A Tour of Hong Kong

Yesterday was crazy insane! My students picked me up at Siu Leun School at 8:30 and from then on it was just non-stop motion I got to ride the MTR to Kowloon, where the first place we went was the Hong Kong History Museum. It was really cool, because I got to learn more about the history of the place. The students were very enthusiastic about me taking pictures, otherwise I probably wouldn't have taken as many as I did in various places. I'm very bad sometimes at starting conversations with people I don't know well, but the boys in particular would explain various things to me about the exhibits and things like that.

After the history museum, we walked around Kowloon which seemed to be forever, looking at the clock tower near the Star Ferry and all that. The Star Ferry was pretty cool, but definitely not as cool as the Peak Tram. When we got to Hong Kong Island, we went to Man Mo Temple, which is a cool Buddhist Temple. No photography was allowed inside, though. There were a couple actors and a video camera filming a TV show, at least that's what one of the girls said. After that we walked around in the Western Market in Central. It was just what I imagined a Hong Kong Market to look like, lots of stuff on tables in the alleyways. Except there was a lot more hills than I bargained for!

We ate lunch at this neat ourdoors place, and I got chicken sausage and noodles, which to me looked (and tasted) exactly like a hot dog in a bowl of ramen. Considering I like hot dogs and I like ramen, I wasn't disappointed. I dropped one of my chopsticks even before getting it into the bowl so the waitress brought me a fork. I just rolled with it. :D

After that we went to St. John's Cathedral (i fail again at getting pictures, but it was a nice Western Church. I liked the stained glass). Then we did my favorite part. We went onto the Peak Tram up to the Peak. It was so fun going up on the tram, and it was much cooler at the top. We looked around the gift shop for a bit then went to look outside onto all of Hong Kong. I wish I could see it at night, I bet it's completely gorgeous.

After walking around the peak for awhile, we went back down by minibus, which was a fun experience. The bus driver is totally hardcore, let me say, or "very strong" as the Chinese say. We ate dinner inside, thankfully, which was similar to lunch. Hot dog pieces (though very tasty sausage!) in A VERY DELICIOUS soup. I didn't even eat half of it, though. I guess I'm not used to eating Chinese portions, not that I eat much at home either. The kids taught me to use chopsticks properly, and they applauded when I managed to pick up noodles.

Then they all wrote their Facebook information down for me, and presented me with some gifts. They bought me a little Luck Charm, which is basically a little stuffed red pillow with the Chinese symbol for "Luck" sewn on it with a tassel and some jade beads. They also gave me a pretty fan, which will be nice in the hot outside, and a postcard with a very sweet message written onto it. I was very happy, and touched that they would think of me.

They brought me back to the school, where I was only the second one to get back at 9:15 PM! It was a very long day for everyone, and I got sunburned, but I got to see a lot of Hong Kong.

And then I slept very, very well from all that walking!

Very, very picture heavy!

Yeah. This was my favorite part.