Everyday Life - Food, traveling, and campus activities

A pavilion on campus

To this point I haven't really talked about my everyday life, just traveling. But, perhaps the most important part of my journey is my everyday life here on campus with my classmates. Classes so far have been fairly easy, but that's because we're still in that 'beginning of the school year' mode, and we've really only had classes for two weeks, less if you consider that there was already a day off for a public holiday (Mid-Autumn Festival) last week. In addition to classes, I've joined some clubs: choir, a social service organization, Lion's Club activities, and a traditional Chinese lion dance club. I realize that some people haven't heard of a lion dance, so here's a link: http://www.google.com.hk/search?q=lion+dance&hl=zh-TW&biw=1680&bih=858&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=EiR4Ts_APKKsiAfV-4zLDA&ved=0CEUQsAQ

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.

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?

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!

Misadventures in Shopping -

First I must say thank you to everyone - I was quite surprised and excited to see nearly 80 views within the first week that I started this blog. Having said that, I'm sorry for waiting so long to make a new post. If you are still interested in reading my blog but don't like having to waste time randomly check in, waiting impatiently for a post, you can type in your e-mail address in a box to your right and you will automatically receive updates on the blog.

Today marks four weeks since I've been in Hong Kong, and things are going remarkably well - at this point I had thought that I'd have massive culture shock and homesickness, and people would find me huddling, curled up in a ball in a darkened corner of my room by now, but surprisingly no. Getting into a routine with classes and activities, making time to study Mandarin and Cantonese every day, and being surrounded by great classmates has really made for a cozy, friendly atmosphere. Also, I listen to some music as I wind down for the evening: I've been spinning Achtung Baby by U2 lately, and it's great 'medicine' to keep any stress or homesickness away.

That being said, I've had a few minor misadventures along the way, the first being shopping for some new threads. A lot of things here, such as transportation and food, are cheaper here than in the U.S. With that in mind, I thought, 'Well then, I shouldn't have any problem finding some stylish new threads!' Blinded by excitement and naivety, I went to the TMT Shopping Plaza, a mall in the center of Tuen Mun, the 'town' where I live.

'Tuen Mun Town Shopping Plaza:' very pleasant and innocuous-sounding. I'm envisioning a decent food court, the usual preppy American clothing stores, and some mom and pop shops selling delicious street foods and Chinese herbal medicine. They call it a town, but think to yourself - what exactly qualifies as a 'town' in Hong Kong, a small region comprised of over 17 million people? Yeah, I didn't think about that. And so I wandered in like a rat wanders into a maze...

So, it turns out that this 'Shopping Plaza' is the largest shopping center in north-western Hong Kong, and on an usual day you'll rub shoulders with, oh, 300,000 customers or so. You could probably walk from one end of 'town' to another, all while still being in this massive shopping complex. And this shopping complex is made up of several different buildings and covers four floors, so that with all the excitement of the shops, crowds, sights, and sounds, you can walk into another shopping 'center' and hardly realize it until you come out of your shopping euphoria wondering where in the wide world you have wandered off to. The shopping mall itself is very upscale and has every brand name shop you can think of, while some plazas have smaller, mom-and-pop type vendors that sell bargain electronics, clothing, and Angry Birds merchandise, which may or may not be real (Angry Birds is extremely popular here - I hear them whizzing through the air on people's phones every time I ride the subway).

 'Am I still in the TMT Shopping Plaza? Hey!! That's the 7-11 I passed near the entran...wait, no, that's a different  7-11. Am I still on the 1st floor? AM I STILL IN TUEN MUN??'

I've been there a few times, determined to keep my bearings, but I have only managed to come out the way I came in ONCE. It's like the shopping mall equivalent of the Greek Labyrinth.

Here's the center's website...look at that shop directory!! http://www.tmtp.com.hk/index_en.asp

Anyway, once I went in I went looking for clothes. There's plenty of end of summer sales, but I was confused about the signs. Sure, there's '30% off!' But there's also 折. For example, 9折 means that there's a 10% discount, so it's essentially selling for 90% of original price - this threw me off for a few minutes when I read this and thought the store was having a 90% off sale (now wouldn't that be lovely?) 


Anyway, clothing here is expensive, maybe $30-40 US for a nice blouse on average. Also, the style is very Asian, in which I mean that things are either cutesy, or things that I might wear are too small, or say strange things in English on the front. A few times I thought I had a lucky break and saw what seemed like unassuming, striped shirts on the hanger. I take a look, and there's a print on the front that says, 'Smile Happy Little Cat' or "U GUT? I GUT." I finally found one shirt for about $14 US at H&M, my new shopping oasis when I need clothing, where the prices and sizes are great.


Well, I hope to write some more this weekend, so let's end the post here.

Ching Chung Koon Temple and Symphony of Lights at Victoria Harbour

So we finally got a rest from the orientation craziness of the past few days yesterday, which means it was high time for some sightseeing! After meeting up with another exchange student from Sweden (who could speak Cantonese - great!), we took a light rail train a few stops to Ching Chung Koon Temple. The entrance doesn't really look like much - a small gate surrounded by high bushes - but you know there's something special about it when it's surrounded by skyscrapers and high rises.

First thing we notice is how quiet it is - this will make a nice place to get away and relax! So it is a Taoist temple,  which means there are some special buildings. There's a main hall where you bow and present an offering of incense - my friend said that it's a way to pay respect at the temple. There's also rooms and rooms full of small placards, about the size of bookmarks, with the photos and names of the deceased. People come here to present incense and offerings of food (oranges seem to be popular) to them. From classes I've taken at W&J, it also is customary to burn special paper money that the deceased can use in the afterlife (not REAL paper money - it's a special kind made exclusively for this purpose).

Favorite place

There's also room after room of special altars with gorgeous decorations, and a heavy scent of incense wafting through the air. Our favorite place was the rock garden featuring a waterfall and pagoda. The bonsai trees were also impressive - these aren't the small dinky ones they sell at the mall! They're about as thick as me around, haha. I read that this is a relatively new temple as well, dating only to around 1949.

Holy cow, this is ridiculous - in a good way!

After a few hours nap, it was nice to go to the big city - yes, Kowloon and Hong Kong Island! We went in the evening, partly because it's a lot cooler, and mostly because we went to see the Symphony of Lights, the Guinness Book of World Record's official largest permanent light show! The lights are installed at the top and side of buildings on either side of Central HK, and it was amazing to think how long it must have taken to synchronize the lights with the music. We stood with people from around the world taking in the grandness of it all, the lights reflecting on the water as the ferries went back and forth in the Harbour.

Hong Kong money - and Shopping!

This is my first full day on campus, after sleeping off the jet lag and sore muscles from carrying my luggage yesterday. I met some other exchange students from the US, South Korea and Russia, and we went shopping at the Fu Tai Shopping Center, just a 10-minute walk from campus.

It was so awkward trying to shop because I had to constantly convert HK dollars into US - luckily I brought the pocket calculator that my mom bought me (thanks mom!)

Here are my 'treasures' from today's shopping:

There are plenty of American brands, and Japanese stores carrying household items, cosmetics, and candies are everywhere! Here are the receipts:

"Wow, all of that cost $85?" Well, remember that it's HK dollars. $1 US = $7.8 HK, so it all was really a little over $10 US. Lunch on campus is usually under $5 US - I'll show you later.

The shopping center was very modern, and the line at the supermarket reminded me of home, but not a fond memory (Walmart lines, *shudder*). There's also a bustling market next to the shopping center with Chinese medicines, live fish, and lots of nifty things, but that's for another day. Right now I'd just like to get settled in.

Orientation is on Monday, so I'll have more to talk about then. Bye for now!

Arrived in Hong Kong!

Hello everyone! So, I just arrived yesterday in Hong Kong to study for a semester at Lingnan Univerity. Lingnan is located in western Hong Kong, in a region called the New Territories. As you can see from the map, Hong Kong is not just a city but a Special Administrative Region of China. Lingnan is located in Tuen Men city.

After a 15-hour flight from Toronto, I arrived at the airport and realized that my two pieces of luggage, while under the weight limit, were extremely huge and difficult to move. I met some other exchange students there, then some Lingnan students came to pick us up, then whisked us away on a bus.

There were two things that were very notable on the way there: how beautiful the mountains are, and how many enormously high apartment high rises there are. I tried to look up at one when I was next to it and became a little dizzy...

I've never stayed in a dorm before, so I suppose I found my room a little small. But the Lingnan campus is a LOT bigger than W&J, and very beautiful, too (will post pics!). Lots of trees and shaded walkways, which is fantastic, because the humidity here takes your breath away.

I woke up at 6am today and went for a morning walk to explore the campus. I've met some more exchange students, from Mainland China and elsewhere, along the way. My Chinese professor will be happy to know that I've already been practicing my Mandarin Chinese with some students here, and I'm excited to learn Cantonese!

A view from the dorm...notice the construction into the beautiful hillside. :(