Ngoh haih Chan Laahp Hon
So I know I never update this Tumblr (and wtfreak does that last post even say hahah). However, due to some last minute schedule changes, I now have ended up with no classes on Thursdays and Fridays. Score!… except everyone else still does. So, as I’m sitting here in my dorm with my roommate sleeping at 2AM in the middle of typhoon stricken Hong Kong, I thought it’d be nice to document my adventures so far in an obligatory, once every half a year Tumblr update.
Pardon my crappy English as it really has deteriorated from my time here :]
Where to start… it’s honestly been such a rollercoaster ride being abroad that I’m getting all my memories jumbled up. I can’t believe its already been more than a month since I first arrived. I think time here can be split into three distinct experiences:
The Family
I really don’t know how it happened, but I became a part of a close knit group of people almost right after I arrived in Hong Kong. As you probably could have guessed, they are mostly Asian (from Canada and Australia too, yay for multiculturalism!) but there are a couple of white people too hahah. These people have been my family away from home; we travel together, study together, and party together. Oddly enough, we even developed a name for ourselves: Thumbs Up for HK! (ask me how we came up with that, its a pretty interesting story…) We have been accused of being a clique, but you know what? High school was cliquey, APO is pretty cliquey (oopsies!!!), and I’ve come to accept that cliques are what I thrive in. I already know it will be hard leaving these people when the semester ends, but luckily, there are already reunion plans in the works!
Hong Kong/Travel
Hong Kong is one of those places in which you can see where old traditions mingle with modern society. Travel to the Central area and you’re surrounded by skyscrapers in the Financial Centre of Asia. One hour away in Tai Po Market, locals gather to eat on the street-side restaurants and chat, like a scene straight out of some 80s era Chinese movie. It’s really amazing to see the variety in culture that has developed here, and I’m excited to be able to experience and explore more for the next 3 months.
If I can manage my time…
I knew from the get-go that I would be doing a lot of traveling while I was abroad. I never expected that I would be traveling THIS MUCH.
To summarize, here’s a list of what has been planned/occurred (kinda for my own references too since I’ll forget these dates later on):
9/16-9/19: Tokyo
9/23-9/25: Macau
9/30-10/2: REST/Shenzhen/Guangzhou
10/4-10/9: TAIPEI
10/15-10/16: Teaching Rural Kids in Zengcheng
10/20-10/23: Vietnam
November: Thailand
Somewhere in between?: Shanghai, Beijing
It’s been a blast being able to travel to these places. I hadn’t been to Japan for 5 years, so it was nice being able to revisit places from my past and experience Japanese nightlife for the first time. And Splash w/ Benny Benassi in Macau was epic; I don’t think I’ll ever have the chance to experience something like that again.
However, while I am excited to be able to travel, I know that I’ll regret it if I don’t take this chance to get to know Hong Kong better. I’ll definitely be utilizing my four day weekend for some major MTR adventures.
CUHK
So I purposely saved CUHK for last because I have conflicted feeling about it right now. While the people I’ve met here have been awesome and I don’t regret coming abroad one bit, the school itself does leave a lot to be desired.
First off the bat, the campus is HUGE. I’m talking the size of UCSD if not bigger, and located on a mountain. Without cleverly maneuvering the shortcuts, it could literally take an hour+ to walk from top to bottom. Luckily, there’s free shuttle buses, but even these are severely cramped for space and the scheduling is wack. The distance between all the colleges means planning to meet up takes forever and since the buses stop running at 11, late night “outings” are always a hassle. I’ve never appreciated USC’s small, flat campus till now.
Second, conservative nature of the dorms. All of the dorms have an opposite gender visitation policy, which means no girls on my floor after 11:30… what are we in, elementary school?? Even just chilling in the lobby requires non-residents to check in. It’s like their trying to babysit us and shelter us from the real world, which is ironic since I’ve heard many of the locals are pretty promiscuous and know how to get around the rules.
Third, the classes themselves. I don’t know if it’s just with the English taught classes here, but I have yet to learn a single thing from my business classes. My hardest class here is Cantonese, which really shouldn’t be the case (although Canto is freaking hard!) For a highly ranked institution such as CUHK, I expected more. I’m compelled to believe that the local classes must be better, and that English classes are just toned down since a lot of exchange students are on a pass/fail system. Also, the class registration system is a nightmare and makes USC Webreg look like a work of art. There is a online registration system, but it only is active AFTER classes have been in session for a week. Anytime before that is done manually through paper. Not something I would have expected in 2011.
I know I just bagged a lot on CUHK but its not all bad. The scenery is amazing sometimes, especially at night. It’s also pretty convenient to have a MTR station right at our school. The Canteen food is cheap and certainly beats most of the stuff offered at USC. Everyone is pretty friendly here and the local students seem to have a lot of school spirit. I think I’ve just been spoiled from my experience at USC :]
Well its 3 now and I should be getting to sleep. Have to get over the cough I developed from Macau. Hope some of you will find joy in reading this hahah.
-Hank Tha Tank
