(29) A Quick Thank-you

About a week ago, I got an e-mail from Ms. Sassi from the Study Abroad Office at the University of Texas-Austin. This is a screenshot she sent me, showing my blog linked to Blackboard at UT.

This is simply a post to show my appreciation! It's been a pleasure sharing my story with my friends, and this blog could help make another difference by inspiring more students to go to Hong Kong.

Besides this news, I had a nice run last week. I found out I got an academic award back home in UMD... I've also finished most of the daunting schedule mentioned in Episode 24 - pulled a couple all nighters in the process too. I actually had some free time on Friday and went down to the park to shoot hoops for the first time in weeks.

Next Episode: "Days at JCAC"

(27-28) School Days

Landmark fountain outside Hong Kong Polytechnic University (AKA Poly-U among native students) - the school's logo is in the center.


A plasma ball inside the Hong Kong Science Museum.

Let's talk double feature! Two museums, two title pictures, two learning experiences (hence "School Days" haha), all over two weekends.

So sorry for the delay. I've been doing way too much typing lately...
The Hong Kong Museum of History and the Hong Kong Science Museum are located in one complex in Tsim Sha Tsui. The Poly-U photo was included because the university was also right there, convieniently enough for those guys.

The HK Museum of History: "The serious one", we know Hong Kong is a seaport now, but you would never guess that it's been: a riverbed, marshes, a sea, a range of volcanoes, a desert, and a lake all in that order in the last 350 million years. Of course, HK owns a colorful history after humans got there, too. The Hong Kong area was first settled by people of the Maha tribe, a Southeastern Asian people who are the ancestors of Vietnamese people now.

Later on, Hong Kong was settled by three more tribes:
Punti - translation - "Natives", Cantonese
Hakka - "Guests", nomads who could have originated as for north as Mongolia
Hoklo - "Min People", from Fujian (province) or Taiwan

Last but not least, Hong Kong went through a period of colonization by the British and Japanese. The final exhibit (on the recommended path) was a video of the Hong Kong Reclamation by China on June 30, 1997 (my birthday!)

The HK Science Museum: "The fun one", according to the brochure there are ~700 exhibits, ~400 of which are hands-on; the exhibits cover every branch of science. The most attractive one might be the "Ability Test", you get your own scorecard and go all sorts of exercises: strength, balance, reaction time, puzzles, memory, eyesight etc.

The World of Mirrors was awesome! You'll see my friend and I had a lot of fun with those :) There were also exhibits on Electricity (where I learned apparently I conducted 1 more Volt than my friend haha), Food Science (you need to bike about 3 miles to burn off a small bowl of rice), and Optical Illusions among many others.

Both of these museums take an entire day to cover, and they are must-sees while in Hong Kong!

Album Links:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonylu89/SchoolDays1?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonylu89/SchoolDays2?feat=directlink

Next Episode: "A Quick Thank-you"

(26) Easter

My aunt just had a child recently, she (my youngest cousin) turned one month old right around Easter. Since school was closed for break, I took the train back to Guangzhou to celebrate with family. Besides taking it real easy, I spent time playing badminton in the park with my relatives.

This time, I brought back gifts for my grandparents and my (now two) younger cousins. My grandparents got packages of assorted European cookies, my 10-year-old cousin got a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle (she loves arts and crafts), and my youngest cousin got a nice silver bracelet (which she simply wasn't big enough to wear yet haha...) All of the gifts were very well received, it was a relaxing and rewarding Easter weekend.

I can't take all the credit for those gifts. A good friend of mine in HK advised me on gifts for my younger cousins - you read this blog too, you know who you are :)

Next Episode: "Double Feature - School Days"

(25) Sai Kung

Simply epic. It's been a while since I uploaded pictures, so hopefully this is me coming back in a big way.

The Two Jasons were at it again, this time the adventure was set in the expansive Sai Kung East Country Park in the northeastern New Territories. The starting place, Sai Kung Market, was an hour away (first by metro, then by bus) from the City-U campus. This place was quite another thing as compared to the city: there were no skyscrapers here, and the active marketplace atmosphere gave this place a Caribbean feel. Fishermen used their boats as moving shops, selling their catch not 15 minutes after having lowered their nets, cages, and poles. People lined up eagerly to buy the fresh fish and seafood when a boat would come in. If you went to a restaurant, the first thing the hostess would ask is: “Are you having seafood today?” If you answered “Yes”, then you would sit at an outdoors table, enjoy a sea breeze (on a beautiful day that day), and dine on fresh seafood for a “tourist’s price” (meaning expensive as hell!) If you answered “No”, then you would sit at indoors table which you may even have to share with other patrons; of course, you would pay a lot less too.

After having a quick lunch (no seafood), we went into the mountains. You’ll see from my album that Sai Kung East seemed to take us through different worlds - dense jungle-like areas with waterfalls in the distance, cooling oases with sparkling clean water, highlands from which you could see the entire park, and sandy beaches with islands just off in the distance. I didn't believe I was still in HK after a couple hours hiking.

The title picture is from a beach in a village about 5 miles from Sai Kung market. Returning took even longer at around 6-7 miles (we took a different road out of the mountains, taking an elliptical path all around Sai Kung Country Park East) Check out the album for the full story!

Album Link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonylu89/SaiKung?feat=directlink

Next Episode: “Easter”

- New E-mail

I think I'm about 4 years late on this ---> I finally have Gmail:
jylu630@gmail.com

(24) April

I can't stress enough how fast time is flying by over here, it's already April (and I leave in May)!! April is a big month for all of us, for my engineering friends especially. It's a month of transition from March Madness and Spring Break to preparing for the dreaded final exams. Here is what my April looks like:

4/1: Register for classes at UMD (ENAE301, ENAE380, ENES472, ARTH290)
4/2: Prepare a debate outline for Chinese Foreign Policy
4/3 - 5: Visit my family in Guangzhou, give out nice gifts to them :)
4/12: 40-minute debate in Chinese Foreign Policy
4/15: Lab Report due in Plastics Engineering
4/16: Math midterm, mostly on Fourier series and other things I need to catch up on... oops
4/19: Project due in C programming
4/20: Take-home packet for math due
4/23: 2500 words on China's need for natural resources in the South Pacific (CFP course), extra credit assignment due for Math
4/26: Final exam in CFP (which is actually outside the exam period)
4/30: 2000 words on Manufacturing Processes for Plastics Engineering

Yup, there's my to-do list... I'll be busy, but it won't stop me from having EPIC adventures in Hong Kong (see next episode :) )

Next Episode: "Sai Kung"