In less than 24 hours, you and I will say goodbye to this 2016.

2016 had been an amazing year for me. I have experienced many new life-events throughout this year; from the most expected to the unexpected ones, from the relaxing to the thrilling ones. I am so grateful for every bit of these 365 days.

I started this year by selling my hand-crafted Valentine's gift. My first intention was to earn some pocket money, but during the process, all I wanted was for my hand-crafted Valentine's gift to represent my customers' love toward their significant others. I felt the excitement in making the gift personalized for every different customer, also happiness and satisfaction when I saw them posted it on their social media with the lovely quotes. The money earned couldn't compensate the sleepless nights (and back pain) to make the gift, but the happiness of my customers paid it off.

Then for the first time, I live away from home for almost half a year. Started with my internship in Jakarta, then continued with the exchange program in Hong Kong. Living away from home, I learned to have more responsibility, wiser and have better judgement to distinguish which is good and which is not good for me. I also learned to appreciate more toward what I have back there: my time with my family, bf, friends, and of course, my local foods.

I also met many incredible people who bring positive impacts to me. Outstanding lecturers in my home university inspire me to aim higher. My supervisors and colleagues during the internship showed me how to work professionally in fun ways. My roommate in HK introduced me to many cool songs. The international and local friends, professors and staff in HKBU gave me new ideas about how to deal with language barriers and cultural differences, also helped me to expand my horizon.

Last but not least, I am grateful for my wonderful friends in 2016: my best friends who stayed with me even though we rarely see each other, my interning friends who built a quick yet strong bond between us, my classmates in PCU who went through the hardship of university life with me, lovely local friends in HK who helped me to adjust to the new culture and solved my problem, and international exchange friends who explored the city and experienced the local taste with me during our stay in HK. 

I enjoyed all the challenges, exposures and international experiences that year 2016 gave me and I really thank my parents who support me to experience those precious opportunity.

Also thank you for those who helped me to climb up high,

those who helped me to stand up again when I fall,

those who took part in my amazing 2016.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

In less than 24 hours, you and I will say goodbye to this 2016.

In less than 24 hours, you and I will say hello to the total stranger, 2017.

Wish we all a happy new year!

*My gratitude is not only limited to people in pictures above*

Hi guys! It's been a while! Sorry for the long hiatus as I was having my final exam back then. I finally finished all my exams and it means my term in Hong Kong is officially over... To celebrate my (kind of) hard-work throughout the semester and exams, I went to Macau with some friends🇲🇴 I was so excited to go there again, as my last time visiting Macau was 7 years ago with my family!
Our mission to Macau was not only to stroll the city, but to meet my HK friend's friend who comes from Taiwan. They will arrive in Macau by noon, so we took the 11:40 AM TurboJet to Taipa, Macau. We arrived 1 hour later and it took another 45 minutes to do the immigration process due to the load of tourists. We finally able to leave Macau Taipa Ferry Terminal by 1:30 PM with the free shuttle bus provided by the hotel/casino.

I'm a big fan of something crispy and chewy. I love the crispy potato chips and the chewy mochi. However, when I'm craving for something crispy and chewy at the same time, it will be too much for me to eat the potato chips and mochi together. Then, what should I do?

The answer is: go for EGG WAFFLE!

Hong Kong people call this gai daan jai in Cantonese, while the English translation has many fancy variants: egg waffle, eggette, egg puff, bubble waffle and so on. No matter how you call this little friend, egg waffle is a Hong Kong street snack that you should not miss. With the crispy exterior and fluffy interior, fragrant buttery smell and the bite-size serving, how could you resist the temptation not to crack one little bubble and devour it? OMG my love to egg waffle is indescribable 💕

If you're going to study abroad for full-time study or just for an exchange program, perhaps convenience for students in that country would be one of the factors that you take into consideration in choosing your destination university or country. In my opinion, convenience for students is necessary to support student's daily activities, whether for studying purpose or for leisure. Today I'll be sharing with you the 3 benefits of being student in Hong Kong that I experienced here (which I thought are AWESOME!).

1. MTR Student Travel Scheme
With many things to do and explore in new place, transportation is indeed very important for us. It's a relief that Hong Kong has an efficient and frequent public transport systems with the MTR. There's also a convenient payment method with the Octopus Card (read it here if you don't know what Octopus Card is). When you think that things couldn't get any better, your student status give you another surprise: special price for student!

MTR fare from my campus' station to Disneyland, student fare is almost 50% less than adult fare

If your Hong Kong school or uni is participating in the MTR Student Travel Scheme, you can apply for a Personalised Octopus with "Student Status". This student status will allow you to travel with discounted price compared to the usual adult price. Whoot!

2. Student Notebook Ownership
As the price of electronic devices in Indonesia are pricier compared to the other countries, I was postponing my plan to buy laptop until I arrived in Hong Kong. Not only the retail price is cheaper, but Apple HK has the educational pricing which is not available in Indonesia (so it is way cheaper). However, it turned out that some universities (including my university) in HK has Student Notebook Ownership program that charges you with even lower price compared to Apple's educational pricing! Such a good welcome gift!😳

Offering Apple and Lenovo

Not only you get your laptop in cheaper price, but they also give you free stuff: printer, screen protector, one laptop accessories, laptop bag, free internet security subscription and coupon for next purchase. If you're purchasing a Mac, they also offer a free workshop to allow you familiarize with your new Mac. In my opinion, This kind of program shows how the university really support the students by helping them to get 'more affordable' laptop.

3. Student Special Price
Many stores in Hong Kong, especially restaurants, offer special promotions for students. Just show your student ID and voila! You got the special promotion! So far, I've used this privilege to play ice skating with my brother with the buy 1 get 1 promotion, enjoy my lunch with student price in Yoshinoya, pay $10 less for my llaollao yoghurt and sip my cup of Starbucks coffee with 30% discount (only for HKBU's student😝).

My fave sauce: cookie dough🍪

Yoshinoya HK got some cheesy menu!

People said, when you did something for the first time, there will always be the second one. So, as I had my first hiking in Hong Kong, of course I will have the second hike😉Again, the hike  I joined was organized by HKBU's International Office. I intentionally only join the hiking activities which are organized by school. The first reason is because I realized that my stamina is poor, thus I walk slower compared to the others. The second reason is because once in while I love to stop to take pictures! By joining school's hike, I know there will always be student ambassadors that will accompany me to walk slowly and wait for me to take some pictures 😂 (Thank you for all student ambassadors that accompanied me!)

This time, the destination is Tai O which is located in the Western coast of Lantau Island. When I went to the International Office to register for the monthly outing, the PIC, Juventius, told me that it's gonna be a difficult hike compared to the previous hike that I joined. However, with the motivation to see that other side of Hong Kong, I registered for the hike and found myself making my way to Tung Chung MTR station on that fourth Sunday morning of October.

Hi guys! The real Autumn (or Winter?) has finally come to Hong Kong! The weather started to be very nice lately.  It's getting colder (especially in the morning) and windy that I need to put on my scarf. Daily temperature ranges from 22-27 degrees (FYI it's 17-19 today!) and it is not too humid anymore. I really love this temperature because I don't need to break a sweat when I run from one building to other building for class💦 The changes of temperature is really significant compared to the last two weeks. Me and my room mate even already slept without turning on the AC for about a week because we can let the window open during the night.

As I do my exchange period during the fall semester, I got the privilege to experience an annual event in HKBU that only happens during the odd semester. It's International Festival! The event was held on 25-27 October 2016 and this year is the 12th year of commencement. During this three days event, HKBU had ranges of activities that showcasing cultural diversity. There were photo exhibition, seminars, study abroad fair for the local students and also international market plus variety show.

I thought it was only yesterday when I wave my hands to my parents and friends who send me to the airport for my flight to Hong Kong. However, it is not. It's been 2 months since the day I landed in Hong Kong for the first time after 6 years, met hundreds new people from many different parts of the world and slept in a shared bedroom with my lovely roommate. Believe it or not, my time to study in Hong Kong is now less than 2 months. How time flies.

The bronze statue of Big Buddha (天坛大佛) is the second biggest outdoor-sitting Buddha statue in the world (after Taiwan) and the main centre of Buddhism in Hong Kong. It is located at Ngong Ping, Lantau Island. It's very easy to get there. Just take the MTR to Tung Chung station and go to exit B. There we can choose either to take the bus (Lantau Bus 23) or take the cable car from Tung Chung Cable Car Terminal. Both choices will bring you to the Big Buddha. We opted for the second option.

Hi guys! Today I list you guys 5 must BRING items when you're visiting Hong Kong. Some items can be brought from home, some others can be purchased once you arrived in Hong Kong. Whether you're going for holiday or study, this list of things will work for you!

Octopus card is a contactless smart card for payment. If you've been to Singapore, it works like their ez-link card which is used to pay the public transportations, but with additional function to pay for your shopping! (similar to Flazz BCA card in Indonesia). You can apply for Octopus card at Customer Service Centres at all MTR station. The initial payment would be HK$ 150, consists of refundable HK$ 50 deposit and HK$ 100 initial stored value. If you refund the stored value and the deposit within 90 days, there will be administrative fee of HK$ 9.

The standard on-loan Octopus card (left) and my temporary student Octopus card (right)

It's a common understanding that Hong Kong people are CRAZY for Apple's products. To satisfy the market, there are 5 Apple stores in 5 different districts in Hong Kong. At first, when I heard that HK got 5 Apple stores, I was like "meh" 😶, my hometown in Indonesia also has many stores that exclusively sell Apple's products. What's so special with 5 Apple stores?

BUT. I. WAS. WRONG.

I feel so bad for comparing the Apple store in Hong Kong and the store that sells Apple's product in my hometown, because it's a totally different concept (and size). Apple store in HK is exceptionally BIG. It ranges from 1 storey and 3 storeys. They got dozens of unit display for all products that can be played freely by the customers.

My first time going to Apple store was to the Apple store in Festival Walk mall which is located near my campus. I went there on weekday and I was amused to see sooo many people inside the store. It was really crowded! On weekday! Wow! A rare view if you go to mall in my hometown during weekday. After several visits to the Apple store in different times, I realized that Apple stores in HK always have many customers coming to the store every time and everyday.

Believe it or not, it's been a month since I arrived in Hong Kong. Time flies so fast!

After this first month, I started to settle down and adapt more to this 'new' surrounding. I know that the situation of Hong Kong is not much different from Indonesia if you're talking about the weather, food and stuff, but there are still many other things which can be considered as new for me: new bedroom, new roommate, new classmates, new habits and so on.

I started to have assignments and midterms schedules for my classes. Real university life has come! To be honest, it's quite challenging because I don't know the preferences of the lecturers, e.g. they prefer lengthy wordy answers or the short concise one. I hope I can give my best *finger-crossed*

The weather now also started to be nicer compared to the first 1-2 weeks I arrived in Hong Kong, but sometimes it could not be predicted. Yesterday I went for lunch by feet in the afternoon and it was very hot and bright. Then one hour later I walked home under the rain... My morale story would be: bring umbrella. I know I keep on typing this in most of my posts, but yeah, it's the fact 😂 It's my life-savior to protect me from sun and rain!

In Hong Kong, I'm studying in Hong Kong Baptist University (gotta write another post about this cool university!). During our study here, all the affairs related to international students (the exchange students) will be managed after by an office called international office. They were the one who arrange our arrival pick up, orientation programme and also outing activities for us to explore Hong Kong. And our first outing activity was..... hiking!

Hello guys! Welcome to the second part of my Mid-Autumn Festival post (if you missed the first post, click here!). This post contains tons of beautiful picture taken by me, so be ready to indulge your vision! 

The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on 15 September 2016. However, there are list of activities and events that started since the beginning of September, one of those is the lantern display carnival which showcasing an incredible variety of colorful, bright shiny lanterns.

There are different places showing different theme of lanterns in Hong Kong. In Tsim Sha Tsui, they got the Fly Me to The Moon as the theme. In Tai Po Waterfront Park, it's all about After the Mid-Autumn Night’s Dream. I didn't go to those two places, but I enjoyed the lantern carnival in Victoria Park.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, guys! 中秋节快乐!

Mid-Autumn Festival is one of those festive events that being celebrated extensively by people in Hong Kong. I'm so lucky I'm able to experience this festive event in Hong Kong and in this post I'm gonna share with you the euphoria that I experienced here :)

As the post is quite long... with some words and pictures, I'll post it in two parts so you won't be bored reading all of these :D

In Indonesia, we also celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival, but in a very small scope. We only have some shops and hotels sell mooncakes in tins and by piece, but not the big celebration. While in Hong Kong, you'll notice the decorations of Mid-Autumn festival in most places which is dominated by rabbit and the moon.

Another difference between Indonesia and Hong Kong's Mid-Autumn Festival is the massive advertisements of mooncake, hallmark tradition of Mid-Autumn Festival, that you can easily find everywhere in Hong Kong: in the Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway (MTR), on the bus and inside the malls.

Hong Kong has soooo many different brands of bakery that produce and sell mooncakes. Every bakery tries hard to push the advertisement and locate it in the strategic places. Mooncake is really small (less than 10 cm in diameter) but the advertisement could possess the whole wall. Thus in that big mooncake advertisement, you actually will only see a really small mooncake! Moreover, they rarely show the whole mooncake. Usually the picture will only show quarter of mooncake, to be able to show you the glorious yolk (which represent the moon!) inside the cake. It's really interesting for me to see all the advertisement.

There are several types of mooncake with different skins, fillings and of course, different prices. There's the traditional one which made with lotus seed paste, date paste, mung bean and completed with salted duck egg yolk as the fillings. Along with the rising awareness of health, people think that this traditional mooncake is too sweet and oily (and cholesterol!). Thus, now there's now type of mooncake which is called as snow skin mooncake. In my opinion, the snow skin mooncake is similar to mochi ice cream in Japan. They don't bake it and it need to be kept in the freezer or it will melt. Made with glutinous rice and no egg-yolk filling, snow skin mooncake is perceived as a healthier choice compared to the traditional one. However, you'll always find long queue in both traditional and snow skin mooncake store.

So far, I've eaten the Wing Wah's and Mei Xin's traditional mooncake. I have one pack of Kee Wah's in my cupboard but I'm gonna save it a lil bit longer :p

The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on 15 September 2016, but you can already feel the atmosphere since the end of August with all the decorations and mooncakes thingy. People started to sell many goods which related to light: lantern with lamp, light-stick, bandana with blinking crown, gooey-minion-yoyo that can light up when it hits something and so on. It's all about lights!

Hong Kong people will bring along those things when they celebrate the full moon on 15 September night, while enjoying the colorful lantern display in some public places and having their evening picnic with the love ones.

I'm gonna share with you guys about the lantern display and more fascinating pictures in my next post. Stay tuned!

My flight to Hong Kong from Surabaya, Indonesia, should've been on 29 August 2016. However as I need to finish and submit my internship report, and as the progress of clothes packing was nil, my mom and I decided to change the date in the last minute. We postponed it to 30 August.

I woke up on 30 August morning and got prepare quite fast to catch my 8:30 AM flight. I re-checked my wine-colored luggage and red handbag to ensure all important things were there. Passport, checked. Ticket, checked. Wallet, checked. Mobile phone, checked. All set, and I left my house with my parents as my bf came to fetch me.

Once I arrived at the airport, I directly headed to the counter to check in my luggage. As one of the airplane that has direct flight to Hong Kong, the queue of Cathay Pacific's counter that morning was quite long. After approx. 15 mins, it was my turn to be served. The counter-staff kindly addressed me and apologized for the long queue. She printed my boarding pass and returned it with my passport to me. Before I left, she apologized for the second time. What a cute staff.

I went out from the check-in counters area to meet my parents. It turned out that my friends cameeee to send me (T^T) What a lovely bunch of friends. Sacrificing their precious alarm-snooze in the morning and coming all the way to the airport. Thanks a lot, amigos!

After a while, it was the time for me to get to the boarding room. I waved my goodbye to friends and family and made my way to the immigration. The immigration was empty, but the boarding room was fully equipped. When the staff asked us to board to the plane, I prefer to stay still and wait until the last batch to get to the plane. The queue was very long (due to the cabin check I guess) and I prefer to sit comfortably and call my grandma.

When it was not that crowded anymore, I stand and start to queue. Done with the cabin check, I submit my passport and economy-class boarding pass to the staff. They did the procedure (scan, check etc) but then they tore my boarding pass. What the..?! I was shock to see that, but even shocker when they gave me another new boarding pass and said:
What? Biz class? Wow. I was wondering why. Once I got to my seat I called my mom and she was shocked as well. HA! I felt like Anastasia Steel in the Fifty Shades of Grey! Perhaps Mr. Grey did the upgrade to me? ;)

It was my very first experience to fly in biz-class. IMHO, it was not bad at all! The seat was waaaay better than the economy one and it got the spacious room for your leg. Now I know why some people prefer to pay more to treat themselves in the business-class flight. The highlight of my flight was the food. It was A LOT of food. Ranging from the refreshment, appetizer and main course. What a pleasure.

The menu

Indulging myself. Btw the movie I watched was Chongqing Hot Pot, not bad.

I tried to sleep in the last 1 hour of the flight but it was not a successful attempt. The nervous feeling started to consume me as the plane approaching Hong Kong Airport. Oh why...

And those questions keep on hanging in my head as the wheel of the plane landed smoothly on the land of Hong Kong. Welcome to Hong Kong, Helene.

Hello guys, greetings to you all :)

Welcome to my very first blog post in this blog (I'm literally excited to type this!)

I'm Helene from Indonesia.

You may be wondering what does my domain name about: le noir hair girl.

Well, let me break it down for you.

Le noir means black in French. Hair means.. hair in English and yeah, I believe you know what does girl mean.

It's been 21 years for me to walk around with my black hair and I'm sure it still counting to many more years. Thus, I chose to use this as my identity and as my domain name! (while actually it's not that jet-black hair, I got some shade of brown as well, but yeah, it's ok ;))

Currently, I 'moved' to Hong Kong to join student exchange program for 1 semester. I will be staying in this world's fourth most densely populated for 4 months.

In this blog I will post and share with you guys about my journey here; the university life, food-tasting experiences, shopping activities and also the places that I managed to explore here. Please also expect to read my writings about perhaps my insecurities or anxieties ;)

I'll be posting as soon as possible and will try to update this blog in a regular basis.

Kindly support me with this blog and happy reading!

Love,

Helene