Mid-Autumn Festival - 中秋節

My first and one of the more important holidays to be celebrated in Hong Kong: The Mid-Autumn Festival. This holiday comes around every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar. This year it fell on September 19, 2013. The moon on this day is said to be the fullest and brightest. 

Similar to Thanksgiving for Americans, Mid-Autumn is a day for everyone to return home, have a large family dinner, and spend the rest of the night together under the moon enjoying each other's company. 

How did I spend this traditional holiday?

Top 5 Hong Kong Discoveries

Surprisingly enough, since the day I've gotten to Hong Kong never have I had the feeling of being home sick (at least not yet). Hong Kong is similar to Hawaii's Chinatown back in the 1990s when the Chinese community was more prevalent than the Vietnamese. Cantonese is heard everywhere, crowds of people are pushing through to get to where they need to go, whole chickens, ducks, and pigs are hung at the front of butcher shops, and of course broken english is the meeting grounds for all locals and visitors. 

HOWEVER! Being raised in Hawai'i my entire life there are still some things I need to adapt to.

The Long Journey Away from Home

A perk of leaving on an exchange trip is that it serves as a great excuse to party hard the entire week before you leave. I was able to do a lot of things I've always wanted to do but never did because I'd always tell myself next time. Some things I was able to enjoy before leaving paradise was attend Eat-the-Street (theme: spice), experience a Bon Dance, have breakfast at Cafe Kaila, boat cruise out to sea, mini house party, beach, bowl at Her-Way-Thursdays Aiea, Waimea, dinner with friends, and Krazy