Standing at the beginning

So I am officially finished with my summer with CSE. Most of the teachers have departed for home or their next adventure. Walker gets in tonight and then tomorrow or Wednesday we will head back to mainland China to begin our trek around who knows where. CSE has been kind enough to allow me to leave about half of my stuff in their office here, so I'm really going to be able to travel light, which is really nice. I'm also, unfortunately, at that point where I really don't have a shred of clean clothing, but am not sure when I'll be in one place for 24 hours and can get my laundry done, so am not quite sure what I'm going to do. Considering spending the day shopping. . . .
This weekend was a lot of fun. We got into Hong Kong pretty late on Saturday night and pretty much conched out immediately. I awoke on Sunday morning and was surprised by a stunning view of the harbor and southern (?) mountains out my 22nd floor hotel window. Didn't have to go far to appreciate the beauty of this city! Nonetheless, my roommate and I had arisen early to make it to Victoria Peak before our closing ceremony. We were rewarded with a beautiful, sunny morning that was perfect for wandering around a mountain. We took this tram up to the top that must have been at like, 60-70 degrees from the horizontal. Pretty scary; I kept worrying that it was going to start going backwards and it was going to be like a rollercoaster!
Victoria peak is right next to Hong Kong University, which is where our closing ceremonies were located, so we actually managed to walk all the way around the mountain and then come down on the other side and get to the event right on time. Pretty impressive. It was great to be surrounded by so much tropical foliage after spending so much time in the city. It spelled like a jungle and had some pretty flowers and birds as well.
After the ceremony, about 20 of us went out on a boat in the harbor. It honestly could not have been a better day for a boat ride, and we just rode around, admiring the skyscrapers, then the green islands, then the open sea. We dropped the anchor near a beach and all went swimming for a bit too. Nicole and I tried to swim to the beach, but got closed to it and read a sign saying "Beware of shark net". We treaded carefully, and turned back around once we realized that there was definitely barbed wire or something in that net and we didn't want to mess with it. We also kind of wondered if the fact that they had erected a shark net should make us a bit concerned about swimming outside of it. . . . . .guess they weren't hungry yesterday!!
We went to dinner wet and salty, and despite the brutal air conditioning, heartily enjoyed the umlimited buffet of wonderful thai food. I had a fresh lime soda with my meal (tasted just like limonada) and even had MANGO for dessert. I was in heaven. A Thai specialty is sweet sticky rice, fresh mango, and coconut juice. I approve completely. Not quite chicken foot or duck blood, but pretty good all in all :)
Alright, well I'm off to enjoy my afternoon. See what Hong Kong is all about!