First week of class went by pretty fast, and there hasn't been much time to update, so I'll try to recap. I have no class on Monday's so I took the time to explore more the campus, and figure out some logistics. I managed to get a student octopus card, a must have for any exchange students in Hong Kong. With the student octopus card, you get half off for all public transportation. The university will tell you that you can't get one unless you are a full year exchange student, but don't listen to them. Its definitely possible, and definitely worth it, since public transportation is the only way around Hong Kong. Later that day, I went into Po Lam to look at a couple of instrument stores to look for a cheap guitar. Pretty much every city has a huge super malls with tons of stores, both western and local, where you can easily find yourself passing hours wandering around. Some of the locals I met using the public transportation are really nice and helpful, but most are shy towards westerners and don't like to have to speak english. Here's a few more pictures of the campus.
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| A bass with built in amp |
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| Apparently this means something about the protest |
On Tuesday, there was some student protest going on on campus and apparently all throughout Hong Kong, against the teachings of Mainland China values in Hong Kong school curriculum. Many local students participated in this protest, and didn't attend class. I attended my first class at 9am, Hong Kong Society. The professor seemed pretty good, was white and had an english accent so I could understand him. He started out with a quiz about Hong Kong's society, which I didn't know anything about. Apparently one of the leading causes of death in Hong Kong is suicide, for people over 65. The next class I attended was Chinese I, and I knew everything we learned that day because I practiced my Mandarin before coming. I then attended my Modern Dictatorship course, but I soon dropped this course. I couldn't understand half the stuff the professor was saying, but I did understand 15 page research paper and finding english translations of chinese texts that we were required to read.
Later that night, a group of exchange students went to Wan Chai to party. We headed to this one club, and it was crazy. I never saw anything like it. We were completely shoulder to shoulder, and there were people dancing on the bar so you had to order drinks through peoples legs.
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| Club Fair in Atrium |
On Wednesday I lost my camera...but I ended up getting it back in the library lost in found. What a relief! People around here seem less inclined to steal than in the US. Today was also the start of the club fair, a week long event where different student run societies advertise their clubs and get members to join. Many of them offered discounts to exchange students. I ended up signing up for 3 different clubs: The Band Society, which forms rock or jazz ensembles amongst its members, the Chinese Folk Art Society, where I can get to learn how to make some traditional chinese food and try mooncakes, and the yo-hoo club, which goes hiking and camping around hong kong. There were a lot more interesting clubs, such as archery, taekwondo, and dragon boating, but I didn't want to go crazy. I also had my two engineering lectures this day, which seemed challenging, but do-able...lol. I'll update further on my classes in later weeks if they get interesting.
Thursday after class, my friend Alan and I went to Mong Kok and Temple Street Market. This was a really busy outdoor market, almost like a flea market, where you can barter with the vendors to buy their cheap knock-off versions of name brand electronics and clothes. I was able to practice my haggling skills here, managed to get 3 nice polo's for 100HK, (12USD). Luckily, I had Alan with me who can speak Mandarin, to make sure I didn't get ripped off. We also had some local food in the market which was very authentic. Frog-congee, some sort of fried-fish, and scallops. The food was actually delicious.
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| seems legit... |
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| your english is good..lol |
Friday, I continued my hunt for a cheap guitar. That night I
went to Causeway Bay, and there was the biggest mall building I've ever been in, called Times Square. I ended up spending a lot of time in the music store there just playing, since I haven't been able to play in a while. For any musicians traveling to HK from the US, the two main stores are Tom Lee Music and Parson's music, equivalent to SamAsh and Guitar Center. I ended up buying a cheap guitar from Parson's music, a Japanese brand Toyama. After exiting the building and walking on the street I saw a couple of local indie bands play. They were pretty good, and sang in cantonese. I also ran into a Dave Grohl look a like, I wish I had taken his picture , but I didn't want to be rude. I almost thought he was Dave Grohl, but when I talked to him he had an accent and said he was from Italy. It was nice to finally have a guitar to practice on here. Tomorrow I'm going to Macau with the rest of the exchange students, one of the largest gambling and party centers in the world. (even though it is sunday i'm writing this as if it was Friday, 9/14).
First week of class went by pretty fast, and there hasn't been much time to update, so I'll try to recap. I have no class on Monday's so I took the time to explore more the campus, and figure out some logistics. I managed to get a student octopus card, a must have for any exchange students in Hong Kong. With the student octopus card, you get half off for all public transportation. The university will tell you that you can't get one unless you are a full year exchange student, but don't listen to them. Its definitely possible, and definitely worth it, since public transportation is the only way around Hong Kong. Later that day, I went into Po Lam to look at a couple of instrument stores to look for a cheap guitar. Pretty much every city has a huge super malls with tons of stores, both western and local, where you can easily find yourself passing hours wandering around. Some of the locals I met using the public transportation are really nice and helpful, but most are shy towards westerners and don't like to have to speak english. Here's a few more pictures of the campus.
On Tuesday, there was some student protest going on on campus and apparently all throughout Hong Kong, against the teachings of Mainland China values in Hong Kong school curriculum. Many local students participated in this protest, and didn't attend class. I attended my first class at 9am, Hong Kong Society. The professor seemed pretty good, was white and had an english accent so I could understand him. He started out with a quiz about Hong Kong's society, which I didn't know anything about. Apparently one of the leading causes of death in Hong Kong is suicide, for people over 65. The next class I attended was Chinese I, and I knew everything we learned that day because I practiced my Mandarin before coming. I then attended my Modern Dictatorship course, but I soon dropped this course. I couldn't understand half the stuff the professor was saying, but I did understand 15 page research paper and finding english translations of chinese texts that we were required to read.
Later that night, a group of exchange students went to Wan Chai to party. We headed to this one club, and it was crazy. I never saw anything like it. We were completely shoulder to shoulder, and there were people dancing on the bar so you had to order drinks through peoples legs.
Thursday after class, my friend Alan and I went to Mong Kok and Temple Street Market. This was a really busy outdoor market, almost like a flea market, where you can barter with the vendors to buy their cheap knock-off versions of name brand electronics and clothes. I was able to practice my haggling skills here, managed to get 3 nice polo's for 100HK, (12USD). Luckily, I had Alan with me who can speak Mandarin, to make sure I didn't get ripped off. We also had some local food in the market which was very authentic. Frog-congee, some sort of fried-fish, and scallops. The food was actually delicious.
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