Time is flying and Ive only got a week left in Hong Kong! I cant believe that Im actually going already, feels like I just got here and that I havent really had time to see anything yet! But thats how it always feels when you have to move on, so what can you do.. Just enjoy the time that you have left and look forward to what youve got ahead of you! :) Wow, what great thoughts! I should write a book or something..

In the last lecture of China hotel & tourism by Dr. Han Shen from Shanghai

So much has happened in the past month, sorry I havent really been updating the blog in a while.. Weve had pikkujoulut at the student halls, the Independence day reception at the Finnish consulate to celebrate Finland's 90th birthday, final exams (and of course very serious studying for them...), farewell parties, my parents visiting me for a week and and and.... Weve also tried to make more plans regarding our upcoming trip but everythings still a bit open, never mind though. The posse about hit the road includes me, Niina, Marianne, Tytti, Juha and Sami will probably join us a bit later on. In the first few days/weeks Niinas brother Arto and his friend Jari and my friend Hanna will be travellin with us as well so weve got a proper group together :)

See!! I did really study while I was here.. made notes and everything! So proud of myself.. ;)

We had our farewell party at a club called Paparazzi. It was really nice to get together with pretty much all of the exchange students for one last time, sniff!

The official farewell party at the campus. We got some certificates for the exchange and also snacks and gifts that were excahnged among ourselves anonomously. Just like in 3rd grade, yay!

Me getting my present, was almost the last one so no good presents left... :( I got a little totem pole from Disney that looks used and dirty :D Thanks!

Sami, me, Niina and Juha.

Independence day reception 6.12.

Mum and dad at the airport.. and below photos of stuff that we did and saw...

Buying silk at Western market and the end of Slava's Snowshow at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts (fantastic show, if you have the chance to see it, GO!! And sit in the first section somewhere in the middle!)

Busy workers and chicken feet at a supermarket in Shenzhen in mainland China.

Yep, those are snake skins...

Final exams are over!! Happy and tired in Shenzhen.

Dried foods in Central Hong Kong.

The Peak and my new best friend :D

Pikkujoulut :)

Not everyone could fit in the room so some people stood in the hallway.

Can you find the tontut???

And The Plan after Hong Kong is..... Were flying out on 22nd december to Bangkok -> Koh Chang for xmas and hopefully new years as well -> Cambodia for Mariannes cousins wedding  -> Laos -> Vietnam -> back to Laos -> north of Thailand (at least Chiang Mai) -> Malaysia and Singapore -> the Philippines -> Shanghai (maybe touring China a bit) -> Beijing and the Great Wall -> Trans Siberian train to Mongolia -> Through Russia with a few stops -> Back to Finland OR a visit to Germany to say hello to Marianne.. Thats the plan anyway, will see how well we stick to it but were just gonna see how it goes in each place and take it from there :) Oh yeah, the whole trip should take us about 3 months so I should be back by the beginning of april...

Anyhow, if anyone made it this far, hope you enjoyed the stories and photos during the exchange! :) I will try to write some updates while were on the road but doubt that Ill be putting up any photos or anythin.. So write emails and text messages every now and then, really wanna hear from you!!

Merry Xmas everyone!! :)

Time to put on the dress, wear the heels and eat well! We had our High Table Dinner tonight with all the Lishengians from the 5th (the boys) and the 6th (the girls) floor. There were probably around 300 of us in the student cantine which was decorated with pink ribbons on the roof, silver and gold and long tables with white cloths, red napkins and some little red decorative glass stones. It looked really pretty and the dark lighting made a very elegant atmosphere. The invitation said that the dinner is going to start at 6.30pm so being punctual Finns (Juha, Niina and me) we got there on the dot just to see that there was no one there yet! We should really know by now that nothing, absolutely nothing, in China starts on time. You can always be at least 30minutes late and no one will notice a thing! But being there on time we had to wait around for a bit less than 2 hours to get to the dining area from the little lobby they had made in the next room. So that kind of sucked.. But at least they had some drinks there (non-alcoholic of course...).

People are waiting in the lobby before the dinner.

The drinks were all some kind of juice or soda mixers. Could have done with some real punch...

We had a 4 course meal which included Norwegian salmon as a starter, seafood minestrone soup, then you could choose from 3 main courses. I had the beef and pumpkin lasagna and then for dessert we had tiramisu and tea or coffee. They actually served red wine as well but the glass was so tiny that you couldnt really get anything in there! Most of the Chinese people didnt even drink their wines.. The exchange table asked for 3 more bottles :D The dinner itself was really nice and I really enjoyed it! Some of the Chinese students seemed to have quite a lot of difficulties with using a knife and a fork though... It was so funny, there was one guy who just had no idea what he was doing, he kind of managed to cut his food with both utensils but then he ate everyhting with his knife and pushed his food on it with the fork. I understand that it can be very challenging, I mean it hasnt exactly always been easy with the chopsticks either... :)

The dining area with the nice decorations on the roof.

The salmon starter

During the evening there were many performances as well. The whole night was hosted by 2 girls and 2 boys who spoke in turns in Cantonese and English. So you could actually follow the flow of the event. Sometimes the things they say are just so funny like when people were coming to the dining room they were saying "Can everyone please take your seat and be quiet!" So polite, ah :D In the beginning they had some music performances and short speeches which were followed by the meal and some more speeches... Unfortunately mostly in Cantonese... The guest of honour was some famous film director/media person from Hong Kong who was talking for like 30minutes (all in Cantonese) which was a shame as it would have been nice to listen to what he was saying. Instead I made animals out of my napkin...

Some of the exchange students from Lisheng. Looking very sharp in the suits boys!

The hosts

These guys sang really well! Especially the guy, apparently he won the Hall Singing contest a few weeks ago. Go Lisheng woo!!

The hosts interviewing the guest of honour after his speech, still in Cantonese... so more napkin animals..

In the end it was time for a group photo with the organizers and guests.

And some other guests (mostly exchange students from Finland, Germany, Korea and USA)

And of course the most important guests of all, Niina and Sofia!

When the evening ended the hosts said that there will be a dance in the next room, so we went to have a look:

Quite an afterparty eh? ;)

So we just went to bed after watching the Chinese people trying to dance... oh it was so funny! They really had no idea what they were doing, taking huge leaps from one place to another and being completely out of rhythm. At least they tried :)

Everyone signed this big poster and I think its gonna be hung on the wall of the common area tomorrow. As a gift everyone also got a decorated coloring pen that had a crown on the end of it and a little decorated wooden holder for it. A nice little something to remember this nice evening.

Gonna keep it short and sweet this time.. Last thursday we had Swedish night here at the student halls. Its an annual tradition where the exchange students from one country (chosen each year by the internationl department at uni) have shows and prepare some food etc for the other students and staff. Team Sweden put up a really good show, enjoy the photos....

Henrik wanted to show us his blue & yellow underwear...

The boys put on quite a show!! Or should I say girls... ;)

Followed by a bit of Abba obviously!

They had a competition called "The breakfast of a champion" because apparently everyones a champion in Sweden :D It included some herring on crisp bread, sausage with a shot of vodka and chewing tobacco... They also had a buffet for everyone where they served meatballs with lingonberry jam, potatoes and gravy, crisp bread, gingerbread, glögi etc etc. I was very happy about that cos Ive started to crave Finnish food lately..

What can I say... Enjoy!! ;)

As so many of you have asked me if I ever go to school here or do anything else than travel around, Im posting some photos of our everyday lives here.. so yes, I do go to school (even though Ill have to admit that I have missed a few tutorials and lectures every now and then... hih..) and have a "normal" life too :)

The first views of the campus when you enter the area.

The clocktower is a popular meeting point in the middle of the campus. One of teachers insists on calling it the "cocktower" (well its mostly the accent really...)but hey, what ever floats your boat.. :D The tourism department is located on the right, most of our classes are held in the building that has the posters on it.

You see these guys practising in the campus area all the time. Ive been quite surprised about the number of girls in the groups. Its almost 50-50, wouldnt be quite like that in Finland...

Graduation day!! Different departements have graduations at different dates now, I think its tourism this wednesday or thursday. The outfit also includes a wonderful hat, yay! And whats even better, almost all of the graduates get presents (from their families and friends) like huge furry animals... Me and Niina have spotted Winnie the Pooh, Hello Kitty (obviously!), Minnie Mouse and god knows what else...

So moving on to our home sweet home, the student halls!

Home to me, Niina and about 3000 other students. A bit different than KOAS... ;)

The main entrance on the street level. Also known as the place to be on a wednesday, thursday, friday or saturday evening if you want to go out and havent found anyone to go with... :D At least a few (usually about 3-5 taxi loads) people are guaranteed to be there...

Before you get in or out you have to beep your student ID card on one of these machines. Big brothers always watching.

Thats our door at the end of the corridor....

.....welcome to room 660! :)

This has also become one of our favourite activities ever since Milka (in the middle) bought seasons 1-7 from Sex and the City.. usually without the beer though...

And last but certainly not least, the neighbourhood and where we shop for food! :P There are two superstores on our block, several restaurants and just too many bakeries!

A small street between blocks with one of our favourite restaurants.. You get a soup, a main meal (massive portions!) and tea for about $38.

The legendary 7-11... an alcoholics dream come true! ;)

Wellcome...                                       ... and Park n Shop

And this is what they sell in them... Thats right, those massive bags are rice and these bottles are soy sauce... Just a few choices huh...

One of the dozens of bakeries... One of those pieces of cake costs around $6 (0,6€)!! Good luck walking past them every day..!

And just to make sure that youll die from watching photos, I just have to put in a few more from Halloween! :) We had big plans to go to Lan Kwai Fong but oh what happened.... We got there quite early but could not get anywhere as EVERYONE else in Hong Kong had the same plan! The police had blocked half of the roads and had a detour to get to the bars! Redicilous! So after walking for an hour without really getting anywhere we decided to go to Wan Chai and actually had a really good time there :)

Getting ready to go.. Milka, Jukka, Niina, Sami, Juho and Juha. The Finnish posse ;)

Lan Kwai Fong on Halloween... stay if you dare! That sight was enough horror for that night..!

Four-eyes and two devils in a bar in Wan Chai... original, I know but it was all that we could find right before we left on a tiny budget...

We met a Canadian film crew who were travelling around the world making a travel documentary (or something in that direction..)! I got to be the camerawoman for a while (not a very good idea to give me anything that costs more than 10€ at 2am on a night out but lucky them, I was an angel ;) ). Watch out TV, here I come!!