Hong Kong Baby!!! So many adventures and so many memories. Let me start from the beginning. I was on three different planes one was from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles, then Los Angeles to Korea, followed by Korea to Hong Kong. Including layovers it was over 24 hours and was terribly long and dull. We took Korean Air for two of the flights. Let me just say that Korean Air is amaaaaaaazing. They have touch screen TVs in front of every seat and they had new movies, TV shows, games and music. It was pimped out to say the least. The food on the plane was differen. I had Bimbambop it was nasty nasty nasty. I also had some other strange food.
On these flights I met the people that will be teaching with me at my school. Their names are Kirsten, Garth, and Libertee. Kirsten is very sweet and is always up to do something with me. She is a ginger and I enjoy teasing her. She is a Special Education major and is so freaking wonderful. Garth is also pretty darn chill. He is from Ohio, so obviously we make fun of each other all the time. He is pretty laid back but can be ridiculously funny. He is constantly smiling and is genuinely a nice guy. Libertee or Lib as we call her is crazy. She is always running and dancing and singing and being awesome. When I first saw her she was wearing a boyscout shirt with a slytherin badge on it and I knew we would be good friends. She is spunky and filled to the brim with energy. I know we are going to lose her somewhere because she is always running off places. Girl needs a leash. Seriously. The cool thing about all of us is that we jell really well together and we are all very adventurous. On our first night in Hong Kong we went down a really sketchy looking alley in the dark. Needless to say we made Garth walk in front.
Earlier in that day we went to the temple. Let me just say that font is TINY. Like I could lay across it and hit both sides it was nuts. Garth also was one of those crazy baptizers that threw people in and out of the water needless to say I was a little bit freaked out. I ended up just doing confirmations that day however the next day I did baptisms. Later on in our first day we went to the local mall. It was a really awesome mall because it had an ice skating rink and was over 6 stories. Kirsten and I went to the store bought juice. We weren’t sure how it would taste but hey you have to try it. The juice we got was called Mr. Juicy. It was heavenly. We got the entire China Horizons group hooked on it. It wasn’t apple juice it was liquid apple. They also had some other flavors. It was amazing and I will be forever in love with Mr. Juicy.
The next day we went to Victoria peak. The Peak is where all the rich people would live back in the day because it has the best weather. They had people carry them up the hill because it was so steep. We took a tram up to the top and we saw tons of things we took loads of pictures. They also had a heart where you would write who you loved and put it on something, like letters to Juliet. It was really cool but it was really high up and super windy. Not to mention there is tons and tons of smog. I. Hate. Smog. That night we went to a market where I got my first taste of bartering.
The next day we went to church. Church was all in Mandarin so we were given a sort of headset hat looked more like a stethoscope. However the translation was spotty so I took off my headset and simply listened to it in Mandarin. What I found really wonderful was that I could still feel the same spirit I do at home and yet I didn’t understand what was being said. At church we met a guy named Davis but it is spelled Daves. He was sitting in front of Kirsten and I. He introduced himself in perfect English and told us he learned English on his mission in Scotland. It turns out that he was on the same mission as one of the guys in our group named Jake. They even had the same companion. He then offered to show Kirsten, Jake, and I around Hong Kong that night when we got back from the cable cars and big Buddha. Later on we went onto a cable car which freaked me out. I hate heights. It was really beautiful though and it went over the mountains here. We took the cable car all the way to big Buddha. Which is amazing by the way. There are a lot of steps to the top of the mountain where Buddha is but it is a great view from the top. I am amazed by the dedication of the Buddist people that walk all the way up to the top of that mountain, then they pray to Buddha in front of everyone and people will just watch them, I did. It doesn’t even phase them that there are other people there. They simply continue worshipping. It is incredible.
We went back home after that and met up with Daves. Kirsten jake and I invited Garth and Libertee and then two girls named Jackie and Cassidy. Daves took us up to a Korean Buffet where we cooked our own food. It was delicious and I tried kimchi for the first time. We had a lot of fun there. Then Daves took us to the Harbor which we were going to the next night but we went there anyway. He kind of singled out Kirsten and was flirting with her all night. He said he would try to visit her in our city. I ended up taking pictures of the two of them. He then took us home and he told her that he wanted to see her again before we left Hong Kong however we had a really busy day the next day and then we would leave the following morning. So we said goodbye to him and went to bed.
The next day we went to the ten thousand Buddha monastery which is really a freaking steep hill that is really huge. When you get to the top though it is breathtaking there are so many different statues of Buddha and just like Big Buddha there are people just worshipping and burning incense. I am so amazed by the humbleness and meekness of the Buddist people. I loved everything that I was learning about the Buddhist culture. Following that we went to a museum kinda really excessively dull. After that we had free time by the harbor. My group of people went to go get milkshakes they turned out to not be milkshakes though it was more like watery ice and a little bit of flavor. A lot of the food here is like that. Nothing here is super sweet or super salty most things are bland so far. After that we went to a couture shopping mall and we pretended like we owned the place. It was fabulous. That night we went on the star ferry which isn’t as cool as it sounds you literally just cross the harbor and back some people were singing Celine Dion and that got really old. Then there was a laser show in the sky which I thought would be awesome buuuuut it really wasn’t and it made me realize how much freaking smog there was. It’s nuts.
That night when we got back to the temple housing Kirsten, Garth, and I were just talking and braiding hair and such. Nothing big but it was fun we also had to pack because we were leaving in the early morning. I was lying in my bed and Kirsten told me she had a voicemail, her phone has been on airplane mode so she hasn’t gotten a chance to listen to it. I was half asleep and she started pounding on my bed saying he said he loves me! So I sit up thinking what the crap? It turns out Daves the guy we met at church the day before really really liked Kirsten and he left her a voicemail pretty much saying I love you and you would be the perfect wife for me and how he had prayed about it. It freaked all of us out as we had only met him the day before. After all that what not we went to sleep.
The next morning I was skyping one of my best friends, Kathryn Hyer. I was in the elevator area so I wouldn’t disturb anyone because it was 6:30 in the morning. I heard the elevator coming up and didn’t think anything of it then Daves came out of the elevator! He had come to say goodbye. So I went back into our room of 8 girls including Kirsten, who were all awake and packing, I was like Daves is here Daves is here!!! So Kirsten just hid in our room and we sent a girl to get rid of him and we tried to get Spencer, who is in charge of us, to get rid of him. When that didn’t work we sent Jake who served the mission with him to get rid of him. However he wouldn’t budge. He was determined to see her. I stayed with Kirsten this whole time so she wouldn’t feel as uncomfortable. Eventually after we had everything done and packed and everyone was ready to leave we came out of the room quickly said goodbye to Daves and he left without mentioning his message. I don’t mean to paint him as a creep because he was very sweet, he just knew what he wanted and was determined to get it. That was this morning.
Later on today we traveled out of Hong Kong into mainland China in Shenzen. We are at a really nice hotel right now and I am loving it here. Tomorrow we start training to be teachers and we will train for two days then we leave for our schools I am so excited!!! It will be wonderful. So many more adventures to come and to have. This is probably one of the best decisions I have ever made.
Peace out Bean Sprouts!
