Hong Kong at last . . . .
I left for Hong Kong on Jan. 1st from Billings, MT and arrived here on the 2nd late at night. It's so confusing since it's 13 hours later here than my mom's Mountain Standard time. I definitely have to plan my phone calls wisely. The Chinese University of Hong Kong has a very beautiful, and very CONFUSING campus. There are about 17,000 undergraduates and I found out that their business school is rated #1 in Hong Kong. The notoriety means. . . its very difficult to get into the classes! I'm not sure what most of my classes will be like, the only one I'm currently registered for is international business.
The first night I arrived a group of CUHK students met with a group of international students at the airport and transported us to the University. We even have our own little train stop that connects to so many places in Hong Kong. CUHK is located on Tolo Harbor in the New Territories. I was dropped off the first night at my dorm on United Campus, one of several campuses. All of the campuses are located on different elevation levels on the side of a huge mountain. It's very beautiful, and VERY STEEP getting from place to place but the buses help.
The second day I was here, I went out with a large group of students to Mong Kok to get a cell phone. Walking around with that many people is NOT a good idea.. . .but we had fun anyway. A smaller group of us split off from the large group and we went to Kowloon, near the famous Peninsula hotel and Convention Center. We wandered around exploring, enjoying the view of HK Island, and then took a ferry for $2 HK to the Island. HK money is 7 to $1 US so that is a matter of cents! Once on HK island, we settled down for some yummy Vietnamese food before heading back to campus. It was a great start to an amazing semester. . . I can already tell.
I live with two local students even though I previously thought I was going to live in the International house. So far I met only one of my roommates, Cindy. She is not exactly local but is she is from Macau which is very close. My room is very small, but I really like my campus becuase it is so close to a gym, canteen (food!), library, and my business class.
A few days after arriving, a bunch of CUHK students went to Lan Kwai Fong, which is basically an area with many clubs and bars where many foreigners seem to congregate. The clubbing is fun BEFORE classes start because after a week or two of classes the responsibilities will be piling on.
Last Friday the International Asian Studies Program brought us to a meal to sample some traditional Cantonese food. About eight students sat around the table and ate a ten course meal which included many different kinds of meats, all with the heads of the animals on the serving dishes. I thought it was great, but it was definitely not a meal for the faint of heart. The sauces made the seafood especially taste soooo good! The squid wasn't breaded like I'm used to and it just melted in your mouth!
On Saturday morning we went to a temple, up to Victoria Peak, and to Kowloon again with the IAS office. The view from Victoria Peak in the center of Hong Kong Island was breathtaking, and many extremely wealthy people live on top of the peak.
I'll be sure to get more pictures up on the next blog! Hopefully I'll be in some classes by then. . . . .