I’m sitting at Hong Kong International Airport about ready to board my flight to Seoul, the first leg of my journey home to Los Angeles / Long Beach. Well sort of, there has been a flight delay so I have some time to blog. It’s crazy to think that my time on exchange in Hong Kong is coming to an end. It will probably be a while until I get to come to this amazing city (and airport) again.

Hong Kong is an amazing city, exchange is amazing, and traveling in Asia is amazing. I am so lucky that I got have this amazing experience. I made so many memories, did so many things, and I got to call “Asia’s World City” my home for 4 months. I also got to travel to the Philippines, Bali, Lombok, and Malaysia for the last month.

Hong Kong was so good to me. I got to do so much, visit some of the tallest buildings in the world, see so many temples, go on beautiful hikes, party until the sun rose, camp under the stars, eat delicious foods, and truly enjoy life. Hong Kong has everything. The ease to get to places – probably one of the best public transport systems in the world, if not the best. The people- they want to make sure everything is correct and right and are so willing to help, Hong Kongers are just good people. So many crazy things that I just never planed happening that at times I couldn’t believe how amazing my life is. I really couldn’t have asked for a better exchange.

I mean yeah some bad stuff happened- I got my phone stolen in Hong Kong 2 nights ago and food poisoning- I think that it’s HK saying “Hey it’s time to leave” and during exchange there were some moments where I missed home, or was just completely lost but all of these contribute to me learning lessons, making memories, and everything can’t be flowers and smiley faces. Also life can’t be only perfect weather either (so freaking hot and humid in the beginning) but apparently I’m just spoiled living in Southern California.

Anyways, the best part of exchange was the friends I made. I’m a super awkward person, and I’ll be perfectly honest I struggle to make friends. I’ve known my bestest friends since I was little and it takes me a while to make new ones. One of my goals on exchange was to open myself up more to new people and make an effort to make friends (plus who wants to do everything alone). I was so lucky to quickly meet two amazing girls, Sarah-Louise and Ivana, who became my rocks through exchange. We have a great girls group and did so much together. I know they are friends for life. I also met so many other great people who I spent a ton of time with and created amazing friendships with as well. I had my “Wolfpack” which was a super fun group of people to go out and just do fun things with. Within that group I formed close friendships, which I’m so grateful for. There are so many people that I met that seriously are some of the coolest people you will ever meet.

Hong Kong and exchange will always hold a special place in my heart. I came into exchange not really knowing what to expect and I received the unexpected, in a good way like how could I be so lucky to live a life where I am so blessed with so many great thing and opportunities. From Toursity Thursday to Tim Ho Wan and everything in between, what a ride it has been. I know I’ve grown as a person. I’m excited to go home; I’m excited to see my friends at home; I’m excited to go back to university life at LBSU; I’m excited to finally eat some proper Mexican food. I’m excited for life has in store for me because if exchange showed me anything, it's that life is better than what you expect it to be, it's amazing