Sunday, July 22, 2012

first stop, shanghai

I didn't write another post like I promised because I realized that all my Shanghai pictures were on Alex's laptop (I didn't bring mine) and we didn't see each other since we were both jet lagged. Sorry about that!

The day after my dreaded CMA exam, was our flight to China. It took us about 18 hours to get there and my butt was really hurting by the time we got off the plane. Someone from our tour was supposed to pick us up in Shanghai. We eventually found him by some stroke of luck because he was being a lazy butt and wasn't even holding up the sign at the arrivals' gate.

On our way to the hotel, Alex was super excited and told me to take pictures of everything but I just wanted to sleep.


This was the first picture I took in Shanghai

What you notice about China right away is that it's very dirty and heavily populated (sounds obvious I know). But wherever you're going, you'll notice endless towers of apartments with endless floors and the air is very very polluted. The smog is always present and you rarely see the sun and/or clouds.


Apartment Buildings



We finally reached our hotel, which I totally forgot the name of it. It's supposed to be a 5 star hotel but it's more like a 3 star for our standards. Another thing you notice about China right away, is that they like to exaggerate, sometimes a lot.


Our hotel



It looks pretty nice from the outside and it's not too bad on the inside but when you're told that it's a 5 star hotel, you're expected to be wowed.



Our Room


The interesting (and slightly annoying thing) about our Shanghai trip was that every day we had to check out and check into a new hotel, with the exception of the first and last night. Our first and last night in Shanghai were at the same hotel. The reason was we would visit a new city or town every day but it was still annoying to pack and unpack every night. It was good because we got to visit new hotels and most of them were amazing (although one was really really crap) but annoying because of the packing issue.

That's all for today! Sorry it was such a short post, but I have to get ready for lunch at my Godfather's and I'll be there all day since he wants to hear about my trip.

Friday, July 20, 2012

guess who's back?

I'm back from my 5 week vacation in Asia! Did you miss me? It was such an amazing trip (despite hating China but that's another story) but I'm very glad to be home. We arrived in Montreal at around 9:15 PM and I was back home at around 10 PM.



Alex's family was already waiting for us at the baggage claim and his mom excitedly squealed and ran over before I even knew what was happening (I only had 6 hours of very uncomfortable sleep and for those of you who know me, I.need.my.8.hours.of.sleep.). She was very sweet and had bought two helium balloons for us. Mine was the Hello Kitty one and Alex's just said, "Welcome Back." She told me that they didn't have plushies so she thought the HK balloon was the next best thing. I was touched that she even bought me a balloon.

I'll be double posting today -gasp- but the posts will be in order of my trip, so sorry to disappoint kawaii lovers but don't worry, Japan and all its kawaii and awesomeness will have the most coverage ;)

The order of my trip was like this:
  1. Shanghai, China
  2. Guangzhou, China (which I'll only mention in a few paragraphs.)
  3. Hong Kong, China
  4. Tokyo, Japan (OMG!!!)
  5. Beijing, China
Oh and guess what?

I PASSED MY CMA EXAM!!!!


My reaction except with a lot of screaming.

Found out on my last day in Beijing. The CMA Order sent me an e-mail saying that the results of the entrance exam were posted online and instead of getting ready for breakfast and the rest of the day, I checked my e-mails and waited anxiously for the results.


I just passed but mind you, it was a freggin' hard exam. I had to guess the last 10 questions.

As you can probably tell, I have a bit of jet lag, why else would I be up at 6 in the morning updating my blog (as much as I love you guys). I guess it's a good thing, since I have a lot of unpacking to do (something that's on my 10 top worse things to do list).

Next post, Shanghai!

Friday, June 29, 2012

Kawaii shopping in hong kong and typhoon warning

It's been so long since I last blogged! I wanted to make an entry or two while I was in Shanghai and the surrounding cities but I forgot that blogger (and fb) were blocked in China!

Alex and I took so many pictures but I can't show any right now because we also forgot that the plugs are different in Hong Kong so his laptop is almost dead and all the pictures are in his laptop. We're so unprepared -_-. So now I'm updating on my iPad and I have to say, it's not my preferred method.

While I was in Shanghai and other parts of China, I didn't see any kawaii. It wasn't until I came to Hong Kong yesterday that I started to see some kawaii. An old friend of mine, who we're staying with while we're in Hong Kong, brought us to a shop that sold Japanese goods near her house. I almost died from the amount of kawaii and they were cheaper here than anywhere else that I've seen (some of them anyway). Pictures will be uploaded in another post.

We did some more shopping today and we found some more kawaii! I obviously made some more purchases. We had supper with some other friends at a Japanese restaurant called Rakuen. It was so delicious. We're now back at Bert's apartment because there's a typhoon hitting Hong Kong tonight and it's a warning of 8. The worst is 10. There was a bit of rain and so pretty high winds when we left the restaurant at around 9. We can hear the wind howling outside. The typhoon is supposed to hit at around 11:30 tonight. Our first typhoon experience in Hong Kong! Or anywhere...

We're supposed to go to Ocean Park, an amusement park tomorrow. Hopefully, the typhoon would have passed. Hopefully, we would have also bought the right charger plug for Alex's laptop so that I can upload pictures.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Monday, June 04, 2012

hiatus announcement


Rosco & Homekoro Hate Studying Too (Old pic but who cares).

I hate to do this but this blog is going to be on hiatus. I have way too much to study for my CMA exam in June (omg, it's in a week and a half!) which means that I won't have any time to blog. I don't know if I'll have time to make a post before I leave for Asia (the day after my CMA exam), especially since I'll probably be running around celebrating the fact that my exam is over (and hopefully feeling that I passed) and picking up last minute items for my trip. I'll try my best to make a few posts during my trip, (especially about all the kawaii I see/buy OMG SO EXCITING!) but I make no promises. If not, enjoy the summer and I'll talk to you all at the end of July!

P.S. Buy lots of kawaii while I'm gone! XD