Sunday, 10 July 2016

Group 2

Alicia Au

Sharon Lau

Ingrid Luk

Doris Wong

Natalie Yeung

Today was a much awaited day – our visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium! Although the two hour bus ride was rather long, all of us were extremely excited as we had heard a lot

of great things about the aquarium, especially the stunning jellyfish exhibit. Our group's journey started off at the Open Sea section

of the aquarium. It was huge and magnificent and we finally got to see

what everybody had been talking about, the jellyfish. We saw

many different kinds of jellyfish, from small to big and from

colourful to glow in the dark, they were truly beautiful and we

had to agree with the comments that everyone had been giving us.

Then, we continued on our journey to see millions and millions of

shining anchovies swimming in circles for which our group mate Sharon

questioned 'why wouldn't they be tired?' And the question was left

unanswered. Afterwards, our group went to see the art works

contributed by artists to raise awareness on sea pollutions. One of the

art works that stood out the most was done by Chris Jordan. Chris

Jordan used plastic waste that was found near the shore and pieced

them together to form an art work of the sea waves, symbolizing that

the plastic wastes in the sea nowadays are numerous and it is a

serious problem for our generation. Another part of the aquarium that

was memorable to us was the ‘Viva Baja! Life on the Edge’. All of us were shocked when we heard that

the aquarium even shows exhibition of scorpions, tropical spiders and

lizards. We would never think that an aquarium can host so much.

Later, we went to the 'Splash Zone' of the aquarium where we got to

see the penguins. They were all very active and cute. One of our group mates even noticed that all penguins were named. One was tagged as Geytser, and another named after the famous footballer, Messi. She also witnessed him

scratching his own butt with his beak! In the Kelp Forest, we had the unique experience of touching the weirdly hairy but soft starfish, not commonly found in Hong Kong. Last but not least, we went to see the three famous sea otters, Abby, Gidget and Rosa. Those sea otters were not shy at all. They even interacted with us through the windows. Some swam near us in circles while some sunbathed near the water surface, which we found it oddly

amusing.

Free time was given to us to roam through the streets near the

Monterey Bay Aquarium. Highly recommended by our teachers, we

went to the frozen yoghurt store, ‘Pinkberry’, where we indulged in the decadent peach flavoured frozen yoghurt topped with strawberries,

buttercups and mochis.  It was such a fantastic treat for us on such a lovely, sunny day.

Strolling down Canary Row street, we also visited different gift stores and also

stopped by another ice cream shop, ‘Droplets’ Drip’ that sold little balls of ice cream.

For some of us, it was our first time trying it and we thought it

was a very strange yet interesting experience. All in all, the five of us had an incredible day that we will never forget it for the rest of our lives.