Week 12. The final week to get everything done (ahh) and the last week with the incredible people I have meet. With everything going on at work, the time flew by. I was juggling fathers day promotion, social media posts and enjoying my last week in Hong Kong. On Wednesday night we had a work farewell dinner at a Japanese hot pot restaurant. With unlimited food and drinks for 90 minutes everyone forgot the stress of work and enjoyed dinner together. Just being with everyone not in a work environment it made me realise how much in am going to miss them. These people have become something of a second family in Hong Kong and have made me want to stay on. Once the 90 minutes were up, we all rolled out of the restaurant and a group of us made our way to the Wednesday horse races. I have been here for 3 months and have never been so seems like a perfect time go. Not really knowing the ropes of betting, for the first race I went to place bets with James and Jules. James's tactic was to choose the horse with the coolest name as apparently the numbers are there for show (not sure how accurate this information is haha). So with four whole NZD sitting on 'Mighty Maverick', I was feeling pretty confident. The gates opened and the horses flew out yet sadly it came clear at the start that 'Mighty Maverick' was not a winner, damn. I can now confidently say that James's tactic does not work. So being down 4NZD I thought surely I can win it back on the next race. This time I ignored James's advice and went with Olly who knew the ropes. Once again I beat 4NZD on number 4. This time round having a little more strategy to my beat, it paid off. I won 8 NZD meaning overall I didn't loose or gain anything. By 11pm James, Olly and myself were the last people from our dinner group standing. We left before the final race to beat the crowds and made our way onto a ding ding. We sat upstairs in the tram at the front polishing off the remainder of our beers with the intention of going home. Yet James the enabler came out to play and somehow we all ended up in Wan Chai going to a student bar. Due to it being a Wednesday drinks in Wan Chai are free for girls meaning we have a problem. This is a very dangerous place to be. I thought, I have two options. Option one: I could either go home and get a good rest for work or option two: stay out with my new friends and make even more memories... With not a lot of thought going into this decision I decided to stay. And looking back I am so happy I did. It was most definitely one of the funniest nights out. We danced on bar tops, meet new people and I got to see a different side to Wan Chai. By the end of the evening everything was getting slightly out of control so we decided to headed home at 3am... I will let you predict how Thursday went. You could say we were all a little worse for wear.
After Thursday (not the best day), it was Friday, my final day and I was feeling an extreme mix of emotion. I am excited to go home to see everyone and travel around Asia, yet the idea of leaving these incredible people was hard to comprehend. I had seen the same 14 faces everyday for the last 3 months and now it is over, just like that. On our departure we had to say a little goodbye speech. If you had asked me 2 weeks ago I would have been excited to leave but now as I was trying to say goodbye, I could feel a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. This was it, goodbye Soundbrenner.
The final memoir The last 5 months have been an absolute whirl-win. From finding out I was moving to Hong Kong in December to working as a full time design intern, it has been a crazy ride. Don't get me wrong it has been incredible but with every experience there are always ups and downs. Some of the ups have been getting lost in the culture and craziness of Hong Kong, developing my design skills and meeting people from all over the world who I know I will stay friends with for life. Yet within these times you do have down moments but from these I was able to learn from them. Due to never working in a professional design environment prior to this experience, I learnt you have to be able to work with a range of people even if you don't see eye to eye. It can be frustrating yet you can't let it get to you or else it will ruin your own experience. It practically all comes down to your point of view. Overall being an ambassador for Massey University and New Zealand has been an absolute pleasure. This opportunity has opened up new employment opportunities for me, allowed me to network with other creatives and become in love with a country so different to my own. So for this I would like to say thank you. Thank you Massey for organising this entire opportunity (even if it was a little last minute) and thank you to Soundbrenner for taking me under your wing. Before coming to Hong Kong I would never have considered living here but now I will definitely be coming back. So with that said I will see you again soon Hong Kong but for now it's it time to see other parts of Asia.
Ciao.