HK Architecture

So, I figured since I skipped out on a week of blogging, I better make it up by doing another one closer to my last post :) This weekend was quite eventful as I visited another lantern exhibit for the Mid-Autumn Festival, went to the Ladies Market again, and explored the Chi Lin Nunnery and Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple. Friday night, I went to East Tsim Sha Tsui (right by the water) to see a lantern exhibit. I expected the exhibit to be larger, but I still really enjoy looking at all of the lanterns when they are lit up. I really like visiting East Tsim Sha Tsui as well since it's right on the water & the view of the skyline is very relaxing and beautiful.

*Lantern of an artist!

Saturday, I went to the Ladies Market again to get some Christmas gifts out of the way, but I only bought a few as I'm still thinking about what to get some people! It's really funny how you can bargain with the stall owners here. They tell you the price, you say "no", and as you walk away, they will scream at you & continue to decrease the price as the seconds tick by. So, advice if you ever come to Hong Kong, never pay the price that they offer first as you can get it to come down significantly! I was also excited to have found lime green Converses for $25 US at Fa Yuen Street, a street full of gym shoes & sport clothing. That was such a good deal!

*City skyline, so pretty :)

Today, Sara, Anna S., and I went to see the Chi Lin Nunnery and Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple. I really enjoyed the Chi Lin Nunnery, especially during the path to get there (Nan Lian Garden) with its streams and waterfalls. You weren't supposed to take pictures of the nunnery, but I still did even after getting yelled at twice, haha! They didn't confiscate my camera, so I figured it was okay. The nunnery is gorgeous. The architecture really amazes me here with the curved up roofs & intricate details. After the nunnery, we visited the Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple. It was a quick visit as we weren't allowed to go into the actual temple for some reason, but the architecture on the temple was stunning as well. It has the same curved up roof, but the colors on the temple of green, red, blue, and yellow really stuck out compared to the nunnery's brown color. At the temple, there is also a row of about 30 fortune tellers. You go into a little office & they will read your hand & face in order to tell you about your future when it comes to love, your job, etc. We wanted to do it, but it was quite pricy, so we opted against it.

*Chi Lin Nunnery

*Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple

Classes are still going pretty well. They are much less demanding than my one's at Butler & I already have mid-terms in like a month, which is crazy! Sometimes I feel like a walking dictionary because if some of the students don't understand an English word, the professor will always be like, "Alexa, can you explain what this means" - I don't mind, but some words are just hard to explain, haha! Well, I think that's all for now. I leave for Beijing on Thursday & am so excited! Definitely expect a post and lots of pictures when I return! Until next time - love & miss you all!

Link to new pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2092750&id=1490346167&l=00fa56084c



Noah's Ark, Mid-Autumn Festival, & High-tea

I'm a little past due on the blog posting here, but it's been a busy week & a half with classes & sightseeing! Last weekend, Sara, Anna G., Anna S., and I took a ferry to Park Island so we could visit the Noah's Ark exhibit in Ma Wan Park. It was really interesting to see the ark & the animals outside of it, plus there were a bunch of small exhibits & videos inside the actual ark. After leaving the ark, we noticed a bunch of tents & people down by the beach area, which ended up being a mass baptism for a baptist church in the area. We were a bit surprised to see this as we didn't think there was a large Christian population here, but apparently we were wrong.

*Anna S, Anna G, Me, & Sara before entering the ark!

After returning back from the island, we decied to take the Central Escalators to see Soho. We ended up eating dinner at this yummy Mexican restaurant :) All of the restaurants there looked super good & the area had a nice ambiance with lots of tourists walking around. I want to return soon because I spotted a cool looking vegetarian restaurant, yayyy! After dinner, we decided to go all the way to the top of the escalators (takes about 20 minutes), but it started to get a little seedy, so we ended up coming back down.

*Going up the Central Escalators

Yesterday (September 22nd), the locals celebrated the Mid-Autumn Fesitval (when the moon is at it's fullest). Traditionally, families get together at night to gaze at the moon while carrying paper lanterns, eating mooncakes (a cake with egg yolk in the middle), watching fire dragon dances, and burning incense. A few of us went to a lantern carnival in Victoria Park, which was definitely one of the coolest things I've ever seen. There were a bunch of huge lit up lanterns shaped as fish, peacocks, dragons, flowers, etc. & they were all so pretty! The study abroad office also had a party for the exchange students at the beginning of this week where we ate mooncake & star fruit (my new favorite fruit), played traditional Chinese games, made lanterns, and tried to solve riddles. It was fun to learn about a celebration that we obviously don't have in the US.

*My favorite lantern :)

Today, because we had the day off for the festival, Anna G. & I went for afternoon high-tea at the Peninsula Hotel (a very popular activity for tourists). We got there right when it started, and still had to wait in line for about 20 minutes. When we left, the line was getting longer & longer, so we were glad we got there when we did! We both ordered the jasmine tea & then they also serve you three trays filled with sandwiches (the cucumber ones were my favorite!), scones, and pastries. I really enjoyed the experience and the hotel is gorgeous! We both decided that we would like to do it again before we go home when it's decorated for Christmas time :) After we were finished, we walked around the hotel for a bit, and the hotel even has it's own shopping "arcade" (obviously all high-end, couture shops). We went into the Chanel, which was quite busy, and wished we could have bought everything, haha!

*Me with my yummy tea!

Until next time, love you all!! New pictures on Facebook as well:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2092750&id=1490346167&l=00fa56084c &

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075815&id=1490346167&l=f6f64036b8

Disneyland :)

This past Saturday, I ventured off to Hong Kong Disneyland. I was so excited to see how it compared to both of the parks in the states, however, the one in HK is very, very small in size, especially the castle. Everything else was basically the same except the food was obviously Asian. I immediately felt like my 10 year old self again when we pulled into the park & could not wait to explore :) Unfortunately, it rained basically the entire day & my favorite ride Space Mountain was closed, which always seems to be the case in the states as well. Luckily, the majority of the rides are in a building or are covered, so the rain didn't cause any problems. In fact, the rain ended up being a good thing because the park wasn't very crowded at all, and we only had to wait at most 15 minutes for a ride.

*The castle (it's so little in real life)!

While at the park, I went on all the rides: It's A Small World, Mad Hatter Tea Cups, Astroblasters, Winnie the Pooh, and the Jungle Safari. Yes, you counted right, there's only 5 rides there (well, 6 if you count the closed Space Mountain)! They also have a 3-D show & 3 live shows, which we all really good, especially the Lion King one! There was also a parade and firework/light show when the park closed at night. We were at the park for 9 hours (we had to stay that long because it was a tour with the school), and it was very difficult to find things to do for this long, but we obviously managed. Because the park is quite small, I'd imagine them having some serious problems with very long lines and overcrowding during the summer holiday. Going to Disneyland in HK really made me miss the Disneyworld/Disneyland in the US - maybe I'll go to one of them during the summer (hint hint: Mom or Dad)! Even though I've been to both multiple times, I still can't get enough & it's always fun going with my young siblings because they get so excited :)

*Mickey and Minnie :)

Today, I went to the Festival Walk mall in Kowloon. It was HUGE and very high-end (like all the other malls here)! I went into Marc Jacobs hoping it would be cheaper here, but was disappointed when it was about 50% more. I thought stuff in China was cheaper!! I guess Hong Kong is an exception to that! I was also surprised to find an ice rink in the middle of the mall. There were a bunch of little kids ice-skating, and it was nice to stop and watch for a few minutes.

There was also a very nice department store in the mall that had school supplies, grocceries, luggage, you name it & I found pretzals (rare here) & Aranciata (a Sanpellegrino Italian soda), which was only $1.50/can - a great deal as it's about $3 in the US!!! Finding these things basically made my day & I guess I'll have to take the MTR for an hour each time I want pretzals & Aranciata unless I find another place that's closer, haha!

*Yayyy!!!

Classes have been going well & I'm starting to get more and more assignments :( I just can't seem to get into the swing of homework because it still seems like I'm on a four month vacation!! I also experienced my first major thunderstorm here & of course was out & forgot my umbrella. I was completely drenched when I got back to my hostel! Now, I have learned to never forget an umbrella! Oh & very exciting news: at the beginning of this week, I booked a trip to Beijing for the first weekend in October! I'm so excited to see the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Tianamen Square, and all the other great tourist attractions!

Check out my new pictures on Facebook! Here's the link as well: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075815&id=1490346167&l=f6f64036b8

Until next time - love you all!

A-les-a & Buddha

Well, I've officially completed my first week of classes here at Lingnan University - quite exciting! The reason for my title is because that's how everyone here pronounces my name, I say Alexa, and they repeat it back as A-les-a - must be hard to pronounce x's? Or others think it's a shortened form of Alexander, but I always tell them that's a boy name, haha, but I don't mind :) I'm taking five classes here - Operations Management, Organizational Behavior, Intermediate Macroeconomics, Level 3 Mandarin, and History through Film. All of my professors are Asian besides the history teacher, who is from England. They all seem nice, except sometimes it's difficult for me to understand them, so I have to listen very closely. I'm excited about the history through film class because we get to watch some really good movies!! I think it's going to be a challenging semester with lots of presentations and projects already, but I'm not complaining :)

This past weekend was definitely my favorite part of being in Hong Kong so far. I went to see the giant Buddha statue in Ngong Ping, AMAZING (well, besides the 250 step hike to get to the top)!! We took a cable car to get to the Ngong Ping village & the ride lasted about 25 minutes - longest cable car ride ever! I startted to get a little nervous when the wind would blow because the car would start creaking, yikesss!! There is also a monastery (Po Lin) across from the Buddha, which was equally impressive. It smelled very strongly of incense (which I love) & there was chanting music coming from the inside. The Ngong Ping village was also great - there were lots of tourist (expensive though!) shops & good places to eat - where I probably had my favorite meal yet - Margherita pizza & hummus :)

*Po Lin Monastery

I've been doing quite a bit of sightseeing so far - Stanley Market, Avenue of the Stars (similar to Hollywood Blvd. in LA, but much nicer because it's right on the water), the Peninsula Hotel (the most famous hotel here & it's beautiful!!), and I got to experience my first light show in downtown Hong Kong!! Many tourists have high-tea at the Peninsula Hotel & that's definitely on my to-do list. There are still so many things left to see here & I can't wait to experience it all :)

*Light show, so pretty!!

I also have to describe a funny story the other day while two of us (Kat & Anna) were on the bus. There were these two boys sitting next to us & all of the sudden one of them pulls out a gun & the three of us looked at eachother like "what is going on"?! It looked like a legit gun, but we soon realized that it shot out some sort of white powder. If we were in the US, people would have screamed, but I just don't think we knew how to react at first & the two boys acted like it was no big deal! I hope I don't run into any more guns in the future! I don't want that to freak anyone out, because I feel very, very safe here. There are security guards in every hostel & you have to be stopped at a security gate before you can even enter the campus at all.

*Me at the Peninsula Hotel

Well, I think that's about all for now. Next weekend, I'm venturing off to the Hong Kong Disneyland, so be on the look out for more pictures and a new post after that! I also wanted to take the time to thank everyone for following me on my blog, looking at my pictures, and questioning how I'm doing. I really appreciate everyone's support as I'm on this four month adventure & am truly blessed to have an extraordinary family and a great group of friends. I miss you all, but am loving every minute here! Love you!

*Picture link again: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075815&id=1490346167&l=f6f64036b8