Ocean Park Halloween

Hey Everyone,

Sorry for the absence of posts lately. School hasn't really let up since the last time I wrote. There's barely any time to sleep, let alone go anywhere and have anything remotely exciting to share. These past couple weeks have been a tad different. Last week Hong Kong University had its reading week, which was great, until you realized that all the professors assumed that you would have so much more time on your hands. I ended up having more work due during reading week than I've had for any week so far. I managed to make it to school every day that week. That's saying something.

Anyway, enough about school, I wanted to talk about my experience at Ocean Park. I know I've written about it before, but this time I went with classmates to visit their Halloween Haunted Houses. Ocean Park's Halloween Fest is a day and night event which incorporates the theme of Halloween into everything, from pumpkin encounters for the Giant Pandas, skeleton divers in the aquarium as well as setting up four haunted houses. This year Ocean Park had four haunted houses set up: KPop Madness, Murder Factory, and Law Lan's Possessed Possessions (and I don't quite remember the last one).

Of course we visited the aquariums!
Here's a picture of a spotted seal.

As you can see, Z is an amazing photographer,
she managed to get the spotted seal in the picture,
and it looks like its name, a spot!

We had gone last Saturday and wow, was it packed. The queue (no one says "line" in HK) was ridiculously long for everything. The KPop haunted house in my opinion was a waste of time. There was nothing remotely frightening about horribly off key KPop singers... but I think the reason we went in was because someone had said that there was a very good looking guy working there.... sadly he wasn't working when we went in. I wasn't the only one disappointed.

Z and I went on a few of the amusement rides.
 The older rollar coaster rides made me feel
like my head was a ball between the paddles
of pin ball machine. Fun but painful.

The Murder Factory haunted house was the next house we visited. It wasn't too bad. The dismembered body parts were piled high in the corners and had more than enough graphic content to be distracted and not notice the actors jump at you while you turn a corner. While walking through, the girls behind us were screaming their heads off, and at one point attempted to hold onto me... weird right? They clustered together and all of them were shaking like chiwawas. Other than almost going deaf from screams, this house was a lot of fun.

Walking through the recreation of "Old Chinatown"

Law Lan's Possessed Possessions was the last haunted house that Z and I went to before we left the park. It was rumoured to be the scariest, and we were looking forward to it. The queue took an hour and a half to enter, as they only let people in in groups of 10-12 people. As we finally reached the entrance Z and I were excited and nervous. The rest of the people that came with us had decided to stay longer and hit the haunted houses later at night, so it was just the two of us. We thought that as long as we weren't the first or the last of the group to enter we would be fine, as people in those positions got scared the most. Well, when we finally got in, we were the last ones... great. The house took a good 5-10 minutes to walk through, and the entire time we were watching our backs. There was this one actor that had followed us for a good two minutes before returning back to his zone. I would have to say that this house was definitely worth the trip. I was smiling through the entire thing. Some of the places where the actors hid were great, in the walls, the ceilings, or they would just pop out of the walls and get your heart racing. What can I say, I may be an in the closet adrenaline junkie.

When we found out that we were the last two in the line of 12
entering the scariest haunted house

I would definitely go again next year. It was a blast, but to anyone who will be visiting Ocean Park's Halloween Fest, I would advise you to go in the evening. It is a completely different atmosphere and well worth it.

Have a Happy Halloween!

Quick Update

Hey Everyone,

I hope you've all been enjoying your weekend and relaxing. I wish I was doing the same. Lately, school has picked up, and it's deadline after deadline after deadline. This past week my studio had a review, was assigned an obscene amount of articles to read, produce a project report (and guess who got designated to be an editor... yup... me) and two assignments due in the next couple of days. To gage how much work this actually is, picture this.... I've been at school everyday for the past 2.5 weeks and this is the scene I usually see before I head home.

Sure, it's pretty but not when it's near midnight and you still have a load of assignments to complete for the next day. Anyway, just wanted to check in, say hi, and reassure people, that I am eating all my meals.

I hope those of you in school are getting more sleep than I am! It's back to work for me!

Take Care!

Mid Autumn Moon Festival

Hey Everyone,

Happy (Be-lated) Mid-Autumn Festival!

I know what you're all expecting: that I have these wonderful pictures of lanterns, and lots and lots of people camped out and picnic-ing in Victoria park, but sadly I don't.

School has been taking up almost all my time lately, and sadly, I have very little of a weekend to speak of. In fact, I could probably sum up my entire weekend in two words... that's right, two. This weekend was TOO SHORT!

It's funny when you realise that I've had essentially Thursday-Sunday off, but I'll tell you why it's SO hilarious. Thursday's evening class was cancelled due to a lecture being scheduled, so, I having one of the most brilliant ideas in the world, decided to go to school anyway. I really did go to school and work in the computer lab, and not waste my entire day away, sort of. Now, if that wasn't bad enough to take a chunk out of my weekend, then attending the evening lecture was. Sure, the lecture was an hour and a half, which was completely fine... but the questions afterwards dragged on for another hour and a half, and seriously, more than half of them were along the lines of "I've been following your work for several years now, and I wanted to know how important _______ was in your design?" It may have been my growling stomach that was affecting my generally pleasant but I couldn't help but be anxious to leave, and think "Well, if you had been following so-and-so's work for several years, I would think that you would have found out by now and not make me sit here." By the time I got out, it was well past 8:30pm... and on a non-school night, goodness! Saturday and Sunday weren't much better, still work, work and more work, BUT...

Street lamp and Moon
Walk back to my place.

My Friday evening was definitely better in terms of celebration. I was invited for dinner with Aunt P and the rest of the family on dad's side. There was a lot of food, more than enough for left overs the next day. Aunt P had prepared: crab, shrimp, chicken, assorted meats, abalone, and lots of veggies. It was certainly one of the best meals that I've had in a while and the company was great.

It might take me ages to learn how
to cook as well as Aunt P does

In addition to all the wonderful food, I had the chance to try many different types of fruits that night, and to top it off, many different flavours of Moon Cake. Who knew? I thought that there was only one, but they had Moon Cakes that were smaller and softer than the traditional lotus filled ones, such as: sour lemon, chocolate truffle, some sort of mango dessert and a couple more that I can't recall.

Many desserts and only a fraction of the Moon Cakes

I had a great time, and I really enjoyed spending time with my family over here. I'm looking forward to our next get together but until then, I hope everyone had a wonderful Mid-Autumn Festival! I'll make sure I'll attend the official festivities next year!

PS: for those of you who don't know what tradition moon cake is, its a dessert that is eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival, where there is lunar worship and moon watching. They were often given to friends and families during gatherings. Moon cakes are generally round or rectangular and are 10 cm in diameter and 4ish cm thick. They're made with a rich filling from red bean or lotus seed paste, and usually contain egg yolks from salted duck eggs.

White Lotus/Egg yolk
Fun Fact: One Moon Cake is more than 800 calories

Hey Everyone,

I've been attending school for two weeks now, and already I am bombarded with homework. It's been tough figuring out when to make food, do laundry, do my homework, and not procrastinate. I guess in a way, me writing my blog is a form of procrastination. I have to submit an online answer to one of my profs very soon, but I think I'll survive. If I don't, well, you'll probably hear about it later this week.

Today, I received a letter from C. When I walked in the door this afternoon, there it was, and not one moment too soon. Lately, I've been experiencing waves of homesickness. It'll be little things that set me off like: not being able to find popcorn around, not having the rest of my wardrobe, taking the bus late at night, or sometimes even food because it'll remind me of how lucky I was when I was living at home.

I was very happy to hear from C. She even sent me photos of my sister's graduation, our choir adventures, and even the time when we went to go visit a friend. Receiving her letter made me tangibly remember that I have awesome friends.

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the support and encouragement. I hope to survive this year with all my fingers in tact, have a blast, and see you all when I get back. Leave me a message and I'll get back to you.

Until next time... Take Care!

The workstation at my place
with my new pictures

First Week of School

Hey Everyone!

I survived my first week of school! Already, I'm starting to experience what Hong Kong is famous for.... its fast pace! It has only been a week and I've had readings, submissions, and project briefs thrust into my hands! The other day, I was informed by email from one of my TA's that we had a small assignment due for the next day for a class that hadn't even started yet! I had to laugh; had I checked my email in the morning, like I usually do, I would have attended class unprepared! Great first impression, right? Thank goodness I had made a friend who happened to be in the same course. We're expected to know so much here, but everyone in MArch 1 seems to be as lost as I am. We're all dreading that lovely Revit modelling assignment. I'm sure we're all secretly hoping that we don't have to digitally model and re-create construction drawings of Zaha Hadid's Innovation Tower... And don't get me wrong, it IS on the list that will be assigned to an unlucky soul... hopefully that unlucky soul will not be me!

So far, I've made a handful of new friends. It's very interesting to see that the majority of MArch students are not from HKU but from schools around the globe. I've met people from Melbourne, Vienna, London, Mainland China, the States, and of course Hong Kong. Having friends and people in the same situation as myself really does make me feel like I belong, rather than being the odd man out. I've heard from a lot of foreigners not of Asian descent that it is very difficult for them to be included in a group, but I haven't encountered such a problem. Hopefully, I never will.

A few of us went to Central to visit City Gallery. The gallery was a brief history of Hong Kong, its statistics and intended developments. One of their installations included a large map of the HK area and permitted you to build the future of HK. I'm not sure if my friends would have done it, if I wasn't so enthused to play, but they
entertained my inner child.

There were a lot of blocks
... and yes we did clean up

Good luck to all my friends starting a new school year or starting their new job! May you all get through the year with plenty of smiles, great friends, reasonable profs/employers, and more hair on your head then when you first started! Take care and being busy is no excuse not to keep in touch!

Nam Sang Wai

Hey Everyone,

Last week or maybe it was two weeks back, my cousin J invited me to spend the afternoon with her. We hadn't spent a lot of time together in the past, because of the distance, but we were trying to make up for it. She had suggested that we try our hand at photography, and go to Nam Sang Wai to experience a different perspective.

Walking through a Clearing

Nam Sang Wai is located in Yuen Long. The place gives me the impression of a natural reserve. I'm told that many people like to walk and bike to the area, to escape the busy city life and enjoy the quietness of the park. The park does give you the sense that you have entered the country side. There's a river along one end of the park, a paved road, and very few buildings along the river bank.

From Across the Pond

We had taken the train to one of the stations and had planned to walk to the park. J had gone to the park once before, with friends, but she didn't know exactly how to get there. We walked for maybe five minutes and then of course we sort of got lost. We then decided that it was probably for the best to go and catch a cab.

Usually in Hong Kong, 20 HK$ can get me from my place to Central. The taxi fare started off at 16$ and then ended up driving almost 40$ worth. "Goodness," I thought to myself, "that's far!"

House in the Distance

There were a lot of photogenic places within the park. Among them, was this house in the photo above. Both J and I managed to walk all the way to its front door, but no one was home. It was all boarded up and fenced in. Walking on weed grown pathways was a lot of fun, almost as if we were exploring. I'm curious by nature so of course seeing if anyone lived in the house was a must know!

Dock/Fishing Area

Another iconic photographed site was the dock (seen above). Although the photograph doesn't show any people, there were a few that were attempting to fish. I say attempting because when we walked back a few hours later, it didn't look like they caught anything. 

Shanty House(s) 01

There were a lot of shanty houses within the park. Many of them were sinking into the ground, fenced off, and even abandoned. What surprised me though, was that there were so many of them, and a few were clearly inhabited. It was such a contrast coming from Hong Kong Island where skyscrapers dominated to this community where their buildings were held together by wire, nails, and whatever else was available. It was hard to believe that I was still in Hong Kong and that there were people living in these conditions just a few miles away.

Shanty House(s) 02

Although these buildings were falling apart, I found them fascinating and somewhat beautiful in their own respect. For some reason the idea of different materials of boards, siding, pretty much anything and everything fused together to make what is necessary to live, had something poetic about it. But it could also be that I'm tired of looking at the same type of curtain walled building. This was a visual difference that I could appreciate and enjoy without being bombarded with advertisement. These buildings looked as if they could fall apart any second, but upon closer inspection they were soundly placed on stilts, above the marshy ground!

Shanty House(s) 03

After a few hours, maybe three we started walking back towards the stretch of road leading out of the park. It was one of the longest walking experiences in my life, well at least in HK. I'm exaggerating here, but it sure felt like it. It was hot and humid that day, but thankfully there were was an overcast of clouds so the sun was not beating on us.... but there were no taxis coming into the park as it did go anywhere except lead to a dead end. J suggested we walk back, I thought she was crazy, but we weren't going to just sit and cross our fingers waiting for a taxi to appear. So we walked, and walked, and walked. After a good hour of walking in the heat, we saw a taxi. Thank goodness! According to google maps if we had walked all the way back to catch the train, it would have taken us two hour and a half hours... on top of the hours we had already walked!

Even though my legs felt like they were detached from my body after all that walking, I'm very happy that I was able to see a different side of HK. Thanks J for taking me!

Welcoming All New Students

Hey Everyone,

Today, I attended Hong Kong University's Inauguration Ceremony for New Students. The ceremony was the first formal University gathering for new incoming students, freshmen and graduates. We had the opportunity to meet the Vice-Chancellor, senior academics, alumni bodies and the President of HKUSU. During the ceremony, students were invited to put on HKU's traditional Green Gown, Following the ceremony, tea receptions with respective faculties allowed for professors and student to interact with one another.

This sounds all peachy right?

Inauguration Pamphlet left on everyone's seat

The celebration started at 10 am. I woke up earlier than usual, by summer standards of course, and got dressed. I was debating between a grey top and black pencil skirt but changed my mind at last minute to sport a blurple (blue and purple) coloured dress and thick belt. The invitation had indicated "formal" attire, so I grabbed my nude heels and stuffed them in my purse. I figured that I'd switch into them after hiking up the stairs needed to get to the University campus. When I arrived at 9:15am, I went to look for the lecture hall. It was not located on the map! How convenient, I thought to myself, at least I'm here early!

As I meandered my way through campus, I had gut feeling that something wasn't right. There were plenty of people around... but a lot of them we wearing black skirts, and white tops! "Uh-oh!" I thought to myself... please don't tell me formal wear meant business attire: white blouse and black bottoms...

To my horror, almost everyone
was wearing the same outfit!

The night before, I had spoken to my friend back in Winnipeg about "formal" attire. We wondered what that had meant? I mean, did formal wear mean "evening wear" or just dress up more, like a Sunday best? The ceremony was in the middle of the day right? Haha, boy was I wrong! Business attire! Yay... and here I was in a obviously very blue dress, at least I brought the heels and pulled off formal. Sure, I was fine walking in, and sitting down, but secretly I was cursing whoever wrote that lovely invitation... they should have just written, "Wear a white blouse, and black slacks or a skirt... otherwise people WILL stare at you!"

And yes, they do stare...

Image by C.Wong

Other than being one of the handful of people (aka foreigners) that didn't get the white blouse, black bottom memo, the celebration was actually quite enjoyable. I met a few of the professors from my faculty as well as was introduced to a couple other M.Arch students. Everyone was very friendly, and very interesting to talk to. Not a bad morning after all.

Well, after this experience, now I know. Their version of formal attire is a white blouse, and a black bottoms... I wonder if I would have felt out of place had I worn my first choice a grey blouse and my pencil skirt.... hmm... Probably!

Note to self:

Formal = business attire (white top and black bottoms)

Since I have no white blouses... looks like I'm going shopping!