.::* Living and Dreaming *::.

Catching Up

It's been a really long time since my last post and it's not because I got lazy, it's because a lot of things have been happening. My life is quite out of balance and my schedule turned upside down. I went to Hong Kong for a short week and right after that, I was hit with the most intense culture shock when I returned to Japan. Right after my return, Liz and I started getting serious about our 2 month Asia tour and we're working out the flights and everything. Not only that, my parents called and asked if I wanted to stay in Asia longer because I have a cousin getting married in Taiwan over the summer and my aunt wants me to travel with her. Plus, I am looking for a job at the same time. Things are mellowing out though and I think I have a handle on life again. So I finally have the brain power to update my blog!

Let's go backwards... my boss took me to the Agriculture centre to look at the plum blossoms on Wednesday. So BEAUTIFUL!!! I love it. And I got to see some cows and chickens too. It sure beats working!

...On Sunday, I finally met up with Kent's friend, Sarah. We both wanted to go to Nagoya Aquarium but it closed before we could get our sleepy selves out there. Instead, we walked around Nagoya Port, took some puri kara (Japanese photo sticker booth), and hit Little Italy. We took a 5 minute boat tour on the man made canal, quite romantic but we had a small family in the boat with us so it was cramping our style. No sparks there. For dinner, we had pizza which involved pointing at something random on the Japanese menu. The risk was well worth it. We got ourselves some greasy goodness. To finish off, we had some gelato. Not as large a selection as I'm used to back home but it's good enough.

...On Saturday, it was Sayana's (Russian Intern) farewell day. She gave a presentation about her time in Nagoya, then we had dinner at an AIESEC members house, then we went clubbing at Club ID. I didn't get to spend much time with Sayana while she was here but it's still sad to see her leave. It means we definately won't get to spend more time together later on! After the club, Aaron and I couldn't go home because the trains had stopped so we went to Denny's to satisfy my hunger and then we went in search of a bar that we had heard about from someone we met a few weeks back. We knew it was in the red light district so away we went, walking through a shady part of town. There are clothings stores here that stay open all night! Anyways, we eventually found the bar, after having dessert at a convenience store. I like a guy who can share my passion for sweets. But yah, the guy who sat next to me at the bar offered me a mint and I just stared at him, so he offered it to Aaron who actually ate it...then whispered to me that if he passed out to make sure he didn't leave with the guy. Who does that?!?! Oh well, interesting times indeed.

HONG KONG!!!

I got back from Hong Kong last Tuesday. It was a nice trip. I got to see Liz and Serge again but it was weird. It was like we were never parted. Liz is the same but with darker hair, which has faded to a rather suiting color for Liz. And Serge is the same cept he was wearing his new stuff from Hong Kong. From the airport, we took the bus back to Liz's apartment. It was a long ride, not really scenic since there was kind of a fog which I think is mostly pollution. It wasn't so nice to see Hong Kong from the air either.

Anyways, I arrived on Valentine's day and to celebrate a lot of people came over and we had chocolate fondu with fruits and candy. There was the rule that if anyone dropped their food into the fondu pot, they'd have to kiss the person on their right so we were all careful, except for all the guys who were sitting next to each other. Also, we visited the New Year's market and got flowers to decorate the apartment with. I love flowers and they lasted till I left.

The next day, Liz took me to some of the markets but I wasn't in the mood to buy anything. That night, we went for Karaoke and I actually enjoyed it. I never liked karaoke before.

Serge and I helped Liz give a presentation about Salsa to her co-workers. It was their monthly team bonding thing where a person gives a presentation about something they like. After that, we got to do Chinese calligraphy as a treat for Chinese New Years. Liz's co-workers helped us write wishes and it was a lot of fun. Liz had to keep working so Serge and I went for bodies massages. It was my first massage in my life so I was excited. Boy was I in for a surprise. Instead of falling asleep and catching up on some zzz's, I was actually in pain. My back hurt when I touched it afterwards but I think in the end, it helped for when I went hiking the next day. The funny story here is that the people thought Serge and I were a couple so they left us in the same room to change.

That night, we went to a place for a seafood dinner in Sai Kung. What I didn't like was being bombarded by all these people trying to get you into their restaurant but, it was cool to see all the live seafood in the tanks. I didn't like the food much in Hong Kong and that includes this place. Afterwards, we stayed up and watched one of Serge's crazy Japanese movies. Even the title was crazy which is why I can't remember what it was.

Next, we went hiking on Lantou Island. Liz and her hiking partner, Jean Philip from France, have been fine tuning their hiking experience to really show Serge and I a good time. We ended up hiking up a dry river path with huge rocks and lotsa spiders. I think the only casualties were Liz getting stung by a caterpiller and me slipping on a rock when it started to rain. Oh and one of the other girls kept banging her shin everytime she took out her camera. It was quite an adventure and I think it'll prep me for South Asia...maybe...hmmm, hotter climate = bigger bugs. We'll see.

I spent the coming of New Years waiting to get into a nightclub. It was a fun night though. Egle from Lithuania was a REALLY good dancer. In the morning, we went for dim sum. Oh how I miss dim sum! Then we went to a temple which was kind of a dangerous place to go on New Years. People had handfuls of incense and they had to carry them above their heads because of all the smoke coming out of them. That just meant that the tall interns got incense in their faces while ashes fell on us little people. I think we spent more time in the line up to get into the temple than we did in the temple. Oh well, I thought it was worth seeing since you don't really get that in Calgary. Next was the New Years parade. There were so many people and when the parade started, people actually got trapped in different quadrants. I was seperated from Liz and Serge and couldn't get to them until the parade ended. It was crazy and the parade wasn't even as good as the one for the Calgary Stampede. Oh well, afterwards, we went for Indian food which was really good. I think the spices helped to make the food taste good. I think the meat and veggies have a funny taste to them in Hong Kong. Especially the milk!!! Bleh. To end the night, we stayed up to watch City of God and talked till 6am with one of Liz's roommates, Frank.

To end the trip, we went to watch a Chinese movie called "Protege". It had Andy Lau and Danial Wu in it and it's about an undercover cop trying to bust a drug lord. It brought me back to my childhood of watching Hong Kong movies. For Liz, I think she found it amusing and I don't think Serge liked it. I do admit that it gets cheesy but it was really cool to see the scenes in the movie match the places where I had actually just been! Plus, Andy Lau an Danial Wu...drool.

Right after that, we caught the ferry to spend the night in Macau with two other interns, Jean Philip and David from Nigeria. Meaning, another night of no sleep! Our taxi ride was an adventure. Our taxi driver didn't want to take us where we wanted to go and we probably ended up paying more for our ride than we should of...but in the end, it was only like $3 a person. We went to visit the Ruins of St.Paul and walked around the streets with the European style buildings. The boys got some meat jerky and we had dinner at a Polish Restaurant. Then we hit the casinos and took a lot of pictures of us in goofy poses. We lasted the night but by morning, we were pretty well spent. We tried to watch the sunrise along the harbour but it was too cloudy. We went back to a casino to have some buffet breakfast and most of us ended up falling asleep at the table. To kill some time before our ferry back to Hong Kong, we went to Macau tower and then took a taxi to tour Macau for like 15 minutes.

After getting back to Hong Kong, I had to leave right away to go back to Japan. I was sad to leave and I almost cried on the plane. I not only miss Liz and Serge, but all the great people I met in Hong Kong. I am jealous that Liz gets to hang out with so many interns from so many places. Makes for a very interesting crowd. But, I will see Liz again in a couple months...and we're probably going to be really sick of each other 2 months after that... after out Asia tour together!!! I can't wait.

posted by ~diana~ @ 5:10 PM