Getting To Know NY A Little

I often tell people that I'm not a big fan of New York. I know many people whoa re just in love with the city and all it has to offer but I can't say I stand on the same ground. Maybe it's that I've never really experience the city in its entirety. Usually my trips are very short and I never see much apart from the places I specifically go to, to do what needs to be done and I'm normally driven to these places.

This trip was slightly different. Actually, it was different in many ways. I had no car to move about in so I utilised the yellow cab, subway and my feet, discovering a part of New York that I never got a chance to learn about. For once, I got the chance to see and experience New York beyond the windows of the car. This time I travelled alone and, for the first time, flew on jetBlue Airways. This trip has had quite a few firsts for me, making it drastically different from all the rest.

I had the luxury of walking through the streets and properly experiencing the sights and scents of the city. I had the opportunity to walk through a little street fair on my way to the hairdresser. I walked among the large masses that crowd the sidewalks trying to remain aware of myself. It's not the first time that I've had to walk along the sidewalk with so many people but I was never particularly bothered by it in Hong Kong like I was here in New York. Somehow, crowds seem more organised in Hong Kong, or maybe it's just my imagination. I think, though, the crazy crowds along with all the strange scents and dirt of the city was what bothered me. In comparison, Hong Kong is a lot cleaner and not filled with so many different scents to tickle my nostrils so walking among the crowd never was much of a bother. Not to mention, that sense of belonging I have when I'm in Hong Kong, no matter how many people surround me, makes me comfortable.

If there's anything I like doing, it's people-watching. No matter where I am, it will always be remotely entertaining to watch people go about their business. I got a good chance for that while on the subway to and from the house. I saw a couple who were each on their phones while still remaining in a cuddled position; a man wearing a white T-shirt, bright yellow shorts, sneakers and a backpack (it was about 14°C outside); a woman reading a magazine and her neighbour taking a peek at the pages; a man in a pink shirt holding only his phone and a notebook and pen...fiddling with the pages of his notebook; a guy listening to music while falling asleep; a man playing the accordion while his wife and young daughter walked about the train car for tips (it was the last thing I expected but at least it sounded nice). The list goes on and on.

I saw so many different people with so many distinct personalities and I thought to myself, I could neither stand out nor blend in with a city like this. This city filled with so many cultures and personalities somehow manages to give me this feeling of suppression. As such, all I've said before about how I don't really like New York still stands. I'm rather uncomfortable here and, honestly, without even a small sense of belonging (which this city is completely void of, even after years of visiting), I could never feel any satisfaction about living here if I had to. In fact, I'd be sure to avoid it at all costs.

The Waiting Game

Monday morning I opened up my email and saw what I was waiting 4-5 days to see: Package Delivered & Signed for by ___. Score!

Do you know what this means?? It means my package was delivered, of course. What package, you ask? Oh, well, it's just my application to do my fourth year elective in Anaesthesia & Intensive Care at The Chinese University of Hong Kong next January...no big deal. =)

Now, I'm just sitting around waiting for them to process my application and give me a response: accept | decline. I vote they tell me the former. But I'm so excited about my application arriving there quickly and safely because I made it just in time for my deadline! It could've been there much much sooner if the ridiculously slow-working university I attend didn't take 3 months to release my grades to update my transcripts which, by some miracle, I obtained in a week (apparently, the norm is about 4 weeks for a few sheets of paper).

Regardless, everything so far has worked out in my favour. All I need is an acceptance and I'll be booking a ticket for 4 weeks in Hong Kong. That's right. Four weeks. Four. 4. Four weeks. A whole month. In Hong Kong. My favourite place in the whole wide world. Doing something that I know I'll enjoy: Anaesthesia & Intensive Care. I'm actually still relatively surprised that I like it so much.

Ohhhhhhh...I hope they get in touch soon!

Jetlag

My last (and only) cup of coffee in Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Jetlag.

I've returned to this place I currently call home. I had an amazing time in China. I miss Hong Kong already.

Classes commence first thing Monday morning. The joys of class and sitting in lectures, of seeing good friends and not paying attention to the lecture; the joys of my typical university life. Returning to the daily rituals and study sessions. Missing friends, old and new, experiencing great things overseas. Looking forward to meeting new people and making new friends at the start of this fresh academic year.

Details of my trip to come once my circadian rhythm has lined up with my current time zone...

Departing For Awesome Experiences

The time is soon here. I'll be flying away from Barbados. After three flights (one lasting up to 16 hours), I'll arrive at wonderful Shanghai! I'm so incredibly excited!!! I've been waiting for the day to come for 2 months and, in two blinks, it's here. Before I know I'll be returning to Barbados after another three flights. But it's okay because I would've had an immense amount of fun and travel.

I know China to be an extremely hot place. I complain about the heat here but I can't wait to see just how much hotter it is there. Last I knew, temperatures go up to 40 degrees Celsius there. I wonder what the humidity is like there, though. Hopefully it's not very humid because I get more than enough of that here...

Anyways, just a quick post to say "Bye!" =) I won't have direct access to this blog, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook or YouTube while I'm there (courtesy of The Great Firewall). I'll try making posts from my email if I have decent internet access and time. Hopefully, it can work out well that way so that I can sort of keep you all with me as I go day by day. =)

P.S. This post was done through my email account...kind of like a test to see how things go. If I manage to make posts as I'd like to from China and images seem to be aligned anywhere but center or have funny sizes, then...that's just how Gmail attaches images. =)

A Little Bit of Canada

A few days ago (4, to be exact), I returned from a trip to New York. I meant to make this post days ago but I've been busy. It was a relatively short trip, just 6 days long, but I had such a great time! Why? I spent the weekend on a tour bus to Toronto. Well, that's not the awesome part. The awesome part was getting to be on the road and see all sorts of great things. It was my first trip up to Canada!

The tour was a 3-day bus tour. We drove from New York through New Jersey then Pennsylvania and again through New York (upstate) before arriving in Ontario where we saw Niagara Falls at night. Niagara at night: beautiful. No picture could ever do it justice.

I'm going!

I'm going! I'm going! It's all confirmed and there's nothing stopping me! Oh yeah.

Where am I going? Here:

I said in a previous post that I wish I had the luxury to go to the Shanghai World Expo 2010. Well, I've been blessed with so much fortune. I'll be going to the Expo after all! I'm so super excited about it. I'll be going with my Mom and it'll be so much fun. So much. There's just so much to see there and we'll have 3 days to see all we can.

As my Mandarin is mighty poor (so poor, in fact, that I cannot even greet anyone with anything more than "Nǐ hǎo"), I'll do my best to learn even more of the language over the next few months before the trip.

"Integrated City" - This makes me so nostalgic of my winter trip to Hong Kong. It just warms my heart and makes me miss Hong Kong even more every time I watch it.

No doubt I'll be stopping in and checking out the wonderful Hong Kong pavilion at the Expo.

As the flight we'll be taking makes a connecting stop in Hong Kong as we go and come from Shanghai, we'll be spending an entire day with my family (just one) before we return home. I can't wait to see Hong Kong again. It overwhelms my heart to know that I'll have the opportunity to visit again in just less than a year.

My question to you: Are you going (or already went) to the Shanghai Expo?

A Difference in Classes

I've mentioned it before and speaking about it to a friend gave me this sudden urge to go into so much detail about the flight between Hong Kong and New York that I decided I'd blog about it. =]

I flew Business First Class on Continental Airlines to and from Hong Kong and it was amazing! We've flown in Economy on Cathay Pacific for our previous trips and it was ok. We were considering treating ourselves and flying Business First on Cathay Pacific...the prices were incredibly high but the features available seemed to be worth it. The level of privacy on Cathay Pacific had Business First Class passengers almost in little cubicles and First Class had much larger cubicles. But alas! We decided on Continental Airlines because it offered a special at the time and we grabbed it while it was still hot, saving quite a bit of money.

We got 3 meals on the flight and were very well kept hydrated. Got a choice of a drink before take off, a refill after take off and about an hour after we got our first meal.

The first and third meals started with warm roasted nuts with a beverage. This was followed by an appetizer consisting of a small cup of soup and another item of choice, then onto a salad with your choice of dressing (or no dressing at all, as in my case) with your choice of assorted rolls with butter. The salad was then followed by the main course, which of course differed depending on your destination and about 3 meal choices were given. After the main course, we enjoyed some lovely fruits with crackers and assorted cheeses along with the option of wine. And last, but not least, came the dessert, which was merely vanilla ice cream with a choice of toppings and an assortment of pastries.

The second meal was merely a mid-flight refreshment and, to and from Hong Kong, we had a Taiwanese-style noodle soup with a slice of cake. I didn't have the refreshment on my way to Hong Kong because I was sleeping at the time but I certainly had it on our way back to New York.

Everything was delicious! The food alone makes Business First Class heavenly compared to Economy!

Our seats extended fully almost into a bed at about 170˚ which was comfortable enough with our spacious seating space. I got a good 6 hours or so of sleep on the way to Hong Kong...at just the right time so that I wasn't drastically jetlagged upon arrival. On the way back, however, I didn't sleep any more than 4 hours and spent the rest of the time eating and watching movies and TV shows. Took myself a few days to readjust to the time zone.

I had an enjoyable time in Hong Kong as well as an enjoyable flight there too!

A New Love In My Heart...

...a love sparked by Hong Kong

Having arrived in Hong Kong on the night of the 22nd, we had a 15 hour flight that was just slightly delayed at Newark Airport on the afternoon of the 21st.

view from The Peak on the night of Dec. 23.

Thursday December 24th 2009

"It's 2:45pm on Christmas eve and we're at Ocean Park having fun! Well actually, we're in the sun in the line to watch a show...not too sure which one it is but the queue is SUPER long! Feels like it's 27 degrees out with the sun hitting me and all.

So far we've seen a dolphin and seal show, all sorts of jelly fish and all sorts of other aquatic animals. Just got me this little purple jellyfish keyring. I'll probably hang it up in the car =).

I went on the Raging Water ride with my uncle and aunts. We got wet but it was fun. Including the rapid steep fall at the end. Yikes. Falls aren't my thing at all. Still fun though...adrenaline rush and all.

Last night we went to The Peak and saw these amazing views from one of HK's mountains. It was cold, foggy and beautiful. We also went around a bit and saw some really nice lights around Kowloon. We were in Admiralty and I'm told that it's the tourist's area. Everyone who works there must speak English and the environment is just totally different. The buildings in that area are also commercial so they all held stores and offices. Some stores were brand name like Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani and some others so they were, of course, expensive as well. We didn't stop off in any of them though. Just passed by them while riding a tram. My first time on a tram too!

A nicely kept place. Completely different from our area. Might've seen a few more private cars around too. Private cars aren't very common in Hong Kong.

I was rather sleepy last night...too much so to make an entry. Since about 8:30pm I was ready to knock out and managed to survive getting home around 11:00 pm even though I took short naps on the train and taxi ride home. Haha.

More later..."

And I never really got around to saying more about the day later on. I was really tired (again around 8:30pm) so I couldn't make another entry. But I kept up the next day =]

Friday December 25th 2009

"8:30 am on Christmas morning. We're going out for breakfast today. Wonder where to.

Yesterday after my entry, we went down the enormous length we climbed (by escalators) by cable car. It was quite nice. Then we went into Santa's Illusion place. It was incredibly fun! Then we went to look at the great pandas. They were both eating. I loved it. I love pandas. Got me the panda stuffed animal that I've been wanting, as well as a couple other things for people back home.

Then we left and went to have a bit of sushi. I didn't eat much since I still felt full from lunch. We went for dessert too. And we went to this super busy mall -Wachifield Mall- to see some lights. Glad we went even though there were so many people."

I didn't really make an entry on the evening of the 25th. We were home mostly. A friend of mine who's at university in Wuhan, China, was coming to Hong Kong to meet us on the 26th. That day I ate this sweet soup. My Mom told me what it was made of...most people wouldn't want to eat it but she said it was sweet and was good for the body. Oh yeah, and that it was expensive...really expensive to get. Bird saliva. Mmmm. Yup. A soup made of bird saliva.

Saturday December 26th 2009

"10:07pm Boxing Day. Spent the day with Justin today. It was super awesome. It helped that I had someone to talk to for a change =D

Justin speaks such good Mandarin...I honestly couldn't help but be amazed at how well he interacted with my uncle. He's my inspiration. I'd love to be able to be somewhat fluent as he is someday...although...that might be a bit hard to accomplish. My plan is to focus more on being studious for the next year (my new year's resolution) and restart learning Mandarin and keep up with it...somehow...

We took a tour bus around Central and went to the HK Space Museum then we walked around quite a bit looking at lights in the evening. We saw a lights show around 8. It was pretty cool. I love the idea of displaying lights from buildings for like 15 mins. Caught most of it on camera. Most..not all since the battery was dying.

We saw about 4 couples who just had a wedding. Four beautiful brides with four handsome grooms. Awwww. =]

All in all I had an amazing day! I love Hong Kong! And Justin does too!"

Sunday December 27th 2009

I wasn't feeling too well today...I started getting a cold. Either that or my nasal sinuses were really bothering me. Probably the reason I didn't bother making an entry this day. Whichever it was, I decided to stay home that day and sleep it off for a bit because my head started spinning when we went out for lunch. After my little nap, I felt better and we went out to a couple of malls to check out the Christmas decorations. The first one we went to was my favourite. It was Telford Plaza and there were stuffed bears everywhere!

Oh how I love stuffed animals! =D

Monday December 28th 2009

"11:39pm December 28th. We went to Disneyland today. I had loads of fun!

I took loads of pictures and videos! Lots to look back on in time. And to show off to people. =)

I went on Space Mountain! The boldest attempt at adventure I've had...ever. I normally don't do stuff that initiates tachycardia at the thought of being on it. It helped that I couldn't see what was coming being in the dark and having my glasses off. It was sooo much fun though!!! xD.

Watched a bunch of shows then we stuck around to see the fireworks at 9. They were awesome!!! We got these special glasses..sorta..that allowed you to see lights in a snowflake-like fashion. Video was taken of course...by my phone not camera since my battery was sorta dead. Hopefully the quality's still good though. =)

Tomorrow's our last day in HK then we're off to the airport Wednesday morning. Part of me wants to go back home but another (major) part is begging to stay! It's now somewhat a goal of mine to have the experience of living here. Definitely."

I guess I got a little bold this trip...having gone on two rather thrilling rides that I normally prefer to watch people survive on. =]

Oh How I Love The Cold

You know how people like to ask questions like "Which do you prefer? Hot or cold?" And as I would normally reply to such questions, I say "I'm not sure. I like both. I'm not really one to pick a favourite." But that was 3 years ago. When I didn't have much exposure to colder temperatures. But now I have. And I love it.

It's true...I'm truly not one to pick a favourite. I can't choose between vanilla and chocolate ice cream so I normally take a mix. But I just love the cold. I really hate being hot. Sure being sweaty and feeling sticky bothers me, I only like sweating when I exercise because then I feel like I've really had a good workout and it feels good and, after all, I could easily cool down. But there are the days when the internal body temperature is just soaring (and it's not a fever), I'm not sweating and a cold shower does little to help. Those are the days when air conditioning is most required but what happens if you don't have it? You could strip down and stand in front a fan for all the world but it still won't help because the fan circulates hot air. Not helpful.

So I love the cold. Full stop. And I loved my trip to Hong Kong so much because Hong Kong has, as I've mentioned previously, the most perfect temperatures! With normal winter temperatures ranging from 15-21 degrees Celsius and cooler temperatures that can drop down to 7 degrees Celsius, how could I not love the weather there?

New York on the 19th and 20th were wonderfully cold and snowy. Here is where I'll start posting about my ever wonderful 12-day trip to Hong Kong and back and everything that happened in between. I made little "journal entries", so to speak, while I was gone with the Active Notes application on my new Nokia N97 mini. I'll just copy and paste them here for you to read =]

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Sunday December 20th 2009:

"Flight to New York was delayed due to weather conditions. We left Barbados 2 hrs late and so we arrived 2 hrs late and then some since we had to circle around a couple of times while they cleared the runway of snow! Then another half hr looking for an open terminal. Then another 20 mins waiting for luggage. Temperature was in the negatives in degrees Celsius! Got out the airport around 11:30 pm. Had to drive slow. Got to the hotel after 3 am. Got the N97 mini."

hotel car park

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While waiting in New York for my flight to return to Barbados, it snowed again. Snow upon arrival. Snow upon departure. It was my first experience with snow! And I loved it.

JFK upon departure

More to come! Look forward to it! =]

Welcome to 2010!

A Very Happy New Year to Everyone!!!

It's been 5 days since I've returned home to Barbados from my trip to Hong Kong. I've been pre-occupied over the past few days and so I haven't had a chance to come around and make a little post!

Hong Kong is AMAZING!

The buildings, the environment, the people, the language...the culture! What's not to love about Hong Kong?! Truly, the island of Barbados is absolutely nothing in comparison to this city. But then, I was never crazy about my current place of residence to start with. I've said it before: Barbados is a wonderful place to vacation. As for living? Not so much.

I did so much while I was there and I managed to collect a total of about 800 photos and 50 videos! WoW! That's amazing huh? Just a week in Hong Kong and I manage to snap quite a few pictures. I must say that I owe it all to my newest habit: snapping a picture of everything, everywhere. I've been working on compiling it all onto a DVD...prettying it up, adding music and comments to the slideshows, etc. It's been a fun little project to work on.

I probably should...but I'm not going to elaborate much on my very wonderful winter trip to the wonderful country of Hong Kong this time around. This is merely a very warm welcome to the beginning of another year...the year 2010.

It's official. Hong Kong is definitely my favourite country!

More on Hong Kong next time!

I wish you all a very safe, prosperous and healthy year!

Perfect Temperatures

I made it to Hong Kong safe and sound and I'm loving the temperatures! It's about 18 degrees Celsius around so it's like the environment's just air conditioned. =] A shirt and sweater is all I need really. It's just the right amount of cold =D

So, as a quick update:

• I got my new phone! The Nokia N97 mini. Lovely piece of machinery. Getting used to the technology it holds.
• NY is super cold! My flight from Barbados got delayed due to weather conditions...it was snowing! After a 2 hour delay, we got going and arrived to a wonderfully white winter.
• Had my first experiences with snow! It's so pretty and white........until it starts melting away and looks all wet and grey, then it's not so pretty anymore.
• Travelled to Hong Kong in Business First Class on Continental Airlines. Loved it. Made the 15 hour flight seem much shorter. With full, hot, fresh meals served on plates with real cutlery, a chair that lengthens out about 170 degrees to almost give you a flat bed, over 300 movie choices, over 50 tv show choices, over 80 games, and over 100 albums of music, what more could one ask for?

The trip has only just begun! I'm sure there will be lots to happen and such. And my phone, my camera and myself will all be there to capture the memories =D

Christmas is almost here. And I'm finally in a Christmas mood! =P

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Escape No More...

So today is my final day in Trinidad. The end of my two-week getaway...my great escape. It truly was an escape and I've enjoyed every minute of it. As was the usual, I enjoyed my last week here more than the first. I always wonder why that is...could it be because the pressure of the end of my trip is nearing? Nevertheless, I still enjoy myself.

I do wish that I could stick around a little longer. I normally always want to stick around just another week longer but I haven't wanted to stay this much in quite a few years. I can't believe that it's been a decade since I moved away from the island. It only hit me just recently. A decade.

Trinidad is a pretty neat place to be able to keep yourself busy, I think. It helps to have friends. Ah...good friendships...old friendships. I love that I still get along well with old friends...friends that I've known for as far back as I can possibly remember.

In more than one way, this trip has been an incredibly special one for me. A decade.

For those who asked.

Here's a very brief, non-detailed description of the first week here. ^_^

Monday

Got coconut water from a roadside stall in St. Augustine. Ate the coconut jelly. Delicious. Ran some errands. Went to Trincity. Ran more errands. Went to Digicel. Got an inexpensive prepaid cellphone. Now I walk around like most other Trinidadians: with two cellphones.

Tuesday

Met a friend of my Dad's. Called up some friends. Sorted out some movie plans.

Wednesday

Rediscovered Pokemon on Cartoon Network. Spent some time at my Dad's office while he worked during the afternoon.

Thursday

Took a drive into Port-of-Spain to run some errands. Was cool. Sat in with my Dad's evening appointments. Was quite interesting. Learnt one very important thing: must review first year work.

Friday

Went to the radio station with my Dad to do a radio show (him, not me). Met up with Danny. Went to Movietowne. Watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince after we browsed Movietowne. It didn’t feel as long as it really was, which is good I think. Didn’t feel like there was much going on in the movie…which is probably why it felt like a normal length movie as opposed to 2 ½ hours.

It's been a pretty quiet trip so far...more or less.

Escape to TnT

Arrived safe and sound to blue skies and bright sun! It's currently overcast with the occasional showers now though! It's actually quite hot here as well, of course. I think it's typically 1 or 2 degrees hotter than Barbados but it feels about the same I guess. As I said in my previous post, I'm staying with my Dad this time around. He's got a pretty nice house, it's neat and comfy. I'm not entirely sure of what I'll be doing over the next two weeks but I'll do what I can to enjoy things here =]

I brought along my camera and the battery charger but I completely forgot to bring the camera cable! So I won't be able to put up any pics on my computer and blog! Boooooo! Ah well. Such is life. Something was bound to be forgotten. I'll try not to make that mistake again next time. =]

A Two-week Getaway

Tomorrow starts my two-week getaway from the island of Barbados to the neighbouring island of Trinidad. Much larger and many more things to do and places to go than Barbados, I'm just about dying to get out of here!

It's nothing particularly special though. Just my usual 2 week summer trip to Trinidad. I usually try to go every year for 2 weeks ever since I moved from there when I was 9. I haven't kept in touch with many of my friends, unfortunately, but somehow I've always kept in touch with one of them. I always wonder how long it would last...it's been 10 years since I moved and we still get along well despite how we've both changed over the years. I normally stay over at her house as well, but this year I'll be staying with my Dad so it should be an interesting enough trip, I think. =] Plus, he's got internet (my friend doesn't) so I won't get totally bored if I get such a chance.

I'm quite happy to be going away. After awhile, I always get really bored here in Barbados. I'm not very big on the beach scene and I absolutely despise Bridgetown, our biggest mall is so small that one can take your time walking around it and walk every inch of the place in 15 minutes tops. Of course, I'm not really big on nightlife either. Which leaves very few options for fun: lime at a friend's house (or have a lime at mine), go to the drive in for a movie or two, go to the theatre or go mini golfing, among others. I don't know...just gets so boring here. =[. Barbados is an amazing vacation spot or even a good place to retire but it's not somewhere that I would want to spend my life in. While the slow-pace and peacefulness is nice, it's also quite frustrating.

I must say though, I have no intentions of staying and working in Barbados for the rest of my life. Whenever I think about the future, it's not in Barbados. I'm not sure where I'll find myself but here doesn't feel like the place I really want to be. I love my friends though! They keep me happy and satisfied enough here =D

Well, I'll be returning home in Barbados on August 16th! The new year begins on August 31st so I'll have another two weeks to get myself sorted out and back on track for classes again.