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| A pavilion on campus |
Basically, people wear the lion costumes while other members bang cymbals, gongs, and drums. Last practice I really enjoyed playing the drum and memorizing the routine, though I've forgotten 60% of it since last time (fantastic, since we have practice again tonight). I've always wanted to play the drums, probably since I have enjoyed watching my father play his drum set since I was little, but I've never had enough coordination to play the different beats with my hands and feet; luckily, there's only one drum to play in the lion dance.
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| What a lion dance-dancer may look like |
I really enjoy the clubs, so I'm a bit upset that I've arranged my flight to leave before Christmas; I did this mostly because of the issue of cost, and partly because I anticipated being homesick by Christmas. But a lot of club performances, like the choir, are happening AFTER Christmas or around New Year's, so as of today I'll be missing performing at the IFC Center in Central Hong Kong, and other fun things. I looked at the prices of arranging a one-way flight back to the U.S. after Christmas, and it's even more than what I paid for my round-trip ticket...over $1500! I try not to focus on this and just enjoy the moments, especially hearing the choir members sing karaoke after practice. We're practicing Christmas songs in practices, then the students like to sing Cantonese and Mandarin songs. I'm asked if I want to sing any English songs, but most of our American karaoke standards aren't very well known ("Don't Stop Believing," anyone?). What American karaoke songs do you think I should teach them?
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| What my wallet would look like if I booked that $1500 flight |
As I've read in other student blogs, students here stay up into the wee hours of the morning, though a majority of them are quiet. Since I've been a little sick recently I've stayed up some nights, and I've noticed most lights from the rooms in our dorm don't go out until 2 or 3am. Since this is my first time in a dorm, I really don't know if this is normal compared with the U.S. or not...usually I don't stay up so late unless I'm putting the finishing touches on a paper that's due the next day (I can't do without 8 hours or I'm a bear in the morning). I think of my college back home as extremely study-oriented, so I was surprised that the library here is only open until 10pm. However, the library is fantastic: there's three floors, a technology center, a magazine and newspaper reading room, a room for watching television with private headsets, a huge DVD library, and lots of language-learning resources (you know which part I like the most!). Also, I haven't even had to purchase any textbooks because they've available for loan at the library - I love the feeling of being thrifty.
Aside from the library, however, there aren't really a lot of places to hang out on campus. Back home the library's open until early in the morning, there's a common room in the dorm, one below the cafeteria, a student activity building with beanbag chairs. Unless I'm missing something, the only place I can think of to go after the library closes is the common room in the dorm, or your own room, so students usually hang out in their own rooms.
Most of the time I would hang out in my room, but I've been having a bit of a salamander issue. There's been a greyish-orange salamander creeping along the walls of my room for the past two weeks, and it's managed to become so comfy that it's hatched eggs. I'm not a very violent person, so I've tried to catch them in a jar and release them outside, but they're just too fast! However, desperate times call for desperate measures, so before they crawl into a tiny spot I can't reach, I literally throw the book at them, or just about anything else I can find that won't damage the walls. Once I tried spraying them with Off! mosquito repellent, but, of course, they're not mosquitoes, so that didn't quite work. I've been so sick of having a third 'roommate' that I've become fearless, coming into my room and actually going hunting for the slimy thing.
Last night I finally had success; I caught a baby one off-guard and quickly squashed it with my shoe. I was ecstatic to have finally eliminated one, and I finally had proof for my roommate that they actually exist in our room (whether it was a good move to show her or not, I don't know)! You see, they never show when my roommate is around, only when she's gone home (maybe they think I'm lonely?), probably because the noise scares them away. I'd like to tell the dorm staff about the salamander, but I (1) don't know how to say salamander in Cantonese (2) don't know if they could do much; after all, I haven't even been able to catch it for two weeks!
The food (in my opinion anyway) is delicious, and there's a lot of healthy choices, though the menu tends to circulate between the same items a few times a week. Then again, there's over thirty choices, plus different sandwiches, soups, and salads, so I wonder if I really should be complaining...the average price of a meal with a drink is $30 HK, which is roughly a little over $3 US. Rice is served with everything, unless it's a noodle dish. I also like the variety of drinks that are available - there's the usual Mountain Dew and Coca-Cola products, but there's also great flavoured soybean milk drinks, fruit juice drinks with jelly, and fruit milk drinks, my favorite being coconut milk. A drink from a vending machine is around $5 HK (less than $1 US!).
Traveling is very convenient and inexpensive - there's a small shopping center less than ten minutes away by foot, and if you want to go someplace different, just walk to the MTR (10~ minutes away) or take a bus at the stop in front of the university. With a student Octopus (rechargeable pre-paid) card, it's usually about .50 - $1.50 US to go anywhere on any kind of transportation. The systems are also very clean and efficient, and it really makes me wish that I could have a system like this to go to Pittsburgh or South Hills back home. Traveling, even as a single female, is also very safe - in fact, I believe that Hong Kong was ranked as one of the top places in the world for single women travelers. I also remember in Japan that my host mother would go out late at night to see friends and not return until midnight in a city of 2 million people, all on her own; I wish I could take this cultural aspect back home, too.
Well, I think I've given you all more than an earful, so I'll wrap this up. Take care!
