Free Labour

So the past couple days, my dad got all of us to help out cleaning up my grandparents' apartment. So much junk to go through and sooooooo dusty and dirty. Sigh. My hands were all black and gross even tho I was still wearing some gloves. Just one more day of cleaning and that's it. Yay! The bad part is the weather lately has been quite warm and muggy. Really gross...you walk outside and there's already some wet, sticky feeling all over. Guess I'll hafta get used to it since I'll be here until June.

Yesterday, I met up with another friend for dinner. It was sure nice to just catch up with her and see how she's doing. I'm glad that she's here in HK so at least I have someone to hang out with for the next month and a bit.

I think I'm all shopped out. Very broke...sigh. But no regrets on all my purchases =)

Liger

Liger

So this was the big attraction at Everland in Korea. Somehow a lion mated with a tiger and a hybrid was born - a liger. How original is that name? sheesh. hahaha

The Beginnings in HK

Well, i've been in HK for a total of 3 days. Let's just say that I think by the end of these 2 months, I'm gonna be sooooooooo broke!!! But the good thing is that clothes and shoes and purses are so much cheaper here! teeheehee. For example, I finally got a pair of Puma shoes...and it was only $37 CAD. Food price here are about average but some places are pretty cheap. Like today for dinner, I had a bowl of noodle in soup with beef and it was only about $2.70 CAD. Hmmm, what is else is cheap here? oh yes, cell phone plans are super cheap!!!!! I saw one place was offering 9999 minutes for $99 HKD per month (that's about $17 per month!). How insane is that?!?? And here I'm paying like almost $40/month in vancouver with so little minutes. sigh. Wish Vancouver had those plans. Even with pay as you go, it's cheap. My sis bought 450 min for her cell phone for only $68 HKD....that works out to be about 15 cents HKD per minute (so a bit less than 3 cents CAD per minute).

I haven't been doing really any sightseeing yet. Met up with my friend from UBC today for lunch. That was really nice to just catch up with her. Haven't talked with her or seen her since she left for HK. I was also able to call up a friend last night to talk on the phone with her. She's been here for more than a year teaching English. I'm glad that I know at least a couple of ppl staying in HK...that way I won't be too bored when my parents leave in May to return home.

Oh, and the other day, I went to this buffet at the hotel Metropolis. MY GOODNESS!!! I totally stuffed myself like crazy. The food there was soooooooo good! Here is part of the menu: raw oysters, sashimi, sushi, Korean BBQ meat, salads, smoked salmon, soups, roast beef, roast lamb, curry, souffle (orange flavour and pear flavour), fruit crepe. For dessert: cakes, cheese cakes, mousse, fruits, some white wine jelly, Haagen Daaz ice cream (many flavours), and dessert soups/drinks. Honestly, that has gotta be the best meal I've had in a while. *drool* I love eating!!! hehehehe

Korea

so i'm finally in HK right now. the past 4 days in Korea has been quite interesting. definitely a total different culture. for one thing, hardly anyone can speak English!! it was weird to hafta depend solely on hand gestures and pointing. ah well, that's the fun of that experience. in terms of cars, they mainly have just their own cars like Kia, Daewoo and Hyundai. if you see imported cars like Toyota, Honda, VW, etc that's a big deal cuz apparently it's really expensive to buy those cars there. we did a lot of sightseeing such as visiting the World Cup stadium, some Korean traditional village and a museum. i learned quite a bit from those 4 days. for example, i never knew how the writing of Korean came about. but now i know. apparently it's pronouciations of the words that are written in chinese characters.

in terms of the food there, i had mainly kimchi, kimchi and kimchi with other food like korean bbq or hot pot. oooh, more jumping around.....but something interesting thing was that you can make u-turns at most major intersections. when the driver did that the first time, we all freaked out a bit cuz u see all these oncoming traffic. crazy stuff.

talk about small world. in our tour group, we found out that one of the ladies works at HSBC and knows some of the ppl that worked with my mom at CDI. and on top of that, one of her daughter worked for CDI. also a girl on the tour goes to the same school as a friend of my brother. i'll say, the world is getting smaller and smaller and smaller!

hmm, that's all my ramblings for now. stay tuned for other updates.

The Curse of being a Teacher

So I went down the states the other day for the Tulip Festival in Skagit Valley (Washington State). There were fields and fields of tulips...all of which were different colours. Really pretty I tell ya. But what does that hafta do with the curse of being a teacher? Well, let me tell you. After visiting all the fields, we decided to go shopping at Burlington and then to Bellisfair in Bellingham. Now when you hear the word shopping, usually pictures of clothes or shoes are being formed in most people's minds. Let's just say that I spent most of my money buying books....that's right, you heard me...BOOKS!! Although I do hafta admit they were cheap...(bought a Judy Blume book for only 1.99!) but still!! So anyways, when we got to the border to go home, we told the customs officer that all we had were books and tupperware (for my apartment). I don't think he believed us because he was like that's it? And then he searched our trunk. So that is my story...I have the curse. My bookcase is filling up with books and books and books of all kinds (storybooks, picture books, children novels, teaching resources, etc). And I know it will continue to grow so I guess it's a good thing that I like to read =)