First of all, I would like to thank you all for reading my blog, and for all your lovely comments. I am glad you are enjoying it:)

This past weekend, I finally ventured to Hong Kong. The real reason for the visit was to get my Visa, but all the other Canadian teachers came along; in total there were seven of us. It ended up being a fun-filled, action packed weekend:)

The rugby sevens tournament was going on, which is a huge rugby tournament that takes place in various parts of the world. On Friday we thought we would go out for a nice quiet dinner after our two hour train ride from Guangzhou. How wrong we were! The streets were filled with people! Most of them were rugby fans there to cheer on their teams. There were people from all over the world! It ended up being a loud, crazy night.

On Saturday we watched the rugby sevens on a big screen set up outside of the stadium. Tickets were sold out, and if possible to get them, as they were extremely expensive. The weather was fantastic! It was about 30 degrees and sunny. Saturday night was filled with mayhem. Fans dressed up in crazy costumes and partied on Lan Kwai Fong, a street filled with restaurants and clubs. We found a delicious Indian restaurant owned by people from Nepal. The chicken vindaloo is to die for!

Sunday was spent exploring temple street market, and walking down Nathan street. Hong Kong is an amazing city! It is similar to China, but at the same time, so different. People actually speak English! It is so easy to find your way around. The subway system is superb. They have normal toilets. The toilets are clean AND have toilet paper! I know this doesn't seem like a big deal, but coming from my area, it was a luxury! You cannot imagine the relief of getting into a cab, and the cab driver actually understanding where you want to go- without even having to say in in Chinese! In Guangzhou, even if you tell them the Chinese name, they have no idea where to go!

On Saturday night, I took a ferry across to Kowloon island. From there, I had a beautiful view of the Hong Kong Island skyline. Words cannot describe how amazingly gorgeous this is!! Pictures and postcards cannot do it justice! I was completely in AWE. At 8:00, there was a spectacular light show, and all the lights from the buildings were synchronized to the music. Ferries were constantly crossing and the whole scene was magnificent. I kept wishing you all could have been there to see it.

On Sunday I was up at 7am and off to line up at the VISA office. We waited in line for a while, and finally gave our information in around 10am. We were told to pick it up at 3:20pm, so that left time for a trip to Lantau Island to see the Big Buddha! You could either take the subway, or ferry across to the Island. WE chose the ferry, and my stomach was very sick from pulling an all nighter of partying the night before! After the ferry, a winding cab ride drove past beaches and winding roads (which made my stomach worse!) up to the bug Buddha. It is the largest sitting bronze buddha statue in the world! Managed to snap a few pics, before heading back in the cable car. It was extremely windy, which made for an interesting ride. We took the subway back (Thank goodness!), then it was back to line up at the Visa office, dinner at an Italian restaurant- the Spaghetti house (it was okay) and then picked up our backs and took a subway to Shenzen. We took a less direct route back so we could stop at the knock-off market in Shenzen. It was nuts! People practically grabbed you and forced you to buy things! They have any imitation designer purses, glasses and shoes that you can think of. It is all done through catalogue, because they cannot be on display. The prices were not that great though. I managed to find some really unique costume jewelry before getting on the train back to Guanghzou. I ended up back home after midnight. It was a long, grueling day.

Well I definitely fell in love with Hong Kong, and I would move there in a heartbeat if I was offered a teaching job there. It would be nice to be hired at a school in HK, and hopefully spend a semester living there.

Stay tuned for pictures (I will upload them tomorrow)

Next destination: Shanghai!