Shopping in Mongkok No 2

Back to Mongkok for some more bargains since the girls wanted to go after they saw my last haul. We didn't really get to go for long as we didn't leave til 6.30 tonight and then we got hungry at like 9pm so it wasn't a crazy shopping trip.

That being said however I did manage to get a few items :).

I got these awesome wedge boots which are just sooooo right for winter. I am thinking of going back and getting them in grey too. They were $160HKD (so $25AUD).

My personal favourite were these two cuffs I got! So so Alexander Wang/CC Skye/Hermes/Burberry-esque! I got one black and silver studded one (it looks gold-ish in the photos) and one black and gold studded one. How cool is the zipper edge?

It looks so sick on as well! They were both only $20HKD EACH (so like $3AUD each!!!). It kind of makes me wonder why I even shop in Australia?

And I also got this Union Jack Bag- very limited edition Chanel! (Apparently, also really "topshop" too according to the British Girls.) But I'm sure Chanel would have done it first, only for "topshop" to rip it off a few months later. This was $100HKD ($14AUD). It also has the typical Chanel gold hardware+leather straps. Can't wait to rock this baby!

After shopping tonight, the girls and I all went to eat KFC in Hong Kong for the first time! It was pretty wicked! I love how it is more asian-ised. Instead of potato and gravy you can get rice with mushroom sauce. Also they have a lot more variety like cheesy fries! Mmmmm so yummy!

Then we also went back to one of the Student Flats for some pre-drinks (most people were going out) and some Beer Pong!

Love exchange!!


Anyways BIG NEWS! Today, after a whole day of um-ing and ah-ing and planning a group of us booked our tickets to go to Vietnam and Cambodia during reading week (mid-semester break). We will go from 14th of October to 26th of October (so yes, we may also skip some classes =p). I am so so so excited. There are six of us in total: Irfan (Malaysian but studying in London), Andreas (german), Marcin (English), Calum (Scottish), Emma (English) and Me! =D.  The return tickets only cost $2045HKD ($290AUD). How cheap is that? It reminds me how far away Australia really is from everything. Also Australia is so big. It would cost that to fly return from Brisbane to Melbourne (and that's all on the eastern coast of Australia). Sigh, so want to move to Asia or Europe!

But anyways we are going!!

Although I havn't even gone out tonight, it's still 3am and I'm still up. Gosh! Exchange is seriously sleep-depriving

xox

Jane

Mid-Autumn Festival in Hong Kong

Yesterday was Mid-Autumn Festival. This is a big holiday in Chinese culture. It's all about the 团员 (tuan yuan- togetherness) of family. It's the festival where you all eat mooncakes, walk around with lanterns, 赏月 (shang yue- admire the moon) and think about your family overseas/away from you. 

The focus is on the moon because centuries ago, when lovers/family were far apart they could always come out and look at the moon and think about their loved ones who would also be looking at the very same moon and thinking about them. Furthermore the moon because of its roundness also denotes the continuity of family. It's really quite beautiful!

As I grow older I find that I really start to appreciate these things more and feel more in touch with my background/ethnicity.

Furthermore, this was the first Mid-Autumn festival where I have actually been away from my immediate family so it felt bittersweet to think about them. My dad is currently in China, I am in Hong Kong, my mum and brother are in Brisbane, Australia. Knowing that we would all be looking at the same moon even though we were oceans apart made that day feel even more special. 

Anyways, us girls at Patrick Manson also had our very own celebrations for Mid-Autumn Festival too =).

Beth and I got our very own lanterns to walk around with + mooncakes to share with the rest of the girls.

After the mooncake festivities we then went to Victoria Park (in Causeway Bay) to go to the L Lantern Carnivals) and also to see the Fire Dragon Dance.

It was so fun!

I had such a good night :)

Kelly (USA), Kat (Australia-Adelaide) and Me at the Lantern Carnivals. I'm wearing this adorable dress I got from Mongkok Markets for $70HKD ($10AUD).

The Custard and Black Sesame seed Hello Kitty Mooncakes.

Angel= Caramel + White Chocolate Chip, Devil= Chocolate (p.s. love how my camera can get the intricate details that my old one couldn't.)

Beth and I waiting for the bus to go to Victoria Park (look at our lanterns glow).

Beth and I roaming the streets of Causeway Bay.

Me with my Lantern

Photos seriously can't capture the whole atmosphere!

My wish on the "wishing well". So typically me, right? (I wish for an amazing year and a future full of Prada)

Kisses

Andrea, Tea and I

Such a fabulous night!!!!!

xox

Jane

Deepwater Bay Beach Day

The lovely Miss Sophia (Australian exchange student from Sydney) organised a beach day at Deepwater Bay last Sunday.

And of course, like all things related to exchange and Hong Kong, it was AMAZING!! I had so much fun!

Sunday is also the day where all the Filipino maids/help get off work so the beach was full of them. It was so festive as well. We had a BBQ at the beach that lasted all night. It was just such a nice chilled-out day- a great break from the crazy pace we have been going at in Hong Kong. The city literally never sleeps.

I go to bed at like 4am nearly every morning. (Who would have thought it?). Maybe because its uber easy to go out every night and no one has to worry about meeting up or transport we just do it at every opportunity.

Anyways, highlights of the beach day:
- Swimming to the buoys which you could stand on and then dive off (it was quite a hard swim for someone who hasn't properly swam in awhile!)
- trying to catch the fish in the bay
- listening to this Fillipino guy play his guitar and sing the songs we all know- i.e. Angel- Robbie Williams <3
- seeing the Fillipino maids all gather and laugh and play games
- diving off the buoy: watching Katy (Mexican exchange student) teach all the guys how to do backflips into the water. Watching them bellyflop.
-talking and laughing around the BBQs
- using my NEW digital camera
- swimming from 2pm-7pm (watching the sun set on the horizon as we swam)
- looking at the expensive yachts passing us by
- squealing in pleasure at the incredibly high-powered public showers at the end of the day after swimming in the dirty water. It felt so good! It was just one of those simple amusements that you have. (And it was so fun running around and using people's leftover shampoo- again- it was the simple pleasures)
-roasting marshmallows over the fire. Yum!
- and my PERSONAL FAVOURITE: making the lifeguards take me on their funny little paddle boats to shore because I was to lazy to swim back ^^. It was so fun. I really didnt think he would do it- but he let me and the lifeguards on the shore all helped me. I wish I had a photo :(

Here are some photos (some of the nicer ones are stolen from other people haha)

It was an overcast day. The beaches have nothing on Australia- but still- can't complain :)

Most of the group that managed to make it (despite hang overs from the previous night)

How pretty! This is a photo of what the life-guard sits on (he paddles it- so not great for emergency situations lol). And I got to ride on it! =D =D

The beach at night- imagine swimming with this all around you. Because that is what we did :)

The beach as the sun was going down. 

 

Eating the marshmallows 

Anyways i really need to run I need to get ready because in 30 minutes we are all heading to Victoria park to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival!

I even have my own lantern.

So excited

中秋节快乐 （Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!)

x Jane

Shopping in Mongkok

I officially dub Hong Kong the shopping Mecca. 

Last Saturday Kessie (Canadian Exchange student from UBC - but of Chinese descent) came with me to Mongkok on the Kowloon Island-side of Hong Kong. (For those of you who aren't familiar with Hong Kong- even though Kowloon is another island that forms part of Hong Kong it is literally only about 20 mins away from me by bus or bus+MTR (subway)). 

After a few weeks of not really shopping (due to the fact that we had to settle in and any shopping I did was only subsidiary to my main task that day) I have to honestly say I went nuts! The malls there are much more like China/Tokyo youth malls i.e. massive buildings with many floors and each floor with about like 50 tiny tiny shops. Of course, you get to haggle. (My island, Hong Kong island seems to be a lot more luxurious so Kowloon seems so much more affordable for me! Albeit quality is not that great!)

So anyways my intention was to go there and get a new digital camera- of course I ended up blowing my money WAY before that. (The camera was in fact the LAST thing i purchased before turning home.)

And with Australia's exchange rating all of a sudden soaring to $1AUD to every $7HKD you can imagine how excited I was shopping.

(SOME) of my purchases.

$80HKD (yeah so like $11AUD)- for these amazing wedges. So in right now! I love how they rip off all the latest styles in magazines/catwalk.

I regret this buy- it was my first bargain and I wasn't up to my normal standards. I paid $170HKD for these 2 pairs of flats. So like $30AUD for two pairs (although really it's not that bad either)

Smells like balenciaga ;). It's a mini mini clutch/coin purse but it comes with a long over the shoulder strap.

$80HKD - LOVE!

$80 HKD- jealous yet?

This is the smaller version of the Balenciaga I already purchased in Shanghai- $120HKD. Less than $20AUD

Fake Miu Miu Satchel- $120HKD.

On top of that I bought all sorts of dresses, tops, make-up etc. 

I ended up spending $4000HKD that day. (Gosh, it's easy to forget the value of money in places like that). I barely conquered one floor- so I'll have to go back. But my next shopping trip will focus on accessories!

The $4000HKD was inclusive of the camera I got. It's an Olympus M-5010. So good. HD video recording capability, super macro, beauty mode, 14 mega-pixels and a shittonne of features I dont understand. But apparently it's like the girlier version of the new Canon S95.  I paid $1840HKD for it. So not bad at all.

I can't wait to purchase my DSLR.

HK is my No 1 Love.

xox

J

Oh and just a photo Kessie took of me because I was literally going nuts with the shopping and she wanted to document it :)

High Table Dinner

I feel that I really should post about the High Table Dinner I did a few weeks ago (before uni classes actually started.) [This is for you Joy!]


So CEDARS (The Centre of Development and Resources for Students) hosts a free Dialogue Session with Alumni and Teachers and then a High-Table Dinner as an induction for all Freshman and International students.  So being the excited eager beavers that us girls all were, we decided to sign up.


The Dialogue Session was really great actually- I was in a group with an Alumni who worked for Google and also the Head of  the Arts Faculty. I cant remember the Head of the Arts Faculty name but she was very inspiring and fun. She told us about all the NGOs she had started, the research she had done and she was also fluent in English, French, Japanese, Mandarin and Cantonese. Right now she is working closely with the Hong Kong film industry. Furthermore, in her youth she was (well she still is!) an activist. When the Tiananmen Massacre happened she filtered news into China with numerous other Hong Kong University students hidden in Porn Tapes. She did this so people in China would actually know what was happening, as the Chinese Government tried to hide it from their own people.




The highlight however, really was the High Table. It was sooooooooo amazing. High Table is a tradition from the United Kingdom. You do it to " to promote intellectual exchange among the participants. Through attending the dinner, students learn to handle themselves in a formal dinner and develop a sense of pride and identity with the University. For many students, it is the first formal dinner they have ever attended." It was like we were in Hogwarts. We all got the green robes to wear, sat in big long tables and the teachers table was above us. The food also was really, really good (especially since it was free). I had Russian Soup as an entree, Chicken with mixed mushroom sauce and vegetables for the main and a decadent Chocolate Brownie with mixed fruit for dessert (so decadent that i didn't even finish it!)


Then we had an amazing guest speaker who did a talk about Globalisation etc. 


Being at the High Table dinner made me really realise what a great institution HKU is- far far far better than anything in Australia. There is a reason why its ranked in the Top 20 in the world!




Anyways some photos:

Waiting for the Teachers+Distinguished Guests to Arrive

Some of the Girls from Patrick Manson

This was taken by a professional photographer and on the HKU website. Haha- im famous!

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The Original PM Girls- Left to Right: Yoyo (Nigerian but from the UK), Andrea (German/Indonesian but from the UK, ME Chinese but from Australia, Tea from Norway, Antea from Italy)

Me at the East Entrance of Hong Kong University

The Menu

Macau

I am writing this blog even though I am currently bed-ridden and in so much pain.

That being said, however, IT WAS TOTALLY TOTALLY WORTH IT!

We went to Macau this weekend even though it was pouring down rain and thunderstorms were predicted for the whole weekend.

So we left Patrick Manson at the dismal time of 7.30AM on Saturday morning to catch the 9am ferry because that was the only time we could get ferry tickets. (The rest of the people were able to buy tickets for the 11am ferry before it all sold out.)  By the way, the ferry tickets are so cheap: $146HKD for a Premium Economy seat and the ferry seats are so nice and spacious! I'd love to see what first-class is like.

Upon arrival at Taipa (an island in Macau) we were lucky enough to find the free shuttle bus to the Venetian (the most amazing 5-star hotel I've ever been in). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Venetian_Macao . Because we had to wait for a few hours before check-in and for the rest of the party to arrive we decided to head down to Taipa Old Village (a whole street full old buildings+ food streets).

Unfortunately for me however, I managed to break my camera within the first hour of being at Macau so had to rely on my iphone + other people's camera for photos.

After exploring Taipa Village it was time for us to head back to The Venetian (it seriously looks so amazing as its meant to look like we've stepped into Venice) and check into the hotel.

After spending an hour or so exploring the shops in the Venetian + trying to locate the others since apparently none of our mobiles had service (Note to future travelers- your hong kong sim card will most likely not work in Macau if it isn't on roaming) we finally we able to get into our suite.

The rest of the trip consisted of the usual
- drinking copious amounts of extremely cheap duty free alcohol. I think it was something ridiculous like $150HKD for $1.5L bottle of Smirnoff Vodka. (that's like $20AUD for 1.5L!!) crazy!
- having a messy + loose pre-party in our amazing suite
- hitting up the casino (we were one big bunch of loud, silly exchange students)
- losing $600HKD in roulette
- going to D3 (an amazing club in the main casino strip of Macau- near MGM Grand etc) and dancing all night
- having like 3 hours sleep as a bunch of 20 boisterously drunk students tried to fit into a suite (4-5 girls per bed and the floor was just covered with passed-out guys- I wish I had a proper photo of the true outrageousness of our sleep!)

Due to the bad weather we were not able to do as much as we planned on doing (I was lucky as I was part of the early-arrivals to Macau so I at least got to explore some of it while the others on the later ferry didnt get to do any due to the shit weather+hang-over the next day).

So now that we have had our "party weekend" we plan on going again for a "cultural weekend"

Things to do on our cultural weekend
- explore the Ruins of St Paul
- do the highest bungee jump in the world
- watch the Cirque de Soleil


Anyways here are a few of the photos I managed to get- I'll have to wait to get the rest of everyone else's cameras.

us the morning after- no sleep, hung-over but still AWESOME.

Just one of the many walkways in the beautiful Venetian Hotel/Casino

Again in the Venetian- the shopping area!

You can go for a Gondola ride if you are sick of shopping/gambling!

 

AJ with the cutest Hello Kitty Phone 

I bought one of the famous Portuguese Egg Tarts- sooo yummy!

At D3

Tea and Tomi

Inebriated at D3

we are the sad losers of money :(

How some of the guys slept- Ian is under the table! hahaha

How some of the girls who got beds slept- you can see me on the bed on the right-hand-side (on the far right)

I really, really wish I could go into much more detail and spend more time blogging but I really can't afford to waste time in a city that never sleeps! So see my facebook for the rest of the photos.

xoxo

Jane