Fish massage! [Singapore]

Love is in the air! <3





One of the world's tallest ferris wheels! =)




At the top! I thought i would be scared of the height but it wasn't so bad =) ...what does it look like they are doing...

What does this man sell out of his cart? ICE CREAM! in a block!
You can get it with biscuit or...bread? yes bread!A sweet slice of bread wrapped around mango meat ice cream!
I love my ice cream!
We all love our ice cream!

The famous merlion!

My ex once told me that Japanese students use "merlion" as a euphemism for barfing; I thought it was hilarious!

Jumbo! =D This is where we ate our chili crab!
I thought it would be more like a boiling crab experience...but it was in a fancy restaurant and kinda expensive.

We have bibs!


it's a good thing I asked what this bowl with a lemon in it is for...I was about to taste it, thinking it was a sauce. Actually, it's for washing your hands.
Cooking the crab!
Chili crab!

Black pepper crab!
Fried mantou to eat with the sauce!

My leftovers!
A beach on Sentosa Island =)
We went to get a fish massage! =)
No, they don't beat you with a fish. You stick your feet into water and they eat the dead skin off your feet.




IT TICKLES!
Aggresive African fish...they are HUGE! Us girls were too scared to go in this one.
I found a giant hot dog?







Peacock just chillin...



Hitting Zouk, a really popular club!

Public Spanking! [Singapore]

As a weekend excursion, I am going to Sinapore! =D



Start out the journey in a little plane in the airport!
BY the way, the hong kong airport has a POPEYES in it! =0 I'm going to get it next time when I'm not in a hurry! hahaha

It took only about 3 hours to fly the singapore (actually a lot farther than I expected.) They call their people movers "travellators!" hahaha!

Actually, their currency is very similar to ours...so things aren't really that cheap as well.
Singapore seems to be very modern and clean, which is cool, but it seems to lack flavor!

This is us chilling in our hostel! My first hostel ever! It was dorm style, with just a lot of bunk beds in a giant shared room. The hostel was called City Center Backpackers hostel. It was a really great experience! It was clean and air conditioned; the owner was really nice to us! I'm playing with my new toy! =D The coveted lion puppet! =D I think I would've liked it in a different color, but it was only $8 by the time I haggled it down, so I won't complain!

No durian on the subway!


"This plant didn't get out as much as it should...this plant did."
Very funny billboard =)
which was is the food?Ah, here's the food! =D Cheap place to eat the hawker center!



Hainan chicken rice! So tasty!
Tong yuen in ginger soup! =D We're such tourists!

The famous Marina Bay Sands! It's a really expensive hotel and casino with the Infinity pool on top! (A pool at the top with a clear bottom!) I never thought I'd get to see it...but actually, I didn't get to see it. It cost $20 just to LOOK at it...and a $300 room to swim in it.
Cool parking garage! It's like an automatic valet! Each car is on a panel that moves around electronically!
We happened to pass by a water show on the lake/bay thing! It was like Fantasmic, with a projection on a spray of water.
Singpore's China town!

The only place open late at night!


...what does this look like to you? I can't un-see it...

Hong Kong French Toast

Today after class, my friends Mandy, Tara, and Kathleen called me up to hunt for the famous Hong Kong french toast!
We almost passed the place, but my useless Chinese skills helped out for once, kinda! This place was actually closed but they moved up the street, haha.


Somehow I managed to figure out this said "Lan Fong Yuan" hanging above us.

The beautiful famous Hong Kong French toast! The inside is full of BUTTER.
Pantyhose milk tea! They use real fine tea and use a pantyhose to strain it. (Hopefully not used pantyhose!)
Pork chop bun! It was good, but nothing like the ones in Macau!
I am just digging into my beautiful, golden toast!

Cooling Tea

A very popular thing here is to drink "leurng cha" 凉茶. It is to fix having ??, which is a superstitious ailment (for lack of better words) that Chinese people believe you get from eating too many "hot foods" such as deep fried foods and ginger.
There are places that are just an open shop where you can just walk up to the counter and drink from a bowl set out, covered by a glass circlet. You drink from the bowl and pay your fare. So easy!
But drinking it is hard. The taste is pretty bitter and unpleasant. There's a special kind called 24味 (like the card game!) which is extra unpleasant!

Got my HKID!

Today I went to apply for my HKID! It was surprisingly easy (so much faster and efficient than the DMV back home!) I'm eligible since I am staying longer than 180 in Hong Kong.
I didn't have trouble finding the ID office at all, since I was used to going to Wan Chai to go to the immigration tower. I think every time I've come to Hong Kong, my mom goes there...though I don't know why.
After getting my ID, you can bet I was hungry! So I stopped by this little Shanghainese restaurant! =D Look at that tasty xiao long bao! =D
Mmm crispy guo tie! =D I accidentally ate all of them before taking a picture...this is the last one.
I was ABOUT to get on the bus when I saw a 许留山! This is a mango lover's paradise. All kinds of mango desserts and puddings with glutinnous rice balls! =D It was so delicious!

World of Wearable Art

Today I went to see this show called the "World of Wearable Art" preforming for the first time outside New Zealand!
It was a kind of dance and costume show. There was semi-ambient music and coordinated dance numbers. The costumes were really creative and bizarre, kind of like Cirque du Soleil but less circus-y and less produced.


We weren't allowed to take photos, so I borrowed the ones from the Hong Kong Arts Festival website. This will give you an idea of the variety and the kind of weird shit that I saw today, haha!

The Infamous LKF [Lan Kwai Fong]

Tonight I went to the famous Lan Kwai Fong! If you've watched any TVB dramas, you will know it because a character will come stumbling down the street totally drunk and make dumb decisions!
I went out after the typical "pre-gaming" at the student flats to LKF, the famous bar street. There are so many drunk people standing around and a lot of different fun bars and clubs!

There used to be a bar where you could wear a fur coat in a refrigerated room and drink vodka, but it recently closed down! Too bad!

Changes?

Everyone told me that they changed a lot after studying abroad.
And study abroad prep programs warned me that there is a "reverse culture shock" when you go home and it might be frustrating being a new person in the old place.

I guess it's because I've heard from the experiences of others so much, that I had certain expectations.

It's only been three weeks, but it already feels like it's been a long time.

A combination of that and all the expectations have left me feeling...disappointed.
I know I shouldn't be, because it hasn't been very long yet.

I feel like I haven't learned any more Cantonese. When I'm tired it becomes really hard to comprehend and really hard to speak. I still make the same grammar mistakes and I haven't learned any new vocabulary that stuck.
I don't talk to too many locals in my daily life...and even when I do, we usually speak English. (Especially if we are in the company of non-Cantonese-speakers, it would be rude to leave them out.)

I also expected to get stronger. I expected to become a better, more open person. Instead I am still shy, still weak.

I can't expect to grow up over night, so time will tell.

Maybe I expected study abroad to be a kind of magic that would somehow transform me into the person that I wanted to be without the hard work, but we all know that's not true.

Well, not even a month has gone by, and I still have four months to go.

Free Boat Tour! [Dragonboat Practice]

Today I had my first dragon boat practice! =D

I quickly found out that it was water practice when we met at Ap Lei Chau near Aberdeen. People had already gotten there and were just standing by a railing on the sidewalk. I had assumed we were going to walk somewhere to get to the boats...but no, we were already there. I wish I had my camera! We basically climbed on a couple overturned construction buckets to hop over this railing and walked down to the water on this REALLY janky steep wooden stairs (can I even call them stairs? It was just a couple of sparse boards tied together) balanced on rocks, onto a floating wooden palate (like the kind for forklifts) that was tied to a wooden pole jutting out from the rocks. And from there, we boarded the boat. Haha I guess that's our dock! That's how they do.

I went with my new friend Kathleen, who already has experience rowing.
I've been on a kayak once? hahaha! Needless to say, I was very, very n00b with the paddle and splashed myself all over

We started practice around 6pm, so by the time we got out into the water, the sun had already set. But do not fear! Hong Kong has plenty of light pollution, so even out in the middle of the harbour, it was plenty bright.

It was really fun rowing in the dark! All the city lights were bright; all the multi-story buildings twinkling like stars rising high above the harbor. It felt like I was getting a free boat tour around Aberdeen!
We even paddled by the famous Jumbo Floating Restaurant in Aberdeen! It was all lit up too and was very festive and pretty.
We also went by Ocean Park! =D I knew it was Ocean Park because I saw all the escalators and rides, haha!

We ate dinner at this Taiwanese restaurant. Despite my workout, I couldn't finish my mountainous bowl of rice! I felt really bad and wasteful. =(