Post the Sixth - Days, Camera, ACTION! Part Two

So I left off with exploring Queen's Row last time, so I guess I'll pick up from there.

I bought my mom a handpainted teapot that I thought was cute; she has a tiny collection of decorated ones in the living room, so I figure I'll add to that. Afterwards, we went to the local mall/supermarket (the supermarket's name is Wellcome, so that'll really screw up my spelling of the actual English word from now on...) and picked up some snacks and the like. We then returned back to the dorms for a brief break before heading into Central for dinner. We ate at a chain restaurant... I don't remember what it's called, but it's pretty popular. I GOT VEGETABLES ON THE SIDE. IT WAS AMAZING.

You get to miss the things you don't have after awhile. Even vegetables.

Afterwards, we rode the trams around Central to Causeway Bay, which is a shopping area near Central. We roamed around for a bit and got bubble tea before breaking up for the night. All in all, a good day.

The next day started off pretty lazy. I joined two other girls from my hall, Yasmine and Celine (they're roommates down the hall and are both from UNCC), and we went down to Central again and took the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbour to Tsim Sha Tsui, an area on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. We grabbed lunch and roamed around for a bit before going to the Avenue of Stars, which is the Chinese equivalent of Hollywood Boulevard (I think that's what it's called? It's the place in CA where the stars have their handprints). Celine, who's Chinese, squee'd over names I've never even heard before, but we did find Jackie Chan's handprints and took pictures with that. We then went to the Hong Kong Museum of Art. It was actually pretty cool and very nationalist in nature.

When we got done, it was nighttime... and to see Hong Kong at night... absolutely mind blowingly beautiful. It's right up there with Chicago on the most beautiful places I've ever seen. We got to see the lightshow, which I have to say is the coolest thing I've seen yet. The lightshow happens every night around 7:30 or 8, and all I have to say is that pictures don't do it justice at all. We had a great view; there's a little area right next to the museum to get a good view of it, and we joined the crowd there. After the show ended, we got a few good shots of the skyline before deciding to buy pastries for dinner and heading back for a three woman party in my room since I don't have roommates (at this point, I'd be very surprised to see someone show up and join me... in my triple... :D).

Yesterday was just my lazy day before school. I fired off a couple of emails to my department, watched Mamma Mia! (not a fan of the singing...) and Die Another Day (one of the girls here is a huge James Bond fan and brought her collection with her, so I'm planning on seeing all the James Bond movies backwards... Pierce Brosnan is, while probably not the best James Bond, pretty damn hot), and prepped for school. We finally went out to KFC for dinner since it was pretty late; our initial plan was to cook fish, but we weren't able to get ahold of any since most markets are closed on Sundays. We came back and had another dinner party in my room, but this was definitely much bigger; a lot of girls on the floor stopped by and hung out for a bit before turning in for the night.

Today was the first day of classes for me. MWF are all my CS classes and TTh are all Physics... not too bad, I suppose; I start at 10:40/11:40 everyday and get done anywhere between 2 and 4 everyday minus Wednesday (I only have my assembly code class that day which ends at 11:35). So today was my CS day, and inevitably, the bus was ridiculously late and I got late. I arrived about five minutes late, but the professor was late as well; he arrived a good five minutes after I did. I got quite a few looks, so I just hung out in the back to avoid the stares. The total size was about 40ish, so about the size of 1.5 discussions. It was unnerving to be in such a small class size after being used to the lofty Siebel 1404 and the tall Loomis lecture hall.

My assembly code professor is a rather quiet but well informed man (he's a doctor, but he actually sounds like he deserves the title). The poor man tried to teach, but the students, who'd been talking before he'd arrived, kept talking. I mean, it was absolutely RIDICULOUS. It got to the point where he had to stop for them to shut up, but five minutes later, they went back to talking! I mean, yeah, we talk during lecture, but we at least are semi quiet about it, not to mention the fact that the lecture halls are at least big enough that we're somewhat discrete. Really now... manners much?

I had lunch with Anthony afterwards; we tried the Student Union, but it was ridiculously crowded and I found no vegetarian options, so we tried the Graduate Hall. We pause here for a mini lecture on the campus.

So I've said earlier that Hong Kong is very hilly, and HKU is a prime example. When you look at a map, the total square foot area it takes up is extremely small compared to UoI, which sprawls left right and center. But what the map fails to tell you is that HKU is a blob shaped tall layer cake of a campus. There are literally LEVELS for the buildings. For example, the library is on one level, and above it is the theatre where we had orientation and several other buildings. There are four levels; I've dubbed Level One as being "ground level" - the main road and the main building and Level Four being the highest.

The graduate dorm is on Level Four, but since the Student Union and the CS building are on Level 3, it wasn't that bad of a climb. But I probably won't eat there again... since it was extremely expensive; I was running out of time before my next class, so we just ate there. We got soup, a main course, coffee/tea and dessert for about HKD 65, which is about $8.31. Fairly good, but incredibly expensive. (If you're in Hong Kong, however, go to the fast food places. Meals cost about US$2-3. Damn good, if I say so myself, but then nothing beats the bakeries in my mind XD).

I then went to my software engineering class, and this class has the potential to be absolutely amazing. Of course, I made the big huge mistake of opening my mouth to answer a question the professor asked... and got three billion stares like I suddenly erupted into boils and cheese came flying out of my ears. Yeah...

My professor is a British guy who's taught the course multiple times already, but the reason this class could be disastrous is the following reason: we have a group project worth 30-35% of the grade. He's letting us pick our own groups, but if you choose to be randomly assigned, we can get 10% of our grade added to the original grade. Additionally, he described the students as "technically incredible, terrible in interpersonal skills". Ashley, the other exchange student that I know from PMSR that is a CS major, is in that class and is a little leery of not being taken seriously (I can't blame her; the vibe was admittedly not the best), but I think I've got the chance to shine.

Either that or be a total bitch. Hence the potential for disaster.

But honestly? The first lecture was amazing... and this class will tell me if I'm doing the right thing in pursuing software engineering. It's less about the technical and more about the decision making, which means there's no formula or, as the professor put it, no "silver bullet". I don't know how I feel about the lack of silver bullet, but I can say that I came out of that class really wishing it hadn't ended.

Oh, and the professor? He had the same problem as my assembly code professor, except he really... really shut them up with the whole group assignment thing and how he was planning on handling it. And the thing is... this class is mandatory for CS majors, so they can't leave. He told them they'd hate this class with a big shiteating "innocent" smile since there's no set formula, which HK students love (along with memorization).

It was AWESOME.

I met the other exchange student in that class; his name is Adam and he's from England. Ashley got lunch at a sandwich shop I didn't know existed and we talked for a bit before splitting up. I went to explore another eating area that is right next door and ran into Adam again; he decided to get something to eat, so I sat and chatted with him. We headed down to the street level to catch buses to our respective dorms, and thus my day ended.

So now I'm drowning out the Obama talk in the next room (I'm not in the mood to discuss it, and I think I just stuck my foot in my mouth trying to convince Ashley not to drop software engineering. Yikes) and just finishing this post. I'll upload pictures of Central eventually, but classes are starting up now, and I'm trying to figure out what I'll do for Chinese New Year since a lot of people are leaving to visit family. But for now, I'm content.

From Hong Kong, good morning.