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Published: November 4th 2009
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Hello! So this is month #2 in Hong Kong. Time really flies, I can't believe it. This past month has been a lot of fun. I have been playing tourist, visiting all the attractions and seeing all the sights. There's always something new to do in Hong Kong!Life is starting to fall into place here. Work is going well. I teach kids half the time and adults half the time. And every single one of my students is great. One of my students, Tanya from Beijing, has been particularly great. Since I had to move out of my apartment in Wan Chai a couple days ago (the lease was up for my landlord), she has generously offered me her apartment until I go back to America in a few weeks. So I moved in two days ago and so far so good. The area, Causeway Bay, is not as convenient as my last place and a little bit more noisy and crowded, but the apartment is really nice and I'm less than a block away from my gym! It's not really my ideal situation, because I'm kinda living in her living room area...she has a nice big futton😊, but it's ok,
I've had worse...
So overall, Hong Kong is treating me nicely. I have some great friends, who explore the city with me and I've been meeting tons of new people. I think that since there are a lot of us foreigners here, we can all relate to each other, making it easier.
So, I have done quite a few things these past few weeks. I saw the famous Big Buddha in Lantau Island, which was pretty interesting. We had to take a 25 minute cable car ride in the sky, which was probably the most interesting part. Then you land on this small island. It was very modern and new, full of little shops and Starbucks, then you walk up some 200 steps to reach the top of this gigantic sitting Buddha. Took our picture with him, and left. We also went to the famous Temple Street Night Market that day and did a little shopping, ate a little street food, drank a little beer. Overall, a fun day.
The following weekend we felt the need to see more Buddha, so we went to the 10,000 Buddha Temple. Buddha's everywhere. Let's just say I am officially Buddha-ed out. Temple after
temple for the past 4 months, I think I need a break... Later that week, I went to the horse races with Kyle and Tanja. I was so happy because it felt like home. I have been going to the races since I was a kid with my Dad and it was so fun seeing the horses and placing bets... even tho I lost everything😞 I guess I needed Dad there. They race the horses at night, which makes it more of a social event. They have beer tents everywhere, which means lots of foreigners of course! Such a fun night!
Last weekend my "roomie", Irene, took me and my new roommate, Tanya, to Disneyland for the Halloween festivities. I had a blast! I'm slightly obsessed with Disneyland, and even tho it doesn't compare to my Disneyland in LA, it was still Disneyland, just on a smaller scale. They had Space Mountain (exactly like LA's Space Mountain), the Jungle Cruise, It's a Small World (I saw a bunch of boyfriends with their girlfriends on this ride and I felt so sorry for them), Disney Parade + Halloween Parade!, Lion King Show and lots of Halloween scary mazes, which were surprisingly
extremely scary, like the ones in Knotts Scary Farm! Not for kids, ironic? I had sooo much fun that day, but was exhausted by the end, as I always am after a Disneyland day. Now I was pumped for Halloween! I had the busiest week ever prior to Saturday's Halloween festivities, so I was without costume so I had to throw something together quickly. literally 2 hours before we left the house. So I guess the main thing to do in HK for Halloween is to go to Lan Kwai Fong, which is the busy nightlife area of Hong Kong. Very popular amongst tourists and foreigners. Always a good time because there are tons of bars and clubs and, since public drinking is legal, drunks everywhere. Since this is the place to be for Halloween, my friends and I decided to go. We left what we thought would be early, 9PM, since we heard Halloween and New Years were the craziest times of the year. When we arrived the roads had been closed down and thousands of people were in a line waiting to enter the "Lan Kwai Fong". It took us 2 hours of parading up and down the
barricaded streets like cattle, photographers everywhere capturing the crazies, locals asking to take pictures every 5 minutes with the crazy foreigner in a silly costume, just drunken madness and craziness EVERYWHERE. We finally ended up at a really nice club, which is not really my thing after working the Hollywood scene, but still had a good time dancing the night away. All in all, it was quite an experience. One that I will probably never do again😊
So as of today, I have exactly 4 weeks until I go back home for Christmas. I'm starting to get in the spirit of things just because the day after Halloween, Christmas decorations go up everywhere. Starbucks has officially changed their cups red! what! It's also really weird because the weather went from being warm morning, day and night, to really cool and windy like fall back home. I love it!
Ok everyone, I'll be seeing you all very very soon! Ciao! -Roxy
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