2 more weeks left, oh its bittersweet.

So of course, now that the month is over I feel much better and like I could actually stay for longer, but at this point, I miss my family and friends entirely to much to bare it! Life in Hong Kong has truly been one of the most eye opening experiences of my life. I have learned so much more about myself that I could have asked for and more about the dynamics of the Chinese and specifically Hong Kong Chinese culture than I ever knew existed. Working in politics here has made me realize that no matter where you are in the world, politics is SO complicated, haha. Now that I have done multiple research comparisons for various district councilors, I feel like I finally am starting to truly understand the logistics on how the government operates and how the people deal with the major issues. One of the major issues that I have been working on now has multiple facets which allows my research to expand upon the spatial inequalities and extreme expenses related to housing. My most recent projects were about the reverse mortgage system that they still have not adopted in HK. They wanted me to write a comparison using the US and Singapore as the models so that they can make an official lobby to the government to enforce the option of reverse mortgages for the growly elderly population. The high living costs have taken a toll on the whole population making it difficult for people to maintain their standard of living if they are not already wealthy. Starting today I am working on a comparison to show the differences in property laws, who can own property, buy and sell property, depending in citizenship, income rates, and also who is eligible for public or government subsidized housing in HK, US, UK and Singapore. I am finally doing more projects of course near the end of my internship that are related more to what I study in my major. (oh well) I have learned so much from the people I work with and its been an amazing experience learning how the political world works and how dedicated the people are to their jobs and to helping the people succeed in the future. Another really amazing experience I had last week was I had the opportunity to witness the final meeting in the old legislative council building, which was the last time that the Chief Executive (the president) of HK would be addressing the legislative council and they were able to present questions about the newest proposed policy reforms before the election campaign starts. I got to see a crazy protest outside the LEGCO building where the people's power party, the quite radical democratic group were throwing paper airplanes at the CE as he walked into the building and then because I am a technically a legco members assistant I have full access to the building (kind of like I have a pass to the white house or the capital building, pretty awesome) and we got to watch the final meeting and listen to pleas from the legco members. One of the most famous members of legco is from the radical party the peoples power, his nickname is long hair because his hair is longer than mine, and he is quite famous for his political controversy and has gained great support from the public. I got to witness when the Chief Executive walked into the official meeting one of Long Hair's famous outbursts! He literally started yelled in Cantonese, "you are a stupid bastard, you are full of shit and you should resign right now" while throwing dog bones and fake dog poos with messages of the people's power's party on them. He was carried out of the meeting by five security guards, totally insane, and once again making history during my internship!! His fellow members were escorted out because they started throwing paper airplanes in the middle of his speech and yelling, "listen to the people's demands, or resign!" Other than the people's power movement the people are quite civilized and well tempered but it was truly unbelievable to watch at times. The memories I have will really be with me the rest of my life, haha. I am looking forward to the last 2 weeks of work and my last weekend in one of the greatest cities in the world. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to do something this amazing!