Day 1!!

So here I am at the end of my first day in Hong Kong! It's the farthest I have been before, but I am loving it!

The journey here was over 24 hours, by far the longest I've ever taken, but made bearable by the yummy food and awesome Emirates entertainment system *_____* Tonnes of Disney classics plus probably hundreds of other movies, albums and TV shows... Fills up the time quite well I suppose and helps take the edge of the hours walking in circles in international airport no man's land. Seriously, airports should cut down on the duty free and put in some arcades or something, theres only so many perfumes/alcohol and expensive watches that you can look at before you start to go a bit crazy.

But anyway, we finally got here, met Ken's parents and got a quick dinner before heading back to the apartment for a nice long sleep.

This morning was my first realisation that I was actually in Hong Kong with a big breakfast in a nearby restaurant. It's going to take a while to adjust to eating prawns, congee and hot tea and the like in the morning, but custard buns are amazingly tasty >v< 

The feeling of finally actually being here is kind of hard to take in right now, considering I've only really been in western Europe and once in North America. The fact that I've only seen about 4 other white people since being here is quite amazing to me. Although it's not much help to my Mandarin, I can already feel able to put a few Cantonese words together, and it's fun to learn another language from direct exposure like this.

So my day has been mostly relaxing, making sure that my jetlag is gone. We have just eaten, had a look at Ken's High School and gone for a look round the shopping mall under the apartment. Seriously, Hong Kong people know how to shop, I'm realising now how tiny our shopping centres are, and I haven't even visited central yet, which I'm assured has some stuff to really make me go wow :DD

But now it is late, and it will be another long day tomorrow, so goodnight for now.

Ps. I don't know how to get rid of that strange white highlighting over the text... bear with me as I learn to use the website :P

T Minus 24 Hours

So in less than 24 hours I will be starting my journey to China... how exciting!

For those who don't know, I am an Edinburgh University student studying Chinese and Linguistics, and this trip is an essential part of my degree. I must go to China to immerse myself in their culture and continue improving my language skills in a Chinese classroom and among "real" Chinese people, as well as do a Linguistics project which I have chosen to do on various aspects of native Chinese speakers' English.

My trip will start by flying to Hong Kong with my wonderful boyfriend to meet his family and friends, and towards the end of the summer, once I have my visa and acceptance letter, I will go to Zhejiang Daxue, in Hangzhou to begin my course. And there I will be until summer 2013!

But first I must make it through the 26 hour journey through London and Dubai, and the long goodbyes with my friends and family here... But my bags are packed and I think I'm ready to go. Tonight has been left for cuddling my mum, dad, big sister and cat and for eating what will probably my last bowl of Macaroni cheese for a year.

Goodbye Edinburgh, I'm going to miss you. See you again next year.