A Chinese Experience: Val: The very last journal entry....

Okay, so this is my last journal entry and it really is a way for me to wrap things up and realize that in 2 days it’ll be over! I still cannot believe that in exactly two days I will be on a plane, going back to Canada! It has been such an amazing trip that it feels like it was just a dream! Before I say good bye to this country, let me just tell about my last week-end, because I had an awesome day with Russell! 

Everyone in the group went to the Big Buddha at one point during the trip except for Felix, Russ and me. Russ and I therefore decided to go this last Saturday together without knowing what to expect from the big Buddha. In fact, we thought it would only be a trip during which we would go on top of a mountain with a cable car and look at a big Buddha, say “Ah… okay!” and then come back, but we’ve been really surprised and we’ve had a wonderful day!

First, it was sunny and we could even see the blue sky, which was a first for us in Hong Kong! And then we got to the site and immediately went for a Subway sandwich. (I had been craving for Subway sandwiches for about 2 months! So I had about 18 inches of sandwiches in total during the day! … a lot of catching up! ) Then, we went to a wonderful outlet mall, did some shopping an went for a real coffee, trying to escape from the instant coffee for a moment and discovered that the coffee shop was serving gelato… it was paradise! Coffee and chocolate chips gelato and dark chocolate.. I’ve had goosebumps for about an hour!

We then decided to finally leave for the big Buddha and because it was sunny, the view was incredible, the ocean with the mountains and the sun, it was magical! And then the Buddha was HUGE! Still it wasn’t just about the big Buddha, the village at the bottom is really cute and I truly enjoyed my time being there, just taking it easy, site seeing and enjoying every single moment of it!

After my last 6-inch sandwich, we came back home, but got stuck in traffic in the taxi for a good half hour, but that gave us plenty of time to laugh at some people singing in cars and to discuss with the taxi driver who told us that the traffic jam was due to a bomb that exploded in Sai Kung (our destination)! I was kind of shocked for a few seconds until I realised that he meant that a water pipe exploded causing some damages! Hahaha!  We had a good laugh! 

The big buddha...

At the top of the big buddha

Yes... well I've been stuck like this for a while after! :P

Briefly, I’ve had a great day and I think that it was due to the way Russ and I like to visit, not rushing and taking the time to just relax and enjoy the time where we are instead of trying to rush and see everything in a short period of time.

In the cable car

The incredible view from the cable car!

And now, I’m starting my last day of teaching, which makes me quite sad, but still as I was saying before, I will not have any regrets coming back home because I’ve had a great time at school, at home and everywhere else! In fact, we’ve done so many things that it would take me about a year to write about everything we’ve done and all the fun we had, laughing every night at dinner time.

Yes... it always ended up like this every night! :)

I’ll remember my trip as having a great time, laughing half of the time, singing during the other half and bonding with what I would called my new and second family! I will miss these people when coming back home and I really hope we’ll stay in touch! I’m glad we’ve stayed so close to each other, and here I’m talking about high school AND primary people, it felt like nothing was impossible! Thank you my friends! 

Here are some good times that I will remember for a long time! :)