I thought it would be a nice stroll along a paved path, just with monkeys everywhere. Apparently I did not receive the memo about a 4-hour hike up and down a mountain. With a lot of stairs. And narrow pathways which were essentially cliffsides. I wore jeans and a thin sweater. Subsequently, I was sweating my ass off by mid-afternoon. Though I must say the scenic vistas made up for it.

A monkey couple grooming (monkey photos courtesy of Diane's Facebook :D)

Our first monkey encounter was when we just got off the bus. The monkeys are not scared of humans at all, so it’s quite easy to get close to them. Near the beginning of the hiking trail, our path was blocked by two monkeys having a moment, one picking bugs off the other. I wanted to observe for a bit, so I watched them. They stared back and suddenly one hissed at me. I prepared to make a run for it, and it actually grabbed my pant leg. Thankfully it let go and I jogged ahead towards our group. This didn’t really help instill confidence that I wouldn’t die a monkey-related death, but I was more preoccupied with making sure I didn’t fall off the path edge (fear of heights anyone?).

Monkeys know to appreciate a nice car too

The area is also home to some reservoirs, and we hiked up to one of them. There were a lot of families enjoying picnics/BBQs up there, and some seriously amazing views.

Need to go back and picnic/BBQ

After monkeying, we took a minibus to Tsuen Wan for dinner, some snacks, and headed home. On Sunday I decided it was finally time to get cracking on homework and the sorts. Janice rounded up some girls and we got McDonald’s delivery. You can find a detailed review of our epic meal on her HK food blog (do not view if you are hungry). I got a quarter pounder and it tasted pretty much the same as back home.

Last Wednesday I made the decision to move to Starr Hall, another student residence at HKU. Back in November when Housing notified me that I was assigned to Patrick Manson, I knew right away it would be shitty. So I wrote an email to the person in charge, asking if I could be put into a Hall, but they replied saying everything was full. One thing to know about HKU Halls is that it is a competitive process. Many first-years live in halls, but if you want to continue living in one, you are required to join at least 2-3 clubs/sports teams and participate in all Hall activities (exchange students are exempt but are encouraged to participate). Therefore, Hall space is extremely coveted, and it is quite the commitment to live in one.

About two weeks ago, I received an email telling me that a vacancy had opened up at Starr. It wasn’t that I hated it at PM – in fact, I had made friends there and was comfortably settled in. Also, there was a lot more freedom. In the Halls, you are required to sign any visitors in, and they are not allowed to stay past 11pm. I liked the ‘chill’ atmosphere of PM. The entire building was exchange students so there’s never any feelings of isolation, and everyone’s goal was to have as much fun as possible.

However, my 6-course load (+3 tutorials) made it a pain in the ass to bus to school everyday. Also, the CONSTRUCTION. Every freaking morning around 9am (even Sundays!!!), you can hear construction workers jackhammering away. They were literally right outside my window, and I knew it would last the entire term. Although they were just doing their job, it drove me crazy. Also at PM, things like eating out and grocery shopping were not convenient. You’d think that local businesses would try to capitalize on an area with at least 4 large student residences, but you actually have to walk quite a while to find food, and groceries are simply impossible without taking a bus. So these inconveniences coupled with my curiosity about Hall life prompted me to take the offer and move to Starr, a 5-minute walk from campus, situated right beside a cafeteria, and 10 minutes from groceries.

It was a sad night when I moved, but so far I’ve been enjoying it here. I don’t have a roommate yet, but she will be officially moving in on Tuesday. Since it is a newer Hall, the rooms and facilities are all much nicer and cleaner. You’re probably falling asleep by now, so to compensate for having this long, boring post, LOOKIT!! PHOTOS!! (Sorry for the graininess; my camera sucks.)

My side of the double room. You can clearly see my artistic nature reflected in my unmade bed.

Night view from my window. I'm on the 15th floor. There are 24 floors in total.

Daytime view - you can see the water with a lot of boats, and even parts of Kowloon on clearer days.

More window views. Every morning I wake up inspired :)

And then to commemorate the move-in, we had 3am dim sum (once again, Janice has my laziness covered – thanks), because why the hell not? I must note that I almost cried tears of joy when I had the fried milk. The T&T one back home doesn’t even hold a candle.

I had heard a lot about LKF. The types of people that frequent it, the crazy stories, and the rumours. What I was not prepared for were the pools of people, mostly in their 20s or 30s, and a lot of businessmen, just swarming the streets. If you go to the clubbing district in Toronto, there are random spatters of club-goers lined up outside a few venues, but LKF was almost like a party on the streets.

Some basic LKF club scene facts I have amassed:

• For the most part, covers range from 100-500 depending on the venue, and it’s usually open bar.
• Thursdays are Ladies’ Night. Ladies get free cover in many clubs, and free open bar. Mens’ covers start at around 200+. This makes it very convenient for girls who want to go club-hopping.
• Many people just wander the streets, swigging alcohol.
• If you befriend the bouncers or DJs, you can get free cover and alcohol anytime.
• It’s very easy to get into clubs if you have no guys in your group. Also helps if you are a group of hot girls.
• The clubs have pretty good music, playing both Asian and western genres. ‘Nobody‘ comes on a lot. It’s fun, and everyone goes crazy singing/dancing to it.
• The clubs are open until very late. Back home, people start emptying out around 2:30 am. We left at 4:30 am and the place was still packed.

Some basic club-goer facts I have amassed:

• Most people are expatriates. LKF is the only place where you will find more foreigners than locals.
• Although smoking is technically not allowed indoors, everyone does it anyways.
• If there is a lack of space on the dance floor, people will just use their body to push you until you realize you aren’t even on the dance floor anymore.
• The guys in the clubs are very direct. They will dance with you and try to feel you up, make out with you, or both. Sometimes they will ask before they attempt to do so. Sometimes not. They will also try to isolate you from your friends, if you were dancing in a group. These are usually the locals; the foreigner guys usually just stick with the group they came from.
• A lot of girls are very willing to make out and/or go home with these guys.
• There are many creepy older guys who probably make a lot of money but club frequently looking for one-night-stands and hence are creepers.
• Bartenders are cute.

So those were my initial impressions. It was overall very fun, and we acquired some interesting stories to tell, so I think I’ll be making my way back there in the near future. Sorry, I forgot to snap some photos for this post. I am so behind in blogging. I swear I will try to be more diligent.

(Note: This post is very graphics-intensive. Also please ignore the dates on the photos in this post. I didn’t bother setting up the camera properly.)

My residence is in this area. If my building was taller I'd be able to see the water

The view from my room. Ya. A hospital.

Ok that might be a slight exaggeration. I came in with low expectations and it met my low expectations. The facilities are all old and gross. Compared to UWP, it is, in politically correct terms, a shithole. In fact, living here has made me appreciate UWP so much more. I have cut my shower time down to 10 minutes because that’s when the hot water runs out. I have also accepted the fact that I will be greeted with a stream of freezing cold water for washing my face/hands because there is no hot water in the sink taps.

View from a bridge beside my residence

As for the people, there are a surprisingly large number of Canadians here, though there are definitely more from America. I live in an all-girls exchange students residence and almost half my floor is from California.

A nice tropical touch

I spent the entire second day (ie. my birthday) running around HKU, taking care of administrative errands. My residence is about a 10-15 minute bus ride to the main campus. I set off on my own, which was obviously a great idea because I wasn’t aware you had to yell out to the driver when you wanted to get off. Thankfully I had a very nice driver who took me back along his route to where I needed to be. I expected blank stares or annoyed conversation, but the passengers were also very patient and willing to help.

Le bibliothèque

The campus itself is the most confusing 160,000-square-meter plot of land ever. You can walk around with a map and still get hopelessly lost because the area is so hilly, the buildings are old and inconsistent, there are tons of stairs/escalators scattered around, and “ground floor” means nothing. On the other hand, the campus is simply beautiful. It’s filled with vegetation (many palm trees for some reason) and there are amazing views from nearly everywhere. Also, the 30% student discount at Starbucks doesn’t hurt.

An awesome-looking building. I think it might be the grad house..?

Registration and everything took me the entire day, and then I went for dinner and a bit of wandering in Mong Kok with a couple of new friends. It was my first time on the MTR. I was as impressed by the cleanliness of the stations as much as the efficiency of the system. TTC can suck it.

Langham Place in all its long-arse-escalator-ed glory

The next morning, I headed to the official orientation for exchange students. After that I went exploring on the campus and around HK with some other students. We wandered Central, the viewing deck of IFC, and watched the light show in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Central/Pokfulam area from the viewing floor (55F) of IFC

The streets of HK

Hong Kong Island from Kowloon

The rest of the weeks has been kind of a blur of shopping trips and touristy activities. Some highlights are Victoria Peak and a tour of Kowloon/New Territories attraction points.

Only in HK can you eat Burger King/McDonald's with a view like this

HK Island (foreground) and Tsim Sha Tsui/Kowloon (background) view from the Peak

Part of Chi Lin Nunnery & Garden

Life in HK and at HKU in general is a bit different than back home. HK has a 5.5-day work week. People are at work on Saturday mornings (there are even some classes too but thankfully I don’t have any) and dress casually. People like to be out. At midnight, on the streets, there are always masses of young people milling about. Their homes are too small for them to have privacy (much less their own rooms) so there’s not much to do other than going out. People don’t sleep either. At 2am, the dorms are as rambunctious as ever.

Profs are nice enough, but they may be too nice. Apparently it is perfectly acceptable to chat with your neighbours during lectures. I’ve even seen people answer their phones in the middle of class. If you actually want to hear what the prof has to say, it’d be in your best interest to take a front-row seat.

I’m a little apprehensive about the classes here. The students seem to be very bright and the environment very competitive. In any case, I will try to update this blog more frequently with shorter posts.

I gave people some pretty random explanations, like how I was bored last term, because I wanted cultural exposure, experience a new school, or “cuz it sounds fun”. Those are not untrue, but probably not the real reasons.

Around springtime, I might have been going through some kind of mid-mid-life crisis with mixed thoughts about what I’ve done and achieved so far in my twenty-ish years. I found the answer to be ‘not freaking much’ and labeled my life as rather unremarkable. Also it seems that this entire year has been a test of my breaking point, with its many joys and disappointments, successes and failures, which shook me up a little.

I’ve always been content with a ‘make do with what life hands you’ kind of adage. Then I realized I wasn’t satisfied. There was so much out there that I needed to experience, so it felt suffocating to stay in the same town, with the same people, living the same life. I felt like those around me were sprinting past, making their own routes through the landscapes, while I was just plodding along the beaten path. Being younger than most of my friends only added to my innate fear of being left behind, which I suppose finally got the better of me. I couldn’t sit around passively hoping for anything to pop up – I’d have to reach out to opportunities myself.

Excusing the sheer cheesiness, I guess the bottom line for why I wanted to go on exchange is some soul-searching. I want to discover, meet new people, do random things, make mistakes, learn from them, become a more worldly person. It’s partially a challenge to myself, to be thrown into a brand new fast-paced environment without any crutches, and keep my head above water. Five months is not nearly long enough, but I’m hoping for the dizziness of the experience to set me straight. I can barely take the monotony anymore, and I want a complete 180, but still be able to find my way back. Although this is my home and I’m surrounded by family and friends here, it somehow still feels empty, so I just need to leave for a little while.

And wouldn’t you agree that it’s the picture books you read as a child that leave the most lasting impressions?