Goodbye Hong Kong. Hellooo Korea.

At the airport. Thirty minutes until board-time. Listening to Dvorak's New World Symphony.

It's all rather dramatic isn't it?

True to my student-life's creed: I left everything for this morning: packing, finishing my paper, cleaning, final paperwork and last-minute goodbyes.

Yes, it was bittersweet, but I'm fairly certain I will see Hong Kong again. I had all these thoughts and grand announcements on the taxi ride to the airport. I was going to make a farewell post that was worthy of my experiences this semester. The time has passed. My words and clever phrases are gone, and I'm left with scattered thoughts. And all of you get the privilege of reading my rambles.

One piece of advice: travel. I use it as a verb. Go and travel. See the world and learn. You'll probably find out that you knew far less about life than you presumed you did.

For the students out there: study abroad. It might be the most rewarding experience you can allow yourself. Stop making excuses and just do it.

Anyway, I shall cease this foolish prattling and conclude this post with:

KOREA. Here I come.

Okay...so I can't ever resist sharing an interesting internet tid-bit:

For you holiday shoppers out there, here's PriceAdvance to make your holiday woes a little less woe-like.

Five days and counting

That's right. My time in the HK is coming to an end.

There are parties, exams, last-minute preparatory whatnots and goodbyes. I'm terrible at goodbyes. Hopefully, thanks to the man-created gift of the internet and Facebook, goodbyes don't have to be so permanent after all.

I have five more days in Hong Kong and a few more weeks in Korea. There are plans to ski, snowboard, live at a Buddhist temple, experience cold like I've never known cold and food food food. I'm almost home. Almost.

The saga that has been this semester is just about to wrap up its conclusion, and there's no telling how it's going to happen - with luck, there'll be a bang.

So I leave this post with my latest (and delayed) album upload: Siem Reap, Cambodia.

I've decided not to embed another slide-show. I've considered that a link might be more conducive to faster load times. Plus, this way you can see all my comments. Any thoughts?

Will It Blend?

As far as Blendtec's concerned: everything blends. I was slightly horrified when they blended the iPhone. Then I was sort of indignant when they blended a Guitar Hero III guitar. Tom Dickson and his team will blend everything and anything.

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls - I give you:

Chuck Norris.

Plano, TX - You do me proud.

Forbes.com just released one of its fascinating rankings - a list of "American's Most Murderous Cities." I usually click through their slide-shows anyway, but I had extra incentive this time.

I recently met the Hong Kong students who will be exchanging to UT next semester, and I've been attempting to answer their questions the best I can. One of them: How dangerous is Austin, TX?

Now, I've just realized that this article doesn't directly answer this question, since Austin's not even on the list; however, I do have good news for me and other Plano-ites:

Plano's the largest, least-homicidal city in the grand United States of America. Go Plano!

Flying High on Hallows Eve

In following the creed of all procrastinators, I give you all the India slideshows I promised hours before I jet off to Cambodia. Isn't life grand ya'll?

New Delhi

We met some amazing people in New Delhi. First there was Pramendra, the owner of Home Away From Home (the hostel we stayed at - their food's great, staff is wonderful & the memories made are priceless...Mastercard anyone?). It felt so great to find a friend the very first night we arrived. He saved us from a very peeved taxi driver. Anyway, we later met his two daughters: Venya & Anushka. We got to go shopping with them; you don't realize how old you're getting until you're around kids. It was such a great day.

O yes - We also met Samantha from the UK and Claudia from Germany. We had a girls' night out & went to watch a Bollywood film, but we gave up at intermission(yea...there's such a thing). The movie was good, but we old fogies had to get to bed. One day, we'll all finish the movie. Love the Bollywood.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Jaipur

We hired a car in New Delhi to take us on the Golden Triangle Tour: New Delhi, Jaipur & Agra. Jaipur known as The Pink City - built for the Maharaja's wife. Claudia came with us (she's the pretty German).


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Agra

It's the Taj. Need I say more?


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Bakery Prose

In the world of Hong Kong, baked goods are in surplus. Maxim's, one of HK's most prosperous chains, has a paragraph - a paragraph that I can only describe as glorious - printed on their bags.
_____________________________________________________

"My love is of a birth a rare As 'tis for object
strange and high: It was begotten by Despair
Upon Impossibility. Magnanimous Despair along
Could show me so diving a thing,
Where feeble Hope could ne'r have flown But
vainly flapt its tinsel wing. And yet I quickly
might arrive Where my extended Soul is fixt,
But Fate does iron wedges drive, And always
crowds it self betwixt. For Fate with jealous
eye does see Two perfect Loves; nor lets them
close: Their union would her ruin be, And her
Tyrannic pow'r depose. And therefore her
Decrees of Steel Us as the distant Poles have
plac'd, (Though Love's whole World on us doth
wheel) not by themselves to be embrac'd.
Unless the giddy Heaven fall, And Earth some
new Convulsion tear; And, us to join, the
World should all Be cramp'd into a
Plainsphere. As Lines so Loves oblique may
well Themselves in every Angle greet: But
ours so truly Parallel, Though infinite can
never meet. Therefore the Love
which us doth bind But Faye so
enviously debars, Is the
Conjunction of the Mind, And
Opposition of the Stars. My"
____________________________________________________

This, my friends, I have quoted like I've never quoted anything else before.

Wii Mania.

SarcasticGamer makes a good point: what can the Wii Fit do for us?

Don't get me wrong, I fully intend to set up my Wii in the apartment as soon as I get back to Austin, and I also intend to get Guitar Hero III set up as soon as I have the monies to do so. I miss my Wii. Sort of.