End of the semester, start of travelling

My semester in HKU has already ended and all exams have been done.

My last exam was supposed to be on 22nd of May, but it got cancelled as the "Black Rainstorm Warning Signal" was hoisted. That means that in an hour it is raining or it is expected to rain more than 70mm/hour. It actually didn't rain that much, at least not near our university.

Hong Kong Observatory Website in that morning

On the previous night though, I was studying at the Chi Wah Learning Commons on campus until around 3am. When I was going to leave I noticed that it was raining a lot and of course I didn't have an umbrella with me. Red Rainstorm Warning Signal had been given 5 mins earlier and it meant that it was raining 50-70mm/hour. I had to go back to hall so after some consideration I decided to run the 5-min-by-walking distance back to hall.

Result: After 10 seconds I was totally soaked. I could have gotten the same result by jumping into a pool. I also had to take my sandals off and run barefoot as the insole was too slippery. Luckily my bag kept all my study materials dry. If I wouldn't have had the materials with me I wouldn't have cared about the rain as I was just going home (and could take a shower/dry myself there).

At a covered bus stop in the midway to hall. Notice the waterfall.

The exam was postponed to Sat 25th. It was thundering then, but luckily no new rainstorm warnings.

The following week included going around HK, shopping, seeing the duck (separate post coming), saying goodbyes and so on. On Thu 23rd we went to see The Great Gatsby movie and said goodbye to Brenda. I also said goodbyes to Samantha (Sam) as because of our travels we won't see again in HK.

Marcus (Singapore), Pui-Chi (Australia), I, Monica (Korea), Paige (USA), Keun Hee (Korea), Brenda (Canada) and Sam (USA)

At the moment I'm at HK airport waiting for my flight to Shanghai. From Shanghai I have a connection flight to............. JAPAN! Finally a dream come true!


My original flight to Shanghai was delayed so they transferred me to an earlier flight (which is also delayed, but still leaves before my original one. I also met Keun Hee this morning for the last time in HK. She came yesterday at 10pm from Philippines, so we went to have dimsum at HK Station which was on my way to airport.

I have to mention that I shared a taxi on the way to airport with some guy from Starr hall (hall next to ours). When I told him that I'm from LHT, he was silent for a second and then asked "Were you in you hall's dance team and performed at the Joint Hall Mass Dance?" - "Yes". Seems like I'm famous. :D

As some of you might be interested, my travel plans will be:

1.-10.6. Japan (Osaka, Kyoto)
10.-13.6. HK
14.-21.6. Auckland/New Zealand
21.6.-5.7. Brisbane/Northeast Australia
6.7.-13.7. Singarpore and nearby
13.7. back to Finland

I applied for a summer hall residence (only 4e/night), so I will stay at the hall for the couple of days I'm staying in HK when returning from Japan. My floormate Andrea is kindly doing the room change for me as it is done on 5th June and I'm not in HK then. So this morning I packed everything and cleaned up my room. I also sent some of my stuff by mail to Finland yesterday (11kg, ~38e, going to take 6-8 weeks).

The boarding is starting now, so I'll write you more from Japan. :)