OOOPS...

Hmmm it seems this blog is seriously due an update... ooops! Let's give a quick update of what has happened in the last couple of weeks...

Well, I turned 22. As most of you know by now. My birthday was an awesome night! We went for a meal in a place called Joe Banana's which was recommended to me by some Finnish people who live in Hong Kong. It was a fun place and we got free shots because it was my birthday! My birthday was also the day of the Midautumn festival, which is a traditional Chinese celebration of full moon and autumn and harvesting and stuff. The whole week Hong Kong was full of parades, performances, lanterns and people celebrating. On my birthday, after venturing to Victoria park to watch the lantern shows, we ended the night in a couple of bars in Wan Chai.

It was kind of cool to have my birthday at the same time as the Midautumn festival, not least for the fact that we had wednesday off Uni (my actual birthday). We went to Ocean Park (an amusement park here) which was fun even though the famous pandas were sleeping...

My life is still very very busy. I thought it would have calmed down after the first couple of weeks but no... because on top of everything else, I actually have to do some studying now. I was expecting this to be an easy year but seems like I have more work than in Birmingham! I only have to pass which puts less pressure on my studies, but still, some work needs to be done. Anyway, due to the workload, in the last couple of weeks I have (unfortunately) been spending quite some time in the library or Starbucks studying. So have a lot of my friends so I don't feel too much like a lifeless freak ;) We have reading week next week but obviously everyone is going traveling instead of studying so I have spent a lot of time this week trying to prepare for the exams/assignments which are due after the reading week. I have 4 exams after I come back from my traveling, 3 on the same day which is ridiculous! That means I have to do some studying while traveling which I'm not too happy about but I also would quite like to pass my exams...

In addition to all the studying, socialising (5 of my friends' birthdays this week!), Hall activities etc I have managed to find some time to explore Hong Kong more. I've been to Lantau island to see the world's biggest outdoor Buddha statue (which, we found out, was only built in early 90's to attract tourists... slightly disappointing) and Lamma island to hike and relax on the beach. Hong Kong does have a lot of outdoor activities going on, hiking etc but the stupidly humid weather makes them not-so-enjoyable at the moment. I also visited the Monastery of 10,000 Buddhas and The Walled city, which are both located in the New Territories. It is more of a residential area, hence an occasional day trip there is great just to get out of the crazyness of the city for a while. Oh and I also went to Macau again for bungee jumping but couldn't jump because it was too windy. That really sucked.

So, we're off to China tomorrow for 9 days. Exciting times! It's me, Diana, Amber (Australian girl) and Morgane (French girl) going together. I can't wait to do some cheap shopping and practise my Chinese! Reading week also means that the autumn term is pretty much half way through, scary! Time goes so fast :)