriguing, film about a woman who leaves her husband for another woman). Guess what? I got an A+ on it! I was really excited about this because I don't think I've gotten an A+ on anything since high school.

I wrote about Sotto... Sotto... by Lina Wertmuller, who may be the most sexist director I've ever  come across.

On Tuesday, I had Cantonese class which I always enjoy, but compared to last week when the whole class went out to eat dim sum, and the week before when we had breakfast at a Hong Kong style cafe, this week's class was relatively un-delicious. I sincerely recommend that anyone interested in studying abroad in Hong Kong take a Cantonese course. Language is power and knowing a few words of the local dialect was more valuable in making me feel acclimated to the city than any of my other experiences. Usually people will understand your English, but if you can rattle off a couple of Cantonese phrases (or understand when people are trying to rip you off at the Ladies' Market), it's much easier to make friends and feel comfortable in a place that, at first, feels very far away from home.

On Wednesday, I had my last lecture for Hong Kong Cinema on Global Screens, where we explored the idea of independent filmmaking in Hong Kong. The film we screened was Fruit Chan's Made in Hong Kong, a cool, low-budget film about disillusionment of troubled youth in HK during the 1997 handover to China. If you have interest in independent Asian cinema, I highly recommend this work. It was really fun to watch, a little dirty and weird, and there was one incredible 60s style drug trip scene (sans drugs, because there are incredibly severe drug laws in HK) in which the protagonist dances and eats moon cakes off a gun. Oh yeah, it's good. It reminded me a lot of Bonnie and Clyde and Easy Rider, films about a counter culture of youth with too much time on their hands and no future.



I also signed up for an all day bike trip in the New Territories for this Saturday (pictures to come)! Since I biked in both Guanzhou, China and Mai Chau, Vietnam, I've been obsessed with bike trips. I can't wait to get back to Huntington Beach so I can ride to the seaside!

Also also, I met with my English-Cantonese conversation partner Eileen at the vegetarian restaurant for the first time since I've been in Hong Kong and we had a great chat! Since it was our first time talking, we just spoke English this time, but since she's from Shenzhen in the Guangdong Province, she speaks Cantonese and mentioned she wouldn't mind helping me out with my conversation skills. I tried freshly made soya milk for the first time, and Eileen asked me if America was anything like the sitcom Friends. I told her it was. Laugh track and all.

Today was significantly less exciting. I had class from 10am until 5pm (we talked about Memento by Christopher Nolan in my Film Trauma class, if you're interested), and last night, I went out to the bars in Wan Chai for ladies' night. Free rum and cokes/gin and tonics at Typhoon on Wednesday, ladies! I was basically a zombie all day, but it was worth it, as I hadn't really gone out in HK for weeks! I'm trapped in the library all the time!

I need a nap.