[This is obviously meant to be published before the end of 2016 but then again I’m ALWAYS behind my schedule. Dammit.]
2016 has been another year with a lot of ups and downs right from the beginning. There’s no better way to describe it like the New York Times did here: ‘it was a year to be confounded, shocked, humbled’. As the year is coming towards an end, let’s have a flashback of my 2016!
January
2016 kicked off with a short trip to Taiwan with my family. We had so much awesome food there! It was also a great opportunity to have that short getaway with my family before heading back to the UK for the second semester of my second year in uni.
April
January to March had been about studying…workload was heavy as ever 🙁 As semester finished in April, I decided to take this opportunity to visit my friends in Cardiff for a long weekend getaway, over semester break. It was my first time visiting Wales and I’ll have to say I’m pretty impressed! I loved every bit during my 3-day trip. Since I haven’t seen my friends in a while, it was also so nice to spend some quality time them. Visited a lot of places, had a lot of good food. Thank god for the nice weather! It was so great to be able to spend time with my friends and I’m looking forward to going to Wales again in the future.
June
Surprisingly I did study quite hard for my exams so I didn’t really go anywhere special in May. However I did get to go to a few places in early June after exams! This is when my Tube adventure to Gants Hill took place, and I also went to Kenwood House. Also discovered the Hampstead Pergola & Hill Gardens, a super lovely hidden gem in Hampstead!
And then second year of uni was finished, I went back to Hong Kong. Also went to Tokyo for a bit afterwards. Went to DisneySea, had a lot of nice Japanese food, bought A LOT of matcha sweets back (and finished them quite quickly lol…). Had a day trip to Yokohama as well and it has been fun to discover new fun things in different places.
July/August
Spent the whole two months in Hong Kong. It was hot and humid as Hong Kong summers always been. Now that I’m typing this up, I can’t really think of any exciting that I’ve done…well at least I think I’ve spent a lot of time with my family and that’s all that matters.
September
As you might have known, I went to Korea with my parents in early September. The biggest highlight of the trip was visiting the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) between North and South Koreas. It was an experience that I’ll never forget in my life! Having the chance to see the world’s most secretive nation with your own eyes was a truly unforgettable experience. Apart from the DMZ, we got to revisit great delicacies – kimbap, chicken stew, bibimbap…damn I’ve missed those! And we also went to quite a few other places in Seoul and Suwon, and we took nice photos there too.
November
Over reading week in early November, I went to Barcelona, Spain with my friends for 4 days. It was my first time going to mainland Europe since 2009, and also the first time to travel to mainland Europe from the UK. (I really should have done this much earlier during 1st and 2nd years…why did I not do that?????) I was super overwhelmed by the great art nouveau/modernisme architecture in the city. I felt like every corner of the streets makes a decent photograph. I loved every bit of the trip (and the city!). Finally had the chance to try an authentic Spanish Paella! And realised the one in Borough Market is NOTHIN compared to the one we had in Barcelona. I honestly had so much fun! And I look forward to going to Spain again in the future.
December
I only spent 12 days of this month in the UK, and they were hectic as hell. Was ill with a very bad cold for the first 5 days, had 2 essays and a presentation to do within those 12 days. Those 12 days were SO stressful but it went by fairly quickly. After that I went back to Hong Kong, have been spending good time with the family. Went to Central to see the Christmas tree, met up with friends from school, spent a lot of time at home.
Apart from travelling, I feel like I’ve learned so much this year, and I hope I’ve become a better person than I was (at least I have tried to, and I’ll continue to try and be a better version of myself). Discovered different sides of myself, tried a lot of new things…
ANYWAY
Dear 2016, I would like to thank you for giving me all the things (good or bad) that I’ve experienced this year. Been to 5 countries this year, new record! And it has been pretty damn amazing.
Good job me for surviving such a tough year. But life was never easy…so 2017, bring it on! And please be nice to me, and to everyone else in the world.
(And I seriously need to work on my blog schedule, there are so many posts I was meant to type out a loooong time ago but still haven’t. aka most of the places I’ve been to, sigh.)
My new year resolution is to be more committed to and organised on blogging. I have NEVER been organised with blogging, so to everyone who reads my blog, I sincerely thank for your support. I hope 2017 will be the year where this blog will get the attention that it deserves from its owner aka myself.
Thank you so much for stopping by. Keep up with my journey below:
and until next time, take care
x
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