*Ring* *Ring* my annoying alarm goes off at 10:00 a.m. on a Thursday morning. Slowly I open my eyes and let out a small sigh. Today is the day we are traveling to HK, one of the most popular cities in the world. When I realize what today is, my lips curve into a slight smirk and I hop out of bed. I quickly run into the bathroom and do my morning routine. Once I am all showered and neatly groomed I furiously try to pack all the items I will need for this trip. Making two laps around our apartment I finally feel satisfied with all of the necessary items I neatly crammed into my backpack.

We take a quick taxi, about five minutes away, to get to a hotel where the airport bus is located. Once inside we pay for the tickets and off we go. An hour or so later we reach the airport and head to go check ourselves in. Waiting in a decently sized line I suddenly get a bad feeling about this “amazing” trip to HK. I quickly brush it off and play it off as if I was being nervous. Slowly we make our way to the check-in desk and I hand my passport to the lady at the desk. She then informs me that our flight back was canceled due to the typhoon heading our way. Uhh, okay no big deal, I thought. We can get another one when we fly into the HK airport.An hour later and we are boarding our flight. This was the nicest plane for a

An hour later and we are boarding our flight. This was the nicest plane for a two-hour flight I have ever been on. TV monitors for every seat with as many movies as there were passengers. Two hours later and we landed in HK! Our leaders then spend the next two or three hours trying to fix our flight schedule. Eventually, they were able to get our flight changed to Sunday afternoon. But now we are trapped with nowhere to stay those two extra nights. Grumpily we take a bus to our hostel where we would stay for that night.

However, the night we were supposed to stay was the night after. Are you kidding me? So we had no place to stay our first night. Until someone helped us find a place to stay since we did not speak the local language. Relieved, our leader followed the guy until they found a place with two open rooms. They asked for $1000 HKD (HK Dollars) which was absurd, but we paid. Slowly we made our way up into the hostel and the rooms were decent, but the smallest rooms I have ever seen. Okay, we can do this!

As soon as I thought that, another lady comes up to us and starts shouting. We have no idea what she is saying except a few words. We have a friend of ours trying to communicate with her. He said she only wants three people per room or we have to pay and extra $650 HKD. What the heck man, are you serious?! So, begrudgingly we had to leave five people behind while some of us stayed in the hostel. Shout-outs to those who were able to do that, you guys are awesome! I wanted to leave and let someone take my place, but our leader insisted I needed sleep. As we sadly said goodbye for the night, they picked up their stuff and left for the night. They slept in McDonald’s for the night.Once we woke up in the morning we got dressed and left instantly never to look back. Now our reservations in the other hostel were available. So we head back over to this hostel. We are in the middle of a typhoon, but there is not much rain, I thought to myself. That was about to change. Once we got to the hostel the very nice man at the front said our rooms were not ready yet, but we had them. Good enough. He even gave us a third room for free for the night. Finally a little bit of a break. So we head out for the day…but it started pouring rain. The wind was so fierce it was breaking trees in half. We all got

Once we woke up in the morning we got dressed and left instantly never to look back. Now our reservations in the other hostel were available. So we head back over to this hostel. We are in the middle of a typhoon, but there is not much rain, I thought to myself. That was about to change. Once we got to the hostel the very nice man at the front said our rooms were not ready yet, but we had them. Good enough. He even gave us a third room for free for the night. Finally a little bit of a break.So we head out for the day…but it started pouring rain. The wind was so fierce it was breaking trees in half. We all got

So we head out for the day…but it started pouring rain. The wind was so fierce it was breaking trees in half. We all got ponchos and headed to a nearby mall. We hung out at the mall most of that day just so we could do something, and stay out of the rain. Eventually we went back to the hostel and saw our rooms. The smell of mold, mildew, and must filled the entire hostel. It was an allergy nightmare. However, we had a place to stay and I was not going to be picky now. One room had a bunk bed crammed into the smallest room I have ever witnessed. Another had six beds shuffled around in different positions. The last room (my room) had two beds in a very small room. It also had hair and dust everywhere. Meh, at least I have a place to stay. I slowly drop my stuff and sigh in relief. We did it.

But my mind was on tomorrow and where would we stay in this cesspool of a city. Until one of our groupies mentioned a friend of his who was staying in HK. He asked them if we could stay the night, and she said yes. The next morning we take a little journey to the train station and ride it for about 40 minutes. This kind lady had a small van which we crammed all 11 of us in. Once we got to her house it was almost as if I got smacked in the head and the past two days never existed. Her house was gorgeous and very large. I never knew a place like this could exist in HK. It was a villa of extremely nice-looking houses. Her house had three or four floors I cannot remember. She was so generous to us, the past two days faded away. She made us a home-cooked meal of western food which made all of us super excited. She had five kids which gave us a lot of enjoyment to be around such a happy family. She even cooked up breakfast the next morning! With eggs, sausage, muffins, coffee, tea, and oranges. I wish we could stay there forever. However, we left the next morning for our flight, no delays, no heartaches. We got right on the plane and I never looked back. I was excited to be back in the X.

This weekend was a little tough but we all got through it. I really like the sense of adventure I got from this whole experience and I hope I can go back to HK one day on better terms. Our leaders were amazing the whole time figuring out the problems for us. I learned from this experience and I hope everyone else did as well. Even when we had bad experiences on this trip I never thought we would be left alone. Thank you all so much for supporting me and I hope I will have something amazing to share in a few weeks! Please pray for our group and for us being able to get back into the rhythm of life in the X. Thanks!