At the time of writing this, im approximately 40,000 feet in the air, on the way back to Hong Kong after a quick weekend in Manila to pick up my 2nd luggage from my family’s house. Despite being horribly sick, it was really nice seeing them. I’m not quite sure where I’d be without my family. I saw my dad again, one last time before he heads back to Boston. Terminal 3 in NAIA is quite nice, fast check-in and even a smoking lounge! Oh how I wish Boston had one of those… on this plane there are a considerable amount of little kids, people find them annoying, but I know where the little kids are coming from. I used to be one of them, excited and all to fly. To see a city from the air, all lit up. It’s quite a sight to see.
Friday marked the end of the 2nd academic week, out of 14. Time is flying by way too fast. I booked my flight to Taipei yesterday, but it feels like I’ll be flying out almost every weekend. Places that I’m probably going to visit: Taiwan, Japan, Beijing, Cebu, Palawan, Vietnam, and Manila. overall it is going to be pretty pricey to fly out and get a quick taste of all of these cities/countries. But that’s one of the main reasons of me studying in Hong Kong. I mean for less than 200 USD you can fly out to a bunch of close cities. Last summer I paid about 150 USD to fly out to San Antonio, Texas for 5 days. Hopefully this upcoming summer/fall/winter I can do the same and fly out.
One thing that I’ve noticed about the students here, they love to talk when the teacher is talking. It’s probably the most surprising thing about the student body. Its remarkable how wrong stereotypes can be; the stereotype here being that Asians are quiet and just bury themselves into books. And yet that is completely off. Yes, they do study hard, but don’t seem to be too respectful of the teachers. One caveat: if the teacher happens to be white, they’re quiet as hell. Another thing worth mentioning is that the student organizations here are a huge part of their student life. in comparison to what I know, from UMass, UMass students/orgs don’t have shit on these guys/gals. Every weekday these past two weeks, you can hear the chants (read: war-cries) of multiple groups going all at once from a pretty good distance. So far my assessment would almost classify these groups as the asian equivalent to American Greek life. you pay a yearly due, and participate in the events they offer. However, don’t expect to be partying three nights a week. These kids seem to still hold to the non-party stereotypes.
As I mentioned earlier, I was pretty sick this week. It didn’t get too bad until Wednesday night. I decided to go to Sushi-One, where every day after 2200 all sushi dishes are 50% off with a 100 HKD minimum. So in other words, you can get about 30 USD worth of sushi for about 15. But to be honest, you’re probably getting about 50 USD’s worth of fish. Getting back on topic, I was pretty sick, and quite possibly two inches from death or something. I was running a fever, my body ached all over. But definitely worth it; we didn’t get back onto campus until about 2am. The next day I went to the clinic, got one of those sweet face masks. I waited about an hour to see a doctor, she asked me a few questions, then prescribed me about six different medicines… all free via the school (sweet healthcare system here).
I was getting better, but then I stopped taking the meds… (mostly because I wanted to go out Thursday night before my flight). But hey, first thing that I’m going to do when I get back to my room is start my antibiotics lol.
Speaking of going out, Lan Kwai Fong (LKF) [I probably spelt that wrong…] is off the hook. Located near the train Central, and located on Hong Kong island itself, its where everyone goes to blow off steam. Multiple bars and clubs are open on the front letting a free flow of people in and out. My personal favorite, and almost every other university student’s, is a place unofficially named Club 7. Club 7 is special, cheap drinks, access to cigs and food; hundreds of locations around Hong Kong. You may have guessed it already, but Club 7 is 7-11. Drinks can be as cheap as 10 HKD, compared to the average of 70 HKD for a beer at a club or bar. It’s the starting place of every night out for us students.
One thing that I need to do more of is take pictures, whether they’re ipod pictures or pictures with my D40. Getting off of campus is just a struggle, we’re about 20 min bus ride to the closest MTR station.
Also, got my China entry Visa, it’s pretty sweet, looks so much better than the Hong Kong Student visa. I get two entries into mainland china, but it cost 1,100 HKD (~150 USD). I need to make them worth it, planning on Shenzhen and Beijing.
Anyways, that’s all I can think of that’s happened these past two weeks. Hopefully I can update soon again.
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