Taking off from Hong Kong

Well, here we are, at the end of my journey in Hong Kong.

I've packed and here I am the heart full of love for this place which is unique in all aspects. Very stressing last day was my last saturday on campus at Lingnan and I had to give away a couple of things. Didnt want to leave overweight. It was a rush between having last minute lunches with friends, saying bye to some and others....



However, life in Hong Kong has been rich in experiences. Exposed to a new culture with different trends and different ways of seeing life and its stages, it was a long evolution to live not only in Hong Kong but at Lingnan.

You learn to live with other people (all the time, 24/7), you try to be the bigger person as you are not home, and you want to show your Hong Kong fellows you have respects for their traditions no matter how brutal the differences seem to you. One year in Hong Kong was great. It took me a long semester to adapt myself. I've come to realise that no matter how multicultural your background is, you always need time to ajust ti such a culture. Having lived many ups and downs, my second semester was about enjoying the differences I might not have standed in the first place.



There was a lot more interest and participation in the second semester. My first semester was more about looking, observing, maybe not living it enough.
However, I fell in love with Hong Kong and I do intend to go back.

Hong Kong, you've become another one of my homes...

Sometimes we're really bored...

Yes, sometimes we are that bored and take pictures in the MTR station. And it's productive!!

Cheung Chau Bun Festival - 長洲太平清醮

So we are done with school but life in Hong Kong keeps going.
On May 24th, it was Buddha's Birthday which is celebrated all around Asia by several shows and so on.

However, Buddha's Birthday is a holiday in Hong Kong as it celebrated along with the Bun Festival which takes place on Cheung Chau Island. From the university, the way to get there was taking the KCR and MTR to Central and then, take the Ferry ( pier 5) to Cheung Chau.



It is by far the most famous of several such Da Jiu Festivals (Traditional Chinese: 包山節 or 長洲太平清醮, Jiu (醮) being a Taoist sacrificial ceremony) held by several (mostly rural) communities in Hong Kong, either annually or once every few years.

Cheung Chau's Bun Festival, which draws tens of thousands of local and overseas tourists every year, is staged to mark the Eighth day of the Fourth Moon, in the Chinese calendar (usually in early May, this time by the 24th). It thus coincides with the local celebration of Buddha's Birthday.

The Cheung Chau Bun Festival began as a fun and exciting ritual for fishing communities to pray for safety from pirates. Today this religious origin has largely been forgotten, and the festival has become a showcase of traditional Chinese culture above all else.

Several activities take place. For instance, on three of these days the entire island goes vegetarian; and the island's famous seafood restaurants goes to detest this tradition, and the local McDonald's restaurant would just sell burgers made of mush rooms. Moreover, no Chinese festival is complete without lion dances and dragon dances, but this island's quirk is the children dressed as legendary and modern heroes suspended above the crowds on the tips of swords and paper fans.



The centrepiece of the festival is at Pak Tai Temple where are the "Bun Mountains" or "Bun Towers"(包山), three giant 60-feet bamboo towers covered with buns. It is those bun-covered towers that give the festival its name. Historically, young men would race up the tower to get hold of the buns; the higher the bun, the better fortune it was supposed to bring to the holder's family; the race was known as "Bun-snatching" (搶包山).




At a quarter to midnight a paper effigy of the King of the Ghosts is set ablaze, enormous incense sticks are lit and the buns are harvested and distributed to the villagers, who, pleased to be sharing in this propitious good fortune, rejoice late into the night.

Knowing the temperatures on that day were about 33 degrees celsius and the rate of humidity was about 96%, you can imagine the level of smell the burnt buns would bring haha. What an experience!

Also, Chinese operas, more dances take place during the festival.



Another event to attend in Hong Kong for sure!

At the President's house

The President , Professor CHEN Kwan-yiu, Edward, has his house ( I think he only lives there half the time ) on the campus by the Southern Residence. After, ou rlast night gathring on campus, we decided to end the story of Lingnan by a lunch with the President where he gladly repeated his message.



Their mission is to provide education of the highest quality; and their vision is to become an internationally-renowned institution, inaugurating a new era of liberal arts education in the region. The numbers of partnerships have increased and he was pleased to see all of us French exchange students to his house with other exchange students from Mainland China or the USA.



In the coming few years, Lingnan's plan is to pool resources and raise funds for the expansion of their academic programmes to include integrated, environmental and behavioural sciences, creative media and fine arts. They want to be able to further develop their close student-staff relationship, and to further enhance the students' campus life, community service and international exchange programmes. Professor WIlliam Lee who is also in charge of the internatinal affairs of school has always been there and is extremely friendly and easy to approach in case there is a problem. The staff and the number of students makes it actually easier for people to interact which is nice when you live on campus and you are far away from home.

Our last night gathering on campus

I havent had time to write any articles towards the end since I was pretty busy with packing and organizing a bunch of stuff for my departure to Canada.
However, our last night on campus drinking and chilling was in Hall C with KONG. Remember that name, he's someone. He's genuinely generous and nice and he has always been willing to help the exchange students.
That night, we had foie gras which is goose liver, made my Francois' grandma. Oh dear me, it was just nice! A couple of games and hours later, we were saying bye to Azmat, our friend from Sri Lanka who was leaving. Ah, if anyone meets him, call him Dragon Balls for me ;)

Farewell Party

Friday, May 4th was the day we basicaly said bye and thank you to the OMIP staff at Lingnan and the President and the Vice President and the Associate Vice President and more... And... I had a speech.
As part of the 5 students representatives, I made it quite short. I think I didnt have a paper in my hands although there was one in my bag. But all that was written in there was in my heart. I meant everything I said and all my sincere thank yous to Lingnan came right from me.
So once again, Lingnan, thank you for our 3 E's in Hong Kong!
Thank you Christine KAN, you're one on whom we can truly count on.

is a title really needed??!

More Beach life here... Windsurf, BBQs... all in HK....

Lately, Tim and I have been going on the goldcoast, to windsurf.


Not only we have BBQ's there, but we can also windsurf. Kenny is the owner of the shop called BeachComber and since we have com several times here to chill out, Aurelie, who is very good at making connections, - yes I like to talk about myself using the 3rd person - has managed to be able to learn windsurfing with him. And Tim joined.
So how cool is that?

Lingnan might be one hour away from Central, but it is 20 minutes away from the beach. so my relaxing time and my tanning time is not that far! This second semester has made me appreciate things better. Truly... Madly... Deeply ( to those who know the song )

So here are some pictures of more BBQs here:

A BBQ AT SCHOOL!!!

Great event at Lingnan, a BBQ was organized on the roof of Hall D for the students, it was just wicked!
The senior tutor and the warden organized it and we had a humongous amount of meat, too much probably but too much food is always better than not enought foos right? Yes, I am a food lover, so what?
Anyway, it was nice having all of us gathered, I think it was supposed to be some kind of bonding between the school and us students who usually cannot stand, let's be real, the rules and regulations of the hostels.
So yeah , big up for Lingnan this time, it was really considerate from them to organize this for us :)

Business Ethics Challenge

So I have been doing this subject this semester called Business Ethics. I also participated to what was called GLobal Business Ethics Challenge.

Global Business Ethics is a 4-week program organized by Junior Achievement (JA) Hong Kong for students to explore their own personal and ethical values and develop an understanding of diverse cultural character behavior before they mature into adults and assume business positions in the international market place.

By participating in Global Business Ethics, we would meet in class every saturday for 3 hours with a business volunteer in order to analyze our own personal set of beliefs, values, and character on an ongoing basis, through:
- introduction and discussion on ethics, values, principles, and dilemmas
- a case study of employees faced with a series of ethical dilemmas throughout every level of the company

After the 4-week program, I and the other participants got certificates of achievment (yey) and we are elgible for some kind of competition which would take place around July or August.

I love Hong Kong

Yeah.. to those who do not... we love hong kong!! and we show it!

The Hong Kong Sevens

Need a cab?

Well, if anyone ever needs a ride back home with a cutie and a GREAT car, just ask my brother.....
My ladykiller.....

PARTYING IN HONG KONG!!

There's been a lot of people asking me if it was good going out in Hong Kong...
Here are a couple of pics... have a look....

H&M in Hong Kong!!

Saturday 10th of March saw the opening of the outlet stores of the swedish brand H&M, there were just too many people at the opening, hundreds of people waiting outside for the opening of the store which collection was created by Madonna!!!

Stanley

This saturday, we went to Stanley...



"Dear all participants,

Thank you for joining our event --- BBQ & Sightseeing at Stanley. We would
like to remind you of the following things...

Details of the trip:
Date: 10th March, 2007 (Saturday)
Time: 10:00am ¡V 6:00pm
Meeting Place & Time: Wing On Plaza at 9:45am (SHARP!!)"

Great place, great weather, great people.... nice saturday....



Stanley is a town and a tourist attraction in Hong Kong, China. It is a peninsula on the southeastern part of Hong Kong Island. It is east of Repulse Bay and west of Shek O, adjacent to Chung Hom Kok. Administratively, it is part of the Southern District.

The proper Chek Chue refers to the village town but Stanley generally refers to all the surrounding areas of the peninsula after the beginning of British rule and native Cantonese name Chek Chue became synonym to Stanley.




We stayed most of our time on the beach but this are the places to check out as visiting this tourist attraction:
-Stanley Market
-Stanley Main Street and the malls... ah, more shopping!
-Stanley prison
-Stanley beaches where there is a lot of windsurfing practised
-Murray House, ...




Hurry up!!

Lingnan's Architecture

It is funny how when getting to meet the exchange students, one of the first questions is, '' So where do you live, which hostel do you stay in ?''
Well, not funny ha-ha, more like ''ha....ummmm'' because us that live in the Northern hostels usually say it in a way that, you know, makes it all creepy: '' Yeah I live on the OTHER side''.

Besides that creepiness, we do like to make it sound special. And the Northern hostels are special. I like them, I like my hostel: it is actually quieter than the Southern hostels, I am appreciating it more and more. Sometimes, some of us want to move to the Southern hostels because there are more exchange students, it's more like everyon emeets up to watch a movie or do something. And you end up being the lonely and only one walking back ALL the way to the northern hostels.
When we use to be able to smoke on campus in the designated smoking areas - seems like it's been ages - hostels F and E were so proud: 2 smoking areas for 2 hostels : 1 big enough for 4 tables and the other one under trees. That VS 1 smoking area for 4 hostels in the Southern hostels. Ah well... *sigh*
The smoking areas is definitely not the advantage og the Northern hostels anymore, it's about the scary creepy but cool spirits stories.

But let me begin with the beginning... DOH! Let's talk about the university's architecture. Like most Chinese infrastructures, buildings are constructed and organized following the rules and values of FENG SHUI.

Therfore what is feng shui?
Stuck in your career? Trouble in your love life? The root of your problems may be in the design of your home, say practitioners of the ancient Chinese philosophy, feng shui. Basically, it rules your life, the way you live, the way you breathe it. Feng Shui teaches us how to create harmony and balance around us. The ideas date back at least 3,000 years, yet a growing number of architects and decorators are integrating feng shui ideas with contemporary building design. There is a relation to water to.
The more water points there are, the further bad spirits will be, and as the Northern Hostels do not have any water points, it is more likely for bad spirits to be around there.

This is what is said. Per consequent, we have our very our guardian: TIGER THE CAT. Apparently he's been here as long as the university.... I love Tiger, and you should too!!

No matter what... I love them, I love these 3...

Joon the crazy typer..

As I talkin to my friend back home at their places, I have to write this about my Jooney Boy....

Joon you have that great look on your face, it's like you'll be entering the computer soon, yeah '' What can you do when you're in a shoe?'' is all you can say when in front of ur webcam you can't talk and stare at your computer contemplating how lovely and square it can be as you can't chew your gum anymore and I almost can catch i through my computer....

ahhhhh....

That is niceeeee.....!!