Mar 17/18 Weekend

Been falling behind on updates lately! We've been getting busy with our midterms (Melody has midterms, all my work is devoted to my project grous) and it leaves us with little time for going out or updating the blog.

This past weekend however, was a time when we had to go outside and enjoy the nice weather, because it was a rare period full of sunshine. One thing we didn't realize until we arrived here is how overcast it is on a weekly basis. Getting one day of sunshine is an amazing thing. Getting 2 days in a row is lottery luck!

So we woke up on Saturday and went down to the water and enjoyed the warm sunny heat!

 Melody enjoying the sun and water

 A wider shot, showing the bay

Jordan in the sun

Rare commodity

It seems that foam ear plugs are a rare commodity in Hong Kong. My supply of ear plugs for sleeping are running out, and I first thought that I could simply get some at our Park n Shop convenience store on campus, or at a Watson's (similar to London Drugs and Shoppers') here. But nope - at a majority of the places I have been to, they only sell silicon ear plugs. I suppose those would work, but none of the packaging says how many decibels it blocks out, and I'd like to know that before I spent $5 CAD on a pair of ear plugs. So if anyone knows a place that sells regular foam ear plugs for a decent, expected price, please let me know...:P

East on Ma On Shan - a Stroll alongside the Ocean

Not having a plan at all was the plan for March 4th. I, having finished a midterm, was ready to leave the campus and set out to explore! We met up with Chris, and left for our adventure readily. 

Jordan: Hopefully we can knock off 2 stations today...maybe 3 if we're ambitious!
Me: I don't think we should get ahead of ourselves, I think 2 is ambitious enough!

Our goal for our 4 months here in Hong Kong is to visit every MTR station. There are 84 MTR stations in total; we have completed 25. Our progress isn't too bad so far, but we have to take in mind that we will become busy as finals are progressing nearer...but anyway, we still are trying our best!

   

Mountain!

We transit to Choi Hung MTR station, transfer 2 times and soon enough, we were at our destination - Wu Kai Sha (烏溪沙), situated in the Northeastern area of the New Territories. The station is the East-most station along the Ma On Shan (馬鞍山) line, and from our little research we did the night before, we were aware that it was by the water. We also found out that there is a mountain nearby to be hiked - the Ma On Shan mountain, which one of the top 10 highest peaks in Hong Kong!

Sha Tin - A Day of Culture, Heritage and Snoopy

This day, Feburary 26th, was a planned day. Jordan and I had discussed exploring around Sha Tin area for a while, and we invited a few friends that we knew that liked to explore. So on Sunday morning, Chris, Nigel, Jean, Jordan and I congregated at the Sundial at HKUST and left campus for a day of sightseeing. The weather was better than I expected - the whole week had been foggy, wet and misting. But today, it was relatively dry, and quite fogless. I was happy.

My Taiwan Youtube Video :)

Here is the video montage I made about my 10 days in Taiwan :)
Was a ton of fun to make and surprisingly took me way less time than I expected. I think my draft version took me about 3 hours to select and trim video, arrange it, and do a basic render. I then took another hour or so to add basic colour touch-ups and then made an outro session. Turns out that a video montage doesn't take nearly as much time as I expected, but I've already thought of improvements that I want to do to try and match some of the amazing travel footage that I've seen on Vimeo.

Hope you like it! :)
This 5 minute video results from 44 min of recording (very spread out), which equates to 7.2 GB of video. It took about 6 hours of work to select clips, clip them, find music, drop them into place and render.

Lung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail - A step into the past

Lung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail is literally a step into the far past. Not far, far past in terms of China's history, but far back in terms of Hong Kong's cultural heritage. Located up by Tuen Mun MTR station, it's a completely different place, exactly the type of thing we'd been looking to find since we got here.


We got up in late morning and had our breakfast and met up with Chris, and began our MTR journey to get up to Fanling station. It's one of the very farthest stations from our east side of Kowloon, so it was quite a journey. Probably took almost almost an hour to get there! Once we arrived in Tuen Mun, we hopped on another little mini-bus and made up way up into the hills to find the heritage trail. Upon landing, the first realization we make is how spread out and new the houses look. Some of the houses look like they were built in the last 5 years. The siding is new, the metal railings are shiny. We're supposed to be looking for an ancient heritage trail, yet our first observation is brand new housing developments. The mysterious double story of Hong Kong history arises again.


Our very first stop is a map board that clearly declares the beginning of the trial. It is standing in the small courtyard of Tang Chung Ling Ancestral Hall, just a stone's throw from 6 tenant apartment building where a man is washing his patio. Here on Google maps. An old man is sitting in the courtyard, chatting away in Cantonese into a mobile phone, dispelling all conception that this area has been left forgetting by Father time. We look to the map board and see a description about the early walled settlements built by the Tang clan, one of the first clans to move into Hong Kong, settle, and proliferate themselves in history by the construction of walled villages, or "Wai", 圍)

 The Map showing the different wai

Outside Tang Chung Ling Ancestral Hall 

Aberdeen and Ap Lei Chau

It was another cloudy day in Clear Water Bay in Hong Kong. We were hoping for a bit of sun, but the slight fog definitely wasn't going to dampen our spirits. We were headed to a new place for adventure today - Aberdeen!

  

Jordan by the ferry boats

Now, the name 'Aberdeen' to Vancouverites means a shopping mall in Richmond, but it had quite a different meaning here. Aberdeen in Hong Kong is know for their fishing and seafood industry, as well as more tourist geared places such as floating restaurants. The public transit trip there took quite a while - approximately an hour and a half, but we enjoyed the ride as we talked to our fellow exchange friend, Chris, about school, Hong Kong, a bit of philosophy and lots of food.

Valentine's on the Peak, Part 2

...continued from Valentine's on the Peak

Although the view was gorgeous, and the atmosphere romantic and relaxing, we noticed that we were getting chilly and definitely very hungry. So we decided to head on down to the most touristy, non-local food we've had so far in Hong Kong - Bubba Gump Shrimp! 

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co is a chain of restaurants originating in the US, that serves shrimp as their specialty. This restaurant is themed around the novel and movie Forrest Gump - you would have to either read the book or watch the movie to know why in fact, it's called "Bubba Gump". The atmosphere in the restaurant was very...North American. I felt like I was back home, at a regular restaurant in Downtown Vancouver or Toronto. Artists such as Taylor Swift was playing in the background, the place was decorated with pictures of Gump and American friends, and there were signs with English quotes written on them, such as "Stupid is as stupid does". The only thing that felt different than North American restaurants was the waiters and waitress communicating to each other in Cantonese. It was quite an interesting mix...

The dinner was incredibly enjoyable. I must say, as much as I love Chinese food, I do miss American food. The fries were well cooked, the coleslaw was a nice alternative to vegetables in soup, and the shrimp - oh my gosh, the shrimp - was delectable. We ordered the Shrimper's Heaven, a shrimp platter, which we were told was a must get here at Bubba Shrimp. There were 4 kinds of fish - cocktail shrimp, coconut shrimp, tempura shrimp and fried shrimp, and it came with a few dipping sauces that were made to compliment each of the shrimp. We also ordered some Captain's Fish and Chips to share. I was very, very happy. In addition to stuffing ourselves with seafood, I also enjoyed some of the quirky things of the restaurant. For example, if you wanted the waiters'/waitresses' attention, you display the sign, "Stop, Forrest, stop!" and if you're all good and happy, you display the sign "Run, Forrest, run!". The theme and atmosphere of this restaurant spurred us to watch the Forrest Gump movie the next day :)

Since we started the night off being tourists, we of course, ended the night being tourists as well! We wandered around outside for a while, trying to see if we could identify hiking trails that we can take up in the future. We took a couple more photos, then decided to take the scenic route home - the bus! As the bus winded down the mountain, we got to see the beautiful view once more. The buildings became taller and taller as the bus rolled down the mountain, and we became tinier and tinier in comparison, and soon enough, we were once again, only a small fraction of the grand skyscrapers of Hong Kong.

Macau!

Macau, as many people know, is just across the pond in terms of travel from Hong Kong is quite suitable for a day trip. Close enough for a day visit, but a distinctly different culture resides there. Hundreds of years of Portuguese influence still holds strong there, and the food, language and architecture are hallmarks of this small gem. We took an early ferry ride on the TurboJET, so that we could try to come back the same day, and avoid paying for a hotel room.

 Departing HKUST

On the TurbeJET!

After arriving in Macau, we made our way through immigration and out to the main entrance where a slew of tour guides, bus drivers and guys who drive minivans are awaiting the tourists. Many people approach us offering tours as we unfold our large tourist maps and try to find commonality in the sheet of points that we printed off of Google Maps.

Library News!

Dear all,

Jordan and I have been spending quite a bit of time in the library, due to upcoming midterms, projects and assignments. Don't worry; we are still have lots of fun. We try to add to the amazing fun in the library with addition amazing fun of exploring, a couple times a week! We went to the Hong Kong History Musuem and Science Museum yesterday!

Anyway, the point of this post is to tell you about this amazing playlist of songs I have been listening to while I study: http://8tracks.com/thegirlnamedjedrzejko/my-ultimate-study-playlist. It has quite the mixture of songs, from classical composers such as Beethoven to epic movie soundtracks from movies such as Inception. For those who are stuck in the library like us, I hope you enjoy it!

Valentine's on the Peak!

Monday, February 13th was turning out to be a normal day. I had just finished my two classes of the day, and went home to Skype with my brother. As usual, he was being clown. After our conversation, I was sitting in my room, thinking of what I was going to do in the immediate future, when my phone rang.

Melody: Hello?
Jordan: Hey, how's it going?
Melody: Good! How you?
Jordan: Good. Um, hey, do you have dress clothes?
Melody: Uh...yes. I brought a summer dress thing...
Jordan: Ok, good. And what kind of shoes?
Melody: Well...I have a pair of heels and my flats.
Jordan: Oh ok!

So it appears that my boyfriend suddenly developed an interest in women's apparel.