off to new lands.

Do you know the releaving music after a happy ending in a movie? It's just like a quiet controversy of what has happened before. Watch "The Butterly Effect" (which, frankly, is not a very good movie but pretty extreme, which serves my purpose) and in the end listen to Oasis' "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" ringing the imaginary bells for a wind of change. I, for instance am listening to "But, honestly" by the Foo Fighters. It is just as controversial as denying the fact that I actually left Hong Kong but still am not accepting the fact I did. Leaving everything behind, knowing it will never be the same again is a heavy burden that lies like an inconvienient shadow on my mind. It's a shadow that fills me with sadness and for the first time I really felt what it means to leave something behind you that has treated you in such a positive manner. I could summarize my musings in Hong Kong as a feeling that tells me to stop at the point when you feel it cannot get any better. The only problem with this is that this feeling could then also mean that you realize that something could actually get worse which then again means that it has already gone past the peak of enthusiastic emotions at which you cannot imagine a thing that could negatively infringe the status quo. My friends will understand what I mean.

I don't want to make this sound like a CD booklet or an EMI price giving but I really wanted to thank my family for their love and support.

Love,

Christoph.

traveling

So, here's the deal: Do never, and I mean NEVER! make an attempt to plan a journey to China without a credit card within only 3 days.

The first day, everything went fine and I bought a train ticket which brought me closer to my goal. The second day, the booking of the hostels was confirmed - no problems either. Wow, this is amazingly unproblematic. What else do I need? Yes, a visa for China.

This morning I set my alarm (for my standards) relatively early. After having had about 5 hours of sleep in bright light due to Joel's obsession with Heroes I woke up at 7 am and made my way out of bed to the next bus stop and caught the 40M that also collected Louise at her stop and together we drove at slow pace towards the Chinese embassy. At 20 past 8 and some HK$1000 richer, we arrived and saw the humongous line in front of the building. Oh, I almost forgot how user unfriendly the application for the Chinese Visa happens due to the Olympic Games...Firstly, it requires a copy of the ticket that shows a date when you actually leave China - very welcoming. Secondly, you have to have copies of the payment confirmation of hostels you are planning to stay at. Thirdly you need to fill in a form - the actual application, including a photo of your beautiful countenance. As soon as you have acquired these items, the application happens rather quickly. I walked up to the counter, gave my material to the civil servant and was ready to go. EASY!!! The whole process of standing in line plus the quick actual application took us 2 1/2 hours.

Afterwards, we bought some big boxes for sending stuff back home and drove back to the halls. After 15 minutes I checked out again and went to Uni to see Sam for one last time. After the goodbye, I went to the library to study but could not uphold the resistance for very long and soon found myself sitting in front of one of the numerous computers, checking for plane tickets. To my great dismay I noticed that the fares for flights had increased about 100% compared to yesterday. After countless, hopeless attempts to find out the cheapest flight I gave up and joined Emma downstairs. Jordan passed by and saw my useless attempt and gave me the address www.elong.com to book my ticket which was a brilliant idea especially since they provide a 60% discount on all economy flights. Thus, I started booking. HA! I had made the bill without the host (I love word-for-word translations from German). As soon as I typed in my Dad's credit card details, it denied me to continue my booking since my name is only partially the same. Shame. Now I got really pissed off and Emma calmed me down by giving me the number of her travel agent. The price now will be HK$1100 which is still a considerably good deal. HA! update: My flight is booked! I am going to China on Friday!!! ICH FASS ES NICHT!!! (for my English friends: "I grab it not!!!")

END!

Eventually...

The time goes by even faster now that my time here comes to an end and the fact that not only I but also all people I learned to like so much are leaving one by one. We had a goodbye dinner for Adele at Wagyu which was truly lovely and tasty but the bitter taste of melancholy remained an irritating factor we could not deny. If I got it right she is going to the Philippines and I will see her in The Hague soon.

The fact that the one person I like most left for Beijing this morning leaves me in mixed emotions. I'm sorry for being so desolate lately but this is what my mind tells me to write and I always write what it tells me to.

My emotions have been going to extremes lately as well. There are times, maybe even moments, in which I am terribly sad, then happy and then angry again. The time of just being fine has unfortunately been absent for far too long. This city is giving me a hard time being so wonderful to me and the fact I'll be traveling for 6 weeks does not ease the feeling of departure. Maybe Iron&Wine and Nick Drake are not really the music to listen to either but my mind wants to be sad.

flying around the world.

http://www.flyingaroundtheworld.com/

this homepage is the creation of a dear friend of mine back home in The Hague, Raphael. I find his idea quite amazing.

Shek O

Misty clouds on their descent.

What does in fact sound like a former NBA giant is indeed one of the more enjoyable beaches on Hong Kong Island. The idea was initially triggered by Melissa who stood outside the hall, waiting for us to go out for Dim Sum. The difference that she made was mainly marked by the fact that she was carrying a towel and I wasn't. So back upstairs, grab a towel and c'etait partie.

Tim, Lorna's boyfriend came over to visit and Lorna wanted to go out for Dim Sum in Causeway Bay, which is an absolutely decent choice, considering the variety, quality, amount of food and price this restaurant is offering. I was not too amazed by the idea of going to Repulse or Deepwater Bay afterwards, since these beaches are artificially built up and so I announced the idea of going to Shek O Beach on the Northeast side of the island. No sooner said than done and we sat in an MTR towards Shau Kei Wan where we got off to take a minibus to our final destination. It was packed! I had not seen this beach that crowded when I went the first time but this was crowded. Bold as we are, we rented an umbrella (the sun was burning and it was considerably hot (28°C)) and passed everyone else until we almost reached the waterfront. We laid down, enjoyed life, read, listened to music and just felt well.



After a while, Tim and Lorna (who had been staying in Causeway to do shopping) arrived and I made the announcement of having a BBQ on the beach. Alongside Shek O there are several small places with barbecues to be rent out to tourists and us. Melissa and I did the shopping whereas the others got the fire running. We returned with a variety of meat, chicken, vegetables, ketchup, my beloved BBQ honey and odd fish balls, that are chewy and definitely not one of my favorites.


A few cold beers, lots of steaks and a lovely stroll at the beach later we made our way back to our halls (takes about an hour...roughly) to get changed for Andi's exam bash party.

Tim, Lorna and Jojo in the MTR back.

Lovely day, Lovely end.

Of Sleeping Chinese and Birthdays.

So, what is the result of going to bed at late times? Being tired in the morning. But what if you really went to bed late every night and did not have the time to recover until 01:00pm? A stroll through Soho makes it clear: you sleep while you're working. I find this a good compensation.

I do not know what exactly the reason is, but lately I have not found an adequate reason to write this blog. Maybe it's just my mind that has so many more things to deal with than usually (i.e. packing, procrastinating, birthday dinners, etc). But as soon as I read my friends' blogs, I realize how interesting I find them and how selfish it would be to just keep these last few weeks for myself. Since I am not a selfish person I hereby will share some more with you.


I did not take my cam for the actual party but this is from a former one and this is about what our roof parties look like.

I do not know what exactly it is, but lately I have not found an adequate reason to write this blog. Maybe it's just my mind that has so many more things to deal with than usually (i.e. packing, procrastinating, birthday dinners, etc). But as soon as I read my friends' blogs, I realize how interesting I find them and how selfish it would be to just keep these last few weeks for myself. Since I am not a selfish person I hereby will share some more with you.

Yes, Jojo, Melissa & Emma were celebrating their "be-earlied" birthdays on the rooftop of our desolate hall that did not look that desolate after all. About 60 guests showed up, ready to indulge themselves with the lovely food the girls had prepared (asparagus wrapped in Serrano ham, lettuce wraps with ginger-chicken, and so forth). Jojo, meanwhile, spent hours and hours on getting cocktail sausages that he served with a big bowl of tomato ketchup. As time went by, the average party guest started getting considerably drunker. As a result our lovely security guard showed up, telling us we should keep it down a bit. No probs mate! At around 12, we made our way down and went to LKF to further celebrate the three.

All in all a very enjoyable evening and a very drunk birthday boy/girl/girl.