Winter Vacation in Guangzhou

I spent my winter vacation in Guangzhou.

The only notable thing I did there was go to the hot springs. LOl.

Bishuiwan Hot Spring Holiday Inn (碧水湾温泉度假村) (Liuxi Hotspring Tourist Spot, Liangkou District, Guangzhou 510960, China)



From my cousin's house we had to walk to some sort of shopping center. Then, from there, we took a bus to this hot spring place. I think it took about an hour.

I actually came here twice. Once with my older cousin and her friend, and the other time with my older cousins and my mom, who came to visit for Chinese New Years. :)

This place is a hot spring resort. If you're staying overnight, then you check-in at the entrance. If not, then you go straight to the locker area to change into your bathing suit. Then, you could start exploring the resort. It's actually pretty big.

There's a big swimming pool (for the summer) and a lot of little hot spring soaking ponds. Each pond has different flavor-infused water(?). I don't know the right terminology, lol. I went to a ginseng one, jasmine green tea one, etc. It's recommended that you stay in each pond 20-30 minutes each. I think it has something to do with blood pressure? I don't remember why.

There's ping pong tables... There's a hot swimming pool, where you can get aqua massages. You kind of just sit in this one area and all these high pressure hoses will shoot at you... I spent most of my time just napping at a place with heated wood floors... because you can only stay in X amount of ponds for X amount of minutes before you get super bored of it.

I went in the winter... so I had to run from pond to pond because it was SO freaking cold. -_- Makes me shiver just thinking about it.

--

Aside from that random outing, I was just staying at my cousin's apartment. She had work for most of my vacation... so I just stayed at the apartment. OH, did I mention she lives on the 8th floor? WITH NO ELEVATOR?! T_T

Anyway, during my extremely free time, I taught myself the fundamentals of Korean. I was interested in Korean and had planned to enroll in Korean I at CUHK. I thought it would be good to kind of learn ahead since I am extremely unfamiliar with the language. Little did I know, this was going to pay off big time.

I couldn't enroll in Korean I because everyone was trying to take Korean. I was able to be placed into Korean II though! I basically taught myself Korean I in one or two weeks.... lol. I was using multiple textbooks and one of the textbooks happens to be the one Korean I uses. Lol! Still can't believe the coincidence. Oh, but Korean II was really hard for me. :( The teacher spoke in Korean 70% of the time. -___-... I managed to pass with a B or B+ though. I'm satisfied.

Anyway, I could have went back to HK for the remainder of my vacation, but I wasn't sure what I would've been doing there. So... I decided to stay in Guangzhou because I get to eat homemade food everyday! LOL. :(

Jenn

Ocean Park (Christmas Edition)

The day after Christmas, I went to Ocean Park with my older cousin (who came from Guangzhou) and her friend (who came from Hainan).

Ocean Park (180 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Hong Kong Island)

I think Ocean Park was HK's only theme park for a long time... until Disneyland came along. Again, it's just one of those touristy places that you have to go to. Was it extremely fun? Would I go back? Probably not. I mean, it's still nice to see. :) But, it will set you back $320HKD.

I actually went twice because I had another cousin from China, who had never been to HK before, so my older cousin and I took him here. I didn't have to pay for my own ticket, but if I knew I was going to go again, I would've bought the student pass for $580HKD.

Directions to Ocean Park: I took the MTR to Admiralty station. There should be signs that lead you to the bus station, and from there, simply take Cityroute Bus 629. It'll take you straight to Ocean Park. Eaaasy.

Ocean Park was decorated for the holiday season. :) Well, if I remember correctly, only the entrance was decorated... but that's the only place that matters (for picture taking purposes anyway), right?

Near the entrance is the aquarium and panda place... Most of the "fun" things are on the other side of the park, which requires the riding of a cable car in order to get there (15-20 minute journey). You get to enjoy some nice-ish views if you go on a nice day. As you can see, I went on a particularly foggy day... In fact, I think it might have even drizzled, lol.

 

The other side is probably the better side. You get to see seals and penguins! You get to ride rollercoasters! AND, you get to watch the dolphin show!

I think this is their most "extreme" rollercoaster... Naaaa, not really.

Seals

Penguins

OMG. This was the cutest penguin everrr. It was super tiny!

Seal at the dolphin show

Dolphins... at the dolphin show, lol.

You might even run into this little guy on the other side, LOL!

After the dolphin show, we went back to the entrance side!

Don't mind me. I'm just an agricultural entrepreneur... (those are vegetables in the basket)

Panda chillin on the rock

Lunch time

Jenn

Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve... and all the exchange students are away from home. So, some of us go together for a Christmas Eve potluck. :)

This went down in I-House (International House). I think most of the exchange students live here. It's just a short walk away from my dorm. It's not really close to the main campus, which is where all the classes are, so you definitely do not want to miss the bus if you get placed there.

At this point, almost everyone was getting ready to leave HK. A lot of students are only here for one semester, but I was here for two. D:

On the day of Christmas Eve, we decided to go shopping for the potluck together. Everyone met at the MTR station and then we headed to Shatin. 

The most popular supermarket in HK is probably ParknShop (spelled exactly like that).  ParknShop was my best friend for a while. I started getting sick of canteen food (cheap but super greasy), so I bought a lot of fruits to eat at the dorm. I actually tried cooking and stuff once upon a time, but people started stealing my food from the shared refrigerator. Like, one time I bought a dozen of eggs, and the next day... I literally had four left. What the heck................ -_____-

Anyway, I bought ingredients to make mac and cheese (an American making mac and cheese...). We bought a lot of meat... and just pan-fried it since we didn't have a grill to do it KBBQ style. I forgot what else we had.

Oh, we had cake too. :D We got it at some hole in the wall bakery (there are tons of those here)... for like $10USD or something. So cheaaap!!!

My closest and only California friend was leaving me. :( Sigh. Did I mention how I had to talk in proper English all the time?! I was so happy to make a California friend because I was finally able to talk slang again. LOL. :(

By the way, China does not recognize Christmas as a holiday, but Hong Kong does, lol.

Jenn

Dai Pai Dong (大排檔) in Tai Po

What is dai pai dong (大排檔)?

I didn't go to this specific one, but this is what a dai pai dong usually looks like.

Hong Kong is known for their street food. Most of you will probably imagine those small street food vendors. According to Wikipedia, dai pai dong is characterised by its green-painted steel kitchen, untidy atmosphere, the lack of air conditioning, as well as a variety of low priced great-wok hei dishes. They're really not known for their cleanliness, but the food is really good and really cheap.

I did go to something similar to this in Shatin with a big group of exchange students from Fudan University. I didn't bring my camera though, so I don't have pictures. :(

BUT, I did go to an indoor dai pai dong with my Cantonese class (my favorite class, by the way).

Sister Sam Seafood Restaurant (三小姐) (Shop 35, 2/F, Tai Po Market Complex, Heung Sze Wui Street, Tai Po)

There's actually more people, and we ordered more food later!

REALLY good coconut pudding/jello thing, served hot

This is my whole class minus one.

Cantonese was my favorite class ever. I had classmates from the US, Canada, Japan, and Korea! 

The teacher is this awkward, funny guy. He really made class enjoyable. LOL. I accidentally corrected his English once because he was pronouncing allergy like allergEE (gee like geese). :X I didn't do it to be a smart ass though. I kind of muttered it under my breath, and he caught it. :(

Anyway, we had taken our final on the same day. Then, we met at night for dinner. The teacher wanted us to experience something more local, but he didn't want to go too far, so we ended up at Tai Po (I think I talked about it before). Dai pai dong for dinner is as local as it gets!

I had the same teacher again for second semester but with other classmates. It just wasn't the same with other people. :(

Jenn