Julian's Hong Kong

Monday, December 31, 2012

What Happened to the Bucket List??

So I officially left Hong Kong on December 23rd in hopes of making it back home for Christmas. Thankfully I made it home on time with no problem. Unfortunately I wasn't able to completely check off everything on my bucket list. :(

~~Big Buddha at Lantau Island~~

~~Chung King Mansion~~

~~Macau~~

~~Light Show~~

~~Mr. Wongs Restuarant~~

Tsim Sha Tsui Museum

Visit the African Community in HK

Hiking Lions Rock

Ocean park

Ozone Bar

Although I am a little disappointed that I couldn't check off everything from my bucket list, this is great motivation for me to go back to Hong Kong!

Hong Kong, look out! I'm coming back!

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Road to Enlightenment

Late entry

The Road to Enlightenment

With less than a week to go in Hong Kong, why would I assume that my adventures would ever come to a stand still. I don’t know if there is something about my personality or whether God has an interesting way of making my life worth while, but I certainly run into a lot of abnormal yet inspiring people.

After walking through the 10,000 Buddha temple, I thought it would be interesting to visit the bee farm at the end of path because let’s be honest how often do you get to visit bee farms, especially in Hong Kong. So my three friends and I walked through a side path into private property following an arrow that pointed toward the bee farm. By the time we got close enough to enter the bee farm, we were approached by an old man who owned a Bookstore called “Starock Bookstore.” With great excitement he invited us into his house and immediately started giving us a tour. At first we were a little hesitant because some random enthusiastic old guy invited us into his house, but we were comforted by the fact that if anything were to go down, there were four of us and only one of him. He divided his house into different exhibits each displaying his unique artwork. First he took us into his bed room, which had exhibits 1 & 2. Unlike most Western artwork, his pieces of art were poems written in traditional Chinese calligraphy blended with bright colored paint. Each poem possessed a unique story that paved the way for the next, but was uniquely written in a way that if you hadn’t read the poem prior the plot would be unaffected. Although I wish I remembered the story of each poem, most of them spoke about stars and the journey of stars through their life.

Just to give a little background about this old man, he calls himself Little Star. He claims that he is completely free of religion and political associations. He spent most of his life traveling but now he has settled down and spends the remainder of his life writing.

After taking us through his bedroom, he took us to his dining room where he showed us the third and last exhibit. After the last exhibit he told us about his books. He mentioned that he’s been writing books for many years. Within the first few years that he started writing books, he gave over a thousand books to travelers from oversees. Right now he only has a few copies of his books. Similar to his poems, each book was completely exclusive in its message than the first one (each one was different). By the end of the tour he happily exclaimed that since we went through the whole tour he was going to give us one of his original works. By this point I was a little hesitant to spend more money, especially since I have already frivolously spent a lot of my money on food, but without even having to ask he said that he was going to give it to us as a free gift.

Before giving each of us our poem’s he asked what our occupations were. Since we were students he chose four unique poems for us. (The story behind that question is that he has specific poems based on the occupation of the person receiving the poem. He has written poems for engineers, doctors, and a myriad of different types of people.) Next he asked us who was the oldest as a way to show respect for seniority which is really important in the Chinese culture. Interestingly enough I was the second oldest. The reason this is interesting is because as crazy as it may sound to have a favorite number, mine just so happens to be the number 2. You can never be lonely when you are with another. Also, I am the 2^nd born of four children, and I was born in the 2^nd month on the 28^th day of the 2^nd year of the 1990 (2/28/1992).

Not to say that I am superstitious, but it was scary how each poem related to each of us individually. My poem told the story of a star going on a journey. My star would be fighting against the evil one. The message for me based on my stars journey was not to give in to the evil ones and not to conform my values. The reason this is interesting is because as Christians we are always in spiritual warfare against our enemy.

When I told my best friend about meeting Little star, she told me not to get caught up in the message. Her words were, “of course it makes sense. It’s like reading a horoscope; the message can apply to anyone.”

Of course I’m not going to get too caught up in the message, but this is definitely and interesting story that rarely happens.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Outrunning Fear

Outrunning Fear- The Lorentz Chen Story

This is a project that a group of friends and I worked on for our Multimedia Communications class. It tells the story of overcoming obstacles through free running. It has a powerful message about confronting fear head on. I hope you enjoy it.

Special Thanks to : Joy Yu, Gina Malina, and Adrian Carl

Checking Off the Bucket List

The Light Show

The Hong Kong Laser Light Show is definitely a must see when you visit Hong Kong. There is a show every night, so you have no excuse for missing it. I guess that was my excuse for procrastinating so long to see it. The show is composed of lasers shooting from the top buildings, as well as the lights and flashing company logos, all coordinating with music. The best place to see this light show is from East Tsim Sha Tsui near the Avenue of starts.

In all honesty, the Light show wasn't the most spectacular thing I've ever seen, but I'm glad I got to say I saw it. I hope someday in the near future they will coordinate it so more buildings will participate. I expected to see all the buildings in the financial district of Hong Kong island illuminating in synchronicity, but only a few buildings showed up for the show. I'm not that disappointed because I know there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Chung King Mansion

To get to this melting pot of African and South Asian culture you have to take the MTR to Tsim Tsai Tsui and get out at exit C. Once you make your way into Chung King Mansion there are a myriad of venders selling items such as cell phones, suitcases, and even hair products. Like most places in Hong Kong with venders, there are a lot of people selling the exact same thing. One great thing about Chung King Mansion is that you can also find a lot of great cultural food.

It was here that I bumped into Dixon, the Organizational Secretary of the African Community, who I originally met during Hong Kong Baptist University's International Festival. He told me that the head quarters of the African community was strategically located directly across the street. If that's not convenience I don't know what is. He also told me that I can get some great Ghanaian food from the 11th floor.

I wish someone would've taken a picture of me because my face lit up with the possibility of getting to taste a home cooked meal to relieve my home sickness. To my disappointment they didn't have Ghanaian food persay, but they had staple foods from the African continent such as rice, tomato stew, fufu and a variety of different soups. I can't really complain because I was definitely glad to now know where Chung King Mansion is and know I can always go there to get my fix of African food. Although I didn't get the chance to go to the African community that day, now I know where it is and I can always go there....eventually!

Monday, November 26, 2012

Random Photo Story

Hey guys,

I am so shocked and surprised to see that so many people are following my blog. As a gift to you all, I put a link of my newly created Flickr page. I still have a lot of uploading and a lot of editing to do but check out some of the pictures. I put pictures up of random photo shoots that I did and things that I thought were cool. Comment if you like what you see. Don't be surprised if you see yourself in one of the pictures.

Expect a new blog entry by the end of the week.

By the way a special thanks to Hillary Winghei Fung for being the first to comment on my blog! "YOU ARE SO CUTE!!!"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrjaddy2

Here are a few examples of what awaits you.....

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Truly Taking Over Hong Kong

You will never guess who won second place for their entry in the Hong Kong Baptist University Annual Poetry contest. Well I'm pretty sure you can already guess because you ARE reading MY blog. If you can't, I will ruin the suspense by saying I won.

The two internationally acclaimed judges Nguyen Phan Que Mai and Meena Kandasamy said that this is one of the best poems they've ever read.They also said the complexity of this poem is beyond my own understanding. To my surprise, they spent hours trying to find out whether I plagiarized. They called their colleagues in Spain, Germany and the United States, putting 3 countries in an uproar in an attempt to figure out whether I stole individual lines from other poems. The most they could find was that my opening line was very similar to a poem written by Antonio Machado in 1924, where he starts by saying "verso libre, verso libre/ liberate, mejor del verso" which translates to "free verse, free verse/ liberate, best verse." I can honestly tell you that I didn't plagiarize. Interestingly enough, I wrote this poem in 30 minutes as a result of waiting only an hour before the deadline for the competition to write it.

I guess we never really know the depts of our potential until they are challenged. I always knew I was an okay poet, but this was definitely flattering and a great confidence boost. What I can say is that this poem caused me to take my own poetry seriously and push myself to take intellectual risks.