Home!

My return home was picture perfect. The weather was exactly what I was craving, it was offically Fall in Reno and like most, its my favorite time of year. Reno is just amazing in Ocotber, the leaves are a beautiful color, the air is brisk in the mornings and night but warm in the day. I was so excited to see Sam but I had to wait a few days before I saw him since he was on his annual trip to Bandon Dunes to play a week of non-stop golf. I was sad but he had this trip planned well before we knew I would be on the other side of the world, so I told him to keep his plans, it would give me enough time to visit with my friends. When I finally got home in Reno, the first thing I did was pick up Cora. She was so excited to see me, and I just couldn't have been happier. I really love that dog. I got home and it was nice and clean, it was weird walking into the house all empty, so I imetidely called Lydia and Courtney. I was estatic to see both of my dearest friends! They both are so important in my life and it was great to have some time to spend just with them.

Sam came home the next day (monday) and it was just amazing to be back together again! It was sorta weird seeing him in person because for 2 months he was on my comptuer screen, it took my brain a few seconds to realize that I could actually touch him and give a big kiss and hug!

I still had to work during my two weeks but my boss was pretty cool about me working from home most of the time, so I was able to relax at home and enjoy my time, Sam and I went out to dinner a few times and of course we went out with all of our friends.

On the following sunday we had a few family memebers come over for brunch. It was so nice to see everyone, since I won't see them on Thanksgiving. It's amazing how much support I have. This has been the hardest thing I have ever had to do so far, so it's nice to have such a supportive family!

My lastnight out a few friends were called and we all headed out to our "watering hole" St. James Infermery, it was awesome being there, since its by far my favorite bar not to mention the people that run it are friends! It was funny because a college friend of mine was in town visiting her family so a big group of college friends ended up showing up. It was really nice to have a "mini" Pi Phi reuinion.

The following day it was time to go back to Manila, I was sad but it was a little easier this time because I knew there was an end to this trip. Manila has been a great learning experience, but agian it has been the hardest thing I have had to do so far. I'm really looking forward to my return home, but I'm also very grateful for the opportunity that has been given to me.

The final countdown!!!!

Hong Kong

Click here to view these pictures larger

Some pictures to share....

This is how I felt when we would get on the tube. So many people all coming and going! it was intense! :)
The rest of them are from the Temple and Buddha...

Greetings from the Giant Buddha

I only had one goal while I was in Hong Kong, to go and see the Giant Buddha! One of the main reasons why it was my ONE goal was because I didn't have much knowledge about Asia, let alone Hong Kong. But after doing some research before I left Reno, I made the Giant Buddha a goal! Today was the day to accomplish that goal. After a great day on Saturday I was ready to have another one today! And boy was it! To get to the Buddha you have to take the tube (metro,underground,subway) to Lun Chung which is on Lantau Island (about 30 mins outside of Hong Kong) once you get there you have to take a gondola to Ngong Ping Park where the Buddha sits on top of the hill looking into the valley with its back to the water. We didn't get to Lantau island early enough so we had to stand in line for about 90 before we could get onto the gondola. The gondola ride was about 15 mins and overlooked some pretty impressive mountain sides. After about 10 mins of the gondola ride you are able to see Buddha sitting on the mountain. It is absolutely breath taking! Once you arrive you are in a very small Chinese like village. There are stairs that go right up to the Buddha which we climbed and enjoyed the beautiful view. After we hung out with Buddha we walked back down to the village and walked in the Po Lin Monastery. This again was a beautiful site, a lot of golden statues and a lot of people practicing their Buddhist beliefs around me. It was so nice to be up there because it was so quite, clean and peaceful, it was almost hard to turn around and go back into a busy bustling city, BUT we had more things to see so we had to leave.

Once we came down we took the tube to Kowloon (I really wanted to see the view of Hong Kong from Kowloon. We walked through the Temple Street Market where I was able to buy a couple of knock offs (I'm a pro at barginning!) We then proceeded to the Harbour. The view of Hong Kong was impressive but unfourtnately I was so tired that the glory of it all was overtaken by the throbbing on my feet!

I loved loved loved Hong Kong. If you ever get a chance to go, GO! You will not regret it! Not to mention, if you had more than 36hours you can hop on the ferry and be in Macau within 30 mins. Hong Kong has a buzz about it that makes you feel very safe and very organized. The transportation system, the people and the city itself is wonderful!

The View that made me smile!

whew!!!! What a crazy day!!! We left Eastwood City at 5:00am so we were sure to arrive to the airport with enough time to get checked in and fly 2 hours to Hong Kong, the only bad part to this plan was, I got no sleep! I didn't get off of work until about 12:30am and then with all the excitement, I just couldn't sleep. We flew on Cebu Airlines which is a Southwest like airline to Hong Kong. For a round trip ticket, I paid about $120!!!! Unreal! We took a double decker bus into Hong Kong. My first impression was, "holy crap you can actually see the horizon." I have gotten so use to not being able to see as far as you possibly can see in Manila....but here, there was blue sky, an ocean, and green!!!! The way from the airport to Hong Kong is only about 40mins and within that time span you cross these amazing bridges made up of cables and towers. One bridge looked like it was just floating in the air! Once we arrived into the city my jaw dropped, the towers were just incredible, not one of them looked like the other. Some one them just seemed like something Dr. Seuss helped design. There is still a lot of British influence here but not when it comes to architecture. We checked into the hotel and then hit the ground running, our first stop was the Star Ferry Harbour where the Golden Bauhinia is located. After the Golden Bauhinia we walked to the center of town and found ourselves wondering around in between the allies. It was a great way to explore the city and the locals. We ended up walking through an open market where they had all kinds of fresh food items, like fish, meat and fruit. The fish was incredible, they sold things like Octopus, Prawns and Blue Crab that were still alive! (See video) It kinda freaked me out a little bit but it was really cool to see how they deal with food here. Since neither Anna or myself had any sleep, we went back to the hotel and got about 2 hours worth of rest, we both agreed that we would wake up to go and see the city at night. Once we were awake and ready we caught the bus to Peak Tower. It is about 945meters above sea level (this was a big deal) and was the highest point in Hong Kong, from there we were able to see Kowloon (the island across the bay). Kowloon bay has a light show every night where each and every sky scrapper flashes neon lights. It is amazing to see! We had dinner at one of the resturants up there where we were able to eat while looking out to the night view. It was a bit over priced, but I was just so happy to be up there and to finally see a place that I had been imagining for so long that I didn't care. I have to say, Hong Kong was exactly the way I imagined it to be!