First Few Days in HK

Firstly, I'm going to apologize for the lengthliness of this post - I've only been here for 3 days & there's already so much to say! I arrived at Lingnan University in Tuen Mun, Hong Kong Thursday night around 10 PM. Feeling very ancy, I unpacked everything right away & was not able to sleep the entire night!! It is very difficult to get used to a 13 hour time difference, but I think I'm slowly adapting to it now. They told us at orientation that most of the local students go to bed at 3 or 4 AM & then get up at 1 or 2 in the afternoon - I really hope my roommate is not like this, especially because I have class at 9 or 9:30 every day! The campus is gorgeous - very tranquil & serene, however, there are stray cats everywhere & they make me a little nervous! I was feeling quite homesick the first two days, but I'm starting to get better now. I think it will subside even more when my roommate arrives as well because it's lonely in my room by myself.

*My hostel room :)

Everyone is extremely nice - all of the locals and exchange students (most are from Mainland China)! The locals are always willing to help and are very interested in learning about the Western culture as some of them will be studying abroad in the US next semester. I've been quite busy these past 3 days with orientation and sightseeing. There is a market like 5 minutes away from campus called Fu Tai where one can buy pretty much anything - from grocceries to soap. I don't like it there very much as everyone stares and everything is in Cantonese, so it's difficult to get past the language barrier. Yesterday, I went to "The Peak", which shows the entire city of Hong Kong from up high - it's a gorgeous view & you can really see how packed the housing is here, which explains why the streets are always SO crowded & people tend to push & shove - annoying! Today, I went to Tuen Mun town center, which is the biggest mall I've ever seen in my life. There were only a few stores that I liked though. Since everyone knows I love fashion, I'll of course have to comment on the dress here. I feel as if their style here is kind of kidish & fru-fru (if that makes any sense). Everything has words, a face, or rips plastered on the front. Also, many ladies wear rompers & harem pants - definitely not my style! Yesterday, we passed by central Hong Kong in a bus, which has all the name brand stores - Louis, Gucci, Coach, Juicy... - they even had a Ferragamo & Prada in the train station!! I'm looking forward to actually going there because I hear central Hong Kong is very Westernized & most people speak English there & I'm sure the style there is quite different.

*View of Hong Kong from "The Peak"

Tonight, I went to the Ladies Market with Anna (an exchange student from West Virginia), her roommate, and her roommate's boyfriend & friends. Her roommmate speaks English, but the others had some trouble, but were very nice & tried quite hard to speak to us in English! The Ladies Market wasn't quite what I expected - there were lots of fake purses & Ed Hardy stuff, so I didn't end up buying anything. We also went down Golden Fish Street & every single store had hundreds of bags of little gold fish in them, like those bags at the carnivals. I should have taken a picture of how many there were!

*Ladies Market

I'm definitely not adapting to the food very well - I always get a stomachache after eating! We had dim sum the first day here, which is when everyone at the table shares a ton of small appetizers. I tried mostly everything that didn't have meat in it, but had a hard time eating because I'm not very good with chopsticks! You have to ask for a fork if you want one, but I was too embarrassed because everyone else was trying hard to use the chopsticks & I didn't want to give up! Today, I tried a fish ball & tea with milk and tapioca balls. They were both pretty disgusting - the tea would have been good without the tapioca balls, ikkkk! A lot of the food places have ducks, chicken, and meat hanging from the window & it's really disgusting, I'll definitely have to get used to that. It's also quite hot here & everyone is having a hard time getting used to it. It wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't so much humidity - thank goodness there's air in my room or I'd probably be a coming on back to the US, haha! The heat should start to cool down in the next few weeks though, thank goodness!

*Entrance to Lingnan University

I've pretty much learned my way around by using the bus and metro system. The metro stations are HUGE, so it would be rather difficult to figure the way if I had to transfer lines, which I havn't had to do yet. The metro is soooo long & spotless - in fact, everything is spotless here & they are very concerned with saving water & paper.

*On the metro

Tomorrow is the last day of the study abroad office's orientation & I also have to have an interview with my Mandarin teacher & meet with the US consulate. Then, Tuesday to Thursday starts Lingnan's orientation, so I will be mixed in with exchange students and local first year students. Classes start on September 1st, which I'm looking forward to actually! All in all, I've really enjoyed the sightseeing I've done so far & love the people (beisdes at Fu Tai), but the food, language, and getting used to being away from home will take some getting used to!

For all of you that don't have Facebook, you can look at the rest of my pictures I've taken so far using this link: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31533159&l=f773e1de7e&id=1490346167