the Salzblogue

Mid-autumn

The lotus dragon

A week ago there was the biggest festival weekend of the year in Hong Kong: the Mid-autumn festival. We had 2 days off from school, and when combining that to my free Friday + the weekend, we had a total of 5 free days from school. And then my free Wednesday and a cancelled Thursday class... Yes, I have a lot of free-time here. The last time I had school was on Tuesday two weeks ago.

On Sunday my buddy Nancy took us to Victoria Park to see traditional lanterns and to feel the festival atmosphere. I still quite didn't get what the mid-autumn fest is about. At least it's a family thing, almost all the locals had family dinners and spent some quality time with relatives, and afterwards went to see friends somewhere outdoors. The festival is during the full moon, and the round shape of the moon resembles unity and getting together, since the whole festival is kind of a Getting Together Festival. One tradition is to eat moon cake. Nancy bought us a traditional one and we had a piece, it tasted a bit like nuts or almonds, and a lot like fat. Inside there was something that looked like the yellow part of an egg. During the mid-autumn festival people eat a lot of moon cakes and also give them as presents for other people, and there's many varieties, also an ice cream version of it. It's a good thing they only have it once a year, since the taste is just so heavy that it's impossible to eat a big piece, but of course it was worth a try. And as always, the locals love it, probably all cultures have their own "treats" that foreigners don't fancy that much.

Queen Victoria statue in Victoria Park

Times Square of HK

The luxurious shopping mall @ Times Square

The moon cake and Nancy :)

So there we were in Victoria Park. First we arrived too early, since lanterns are the main point of going to the park, and in the daylight they don't look much like anything. We had some coffee with Nancy and walked to the Times Square of Hong Kong, and when it got dark we went back to Victoria Park to meet up with Nancy's friends Edith and Sofia, and to have a look at the lanterns. The park was crowded with locals and tourists, and everyone was taking pictures of everything. It was crazy, so many cameras and iPhones in the air. There were many families with their little kids, like here always is. It's very normal to walk in the city around 11PM and see kids running around in the parks. Hong Kong is definitely a night-time city.

You could walk inside a giant light ball!

Kathi wishing something in German

People with their cameras

Edith doing the "typical Hong Kong girl" pose

We walked in to the festival area with the lanterns but a security guy started shouting "NO FIRE!!!"

Traditional Chinese dance

Eating Shanghai style food with Sofia, Edith & Nancy

One thing we paid attention to was how the atmosphere was so nice, and nobody was drinking alcohol. Sandra pointed a corner of the park and said "If this festival was in Sweden, there would be a beer tent right there." And if you have ever been in the Helsinki city center during any festival time, you've seen drunk teenagers and people having sparkling wine for their picnics and people drinking beer on the terraces. But here the locals don't really drink and alcohol is never considered as an essential part of a party! Quite a refreshing point of view to be honest after living in Finland and Austria :'D

On Monday we went to see the fireworks at Victoria Harbour, and now the reason for the party was the national day of China (= no school). The fireworks lasted for over 20 minutes and I bet they cost a fortune. The Hung Hom promenade was packed, and I was very happy this time about being so tall, since I could see the fireworks over other people's heads. The fireworks were for sure the most impressive fireworks I've ever seen. Another thing I don't quite understand is that in Hong Kong the locals don't really celebrate the national day of China, so why such big fireworks?

Around the corner

We walked around a bit yesterday close to the student hall and here's some pictures I took. Hong Kong Island, fishermen and their friends, people running in the heat, Kathi, Tsim Sha Tshui promenade, and in the last picture there's the weird corridor/walking bridge system I take to school and to the Hung Hom station.

My bright future

On Sunday evening we went to the Temple Street Night Market in Yau Ma Tei. It was pretty similar to the Ladies' market we went to last week, almost exactly the same products on sale, but this market was a lot bigger and had way more restaurants around. If you're searching for fake brand products, this is the place to find them, and even if you're not looking for anything, you'll still find something you kind of have to buy because it's so weird, cheap, or weird and cheap. I was classy enough to buy a Jimmy Choo bag with 18 euros. I tried to take the label off but it was too strongly attached - so even though I've never been too much of a bag-person, now I am walking around with a fake bag for the first time in my life and it feels wrong. But what happens in Hong Kong stays in Hong Kong, shoot me if you ever see me carrying a real or a fake Louis Vuitton bag in Europe. :D

Bags, shirts, shoes, posters, fans, phones, socks, sex toys, mirrors, books... What you can't find here you don't need.

Temple Street market is on Temple Street. Who would've known...

Religious stuff.

There is just so much to tell but I don't know where to start... So I'll just tell about the most important thing on earth: MY FUTURE.

At the Temple Street Market we went to a fortune teller to have a little glance on how our futures look like. I didn't find the dude very trustworthy, he should really work on his show and presence, but still I think all he said will be true, I mean what's the point in going to a fortune teller and then NOT believing everything he or she has to say? He looked at all the lines on my palms and drew something on them. First he said I am very stubborn and independent (which is half true). I also found out that I won't be able to save money before I turn 30, and I will die after I am 80 years old. But luckily quite soon I will find "a very good boyfriend", I will travel around, work in marketing department after graduating, and later get 3 kids - 2 girls and one boy (the oldest one being a girl). It was a huge relief to hear that I will get a very good boyfriend soon, because when we went to that Korean restaurant, Sam poured himself some beer, and after this Inwoo (from Korea) said that you should never pour your own beer, since it means that the person sitting on the opposite side of the table won't get a girlfriend or a boyfriend in the next three to four years, and of course it was me sitting on the other side of the table. I was quite angry at Sam for ruining my love life, but now since the fortune teller told the exact opposite, I have some hope again! Thank GOD!

Kathi needed a translator for her fortune teller lady.

There were dozens of fortune tellers to choose from

Silent streets

Food, food, food...

I bought a box with a picture of Mao..

...and there was a very surprising naked lady in the bottom when I opened it. WTF.

My extremely original Jimmy Choo and my Hello Kitty rice bowl.

Last Thursday we had a welcoming party for all the non-local students, with some traditional Chinese music and some sort of a kung-fu show, such a shame I didn't take any pictures. We were divided into groups randomly, and in my group there was an Austrian guy I hadn't met before. Our conversation went like this.
"Hi, I'm Hertta."
"Hi, nice to meet you. You're from Salzburg, right?"
"Well yeah, I study there but I am actually from Finland."
"Yes and you have a blog."
".........."

That was very, very funny. He said he has a Finnish girlfriend from Sipoo and she had shown him my blog some time ago since she also studies in Salzburg, and now I met her boyfriend at this welcome party in Hong Kong. The only word to describe that situation is my favorite English word: random.
Terveiset Noralle (vai oliko se Noora?) jos vielä joskus uudemman kerran eksyt mun blogia lueskelemaan! :D

I live to eat

Dim sum on Thursday

To be honest, it feels like I haven't been doing almost anything else in here than eating. That's usually the highlight of the day - I'm trying to order different kinds of meals and not to get stuck with sweet & sour pork with rice (even though IT IS DELICIOUS!!). And another confession: I've eaten at McDonald's three times already. Double cheeseburger tastes even better in here than what it tastes like in Austria or Finland. Last time I was lucky enough to have 3 slices of cheese in my burger. Happy life.

But since I did not come all the way to Hong Kong to eat burgers, I made a bet with Adrian that I will not eat at McDonald's before November, and if I do, I have to pay him HKD100 which is about 11 euros. But of course this is not only a matter of money, this is about my self-respect and those small pieces of dignity I have left, and I am planning on keeping them.

On Thursday our buddies Nancy and Alisa took us for some dim sum to a restaurant at the school campus. Dim sum means all kind of foods which are cooked with steam, and they are served in round wooden plates, usually you order plenty of different ones and then everyone in the table can try whatever they want. We ate a lot and had some tea with the food, and in the end it cost HKD30 each person (3 or so euros)! So good and so cheap! At the dim sum place there was Nancy's friend called Enix who did his exchange in Jyvaskyla last spring, it was pretty funny to hear his thoughts about my dear home country.

Inwoo, the BBQ master

"What kind of restaurant makes you cook your own meal?"

A bit awkward "Kombeeee", these eating pictures are always accidentally funny.

And yesterday we went to a Korean BBQ restaurant in Hung Hom with Nick's Korean roomie Inwoo. It reminded me of hot pot since we had to cook our own food, which makes the whole eating experience way more social than just everyone eating their own soup or fried rice like we usually do. This time the meat was good but a bit pricey (around 20 euros per person including 2 beers each) comparing to what we're used to now. Today we got lunch at some random restaurant and I got a very good noodle soup and a Sprite with HKD38. Food-wise I could say Hong Kong is my heaven.

Other important stuff from the last few days: we made a pilgrimage to an H&M on Canton Road in Kowloon, experienced an extremely heavy rain in the middle of the night, and went to the karaoke again. Tonight we're off to a party which is in the highest bar on earth... Tough life, huh?

Wilson, a Swedish dude, Nick

Kathi found Austrian wine and was very happy about it :P

Exchange students behaving well, as always.

Vaihtaririentoja

Vaihto-oppilaan elämä on kyllä niin helppoa. Pienellä lukujärjestyksen rukkailulla sain aikaan sen, että mulla on koulua vain maanantaisin, tiistaisin ja torstaisin, ja torstaina koulu loppuu jo kello 10:30. Mukavan mittaiset viikonloput siis tiedossa. Kaikki on tehty meille valmiiksi ja helpoksi, opettajat on ymmärtäväisiä ja avuliaita ja varmistelemassa koko ajan että onhan vaihtareilla kaikki hyvin, ja täysillekin kursseille meidät reppanat laitetaan ilmeisesti mahtumaan, jos tarpeeksi raukkoja ollaan. :D

Nyt mun lukujärjestys on vihdoin kuosissa ja sain itseni ängetyksi kurssille nimeltä Wine Studies and Oenology, jonka ensimmäisellä tunnilla maisteltiin yhtä puna- ja yhtä valkoviiniä. Loppukokeessa on kirjallisen osuuden lisäksi maistelutesti, jossa tulee tunnistaa neljä eri viiniä, kuvailla niitä ammattitermein ja jopa tietää että missä maassa ne on valmistettu, aikamoista. Kurssin opiskelijoista kolme ei ollut koskaan aikaisemmin maistanut viiniä, ja yksi ujo kiinalaispoika joutui luokan eteen avaamaan viinipullon ensimmäistä kertaa elämässään. Veikkaan että kyseinen kurssi tulee olemaan mun ehdoton lemppari, kiinnostavan aiheen lisäksi kurssin opettaja on sarkastinen ja piikikäs ulkkari joka suunnilleen joka lauseessa sai paikalliset opiskelijat hämilleen. Harmi että pääsen vain kerran viikossa opiskelemaan viinejä, ehkä pitää sitten myös koulun ulkopuolella tehdä aiheesta empiiristä tutkimusta, vaikkei Kiina mikään viinin ihmemaa taida ollakaan.

Pari iltaa sitten käveltiin ympäriinsä lähellä meidän opiskelija-asuntolaa ja löydettiin sattumalta piskuinen baari ihan lähettyviltä, tai voikohan sitä edes baariksi sanoa, kun pöydät levitettiin kadulle sitä mukaa kun niitä tarvittiin lisää. Myynnissä oli saksalaisia ja itävaltalaisia oluita ja ruotsalaista siideriä - ja jopa radleria! Baarin perustanut hongkongilainen Jonny oli ihan käsittämättömän sympaattinen, ja koska tykättiin paikasta niin paljon, luvattiin mainostaa sitä kaikille vaihtaritutuille, ja voisin mainostaa sitä täälläkin: jos koskaan ootte Kowloonin Hung Homissa, menkää Beer Quoteen. Aluksi viereisen ravintolan haju saattaa vähän häiritä, mutta siihen tottuu nopeasti ;)

Toinen hyvä kokemus hongkongilaisista iltariennoista saatiin eilen karaokessa MR Redissä. Ei ihan vedä vertoja Maunulan Bartsille mutta melkein. Saatiin oma huone meidän seurueelle, jonne tarjoiltiin ruokia ja juomia, ja jonka biisilista oli loputon, siinä sitten hoilattiin neljään eri mikkiin varmaan viisi tuntia putkeen. Täydellinen paikka synttärikemuille tai mille tahansa kemuille oikeestaan. Jos vain se olisi vähän halvempaa, voisin käydä karaokessa vaikka joka päivä.