BLUE-TUESDAY.NET //

So, it's been nearly 4 weeks since I got back to Changchun. To be honest - I felt pretty miserable at first. I was just getting used to the comfort of being at home, and then I had to come back to the freezing cold of Northeastern China... ahh! But the feeling subsided quite quickly - I'm loving my life here now.

Imagine my surprise when I check my mail and get not one, but FIVE postcards from Jacky. From London, Berlin, Iceland, Valencia, and Zurich. He's such a sweetheart :)

Since February was Chinese New Years, I decided to do something special for my students.. I prepared red pockets for everyone, filled with foreign currencies. I have 15 classes (that's like 450 students!!), so it was a total of whopping 10 lbs :O

I got a special gift also! One of my students, Arson (awesome name, right?) got me a Christian Dior gift set. I loooove it!

On my first weekend back, we decided to go to Harbin to check out the Harbin Ice Festival. So imagine our disappointment when we arrive and find out that everything had... already melted. It was totally not our fault too, because the official website says that the festival goes on until March! ...and we went on the first week of March -.-

We did some sight-seeing instead.. There wasn't really much to see though.

Looks a bit like Europe, no?

It sounds pathetic, but the highlight of our trip was our pit stop at Haagen Dazs.

Mmmmm..

Anna with her cappuccino mustache :D

Mine :D

div align="center">More eye candy!!

Drooling yet?

Ahmed's

Whitley's

Streets of Harbin

Also did a bit of shopping on the weekends. I'm pretty serious about saving money this term, and I'm doing pretty well with that so far. I haven't bought a single article of clothing all month.. That's a serious feat!

...though I considered buying this cowboy hat... hahaha.

....and a lot of eating, as usual. This looks a lot like Mandarin, right? It only costs 38rmb/person for all-you-can-eat. Serious bargain.

Trying to order and eat as much as we can...

Went to KTV for the first time since I got back, and it was awesome :D

Alice & I with our newly-bought Justin Bieber posters :D

Our boss Ying came to Changchun to visit us, and he took us out to a fabulous Japanese restaurant.

Group photo of the new teachers :)

Conch! My favourite seafood :D

Sea urchin!

Eel and shrimps :D We also had sea cucumber (interesting taste) and a huge assortment of seafood. Pretty awesome.

Alright... well, more later :)

Again, another super-belated entry... After Shanghai & Xi'an, Katelyn and I went to Hong Kong... yay!! We actually flew to Shenzhen, which was significantly cheaper because you're still in the mainland. We then took a bus to cross the border to Hong Kong - it was relatively straightforward, but time-consuming. Oh well, saved us a lot of money though.

This was my first time back since my HKU exchange in 2009. I noticed some changes immediately.. I.e, the prices!! Everything got so much more expensive. A mango drink from Hui Lau San now costs 28HKD, which is almost double the price from two years ago.

Nevertheless, it was delicious - mm mmmm!

Katelyn & I had fun taking sticker pictures... Instead of just the stickers, the machine pops out false eyelashes and a mini beauty kit too :O Crazy!

I took her to Australian Dairy, which is consistently rated the #1 eatery in Hong Kong. I love it because it's so quintessentially Hong Kongnese :)

Of course, no trip to Hong Kong would suffice without a trip to the Peak. The views are simply fantastic.

Low and behold - guess what I found at the Peak..? NEW YORK FREAKIN' FRIES!!! I had been deprived of poutine for so long, I wanted to cry.

Katelyn with her very first poutine!! Yay go Canada :)

Before going to Hong Kong, Katelyn said we absolutely needed to make a stop to Macau. I said, sure, why not... Macau is famous for its casinos! Not only that, but also it's Michael Jackson tribute museum apparently. Yep, we went all the way to Macau to check it out. Being a hardcore MJ fan, she was thrilled :)

The glove! :O

Ruins of St. Paul.

Me with Macau's famous egg tart! I love the colors in these photos - I don't quite remember what settings I used though..

And of course.. a bit of gambling. Photographs were prohibited in all of the casinos, but I managed to sneak some in. I love slots :D

During the short time that Katelyn was in Hong Kong, I was really happy because I got to be a wannabe tour guide for her :) I took her to a lot of the tourist attractions, like Stanley.

It's so serene - definitely one of my favourite spots in the city.

We had amazing Indian food at Chungking Mansions :D I kept telling her that Chungking was a really sketchy place, and I think she was a bit skeptical about it... but I'm sure in the end she agreed ;)

Muahaha... We did a lot of shopping too! We both bought a lot of Skinfood products :D Yay!

After Katelyn left, I stuck around my dad a lot.. He goes to Hong Kong every year to visit gramps. I don't have many friends in Hong Kong, so all I do in HK is just shop and eat. Pretty sad.

I had been wanting to buy a wide angle lens for some time now, so I shopped around for a good one. This was my first time using a "super" wide angle, and I was amazed at the quality...

Pretty sharp, eh?

The latest cameras in Hong Kong.. Really awesome-looking Pentax DSLRs.. I want one :O

I guess this is the new thing huh.. Personalized cameras?

I wasn't aware of the salesperson taking this photo :S But you see how wide the photo is? *in love*

Hahahaha.. If you go close up the object gets pretty distorted.. Almost like a fisheye :D

...annnnnd if you take portrait photos, it makes you look really tall. Haha!

A bus ad for the new line of Olympus cameras at Causeway Bay. Amazing.

Every camera looks freakin' awesome!!

Of course... My favourite thing in the whole wide world. Well, almost. Guess what they have at McDonald's HK? Miniature versions of the McDonalds classics!!!

They cost about 120HKD for the set. I had no more room for stupid purchases.. so I only got one. A mini filet-o-fish :D Nom nom nom...

This trip was also my first time to Disney!! Yep, you heard it.. I've never been to Disneyland before :( Like my friends warned me, the HK one is... TINY, not even 1/4 of Canada's Wonderland. The shows were great though, and I had a blast with my cousin.

Wheee!

Us with Buzz Lightyear :D

Woooooody!!!

Beautiful fireworks at night :)

I'm going back to China in less than 2 weeks! I'm sad to go, but also excited to see my friends and students again. Jacky and I will be heading off to NYC for a couple of days on the 22nd - That should be fun :)

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