Our Lasts

Last Friday

Our last Friday in Hong Kong eventually came so we had to do something fun... after doing something horrible. The first group left for Thailand and in this group was Christian Besold, one of my favorites from my time in Hong Kong. He had quite the entourage to see him off and of course as soon as we said goodbye and walked around the corner, what did I do but start crying, which in turn caused Maria to start crying. This is how every day and every goodbye went. Hugs and crying. It was horrible to say goodbye for now, but there was yet another promise to see each other again.

Saying goodbye to Beso

To lighten the mood for the evening we decided to go to a bar in TST. For some reason this had never happened before which was a huge mistake because it was on our side of the harbor and they had such fun places. We started the night off at a bar that had snowmen and sake. Great combo. The night started with mainly Americans and Scandinavian people with more Scandinavians and some French joining later. Maria’s friend Kristin had come to visit and so that made the night even more fun! 

Bene and I

Photo #34 of us from the evening

The boys (Rasmus, Tobias, and Jacob) decided to get sake as their drink of choice. After the first containers ran out, I joined in the Asian drinking for the second round. Although the sake was not horrible, it was not the easiest thing to drink either. This began Rasmus and I’s entire evening long conversation. We moved on to the next place where Rasmus and I continued talking about his extremely interesting life, living in multiple countries with various jobs and he is my same age. Our final stop was hopefully going to be a karaoke bar, but after finding out the very steep price to enter we settled for a place with a jukebox instead. Rasmus took control and played Queen the rest of the evening with all of us screaming out the words. I’m pretty sure the other bar goers were not as enthusiastic about the song choices as we were. All in all the night was a great time and an excellent last Friday night.

Rasmus, Maria, and I at bar #2

Last Ned Kelly’s Night

The last week we were in Hong Kong, we all did a lot of last minute shopping for ourselves and for gifts. I ended up at the Ladies Market at least 5 times which was appalling. We found all kinds of good stuff and by the end of the week some of the ladies knew us and gave us better deals since we had already bought too much stuff. Also, Andrew’s “it’s Christmas, you make money, you make money” really helped with the bargaining too!

Ladies Market Run

The last Saturday in HK came too soon. As you can tell we used the excuse of it being the last day of the week in HK to insure that something great happened. Saturday meant that it was Michael’s last show at Ned Kelly’s. Everyone that was left came to the show. We completely took over the restaurant once again, with the whole front table and the center table overtaken by HKPU students. Michael sang and played piano, “rock and roll” danced with me (running into several waitresses), and had lots of drinks for his last night there. Everyone was singing along, standing on benches, and having a great time listening to wonderful jazz music. Half of the group called it a night after the show and the other half went out for karaoke until 6am. Only in Hong Kong.

Michael, Sam, Amaury

Everyone having a great time!

Michael with the Ned's crew

Exams

My brother does not think I did any work while in Hong Kong. Which is not true. Here is a picture as proof that I studied for my exams. I also was active in group projects and presentations throughout the semester :) 

Studying Disaster

Our Very Last Outings… seriously

We realized TST was a great place to go so after enjoying one last trip to the glorious bar at the Intercontinental Hotel with Andrew, we went to meet the crew in TST. Rasmus’ description of where they were was, “around the corner from the jukebox bar from the other night”. Very helpful but eventually we were in the right spot. They all wanted to go to karaoke so we only stayed for a bit before they departed to another all night singing show.

Before Karaoke

The very, and I really mean it, last outing we had in Hong Kong was to Wan Chai with the last remaining group. As our suite was getting ready for the evening, (Agnes, my roomie, decided she was coming since it was my last day) we convinced Camellia (Debbie’s roommate) to join us for the evening out. She is not much of a party-goer so our first stop was not the ideal bar to get her acquainted. At Carnegie’s people can dance on the bar and it just happened to be packed with people in Santa hats and I guy that continued to strip since we had entered the bar. We finished our free champagne quickly to get out of this shocking situation. 

A little packed

We went to Canny Man which is a staple in Wan Chai ritual and much calmer with a pool table and laid back atmosphere. The rest of the group was there so after realizing they would be there for a while, the suite girls decided to go next door to Mes Amis for some dancing! We all four had such a great time dancing together and jamming out to Justin Bieber. 

Me, Camellia, Agnes, Debs

After we were nice and sweaty we went back to find the rest of the group. Without our passports (who would bring those out) we were not allowed back into Carnegie’s so we just hung around outside chatting until everyone was ready to leave. We had our taxi crews ready, but had to say goodbye to Michael Srey first. Yet another terrible encounter. Sam and Michael had gotten really close during their time in HK and I had to witness this emotional goodbye on the street outside of the insane bar. I then got my turn hugging lovely Michael and then Sam and I escaped into the taxi before things got too depressing. We reflected the whole drive home about the relationships we made and how shocking it was that we had all grown so close in such a short time period. When we returned to the dorm, Sam came to keep Agnes and I company and continue our reflection and discussion of ridiculous HK memories. 

Leaving Michael