Hong Kong Day 54: My Last Hours in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Day 53 continuted:
After the “adventure” we walked back to lok fu. Oh wait, before that I gave the boys gifts I had made. I gave most of the boys who came picture frames with a photo of them with me or them with me and a group. I hope it was ok with them and I hope that they know they can take the photo out and replace it with any picture they want. Of course sean’s picture was the best =) but that is because he is sooooooo handsome =P anywho, I also made them cds from music I like. I hope they like them. I made one that was the same for each of them and then I made a cd specific to what I thought that friend would like. If I remember I will post the list on my livejournal. Oh and some of the boys got me gifts too. Kinnex and pui got me a nice soccer jersey with “manda” written on the back and #9. isn’t that sooo nice. And sean got me a cute little magnetic photo frame which of course I will have to put a photo of the two of us!! and he wrote me a lovely little farewell note. Jayson after the bbq stayed up late and drew a wonderfully delightful caricature of me playing soccer. It was done so well that I think I will frame it and hang it on my wall. I will post of photo of it later, it is amazing and better than what you can pay 50 dollars for at an amusement park. So that was very awesome indeed.

Anyways then we went to lok fu. Kinnex told me that he, Pui, and basketball girl wanted to go to my hotel and hang out with me and help me pack, but that the other guys would probably go home. He said that a few of them would go to the airport but the others would not and so I would have to say goodbye to them then. Up until now, I had been pretty composed, but I couldn’t really say much to the group and just started to cry. I didn’t want them to see my tears so I just said goodbye or waved or did both –I cant really remember--- and started walking back to my hotel. Basketball girl ran up and gave me tissues. I tried to compose myself but I was very sad. Kinnex and pui came up to see how I was doing and then I noticed that all the other guys were following us. I asked kinnex what they were doing and he said that they were walking me to my hotel with them. Hehe how nice and cute. So we made it back to the hotel and I showed some of them my hotel room –just to peek in because it was soo messy because I was halfway packed. Then I was able to be composed enough to say goodbye and give hugs…although they were rather awkward hugs because I do not think that hugging is a normal goodbye response in hk. Maybe I am wrong though. Dennis made me feel so good because instead of me having to initiate the hug, he came to me to give me a hug. That made me feel not as weird and definitely did my heart good. Once everyone left, it was just me, pui, kinnex and bball girl. Oh and Chelsea and andrea were in my room too so bball girl got to meet them. And she wanted to take a photo with any American she saw. Even when I knocked on mike’s door to tell him that I would not be taking a taxi with him, she asked to take a photo with him. It was very adorable. Chelsea liked her too because she seemed so outgoing and friendly. After a while though, they left so that I could really get some packing done. I was up until 3am packing and somehow got all my suitcases to close. Now that was a miracle!! Then I tried to sleep, but I could not sleep very well because I was nervous about the flight and saying goodbye to my friends the next day.

Hong Kong Day 54: My last few hours in Hong Kong
I woke up at 6:45am because I was going to meet some of my friends to go to the airport at 7:30. (if I had not done this, and just taken the taxi with mike, I would not have had to leave until 9:45, but this was definitely worth waking up and going with my friends to the airport –and it was so incredibly nice of them to do this for me!!) I finished up the last bit of my packing. And was surprised when ives stopped by my hotel at like 7am to say goodbye. That was nice of him, a little strange and unexpected, but nice. Anyways I said goodbye to Chelsea. I was really thankful that she was my roommate and partner in work. She was so nice and I enjoyed spending 8 weeks with her and I did not even get sick of her!! =) and I dont think she got too sick of me either –at least not a lot I hope!! =P anyways Jayson, Cindy, Kinnex, Pui, Sean, and even Dennis (!!) all came to my hotel to take me to the airport. And Henry met us at the airport. I was soo shocked by how many wanted to come and it was so nice!! And they were soo incredible tired too. I was impressed that they came! We took the bus and they helped me roll my suitcases. We got on the Expo bus and it only cost 18 hk dollars. If I had taken the taxi with mike it would have been around 300 hk dollars!! So I saved dr. fairweather some money!! We got to the airport around 9am and then had breakfast. It was my last meal in hong kong –at least until I go back (hopefully!). It was some scrambled egg and sausage thing which was not too bad. And I had my last hong kong cup of tea. Oh how I will miss having all the tea that they give you in hong kong!! Anyways after that we just sat around and waited until I had to leave for the terminal. I was able to choke back most of my tears even when I was standing in line to get my ticket. It was funny because as I was standing in the United line, my friends were making a big show about comforting sean –acting like he was soo distraught, etc. it was very funny to me!! =) –actually it still makes me laugh now. after that we walked around a bit and I picked up some name tags for Dr. DeLong that he had asked me to get for him at the airport. And then it was time to say good bye.
As we were walking to where I would leave them, pui kept telling me that he was so upset –as was I! Then it was time to say goodbye. There was no holding back my tears this time. It was very sorrowful and they cried too. They cried for me!! That made me feel glad that I meant something to them, but it also broke my heart because I did not want them to be sad and also because I was sad for my loss. I think I felt more upset than them perhaps because as I think kinnex told me before, by leaving I lose many friends and each of them only lose me. I agree with him, although I have no way of knowing. It was very sad. Kinnex didn’t cry when I was there but I heard he did later. Only sean did not cry. He is sooo strong =P or just does not like me that much. I will pretend it is the first option. I gave them all hugs…they were good hugs too. And it was so sad to walk away from them behind the walls knowing that I may never ever see them again. Although I really hope I will see them. I am going to save my money so that I can go back hopefully and see them. But anyways I go to the airplane and we boarded and everything went smoothly –well mostly. Mike and I rearranged our seats so we could sit next to each other, not that it mattered that much since I just tried to sleep the whole ride –no wonder too since I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before! It was hard to sleep though because there were two kids behind me that kept kicking my seat =/ but overall, the flight was just as expected. LONG and BORING, but I managed and slept during most of it. So that was good. It was nice to have mike to chat with a little and for him to help me put my ridiculously large backpack up in the overhead bin.

Anyways I got back and it was easy to find Benjamin and my parents and it was soooooo goood to see them. On our way back to my house, we stopped at Chipotle (http://www.chipotle.com/) because I had been craving it when I was in HK. I think this is because there are not many Mexican restaurants in hk, and although I am not a huge fan of Mexican, I do love the burrito I like to get at Chipotle!! I am still a little jet lagged because I get so tired in the evenings and midafternoons, but I think I am doing well. I have enjoyed going to see Pirates of the Caribbean and going to church and the duneland health center and of course eating at dairy queen. I especially loved driving my little car again!! YIPPEEEE!! But it is strange to be back. I am happy to be back and it almost seems as though I have not even left and that hong kong was all just a lovely dream with some mathematic nightmares =P but I still cry sometimes because I miss my friends. But at least I still have msn to talk to them with. Anyways I am soo beat right now I need to go to sleep so goodnight all.
Here are photos of me eating a delicious burrito of chicken, corn, cheese, rice, and beans...I know it may not look that good, but it is amazingly yummy!

This will be my last official post for this blog. I will start another one that will not be as specific as this. You can email me or IM me or msn me and ask me what the new address is. But for all of you who read this, I apologize for my “long windedness” and the rambling I did. Words cannot describe my feelings about this trip, but I tried. But to you who have read this faithfully or even not so faithfully, I thank you and hope you have gotten to see a glimpse of the amazing experiences that I had in hong kong. I really loved it and I cannot believe that I almost didn’t go!! Thank you for all of you who encouraged me to take this exciting trip!! And a special thanks to all my hong kong friends who befriended me and showed me so much kindness when I deserved none of it. Without you, my trip would not have been as amazing. Thank you so much. I love you all and will never forget you or our time together this summer.

-Amanda Marie Harsy
July 26, 2006 1:30am

Hong Kong Days 52 & 53

I have not wanted to update this for many reasons. First of all, my last few days in Hong Kong were very busy between finishing up work and getting last minute things done in hk. Second, I was in a long airplane ride and then wanted to enjoy the time I had with Benjamin (my boyfriend) and my family while I was here. And thirdly, I miss Hong Kong and writing about it will make me sad as well. But here I am and Im going to suck it up! I hope I make some sense as I write because I am watching Sin City as I write. I really like the movie, but I have seen it before so hopefully I can get this done. =) my favorite characters are Miho and Marv. And Nancy (Jessica alba) is sooo hot in it =D

Hong Kong Day 52: Thursday July 20th
Last night I could not sleep. This whole week has been rough on my sleeping schedule. I just cannot seem to relax at night. But last night was very bad. I went to bed around midnight and was still awake at 3:30am. I was nervous about our presentation in the morning and the longer it took me to sleep the more nervous I got because I knew I would be so tired when I got there. Well I must have finally fallen asleep, and the morning was really rough, but I managed to get myself dressed and all set for our final presentation.
The presentation went well enough. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t horrible, but it sure was boring! The other presentations seemed somewhat boring too, so Chelsea and I were in good company. They surprised Chelsea with a delicious chocolate birthday cake (since her birthday was the previous Saturday). That was so cute and nice of everyone. After the presentations, we had a nice little dim sum lunch at the refrew restaurant. Well it was dim sum, so I didn’t really enjoy it all that much, but I enjoyed the vegetables. Finally around 2 we were done and I could try to take a nap. I didn’t fall asleep, but after the nap I felt better and Andrea, Chelsea, Nick, and I went to temple street market to get last minute gifts. I then worked on finishing cds and other gifts for my hong kong friends. Speaking of which it was fun going to jussco –a department store that seemed to have everything kinda like walmart—to get the frames. They did not have a big selection nor many kinds of the frames so I kinda cleaned them out and couldn’t get similar frames. Oh well I think it all worked out. It was a late night because somehow even though I had only slept a few hours, I was not so tired.

Hong Kong Day 53: Friday July 21st, I slept in way too late Friday morning because I didn’t wake up when the hotel construction started. But I got to it and did some shopping around town. It took longer than expected and I didn’t really eat much except little bits of food here and there because I was preparing for my long flight. At 6:30 I met kinnex and henry at mcdonalds near the lok fu mtr station. They and my other hong kong friends all got together for a farewell bbq. It was so nice of them to go. We went to lion rock county park which is somewhat near lok fu. I enjoyed it a lot. There were places for grills and the guys had bought some charcoal and Tony seemed to be the official fire fanner. He would periodically fan the fire so that it wouldn’t go out. They couldn’t use wood because it is so humid and wet there that the branches wouldn’t work well for fire fuel. They use skewers like how we use in the usa, but some of the food was different. They had hotdogs or as they call it “sausage.” They also had chicken wings and chunk of beef, chicken, and fish balls. They had no ketchup and only had a jar of honey that they used to flavor the meats. Here is a photo of some of them bbqing.
















They also had slices of bread and marshmallows that they roasted. It was strange to roast a slice of bread. It was also strange because they were worried about my eating habits. This is because when I am roasting hot dogs in a fire, I like to burn then. I dunno, maybe I am weird, but I like how they taste when they are overcooked –perhaps this is because I don’t normally like the taste of hotdogs, so burning it disguises the taste. Anyways I burned my hot dog, just how I like it, but Tony came up to me and was like, “You cannot eat that because it is carcinogenic –causes cancer!” How considerate!! But actually I have never heard of it, although it makes sense that it should be true. Still I ate it anyways, telling them that I like to eat the cancer, it tastes good to me ---or as jared would say, “it feels good to me!” hehe. (PS I am excited to see him hopefully soon!!) so I ate the cancerous hotdog. And it did taste good. I missed ketchup though. =/ overall the food was yummy and the company was just as good. Some girls who were bbqing near us came up and asked if they could take a photo with me. I am always surprised when this happens, but the girls were very nice. They were there celebrating one of their birfdays (the birfday girl’s name was wendy by the by). Oh I also met Basketbal girl, a the girl kinnex was worrying about seeing because of his lip a few days earlier. She was really nice and her real name is Elaine. I just call her basketball girl because that is what kinnex and pui call her. She was very friendly and wanted to take a lot of photos (so we hit it off pretty well hehe). That was cool to talk to her and enjoy everyone’s company. We walked around in the dark walking path of the park. They called it “having an adventure.” It was fun but not scary because we did not leave the path –not that we really could. It made me want to show them the woods in my backyard or at taylor. That would have been a lot more adventure-like, but this was still good. After that we left. And right now I am going to stop updating because I am dead tired –I think I am still jet lagged! All I want to do is sleep and I suppose it is good not to have too long of a post. Anyways I will finish the update on the rest of Friday night and Saturday tomorrow. Goodnight all! and goodmorning in hong kong!
here is a photo of the people who went to the bbq. =)

front: Elaine (basketball girl) and me.
back: Cindy, Jayson, Kenneth, Kinnex, Sean, Pui, Paul, Dennis, Henry, Tony, and Ho (oh and william is hiding behind tony)

And it is all over...

made it back in the usa all in one piece! I will update on the last few days in hong kong soon.

I am sad to leave

Hong Kong Day 50 & 51

Yesterday and today Chelsea and I have been working hard on our final paper and presentation, so i wont go into too much detail. yesterday was my last soccer game in hong kong. The inevitable happened, i lost my soccer ball...well actually steve lost it. bastard! --and later he called me a pig --he said i looked like one!! --now my self-confidence is lost! oh well there are worse things that can happen. anyways i was very tired because the night before i could not sleep..i laid in bed for three hours and still could never fall asleep. but i was also in a foul mood because i was playing like crap at soccer. but later i did a little better and had a good time. i will miss playing soccer with my friends here. =( oh and it was nice of pui to stop by, talking with him made me not as much of a grouch. after soccer we went to mcdonalds and then i went back to my hotel to sleep. although i had not slept much the night before, it still took forever for me to sleep i think because playing soccer wound me all up. oh well today i felt good.

speaking of today, i worked constantly on the paper and presentation except for walking to festival walk to get lunch and then meeting pui and kinnex for dinner --which i was very glad to do because work is so very boring!! kinnex was all worried because he was going to meet a girl he likes, but he had a cut on his lip which he was very self-conscious about. hehe, he is very vain and pui and i enjoyed making fun of him. he even wore a mask over his mouth to try to protect it. and he talked funny haha. i told him to have more confidence in his personality and not assume all he has is his looks --after all beauty is fleeting and we will all get old and ugly...except for my grandparents ---they are sooooo cute!! =D i hope when i get old that i am cute and not too ugly. pui told me a look like a racoon sometimes after i told him that at soccer camp some of the girls nicknamed me "Meeko" (like the racoon in pocohauntas). what is with me and and asian guys thinking i look like animals. anways i have talked too much and must try to sleep and prepare myself for tomorrow's presentations...=/

Hong Kong Day 49: All by mysellllffff

Today I worked hard on our paper. Then went and did some shopping, but I cannot talk about it---it is a surprise –unfortunately I think I totally got ripped off. Pooface! After that I had no one to eat with because henry and his friends could not meet me. I almost called sean, but was too shy so I went to the grocery store (the Taste) and bought myself some sushi. Oh yes, Chelsea and andrea and the others had already eaten, so I just took my sushi to CityU and ate at a table there. While I was eating, it suddenly started to downpour. Even though I was sad to eat alone, I actually enjoyed the chance to have some time to myself and enjoy the beauty of the rain storm. I really felt close to God during the storm. It was so incredibly magnificent!! And the sushi was good too =) After shopping, I went running and it was nice even though it was raining. Hehe many toads almost lost their life today because I kept almost stepping on toads as they were wandering along the running path. Then I went back here and have been working on making cds for my hong kong friends. And most of you know how much time that takes for me. Sooo many super awesome songs…. Not enough room on a CD-R! tomorrow I hope we can finish our paper, but I think that is too much to hope for.

Hong Kong Day 48

Today was a day full of shopping. I woke up at 9:30…thanks to the construction. Then I went to the jade market and bought some more gifts for family and I bought myself a black necklace with matching earrings and bracelet. Then Sam and I met Mike and we walked along the bird market and flower market (of course mike bought some flowers!). It was amazing how many flowers there were. And it was also amazing how many birds there were! All of it was very scrunched together too. But other than that, it was not worth looking at for very long. After that I was so gross that I went back with them and took a shower.

Here I am at the flower market

Because Chelsea slept most of the day and was just going to eat leftovers, I did not have plans for dinner. So since Ives and I had talked about meeting for dinner, I left him a message with my cell number and told him that if he was free, I could meet him for dinner. So while I was shopping he called me and so we met and ate at a Japanese restaurant in TST. It was delicious! But he did not let me pay =/ it was very nice of him. He also was so generous and bought me a traditional style Chinese jacket. It is very cool!! After dinner we walked around TST and went to Victoria harbor. Then we went to mong kok and took photos in this game arcade place. It was so crowded with everyone getting photos in the little photo-booth thing. We have them in the usa, but not as many. You can get stickers and also a card thing. It was crazy because you can write on them and add things to them. It was fun. I think we looked good. I especially liked the photos we took for the sticker ones. Anyways after that he walked me back to my hotel and showed me his school from when he was young. Now I am very tired so I will finally go to bed. goodnight everyone!
Here I am with Ives!














PS I think that I forgot to mention, the reason hk people do not like Disney as much as ocean park I think mostly is because they have not watched the Disney movies…so how are they supposed to get the references or jokes? They cannot appreciate Disney even though it is for children! Hehe. Anyways I think that is interesting and I believe that hk people are missing out by not seeing all the Disney movies =P