ANDREA HOVERSLAND

This week was my finals week. All of my exams were either on the last day of classes or I handed in a final paper soon thereafter. I only have one exam in the centralized testing system which will be on April 30. So, other than studying a little each day, I'm pretty much done with my semester of work.

Last Friday was the official Farewell Dinner for all of the exchange students. The theme was "black and white" and the night was full of delicious food, games, a talent show, and a slideshow of many of the memories we have shared together. I"m not too emotional most of the time, but there were definitely many teary eyes walking around after the event. Good thing we all have Facebook to keep in touch. :) Here is a picture of myself and a bunch of my exchange student friends. . . . .

These are my friends Jessica, Jeanne, Grace, and Crystal who dressed according to the theme "black and white" but they added their own twist aka: black trash bags and newspapers! (except Grace) The dresses were extremely original and everyone was jealous that they spent so little money on their dresses for the evening.

On Saturday my Mandarin teacher Mrs. Guo (Guo Lao Shi or teacher Guo, in English) invited our entire class to experience a tea house where we drank Purh tea. I invited Jamie along (Jamie went with me to Thailand and Malaysia earlier in the semester) It was fun to learn the proper way to prepare and drink the tea. Our tea sets had the Taiwanese style "sniff-cups" where you actually can smell the tea aroma before you drink it. It was such good quality and is nothing like the British-style teabags I am used to using. We sat in the tea house and visited for awhile, and afterwards we went to McDonald's and promptly negated any positive health benefits we had gotten from the tea.

Today (Tuesday) I woke up and I was being rained on. My bed is near the window and I had left the windows open. It is so humid in Hong Kong. Last night I took a shower and I never dried. haha. I'm sure you didn't want to know that, but it is a serious issue here in HK. I think the rain today will take much of the humidity out of the air atleast for a day.

I'm debating on what to do between the 30th of April and May 11, I'm trying to work out a trip to Beijing with Jamie and our friends Angela (England) and Tom (New Zealand) but I need to figure out the details. I will tell you as soon as I know, but it wouldn't be so bad to hang around Hong Kong for awhile longer, this place is amazing and I've done so much traveling that I have missed some of the amazing sites around here. We'll see. . . until next time. . . Goodbye!

Posted by Andrea Hoversland at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I have been back for a few days now from an extremely fun, albeit last minute trip to Guilin in the Guanxi Province, just west of GuangDong Province where Hong Kong is located.

My friend Hao called me last Wednesday and said that if we left campus within the hour, we should be able to take a bus from Shenzhen (mainland China, right next to Hong Kong) to Guilin. No bus, train, or plane tickets were available from any travel agents because many people in Hong Kong were taking advantage of the Easter holiday.

So, three of us (Hao, Alice, and I) took off after a bit of rushed packing. Luckily, they both speak Mandarin. I figured it wouldn't be too cold so I only packed one sweater (my Pavo Society Ambassador sweater) and I had to wear it the entire time because it was pretty cold! I would have bought some warm clothes while I was there, but asian sizing does not work with my long arms.

After going through customs (Yes, Hong Kong is part of China, but it's a little bit of a process crossing into mainland China), we decided to shop and stay overnight in Shenzhen for the first night. Compared to Hong Kong, shopping in Shenzhen is very cheap. That night, we stayed in an overnight massage parlor. Basically, if you go past midnight you get a shower/hot tub, a full body massage, food, and a basic room for the night for around RMB $150, or USD $20. Nice.

This is a picture of a building in Shenzhen. Do you think there are enough ads?

And some shoes for about $2 USD: The China Price.

On Thursday night the bus left for Guilin. We didn't realize it, but our bus was a sleeper bus with beds. I didn't know this type of thing existed, but it sure made the ride more comfortable! The 10 hour trip ended up lasting 14 hours. They often overpack the buses and people can buy spaces to sleep in the aisles, but luckily that didn't happen to us. We had to stop frequently on the narrow roads to pay tolls for each leg of the journey. Hmmm. . . maybe next time I will fly.

When we arrived in Guilin we checked into a "3 Star hotel" which basically means nothing, but the next day we took an organized tour around Guilin. The area is famous for its beautiful Karste rock formations which look like strange and beautiful mountains. The tours in China are known for receiving commission for bringing tourists to places which sell things, so we got to go to our fair share of tea stores, jade jewelry "museums", and expensive places to eat for lunch.

Here is the elephant rock. . . .

The following day, we went on a boat trip down the Li River to Yuan Shuo. We ate the local specialty of fresh beer fish. They just bought the fish from the fishermen on the river right before we ate it. Yummy. . . Here are the three of us on the boat.

As you can see, the river is extremely low at this time of year. Here is another view off the side of the boat.

After a day in Yuan Shuo, which was extremely touristy, we took another overnight bus back to Hong Kong and arrived on Easter Monday.

The food we ate in China was extremely delicious and so inexpensive it felt like we were eating for free. Here is the outside market/ "restaurant" where we ate in Yuan shuo. . . .talk about fresh!

And of course, the street food is delicious. Squid on a stick. . . yummy.

I have 3 final exams and 2 final presentations next week so I am currently reviewing all the class material for those things. I can't believe I will be coming home soon! I have mixed feelings about returning, I'm looking forward to it while sad to soon leave Hong Kong behind. Luckily, I have so much work I don't have to dwell on it.

It was a great weekend. . . happy belated Easter to all my friends at SPC and at home!

Posted by Andrea Hoversland at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)