International Day and Big Buddha

Exciting news...I'm finally done with midterms!! Now onto papers and projects. Last Tuesday, our school hosted an International Day. All exchange students were invited to participate. Most international booths included some culture and food! Unfortunately, the Americans didn't have a booth because all the American students assumed someone else from America would do it, and in the end no one signed up! I was going to do it, but then they told me I had to cook for 600 people, and I didn't think I would be able to handle that on my own (I barely cook for myself!). We walked around for a few hours tasting the different foods, and watching the entertainment. It was a pretty cool experience being able to see the differences between all the countries. Just to give you an idea...some of the countries that participated in International Day included: South Korea, France, Germany, Mainland China, Jamaica, Mexico, Slovakia, and a whole lot more!

On Saturday, I ventured to the Big Buddha, also known as the Tian Tan Buddha. The Tian Tan Buddha is located on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. The Big Buddha was completed in 1993 and symbolized the harmonious relationship between man and nature. The ride up to the Big Buddha was gorgeous, plenty of mountains and bays to look at! The Big Buddha is also located next to the Po Lin Monastery so we went to see that as well.

One final comment, Can you believe I've been in Hong Kong for over 2 months!!! I sure can't! There is so much more I want to do, but I think my time is running out!! Hopefully I'll be able to fit it all in!


International Day


Hosts of International Day



Chinese Sugar Art



A Dragon Performance at International Day


The Slovakian Booth


Jamaican Booth

Beijing Booth

Traditional Chinese Opera Performance

Tai Chi Performance

Stairs to International Day

The Very Large Buddha!

Big Buddha

Big Buddha Cont'

Big Buddha from the side

Mountains in the background

The offering of gifts to Buddha

Offering Music

hello.

more offerings to Buddha

The Po Lin Monastery

Gorgeous Flowers

Detail of the Po Lin Monastery

The Po Lin Monastery

More details

Buddha at sunset

Buddha

Buddha from afar

Midterm Madness and the Beach

Well, it's official I've been forced to study! This past week I have been studying like crazy for my midterm exams (3 down, 1 to go...1 of my classes doesn't have a midterm!) Two of the three exams weren't too bad, but my Finance midterm was by far the hardest test I have ever taken (in my life!) The good thing is everyone in my class felt that way, so hopefully the curve will be in my favor = ).

Last weekend I went to Causeway Bay Beach, where I got some much needed sun and relaxation. I also met some more Lingnan exchange students from Vietnam and Mexico (I love meeting new people, and learning about their backgrounds, culture, traditions, etc). Did I forget to mention the weather here is gorgeous, just about 80 everyday with a nice breeze! Sorry, but I just have to rub it in since I know it's getting chillier everyday in Illinois! haha

This weekend I went to Ocean Park with some friends. Well there we got to see a lot of marine life and ride a few rollercoasters! The highlight of this excursion was definitely seeing the famous Asian pandas!! They were so cute! Once night came at Ocean Park, the family friendly zone turned into a very large haunted house! The HK people are great at makeup and costumes!! Scary, but lots of fun!

My parents will be arriving in Hong Kong in less than 2 weeks, so I have started to plan their itinerary! Hopefully, they will approve of my tour-guiding skills!



Causeway Bay



Causeway Bay Beach



Causeway Bay Beach

The girls at Ocean Park

Views from Ocean Park

Ocean Park

Seal or Sea Lion? I'm not sure! oops!

Marine life

Nemo

a large fish, scary!

jelly fish

jelly fish

funny looking fish!

Panda!! He's so cute!

Another cute pic of the Panda

Ocean Park

acrobats performing at Ocean Park (they were good, but not as good as the Shanghai acrobats!)

Halloween at Ocean park

So much detail!

Shanghai Day 1 and 2

Sorry everyone, I tried to make my post go in order, but I ended up getting the day-to-day breakdown in order, but not my trip. I technically started in Beijing, then traveled to Xian, and finally Shanghai! You might want to read from the bottom up, sorry about the confusion!


Thursday, October 1 and Friday, October 2. We arrived in Shanghai around 12:00pm on Thursday (which also happened to be National Day). Sarah and I immediately booked tickets for the Shanghai Acrobats show that night. The show was fabulous! It's crazy the stuff they did, very talented people. We rode the subway back, and let me tell you I think I was in contact with half of the Chinese population that night on the subway! It was packed!! The following day, Sarah and I decided to take a bus out of the city to Suzhou (which is said to be the "Venice of the East.") We never did find this "Venice" and had a pretty hectic day. We decided to go to the General Ambassador's park, which once again was packed with people. We also had a problem at the park with people taking lots of pictures of us and being rude. So, we left pretty quickly from the park and headed towards the water area of suzhou hoping to find a boat ride. Instead we wondered upon a gorgeous park and inside the park we got to go on a 10min gondola ride! All and all the first two days were pretty crazy in Shanghai, and third only get crazier!! haha




Shanghai Acrobats building










Sarah and I waiting for our Bus to Suzhou





The thousands of people in the bus terminal

General Ambassador's Park

General Ambassador's Park

Park cont'

General Ambassador's Park

General Ambassador's Park

Pagoda in random park in Suzhou

Park in Suzhou

Park in Suzhou

Gondola ride!

the lady pushing the boat

the small river we were on.

gondola ride

Guard Post in the park

me along the river in the park

bridge in the park

beautiful views.

Park in Suzhou

Hundreds of Fish!! They were huge!!

Park

Bridge in Park

Waterfall area