I am sad to say that this week is my last full week in Hong Kong. How could 4 months have flown by so quickly? It is unbelievable! We are really trying to see everything that we haven't seen yet in these last few weeks... while cramming for finals. While I really enjoy being in college, finals are one thing that I will not miss (and being broke, of course). Here in Hong Kong, finals are 50% of the cumulative grade unlike the grade structure in the States. The pressure is on!
Last week I went to see the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery. Unlike the Big Buddha, which I blogged about previously, this site was nowhere near as touristy as the Big Buddha (thank gosh!). After grabbing a Swedish meal at Ikea (yes, Ikea!), we took a hike up a long, long trail to see the Buddhas. The trail was lined with gold painted Buddhas, each unique in their very own way. On our way up, we were pleasantly surprised by about 10 monkeys throwing fruit down the walkway. The monkeys might have been my favorite part...
 |
| Awwwh.. |
Once we got to the top, the first sign we saw proclaimed that no one should give any of the "begging monks" money. We were lucky enough to not have had to face this problem.
 |
| We actually calculated that there were more than 10,000 Buddhas, nerds. |
 |
| The old, beat up house, was home to a cemetery of sorts. Very interesting and unique. |
Later last week we went to the weekly Horse Race. There are many Jockey Clubs scattered around Hong Kong where many older, local Chinese men bet on who will win the race. It's always quite funny to pass these clubs and peek in to see what all of the fuss is about. This week I decided to take my chances and bet on some horses, after all, the bills don't pay themselves!
 |
| View from the top! No rain today, unlike the previous race! |
When you go to the betting window, you are given a list of which horse is racing and which race. There are some vague statistics about previous wins, speed, etc etc. I decided to go with the easiest betting method - choose which horse had the most "thumbs ups". Next to each horse is either one, two, or three "thumbs up" signifying their chance of winning. So, I put down 10 HKD for the horse with the most thumbs to place. (You can either choose whether they will place in the top 3 or win. Obviously "top 3" is least risky.)
 |
| Lucky ticket! |
After watching the exciting race, I won!!!!! Of course I bet on the horse with the least amount of risk and only won 12 HKD... At the end of the night I ended up with an 18 HKD loss - but got a free beer and ended up a winner after all!
On Sunday a group of us went to Dialogue in the Dark. None of us knew what to expect and were pleasantly surprised with the great learning opportunity. When we arrived, we were taken to a partially dark room and told that our tour guide would be Eunice and that we should just close our eyes instead of trying to see where we were.
We entered a pitch black room and were taken through a maze of sorts that replicated places in Hong Kong. Instead of using our sight, we needed to determine where we were and our surroundings using our other senses. We were able to listen to birds, touch trees, determine whether the ground underneath our feet was grass or gravel, and smell all of the (not so lovely) smells in the city. It was extremely nerve racking to not have any idea whether I would break my ankle on a step or run into a wall. We were given walking sticks which were surprisingly helpful, but I would not want to rely on this as my only method to get around.
One of the individuals in our group asked our leader Eunice whether she was wearing night vision goggles as she was telling individuals to come closer or walk in a particular direction. She replied, "it's a surprise." (Of course, I had put two and two together and figured out the surprise..., but that's neither here nor there.) At the end of the expedition she revealed that she was in fact blind and shared many of her daily challenges. She stated that living in Hong Kong was actually not as challenging as living in China or the U.S. since HK has developed their infrastructure to meet the needs of those who are impaired. It was a truly unique experience!
After the trip, we went to grab some terrible Japanese food. The food was, ugh, awful - but not as terrible as the old lady at the table next to us. At the end of our meal (thankfully we were finished eating) she hawked a HUGE loogie in the middle of the restaurant! Now, we were definitely used to this in China, but the belief is that Hong Kong is classier than that... apparently not. We couldn't help but to giggle rather loudly to ourselves. Only in China, my friends, only in China...
We took the rest of the day to go to Kowloon Park and see another Kung Fu show... this time I captured a video for you all to see! Check it out:
CLICK HERE to see a Kung Fu performance!
 |
| The boat mall by our dorm... |
 |
| Christmas decorations in Whampoa! |
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment