Where to Start?

Well folks, I'm here and Hong Kong is everything I hoped it to be. It was actually a week ago today that I arrived. Since then life has been incredibly nonstop, so apologies for not creating this blog sooner. In fact, I wasn't even able to set up internet in my room until today (I swear, you have to jump through hoops just to do the simplest of things here) and I wanted access to pictures before I posted.

So lets start with picture #1 shall we? The image on the top left is the view from my dorm window. I took it at about 6:30am in the morning of my first full day here. Speaking of which, jet lag for me has been virtually nonexistant. The time here is exactly 12 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, yet I'm so exhausted by the time I have to go to bed I haven't really thought about it.

The flight from Chicago to Hong Kong was 15 hours. It was long, boring, and cramped. The part that intrigued me most was breakfast:


Yep, I'm pretty sure it was Ramen noodles.

As soon as I got off the plane, I was in awe of Hong Kong's clean white airport, which I've learned is the 2nd most recognized and renowned airport in the world (Changi Airport is the first). From there, I took an Airport Express and a taxi to get to my dorm. At this point, it was about 7pm in Hong Kong.

I greeted the person at the front desk, who didn't speak a word of English. By way of hand signals, I signed a piece of paper and hauled my luggage upstairs. Walking down my hall for the first time, I was confused by all of the shoes I tripped over, which I can only assume is a cultural thing.

I took this picture the first night I came, although by now the number of shoes that scatter my hall have just about doubled as more students have moved in. I suppose the one redeeming factor about this difference in custom is that it's easy to point out where an exchange student lives due to the lack of shoes in front of their door.

This is my dorm room:
It's not much to look at, but it does the job. I was under the impression before I came that there would be stores readily available my first night to buy sheets at (which I'm sure there probably were)-- but I swear, I didn't meet a soul that night who spoke english-- I was so tired I ended up passing out on my bed with no sheets and my duffel for a pillow.

Luckily, Katy (the other MU exchange student who arrived the same night as me) was just as flustered and sought me out at my dorm the next morning. Together, we figured out exactly what we needed to do at HKU.

Since then, I'm proud to say that I've accomplished quite a bit in my Hong Kong explorations. I've met loads of other exchange students from around the world, all of whom are just as eager to explore Hong Kong.

This is Mong Kok, where I went my second night in Hong Kong. More specifically, we went to the Night Market, a collection of stores and street vendors open from about 9pm to 2am that sell just about anything and everything. Most things are cheap and people are encouraged to bargain (I got a new cell phone here for about $300hk, or $38 US). This picture was taken on a week night-- I heard people are shoulder-to-shoulder on weekends.

My third and fourth nights in Hong Kong were spent in Lan Kwai Fong, which can only be described as a young person's paradise. It's just streets and streets of bars and clubs and what looks like billions of people in the streets, all drinking and looking fancy. If you're a girl, it gets even better. Most Wednesdays and Thursdays, ladies not only get in most anywhere for free but drinks are free too. Talk about incentive! I'd like to see a system like that work in America :)

On Saturday, I signed up for a tour to explore the New Territories, but for the sake of your attention span I'm going to have to save that and the rest of my past week for my next post. I promise I'll have this thing up to date soon...

Until then,

Leah