Vappu in Hong Kong - Done with CUHK

Vappu in Hong Kong - Done with CUHK

A special day - done with exams

Kulunut pari viikkoa on ollut taas erilaisten aktiviteettien aikaa. Kirjojen sekä kulttuurin parissa on pyöritty ihan huolella ja ehkä ei ihan niin perinteinen vappukin tuli koettua! Elämä Hong Kongissa tuntuu jo hyvin paljon vähemmän turistitoiminnalta vaikkakin vieläkään kaikkia paikkoja en yksinkertaisesti ole ehtinyt kiertää. Tähän aikapulaan kaupunkiin ‘’tutustumisessa’’ tarjoaa helpostusta ytimestä saatu harjoittelupaikka kesäksi. Työviisumit menivät läpi äskettäin ja hienoa lukukautta CUHK:ssa maustaa työntäyteinen kesä keskustassa. Aikas nättiä! 


Tällä hetkellä monet muut pakkailee täällä laukkujaan lähtöä varten ja mulla hommat onkin puolivälissä yhtäkkiä. Tämä tuleva kokemus on alkanut jo niin tutulla byrokratiakokemuksella erilaisten lomakekaavakepaperihommien kanssa. Ei päivää ilman muutamaa kaavaketta näillä hoodeilla. CUHK:n semester alkaa olla purkissa ihan toden teolla tällä kertaa sillä final tentit ovat ohi ja raportit palautettu. Tulipa käytyä monta case-harjoitusta, presentaatiota ja luentoa läpi täällä! Tähän fiilikseen haettiin lisäpotkua Macaolta viimeisen tentin jälkeen. Tällä kertaa olin kyseisessä mestassa kellon ympäri parikin kertaa eli kaupunkiin sekä kasinoihin pääsi tutustumaan hieman rauhallisemmassa tahdissa. On se ihme paikka! 

IFC - ''Batman Tower''

The end of one era

View from my Chinese classroom

The final week started with a visit to a nice local Chinese soup noodle place (very famous…forgot the name though) with my roommate from HK. You could get a massive portion of different kind of items for 48 HKD. This place was famous for its spiciness and I didn’t dare to take the hot dishes. This turned out to be a good decision, as the soup kept getting more and more spicy while eating. 


Sha Tin is a good place to have this stuff! After some great food I had some great times in the famous learning garden. I did enjoy my refreshments in the ‘’no - for everything’’ zone and didn’t use the refreshment zone...so very badass I would say (quite many rules in some of the buildings here). The facilities are actually just great in this university. I wish I could import some of them back to Finland as well. 

A bubble room in the learning garden

Vappu is a Finnish celebration that could be described also so that it is a day when the American labor day meets carnival that meets a picnic that then meets some student traditions and this all happens when we get a day off and wish the sun will shine. This event is such a big part of our festivity culture that we brought it to Hong Kong. We created the white graduation hats out of duct tape and some random pieces of fabric and paper. Then a bunch of Finns met on the IFC rooftop to make a copy of this tradition in Hong Kong. The views did not match the famous Helsinki picnic but we sure did have some Vappu atmosphere going on! Glada vappen! Hyvää vappua!

Hyvää Vappua Hong Kong style

Jallu in Hong Kong

VAPPU 2013

MACAO GALAXY


The end of a semester had to have some kind of special activity so I headed to Macao with some friends visiting from Mainland China. These students from Oulu University are studying in Nanchang, China. Before we took off with the ferry I had to find my way through a jungle of people as there was a huge crowd taking pictures of an art installation called ‘’rubber duck’’. Of course I had to have my own too but this operation took some effort since there were even lines to get the best spot to take a shot…I managed to walk by and point my camera somewhere to take a picture though. 




The crowd

This famous duck is a piece by a Dutch artist called Florentijn Hofman. This time in Macao we had more time to explore the city and the casinos and there were some special events held by for example the Venetian. I find the amount of projects for new resorts and casinos quite amazing…would like to see Macao in 15 years. 

''Rubber Duck in HK''

The Venetian

Carnevale has started

Finns in Carnevale

Tourists inside the Venetian

  

                  THE LOBBY FOR GALAXY AND THE EXTRAVAGANZA IN IT

In the coming weeks there will be (hopefully) visits to the beaches and some preparations for my internship. I’m looking forward to seeing this city from another perspective. There are also a couple of trips planned before I settle down for work. I expect some visitors who travel in Southeast Asia as well so it will be nice to be a host here again. It is actually quite good to have a person who knows about places here since if there is no plan in Hong Kong it is possible that you just end up walking around for hours with a million people…. literally.

Let’s see if May also brings the heat in the city…at least some of the humidity has arrived already.

- Niklas