By Michael

Our day began as we met with our local guide, Gabi, to head out to Wong Tai Sin to meet with William Ng, a tai chi master. He is 79 years old, and he has over 20+ years of experience. He was so energetic to meet with us, and he then led us to a nearby park, Fung Tak Park, to teach us the art of Tai Chi. He first explained what Tai Chi was and how it is very beneficial to one’s health, such as physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Although it is a physical exercise, according to Mr. Ng, he said this art form is integrated with a variety of elements of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, martial arts, and medical learning. After he was done lecturing, he then asked us to spread out as he began to facilitate a meditation exercise, and he also asked us to be mindful of our breathing and to make sure to do our movements slowly. After the meditation exercise, he then turned on music and taught us the several forms and stances of Tai Chi. Once we completed the exercise, Mr. Ng demonstrated a few styles of Tai Chi while using a sword and then with a fan. It was amazing how graceful he looked while he was performing because each movement was so slow and smooth.

After an amazing workout, we headed out to Wong Tai Sin Temple for a tour. This temple has attracted crowds and crowds of people because many people believed that if they prayed here their wishes would come true. As we walked inside, we got the chance to pray to the deities of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism by grabbing nine incense sticks and placing three incense sticks in each of the deities’ alter.  Once we were done, some of us then participated in the fortune telling sticks to request for answers/wishes anywhere from relationships to career paths. Each stick has a designated number and meaning. As a result, an individual must shake the cup of sticks and depend on which stick falls out first, the number then must be recorded and be brought to a fortuneteller to interpret he or her wish.

Once we completed the tour, we then hopped into the MTR and took a short ride to Diamond Hill to visit the Nan Lian Garden, which is also connected to a Buddhist temple. The garden is fairly new as it was completed and opened to the public in 2006. The architecture of the buildings and the landscape of the garden were absolutely gorgeous! Even though the park is surrounded by freeways and noises of the city, the park was unbelievable peaceful with ambiance music being played throughout the whole park. It is a great place to be with your thoughts and get away from the fast pace of reality for awhile. After walking around throughout the park and visiting the nearby temple, we went to a vegetarian restaurant, Chi Lan Vegetarian, within the park for lunch. The fascinating thing about the restaurant was that it was located behind a waterfall! The food was very delicious as we all got to try so many types of mushrooms and vegetables.

Finally, after a long day of touring, we hopped on the MTR to go to Causeway Bay for a surprise activity that Dr. Mauldin had planned for us. To our amazement, our much awaited surprise was a trip to the karaoke bar! It was a well-needed break as we all got a chance to relax and sing our hearts out to our favorite songs. We sang for three hours, and we then went to Citysuper mall for dinner to end the night.

Today was definitely a memorable day filled with knowledge and fun, but I cannot wait what tomorrow has in store for us!

By out talented Teresa!

By Lushi

Today was the first day of our second week and we started off on a good note by paying a visit to an organic farm. The owners of the farm, Teresa and Augustine, were very welcoming and informative. The farm is approximately 50,000 square feet and is completely organic. Augustine’s definition of organic is the preservation of life.

Entrance to E-Farm

The farm had a few ponds and we had the opportunity to fish for lunch in one of the ponds. The pond had about 300 fishes but some of the students had difficulty catching something. We ended up with about two medium sized tilapias and the cook helped us steam it for lunch while we were taking a tour around the farm. Augustine gave us a tour about the life cycle of the black soldier flies. They have about seven days to live and their main duty during this time is to find a mate and lay eggs. The eggs eventually hatch into larvae, which is what is used as bait and food for the fish. The waste of 900 primary school children feeds the larvae. The primary school children have about 150kg of waste a day and Augustine likes to split it evenly so that the larvae have food on the weekends when school is not in session.

Fishing!

When it was almost time for lunch, all of the students assisted in the preparation process by wrapping wontons, crushing peanuts, and rolling glutinous balls. The cook taught us how to make these special dishes and we each split into different groups to do our part. When lunch was ready, everyone was amazed at how delicious all of the food was. There was rice, steamed fish, seasoned chicken wings, wonton soup, and glutinous rice balls for desert. The farm also offered beverages for a small price. One of the beverages they handmade organically was the sweet plum juice. It was very delicious and refreshing.

Group making wontons for lunch.

Aric concentrating while making wonton.

Making dessert: glutinous rice flour balls

Alina making dessert.

Dorothy and Marin making dessert.

Teresa, Kathleen, Lina, and Emily shelling peanuts.

After lunch, Teresa and Augustine demonstrated how Hong Kongers compost. They showed us how anything that is considered waste can be composted. In order to compost at home, an empty water bottle is needed. The water bottle needs to be filled with three parts waste, one part sugar, and 10 parts of water. First we chopped up a vegetable into bite size pieces to fit into the opening of the water bottle, then added sugar, and filled up the rest of the water bottle with water. The compost process is a daily effort and we actually needed to remove the lid daily to let the air out. It is necessary to do this step for about a month until there is no more air. Once there is no more air in the bottle, it is ready to be stored for two months. After two months of storage, the composted liquid is ready to be used a detergent or for other cleaning needs. Teresa showed us a sample at the farm. One of the students stuck his hand in it and it came out much smoother and paler than his other hand. This composted detergent is good for the body and also the environment.

Learning about composting

Amy cutting up old squash for composting.

Marin and Aric smelling the “bio-enzyme” mixture. “Smells like oranges”

After this demonstration, Augustine gave us a tour of his farm. Him and his wife purchased the piece of land approximately 40 years ago and at the time it was all trees. His neighbor, who is an expert at selling trees, chopped away all of the trees for him at no charge. That is when he started to build his farm. He started small and slowly because he had to build nets and electric fences to keep bugs and animals out. Augustine showed us some of his vegetable gardens such as his ginger garden. Each ginger plant takes about nine months to a year to grow one piece of ginger. He also showed us his guava tree, which is often attacked by bugs. This doesn’t surprise me because little creatures also attacked a number of us during this tour. Before we left to head back to school, Augustine taught us how to cover up the guava fruits by wrapping them in plastic bags before they grow juicy enough for the bugs to attack.

Learning about the aquaponics system

Helping farmer wrap guava.

Smelling ginger plant leaves

Visiting this farm taught me about organic foods and how important it is to keep chemicals out of our bodies. This farm showed me how easy it is to keep my body healthy as well as producing cleaner chemicals into the environment. I can’t wait to try composting at home!

By Alina

After the Dragon’s Back hike from Friday, many of us are still feeling tired and exhausted. However, nine other students and I are willing to take the challenge to hike under the 93 degree Fahrenheit of heat today in Lamma Island. Lamma Island sits in the South of Hong Kong, so from Hong Hum, we will need to take a bus to Aberdeen “Little Hong Kong” and take the ferry there to get to Lamma Island. As we pass by Aberdeen, its Chinese name “Heung Gong Tsai” meaning “little fragrant harbour” with “fragrant” being a reference to incense wood for burning in worship. This wood was grown in the New Territories, collected at Tsim Sha Tsui and then sent in chunks to Aberdeen for export. There’s still floating houses and restaurants there, but they used have floating schools as well. Because more people are moving out to the city, that makes an end to the floating schools and other floating businesses.

Aberdeen, “Little Hong Kong”

After 20 minutes of the ferry from Aberdeen, we are on the Lamma Island, we have about 2 hours hike, and we see a lot of gravestones from the ancestors and elderly of Lamma Island and many old houses that previously lived by the Hakka. Many houses there are abandoned, because many people from Lamma Island have moved to the cities.

Abandoned homes of Hakka village; burial shrine

Bananas + banana flower (!), large spiders, “screwpine” fruit (part of the pineapple family)

Lastly, we spent our time at Lamma Island with a seafood lunch. For seafood, we ordered steamed fish, broiled shrimp, and steamed scallop. It is very fresh tasting seafood. We enjoyed our seafood lunch!

By Brenda

Today (6/19/16) was the only day that our class was able to choose whether to attend to the assigned activity of the day (Lamma Island Walk) or an option to do whatever they want. Eleven people went to the Lamma Island Walk, some went to Stanley beach, and others went to the Lady and Flower Market. The weather was really nice today because the sky was much bluer and we could actually see the sun. ️ It was also less humid  To those that went to Lamma Island Walk hike left at 9AM and took the ferry and came back approximately around ~4:30 pm. They told me that it was a nice hike filled with big spiders.

After the hike, some people came back with even more bug bites. At the end of the hike, there was a fishing village where the class was able to purchase food to eat (family style). Although the food was delicious, it was pretty expensive!! It was about $135 HKD per person.

Then there were those who participated the dragon boat race at Stanley beach. The beach was beautiful and they saw about 110-150 teams compete in a 200m race from the beach.

I actually went to the Lady and Flower market (again) with Lushi. The Lady market was a market which sells a lot of random things filled with electronics, iphone cases, fake luxury goods, etc. On the other hand, the Flower market sells clothes, bags, or shoes. The flower market even have stands with many types of fruits.

A lot of tourist would go to these markets to purchase souvenirs to bring back home as gifts or just do some regular shopping for themselves. Since the merchants know that the Lady and Flower market is one of the biggest tourist attraction, they would try to rip us off! It takes a lot of bargaining to get a justifiable price for an item. With the right skill of bargaining I was able to purchase a fake Michael Kors bag just like Courtney hehe.

During my walk to the Flower market, I encountered a few pet stores that were selling dogs in a cage. I had to walk into every store and take a look at the the most adorable and cute dogs they were selling. They are literally TOO CUTE! However, I had to walk away because it made me sad to see the dogs kept at a really small container.

At the end of the day, a few of us had dinner at a restaurant that sells pasta because we were kinda tired of eating Hong Kong food so it was nice to try something that is not Hong Kong food. As much as we like the food in Hong Kong, we all miss eating the variety of foods we have in America. The restaurant owner was super nice to us! During our stay in Hong Kong, we did not see receive such great service since, but we were able to receive a wonderful customer experience from the pasta shop we dined in at.

We have one more week left and I’m already getting sad! I’m really grateful to be able to be in this program and experience the culture in Hong Kong with an amazing group of people!