In Retrospect - So school starts again

Monday was the first day of class. I only had 2 classes – one at 8:30am and another at 4:30pm. I barely woke up for my 8:30am. Since I didn't really know where my class was, I left my room early in case I got lost. However, since I am semi-familiar with the campus, it took less time than I thought to find the room. The class was about Chinese society. It was interesting learning about the history of China, but I still fell asleep since it was way too early. The 4:30pm class is Linguistic. Since I never took any Linguistic class before, I was semi-lost with what the professor was talking about, so I actually might drop the class. For dinner, my friends and I went to Shatin mall since we needed to get out money from the ATM. We ate at a place call Shakey Pizza, which is a retail chain restaurant in America. According to my friends, Shakey Pizza in America is like other normal take-out pizza place. However, the one in HK was a sit-down restaurant that was really nice. The menu was also different – there were a lot more variety and some even tailored toward Chinese people. The Szechuan chicken pizza was definitely something I could not eat in America. After dinner, I finally got money from my Bank of America account in HK, I'm so happy that my Hello Kitty debit card didn't go to waste. We went to eat dessert at the same place, but since this was a different group of friends, they were really excited. At night, since some of us were running out of clothes, we had a laundry party. Basically, it was a fail since we didn't know how to work the laundry machines. But it was really fun to laugh at all our stupid mistakes.

Tuesday, I had more classes to go. Like usual, I fell asleep in my morning class – discussion for Linguistic. The second class was Medical Sociology, which was really interesting since it talked about the issue of health in the world and how it connects to one's social and physical environment. Then, I had my 2 Mandarin classes. Since I can't speak Mandarin that well, I was nervous to speak in class. However, my friends said that my pronunciation was not bad, it just had a little bit of Cantonese accent. I really like the 2 Mandarin classes because the teachers were really good and I could finally learn a language that I have been wanting to learn for so long. After class, we went to Tai Po to eat since we needed to buy some more necessities. Sadly, I couldn't find a hair straightener so I have to go buy it tomorrow at Shatin. At night, my friends and I were wondering around the dorm to check out each other rooms and roommates. At CUHK, a lot of people have their own group of friends and there are always groups of people hanging out in the lounge. So as a joke, we decided to create our own group – local foreigners. All of us speak Chinese and most of us have family in Hong Kong or were born in China. Also, since we are Chinese, we look like local students but actually are foreigners.

In Retrospect - Being with my family

Sunday, I hung out with my cousins and aunt. My cousin took me to get my China ID. Sadly, I couldn't fill out the form since I couldn't write Chinese that well. But, my picture for the ID turned out pretty well, probably because I put on make-up and straightened my hair before. (On a side note, my hair straightener broke =[ I think it overheated so the ceramic plate cracked.) For some reason, my pictures on my American IDs all look really ugly but my pictures on my Chinese IDs look decent. After we finished, we went shopping in the Shatin mall since I was running out of clothes to wear. I guess once week of clothes was not enough, especially in this cold weather. I ended up spending a lot of money since I had so many daily necessities that I had to buy. My cousin also bought me some snacks, one of which was chocolate cover potato chips. Although it sounds a bit weird, it tasted really good! At night, we went over to my aunt's place to hot pot. It was nice having dinner with family, especially since I really missed eating with my family at home. I got to meet my cousin's baby son, who is really adorable! Too bad he didn't really want to play with me since he never met me before. But I still had fun just looking at how cute he is. Sorry, not many pictures since I didn't want to be like a foreigner in front of my relatives and I was tired. Before I left, my aunt and cousins gave me a lot of stuff to bring to the dorm so my desk became even more messy. But the comforter came in handy since it was really cold that night.

My super messy desk after a full day of shopping

EOS lip balm. I couldn't find it in America but found it in HK. It smells really good!

Royce's choclate cover potato chips. So good! Too bad it's really expensive.

In Retrospect - Touring Hong Kong

Saturday, CUHK organized a one day tour of HK. The tour guide was super funny, although his jokes were lame, they were funny at the same time. First stop was Victoria Peak, which I have visited when I was young but I don't remember. The ride up to the mountain was a bit scary – since the roads are so narrow, the bus almost got into accidents a few times. However, the view up to the peak was gorgeous and the view at the peak was even better. I don't think I have ever seen a view like it before, with all the high rises and harbor. Next stop was Stanley Market. There weren't anything special about the place – the market is like the market in Mong Kok. The only cool thing about it was that they sold the Chinese name stamp that a lot of people have. I wanted to get one but I didn't carry enough cash on me =[ The last stop was the Star Avenue, which is Chinese version of the Star Avenue in Hollywood. I was here for New Year's countdown last time I was in HK, so there weren't anything new for me. However, my friends and I decided to stay for the light show by the harbor. Since we had nothing to do, we decided to stay warm by going to a nearby bar. I ordered a Kamikaze and it was pretty good. I'm so glad that I can order my own drinks and not get carded =] By 8, the light show by the harbor started and it was ok; it was not as good as I thought it would be. Afterward, we got really hungry so we walked around Tsim Tsa Tsui looking for a restaurant. Since none of us knew where the restaurants were located, we walked around for quite a long time. However, we eventually found a good Chinese restaurant to eat. Like usual, the food was delicious! When we came back to campus, it was already past 11:30pm so there were no more shuttle buses, which meant we had to walk all the way back to the dorm. The MTR station is at the bottom of the mountain but I live all the way at the top corner, which meant I had to hike back to my room. It took us 45 minutes to walk back since we had to walk other people back first. Although it was fun walking with friends, I got really tired since I don't ever work out.

View of HK from The Peak

Yup, we are Bond's girls

Stanley Market

Sunset near Stanley Market

Night view of HK from Victoria Harbor

Jackie Chan's handprint.

Statue Bruce Lee

Our drink. My blue Kamikaze right in the middle =]

The cool group who got drinks.

Night view of CUHK

In Retrospect - Exploring Hong Kong

I've been so busy this whole week that I didn't have time to update. So I'm going to write some in retrospect posts about the past 2 weeks.

Thursday, I spent the morning choosing my classes. It's so hard to get into any classes since exchange students are the last group to pick their class, and by the time we have a chance to, a lot of the classes are full. I ended up with some of the most random classes: Linguistic – Language and Culture, Chinese Society, Medical Sociology, East Asian Foreign Relation, and 2 Mandarin classes. I might drop one of these classes since I only need 5 to meet the minimum requirement.

At night, some exchange student organization organized an outdoor hot pot dinner for all the new CUHK exchange students, so some of my friends and I decided to go and meet some new people. It was definitely a fun experience since I never hot potted outdoor in the cold. After we finished eating, we got really cold so we went into 7-11 to stay warm. It was funny how a bunch of foreign exchange students just huddled up in this small 7-11; the cashier probably thought we were going to steal something. Since everyone else was still not done yet, my friends and I decided to go to Shatin to eat Chinese dessert. In Hong Kong, the desserts are so much better and so much cheaper! We all shared 3 dishes – red bean and grass jelly, durian with vanilla soup (my friends who never tried durian wanted to try it out), and mango with green tea ice cream. All three were so good!

One of the hot pot, so much food!

Chinese Dessert, yum!

Friday, I spent most of the days running errands such as getting my student octopus card and opening my student bank account. At night, there was a welcoming dinner for the new exchange students. The restaurant we went to looked really nice and fancy; it even floats on the river! Dinner was really good – the 10 course meal was enough to feed 15 people. Sadly, I didn't take a lot of pictures of the food.

Floating Restaurant

While walking back to the dorm after dinner, I met someone who is in APO at San Diego State University. It was a total surprise – I never thought that I would even meet APO people in Hong Kong. I guess APO people are everywhere! Wished I brought my other letters (I only brought my American Apparel letters) so both of us could rep APO in HK. At night, I went to my first club in HK. It was organized by the same people who did the hot pot the night before. The experience was ok for my first time clubbing in HK. The place was super small and there were 100+ people, so people started dancing on the couch. It was open bar so all the drinks were watered down and they ran out really quickly. The cool thing was that I was able to see how bartenders acted – one of the bartenders started pouring shots directly into people's mouth and dancing on the bar table – and order drinks.

First clubbing experience in HK

Arrival and Orientation

I'm finally in Hong Kong!! Super excited to start this journey and see what I will learn from it. The flight to Hong Kong was not bad at all; it actually went by pretty quickly. I had a bit of conversation with the lady who sat next to me on the flight. She went to Berkeley way back when there were riots everyday, was an Art major, and works in the entertainment industry in LA. The most interesting thing is that she is going to Thailand to teach English to monks. I wish I could do that when I get older, but probably teach English to children in China.

When I arrived in Hong Kong, my aunt and cousins came to pick me up, which was super nice since I haven't seen them in a long time. We then went out to dinner, which was delicious! Sorry there is no pictures of any of the food I ate since I didn't have my camera with me =[ After dinner, they took me to my dorm and we had the hardest time trying to figure out which building it is since it was dark and everything seemed closed. The dorm room is a lot bigger than I thought considering how small most HK's apartments are. Sadly, my roommate is not here since she is a local (I assume), so it's going to be a bit awkward when she comes and see some strange girl in her room. The one thing I'm not use to about HK dorm is that there is no toilet paper, hand towels, or seat covers in the bathroom; you have to bring those yourself (except the seat cover since you can't buy that). It's so awkward carrying around toilet paper! Also, there is a code to the girl bathroom, which is weird since at Berkeley, the bathrooms and floors are co-ed.

My desk, it's still super messy but a lot bigger than the one in Berkeley!

My bed and desk. The closet is on the other side of the bed but I couldn't fit it into the picture.

My octopus card that my aunt gave me. It's the keychain version and she made the beads to cover it.

Super cute!

I love the CUHK campus because it's on a hill so it has a gorgeous view and you feel like you are hiking in the forest. At the same time, since it is on a hill, it feels like a hike wherever I go so I got tired really quickly. I think I'm gonna be taking the bus everywhere since I hate walking to class and sweating. The campus is also super confusing since everything is so spread out. I was trying to go check-in before orientation but I had no clue where I was, so I kept asking people around campus how to go to the building. My dorm is also confusing - I spent 10 minutes and had to ask 2 people where the main entrance is since it's somewhat hidden.

Orientation was ok, but the most fun part was meeting new people. Most of the people I met are from the America but from different parts. When I was a freshman, I had the hardest time meeting new people and trying to fit in since I got so use to being around the same group of friends in high school. I felt that no matter how much I tried, I couldn't fit in to any groups. But today, it was a lot easier for me since I had to do this all the time in college. Although I'm still a little awkward, it's a lot better than freshman year. College made me a lot more outgoing and less shy. We went out to Mong Kok at night to have a real Hong Kong style dinner so we went to some random restaurant that seems local. Another girl and I could speak Cantonese so we ordered with our limited Chinese reading. The food was so good!! It was definitely a lot better than anything I ate in SF. We also ordered a big bottle of beer to split since we could all legally drink. They didn't even card us! Sorry no pictures again since I stupidly left my camera in the dorm =[ We then went to the night market to walk around. The night market has literally everything - from lingerie to fake purses to super cute pillows. I had the urge to buy stuff but I didn't buy anything since I didn't feel like bargaining until I see how my cousin does it. Sadly, by 11, most of us started to get tired because of jet lag and a full day of walking around.

Since I had such a good first day on Hong Kong, I'm super excited to see how the rest of the semester will be like.

Leaving for Hong Kong

My brother's and his wife's book about Hong Kong and my airplane ticket

Can't believe I'm leaving SF in about 12 hours; that's less than a day!!! I'm super excited to finally go study abroad and do all the things I have been wishing for. But before that happens, I have to first finish some errands and pack, which is what I have been doing the whole day. Packing didn't take as long as I thought, probably since my mom was there to help me. I only packed one suitcase and one carry-on, which is a lot less than my mom thought. I think I'm so excited that I won't be able to sleep tonight, which might be good thing since I can sleep a lot more on my 14 hours flight to Hong Kong. Bye US and hello Hong Kong!

Goals

To make my study abroad as productive as possible, I'm going to set some goals for myself.

1. Put myself out there so I could meet all kinds of people.
2. Hang out with my relatives so I could know them better.
3. Go travel, even if I'm gonna come back home broke.
4. Try all the delicious food in HK, even if my wallet will become empty.
5. Although I'm suppose to be having fun, remember to study as well since I need to raise my GPA.
6. Stay connected with my friends and family back at home.