Bike Trip with the Kendo Club

First of all...this happened ages ago but I was just too lazy to update my blog then not that it was any less fun than any other experiences I had over there because this was one of my unforgettable moments there as well.
It all comes back to how much of a lazy-arse I am.
Let's begin :)

Ever since I came to HKUST, I joined many extracurricular activities and clubs or as they call it "societies" here. One of those societies would be the Kendo society. We practice every Wednesday and Friday and the trainings are quite tough on beginners especially on our feet since the way we walk in kendo is much different. Two of my friends have injured their feet during practice and I have come quite close to doing the same.

The kendo society people are really never the less. The seniors are kind and the other rookies like us are friendly. As a tradition in Hong Kong universities, most societies would hold gatherings like a barbecue or a bike-ride every now and then and the kendo society held both. I joined the barbecue...being the only vegetarian there, I don't have much to say, but what I want to talk about is the bike ride.

Waiting patiently for all members to arrive in front of a 7/11

The bike ride was actually organized by one of my Thai friends in HKUST who we nominated into Kendo Sub-committee without his consent.

This guy

 He seems to enjoy that job so it's all good. The sub-com took us to Ma On Shan trail, a famous bike trail in Hong Kong surrounding Ma On Shan peak and passing many beautiful sights like these...

I did not get a chance to take many photos after the sunset because we realized we were behind schedule and kept riding faster than before. The trail was a pretty long one and the night views along the way were truly awesome.

The fun before dark :)

and I save the best picture for last...

Yeah...it says Dickhair for real. "Dickhair Salon" they call it :P

We found this place the first thing that morning and I just had to take a photo.

Christmas Party with Grapevine

I'm not sure if I have shared about this before, but there was a time before I left for Hong Kong for the first time that I worked with a volunteer group consisting of Thammasat University Students to go into a slum of Bangkok and teach the small children English. These events are orchestrated by a Christian student group called Grapevine. I enjoyed my time then and since I came back to BKK just before Christmas, I got to join them in their Christmas Party :)

I went down to Saphankwai BTS station and waited at the coffee shop that we always used as our rendezvous point for another friend whom I invited. After she arrived we walked to the church not far from there because that was that day's meeting point. I got there right around the time that the Grapevine people started preparing. They were of course surprised to see me, because I left out the fact that I was back in Thailand already to them :P so they did not expect to see me. The preparation included two things, walking through the whole day plan and rehearsal for the play. It was a Christmas play which of course was about the birth of Jesus.

The Rehearsal

I was the narrator of the story, so I got most of the talking part. I tried to go through it slowly as if I was actually trying to tell a story to little children. Everyone had a puppet in their hands and they would move their puppets' mouths after me and the other three voice actresses.

After rehearsal, we split into small groups of around 4-5 and got on taxis to the slum in Bang Sue where the kids live. One of the staff told me before that there were 70 kids that day, which I found hard to believe at first since I used to only teach around 30-40 kids here but once I got there, I can see so many more children running around and screaming like crazy. There were surely 70 of them there, perhaps more. It was a lively party and everything went well as planned.

We started with teaching the children how to sing Jingle Bells and followed by the Christmas play that we prepared. It went well of course and the children really paid attention to it.

 The three wisemen with Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus

 After the play, we split the children down into three groups like we always did when teaching: small children, mid-aged and the bigger ones. I was in charge of the bigger children and as always they were the biggest headaches :) The three groups took their turns going through the games we prepared for them and were still energetic afterwards for some reason.

 Playing a game called, "Duck Duck Goose"

 Face and Body Painting

We handed out food, cookies and presents afterwards which the kids really enjoyed. The cookies are homemade by one of the volunteers which was amazingly good....I know because I had like five of them :P

That night when I got home, I was so tired that I just wanted to fall asleep right then and there, but it sure got me thinking that it was well worth it coming back so early from Hong Kong.

Home

It is hot here compared to Hong Kong, but what other sign do you need to know that you are now in Bangkok, Thailand.

I left the university at around 1 pm local time on a cab with my friends, Ritvik and Ritesh, whose flights are on the same day. We arrived at the airport around an hour later and then spent some time there before I got on my plane around 3'thirty. It was not a long flight between Hong Kong and Thailand and it got even shorter with episodes of 30rock, The Big Bang theory and Scrubs.

I am now home, exhausted, with absolutely no plan for this winter break yet...and I'm also guilty for deserting this blog for a long while ever since the exams started. So the next couple of blogs will be about me, and my last few days in Hong Kong of course :)

Spoiler alert!!!! :

Conrad on a bike

Me in 3D glasses

What does it mean!!?!?!

Rebecca on ice :)

Thanks for stopping by.

Face(book)-Off

It's time I finally did it. If I keep getting distracted by facebook anymore than this, I probably will seriously fail in my first final examinations in HKUST and I can't let that happen can I?

Moreover...

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d TT  TT b

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\,,,,,,/

I'm crying on the inside....and outside

Won't be blogging too often in this period either because of this, not that I'm lazy (not that I'm denying my laziness either).

Last Ass...ignment

...and it was a tough one.

Right now I can say that my favorite number is number, "4" and I like it so much that I like 25 of them in a row.

...if you don't have any clue what I mean, it's ok and if you are in HKUST, COMP104 then you are probably very slightly hating me right now which to tell the trute, I'm ok with that ;)

A lot of stuff have been going on in my life and most of them are school-related while many are not. I have had many busy weeks here alternating with many empty ones and I must say that though, I have yet to get used to this rollercoaster ride, I am enthusiastic about where it is taking me.

A friend shared a poem he wrote with me yesterday and I felt like writing one for myself now so here goes:

Feel like screaming, feel like writing,
I met a man, I met a boy, I met them looking through the mirror.
Feel walls closing, hear people crying,
I met a girl, I met a woman in a cage and I can't free her.

The bars separate my world from hers.
She's holding the key and she won't be sharing.
Freaking out, geeking out, Run-time error.
Her eyes hypnotize, lost my mind just staring.


See her everyday now, always on her feet.
Chances come and go as they please,
Can't wait until next time our eyes meet.
For that's when my heart just skip a beat.

Gather one gather all please come around.
Got something I'd like to announce.
Metal heads, nerds, geeks and clowns,
Come near her and I'll make you bounce.

Good day, bad day

I know you all have experienced this, a day in which you just feel like nothing is going your way and then you just want it to end right then and there but you are afraid to go to bed because you just want to solve everything on that particular day so the next day would become better...

Well, all my problems are not solved and world peace still is not here yet, but after I went to bed and stop letting my head, my logic, my emotions, my fear just STOP.

And today was not a bad day at all. My head is not quite clear yet, but I smiled a lot today so that I actually fooled myself into being happy again. And with that...life goes on.

Everyone has their own way of dealing with stress in their life. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

What's your method?

--- A little photographic updates of my life --

 

Julius' birthday party at the Korean BBQ down at Causeway Bay

Everyone's lonely once in a while...

Lydia was late for AIESEC meeting and this was our form of punishment ;)

My way home.

Luckily I finally changed the flight date of my return ticket  that was originally in February 2011 which was pretty much the time I was supposed to fly back here to...wait for it....

December 23rd, 2010


I'm leaving myself a few days after the final examinations here since it will end on December 18th.
This is my final exam timetable, I've gotten 3 subjects on it.

I also have Assessment for LANG113 too but it's not showing on the final exam timetable because it is long before it on December 2nd.

Sadly I've gotten 2 hard subjects COMP104 (C++ programming) and PHYS011 on the same day, Dec 15th which is going to be tough for sure.

Better get nerdy.

Pokemon!!!

Need I say anything more? They're just the best thing since sliced bread and I don't care what anyone say, you just can't outgrow it.

Ever since my friends told me someone I just met looks like a Pokemon trainer, I just can't get my mind out of it. I mean check out this episode, how can you not like it...?

People Mountain People Sea

Another busy week has gone by and nothing about that is quite new, Friday night though was more eventful since I got a chance to go watch the movie, "Due Date" with a cute girl who lives in my hall. It was hilarious actually :) would definitely recommend it to everyone.

But after the movie, the fatigue of the whole week came back to me and I slept almost through the whole day of Saturday and just got a chance to blog now and not even a decent blog so far.

So let's talk about something worth talking about then, that girl, Kelsey, taught me a new English phrase that was first derived from Chinese (also known as Chinglish)

The phrase is "People mountain people sea," and it means a huge crowd of people because we went to a part of Hong Kong where there were such huge crowd. This phrase is a perfect example of Chinglish language. And everyone can also recognize some other similar phrases like this one such as "Long time no see" or "No can do"

:) and now you know.