Goodbye 2015

Welcoming in a new year has always been a bittersweet experience. As 2015 was the year I graduated from university, it was as far as my 'life plan' had extended to. This year has been about a lot of self-discovery, which isn't always the easiest or most pleasant thing to experience. I'm hoping for many good things to come in 2016, and to always remind myself to push forward and persevere no matter the circumstances.

Tai Mei Tuk

One of my friends was studying at CUHK (香港中文大學) for the term, so I went to visit as it is also my mother's alma mater. Afterwards, we headed over to Tai Mei Tuk to see the area and walk around the reservoir.

First stop: Chinese University of Hong Kong - 香港中文大學
If you can see the white speck at the right of the photo - while at CUHK, we saw it and wondered what it was...

Tai Mei Tuk - 大美督

Luk Keng

Hiking has become a popular activity in Hong Kong as of late, and many people have been trekking to the mountains in the early morning to beat the heat.

I was invited to go hiking, but as it was a bit of a trek there, it was already 10am when we were on the last minibus up to the mountains.

Rediscovering Hong Kong

I first went to Hong Kong when I was a small child, and the memories I have are of a see-saw at a park, where my sister and her friend both sat on one end, and let me dangle in the air alone. I also remembering having 油炸粿 (yau za gwei) with congee for the first time with my grandpa, who had a stroke twenty years prior and would eat little else besides that.

I should mention that this was also the time of the avian flu and I distinctly remembering covering my nose while passing my caged chickens all along the streets. After that, my sister flatly refused to go back to Hong Kong, and I, ever the follower, decided the same.

Giant disappointments & highlights

Continuing from my trip to the Bay Area circa August 2014...

The disappointments - they weren't that giant, but it felt a little bit appropriate.

Cabs.

I hate taking cabs. However, the first place we were staying at was very inconvenient to get to by public transit, and it was already sunset when our flight came in. So I wasn't expecting much but we specifically told our driver that we were heading to Millbrae, and it was only after we got into the car and he was driving away that he told us he didn't know that area. So he drove us around and around and we had to call our host (who informed us he drove way past where we needed to go), and not once did he stop the fare or apologize for the circle he took us on. Needless to say, that was the first and last cab we took. Tangent: I had my first rideshare experience here via Lyft, and we had really awesome drivers and I was pleasantly surprised.

In-N-Out.

Not sure if I was expecting fast food to somehow be amazing, but with all the rave reviews online, I was sorely disappointed. My friend said the location we went to wasn't as good as others she had tried, so I will give you one more chance when I'm in the West Coast again!

Pier 39.

It was neat and all but chock-full of tourists that it was too overwhelming. I didn't have any preconceived ideas of what it was going to be like, and while I did think it was a gorgeous spot, I always felt anxious there wearing my backpack in the crowds of people.

Other than that, I had an amazing time in San Francisco and I would love to go back again soon. The good memories from this trip are definitely more numerous, and the moments that stand out are:

Hike up to Twin Peaks.

This was an unexpected addition our friend recommended to us, and though we took the long, windy way reserved for cars, we made it up there and got the beautiful (and terribly windy) view of the city.

Palo Alto. 

The weather here was more what we would have expected from California. Warm and sunny, we explored the Google HQ and wandered through Stanford, which was probably the most beautiful campus I have ever seen. It could seriously pass as a resort, and the fact that they had eduroam made me feel right at home.

Berkeley. 

The city is more low-key than San Francisco, and just more friendly and offbeat. The campus of UC Berkeley is beautiful, and we went during move-in day, which brought back fond memories of my own first year. Also, the entire campus is smoke-free! This was probably my favourite area of our trip.

The people. 

Everyone we met was so nice and friendly (excluding our one and only cab driver). When we went to visit the Painted Ladies, one unfortunately was under construction, but we stood around the area taking pictures anyways. A gentleman walking his dog stopped by to talk to us, and said he was the owner of the blue house. He gave us some tips on where to get beautiful shots of the city, and what other houses to see. 

In the bay

Note: Catching up on all my queued posts. This trip is from August 2014.

I've never been on a plane without my parent(s). I finally bit the bullet and planned a trip to San Francisco (and surrounding area) with a friend, and we were, to say the least, losing steam when it came to planning.

There were a few spots we knew we wanted to hit; Golden Gate Bridge, Twin Peaks, Pier 39, Stanford, Berkeley, an In-N-Out, and a bit of hiking.

Here is a picture-heavy recap of our amazing trip. Thanks for being an awesome travel buddy, J.

Sunrise in Brisbane

Getting lost

Navigating the city that never sleeps

This is my terribly long overdue NYC post from... 1.5 years ago. I know, but I couldn't post trips that came after until this was up, thus the nearly year long hiatus. So I resolve to complete it now with a photo update.

Day 2 in NYC

 Enter Smorgasburg.

Welcome to New York

We arrived in the city in the morning, and stepped out of the station into the hustle and bustle of New York City.

After grabbing a very mediocre breakfast at Applebee's (too hungry to walk far; we may also have freshened up in the loo), we headed out. One of the first things I noticed as we walked out was "Empire State of Mind" playing in the street - now is only the Taylor Swift song had come out then!

One of my goals were to see the Stephen A. Schwarzman building, probably one of the most iconic libraries. Sadly, the room I wanted so very much to see was under construction.

Grand Central was also on the list; Shake Shack was an added bonus.

Went to find our house in Staten Island, and then after figuring some details out, we headed back out!

The lights of Times Square make it feel as if night never truly comes; we wandered around and I started to feel a bit sleepy, checked the time to realize it was past 12am. Magic of the city that never sleeps!

Taking the ferry is actually very calming. It was a nice precursor to all the walking and getting lost we would do. Also it brings you decently close to the Statue of Liberty... all for free!

And this ended our first day in "the Big Apple" (P.S. is that a name that no one uses anymore...?).

Copious amounts of tea

To break away from the trip posts, I just wanted to take some time to fast-forward to the present.

I'm sitting in a library 'carrel' as I type this, with my tumbler (it takes all of me to remember it has an 'e'; ruined by Tumblr) of brown rice green tea, and I just want to remind myself...

Take a deep breath.

Relax.

Drink tea.

Get enough sleep.

Get off social media.

Focus.

Also my graduation photos are in two days; trying to eliminate the panda-eye thing as much as possible before then. The rest will be taken care of by concealer.

All posts are incomplete without photos.

Matching my nails to my tumbler - everyone does that.

I just want to say I was not a big tea drinker until university. I always preferred juice and pop to water or tea, and coffee always tasted terrible to me. When I moved away to university, I lived in a residence for my first year, and had access to a LOT of drink choices. Also, that was when I first really started wanting to play Roll Up The Rim (Tim Horton's thing) and not being a huge fan of their hot chocolate or apple cider, I began trying the steeped tea. I tried drinking water near the end to offset that freshman fifteen, but I can't say I always enjoyed it.

Living by myself in second year, I didn't have juice unless I bought it, and lugging it home on a bus then walking is a HUGE pain. I tried to drink water, but the water was so hard, that even after being filtered and boiled, I couldn't take the taste. So I started dunking a tea bag in it to cover the taste.

Then during work terms, drinking tea was both soothing and allowed me to get up every so often to boil more water and steep more tea.

From then on, I've only been getting more and more addicted.

Studying + mug of tea = this photo

P.S. The first time I drank Tim Hortons steeped tea, I actually had go to the washroom ten times within 6 hours. It was crazy. My bladder is much better at handling tea now.

Buffalo, briefly

Earlier in the year, one of my friends, who is a (somewhat) major Bruno Mars fan, wanted to get tickets for his show, but getting 4 seats together proved harder than we thought. Still in the mood for a concert, another friend suggested we head to see City and Colour in Buffalo (only we would go to the States to see a Canadian). As we were already in Buffalo, we thought: why not go down to New York City?

Leaving T dot

Commence last minute planning and lots of compromising. At the end of the day, we got there.

This trip was entirely dependent on buses, local transit, and our own two feet. This meant we had to pack light as we would be lugging our bags with us for the majority of the trip.

Sadly we encountered some people who made unnecessary comments while in Buffalo. I sometimes take for granted how diverse and multicultural Toronto is, and I'm both proud of my hometown and disappointed that we had to experience that attitude at all in 2014.

City and Colour was amazing. During the concert, someone from the nearby harbour released thousands of doves and had a fireworks display that supplemented the show nicely.

Impromptu fireworks, with doves

This trip also taught me the importance of comfortable shoes. My shoes fit well but was too stiff, which resulted in blisters and sore arches. Those shoes have fallen from my good graces now, and have not been worn since.