Post the Twelfth - My Skyscraper Paradise

It's almost over. I can't believe it's almost over.

Countdowns:

8 - Judgment Day (Gen. Phys II final)
9 - End of HK Days
(20 - Arrive in California)
(26 - Begin Google Days)

The other finals had an exponential decay rate of how well they went. CS wasn't too bad, Stats was pretty bad, and Quantum was just an utter disaster. Think Hiroshima and that'd be about as accurately as I could describe that one. The Stats final really made me angry on account that if I didn't have memorize everything, I'd have done really well. Grrr.

I saw the skyline at night again from Tsim Sha Tsui, and even though it was the second time I'd seen it, it still took my breath away. I can't imagine never seeing this place again, and to think that in about a week that I'll be gone...

My roommates are both gone; the medical student, Olivia, left a long time ago as her exams finished much earlier than the regular uni's exam dates. Vicky went home on vacation, so she'll be back to take her last exam on 19 May. I think of everyone here, she might be the one I miss most. She's promised that one day, she'll come to the US and she'll find me... and that when she gets a fiance, I get to make sure he's up to scratch, haha. For all she's older than me, I felt like an older sister around her (she called me "Mom" though ><). A lot of girls on the floor are already off travelling, while some are staying around to travel through China and the like after exams. Me, I'm okay with not travelling right now; the visa cost was not worth it... and I could use a break between adventures.

I'm not ready. Academically, I'm way past the point of being done, but in terms of everything else, not so much. I've met some great people that I probably will never see again, and it's disappointing. I've had a lot of fun, from taking tours to trekking around Macau to fun shopping trips and more.

I have to say that this experience has been amazing though, despite the HKU disasters. I'm not ready for it to be over, even though I cannot wait to start at Google. The city is magnificent, the lifestyle is fast paced, and the independence is intoxicating. I'm free. Free to be who I want to be, to do the things I like, to live as I choose. Sure, I miss my parents, but living on my own has been fantastic, and it's hard to give it up.

But for now, I'll enjoy the last few days I have here in this beautiful city (even though they'll be dedicated to stupid E&M ]<). So, for one of the last times, from Hong Kong, I wish you a good morning... and for those of you on vacation, boo on you.

Post the Eleventh - FML

I should be studying for Quantum, but I'm too scared and too distracted.

So here's how my life this week will go:

Today (Monday, Mar 16): No class - University Founding Day
Tues: Quantum Exam 1 of 2
Wed: Stats Exam 1 of 1
Thurs: HAHAHA

• 11:40 - 1:30: Quantum lecture
• 2 - 3: Gen. Phys II Exam 1 of 1
• 3 - 6: Quantum Lab

Not cool. I don't know how I'm going to pass... it's scaring the daylights out of me.

Outside of that, there's not really much new. I did quite a bit of gift/souvenir shopping a little while ago, but other than that, things are pretty routine here.

English Oral class is pretty okay; the boys are very shy still, but next week is the last formal class time. I'm going to miss them, even though I'll have seen them maybe four times. They're bright kids, but somehow... I feel really bad for them. They're made to be perfect on paper. Well rounded. Brilliant.

But what kind of life is that? I can't say it's a bad life, but it's certainly not for me.

Well, back to work for me. Gods save me.

Post the Tenth - First Down

I've been in Hong Kong for over a month now. It didn't strike me until now. Probably because a distraction from Physics was inevitable. But it's weird to think that it's almost the end of February. It feels like January just ended... like orientation was just two weeks ago.

A question I've gotten a lot from both people back home and here is... why Hong Kong? Why HKU? A lot of it was a suggestion from my dad, a good portion of it was the experience of being in a country that would have been nothing like the places I've been to, some of it was the chance to get away from life, and whatever percentage was left... I think it was fate. I lost a geography bee in seventh grade because the British did not leave Guatemala in the 1990's (I was guessing at this point, and what pisses me off to this day is that we'd just studied that. But that's another story in another life). Hong Kong disappeared from life until the summer of 2007. I was in India at the time, and this movie was coming out that had some of the most beautiful Hindi music i've heard... and a very beautiful skyline in the picture. When I got ahold of the CD, I flipped it open to find a form for a contest to go see Hong Kong, where the movie was shot. I didn't pay much attention to it; who wins these things anyway?

Whenever I see the skyline now, I can hear that music playing. It's haunting and beautiful, much like the city itself when it's foggy (which is more often than not).

Why HKU? At the time I was planning all this, my initial plan was to go to City University, but this place was internationally ranked and the website was all in English, which spoke volumes
to me. I was also looking to study abroad with a friend, but that fell through unfortunately.

A lot of what I've done to this point was not what I planned on doing... what I'd dreamed of doing as a kid. Am I okay with that? A good portion of it, yeah. This experience is one of them.

I have the first week of March off for what's called Reading Week. Following the week is midterms; my first exam is the first Quantum exam the Tuesday we get back, then CS that Friday. GPII is the following Thursday I believe, and Stats is yet to be announced. I'll have another Quantum exam right before classes end.

My Thursdays have turned into a living hell; I've got class from 11:40 to 6 pm with a half hour break from 1:30 to 2 since we now have labs. Each class has two labs, so I should survive... hopefully...

I'm starting to do an English Teaching Programme on Mondays too (my spelling will be forever altered by this place); I'm paired with another girl to help encourage local students to speak English. I'm also participating in a psych study this Friday, so I'm keeping fairly busy. It's a pretty good life (minus physics, but physics is always a killjoy).

So from Hong Kong, good morning.

Post the Ninth - Routine

Wow, it's been a while, hasn't it? I still have loads of pictures to post, so I'll get to those, I promise!

Chinese New Year was pretty good; I got a miserable cold for most of it, but it was really nice to just relax and do things at my own pace. Most people went on vacation; a lot of the girls here went to Thailand, but I just hung out with whoever was here. It was really nice to sleep in and just go out at night. I watched Scrubs and Chuck, which was fun. I also got the chance to really know a couple of girls.

A couple of the things we saw was the Chinese New Year Parade; it was a bit of a let down, but the floats and things were quite nice (I think it was because we were on the other side of the parade and the floats didn't come down our way). But the thing that I will never forget were the fireworks. We saw them from the Avenue of Stars, and even though it was super crowded (there was all sorts of crowd control; the area was divided off at different points and no one could get through), it was AMAZING. Totally blows July 4th out of the water. I have never seen a display so beautiful. The crowd all 'ooh'ed and 'aah'ed together, like we were little kids, but it was fantastic. Words cannot even begin to describe.

We also ate out rather frequently. The most memorable restaurant was a place called "Modern Toilet". That's right... the theme was the bathroom. There was a wall of light up urinals, and the ceiling lights were in the shapes of piles of dung or plungers. The seats were toilets. I kid you not. They had themed lids too (mine was an American flag, haha). The drinks were served in urinals and the food was either in a toilet or a bath tub. DESSERT WAS EPICALLY BIT. They served a mound of chocolate shaved ice covered in tiny sweets and chocolate sauce/ice cream with coffee jelly in the center. On the side was a tiny cookie with chocolate sorbet (think PAR ice cream) in the shape of... well... shit. Very fun.

Now I'm back to school, where everything is getting much harder and the students here are crazy smart (I think the professors are part crazy too). But I'm still really happy to be here. I look around me and really, there's nowhere else I want to be.

So from Hong Kong, good morning.

Post the Eighth - Tours, or The Time of My Life

Last weekend is going to burn itself into my memory. I don't think I'll ever do anything so cool again...

So Saturday was the HKU sponsored tour of Kowloon and the New Territories. We met at around 8:30ish near the Main Library on campus and got to spend some time bonding in the early morning. The tour started slightly late, but we finally loaded up into some luxury tour buses. They were very comfy though limited in leg room... but comfy nonetheless.

Here was the itinerary for Saturday:
- Yuen Po Street Bird Garden
- Lantau Link Visitors Centre & Viewing Platform
- Wetland Park
- Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple
- Chi Lin Nunnery & Nan Lian Garden

It took us a little bit to get to the bird garden, but when we got down, we were smack dab in the middle of a flower market. I don't think I've ever seen orchids as beautiful as the ones we saw there... they were stunning. Orchids are among some of my favorite flowers, and to see loads of them everywhere in all sorts of vibrant colors... it was beautiful. We walked a bit further to the Bird Garden, where bird owners were displaying their birds for the public. Pet owners here love their pets and spoil them silly, but they also like showing them off. There was a man with a huge bird (I forget the breed) that delighted in putting the bird on the tourists (us) for photos... but the poor bird finally got irritated after a while (not surprising, really. I would have bitten someone if I'd been passed around like that). There were several shops in the bird garden - birds, bird cages, and live crickets were the specialty. Yes, ladies and gents, live crickets were on sale, and they were being bagged and tagged right in front of our eyes. Rather creepy, really.

If you get the chance to go the Lantau Link Visitors Centre, I highly recommend it, because the view is completely worth it. We got pictures of the Tsing Ma Bridge (the world's seventh longest suspension bridge, it could pass as the Golden Gate Bridge) and the Kap Shui Mun Bridge (the world's longest cable stayed bridge) along with the surrounding mountains and ocean. Very scenic, very worth it.

We got lunch at the Wetland Park; the only restaurant available was the Cafe de Coral, which is a fast food chain. They obviously weren't expecting us; the people were shocked by the crowds of foreigners clamoring to order. After lunch, we roamed around for a bit; even here, you could see civilization (aka tall apartment buildings) not too far away.

Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple was my favorite stop on this tour. The temple was exceptionally crowded for the Chinese New Year, but there's a place that you can enter for HK $2, and it was beautiful and serene. I think that if I stayed there and just sat and thought that I'd achieve more peace than if I attempted to meditate. The architecture was beautiful, and the fact that we could find such serenity amidst the backdrop of the bustling city was truly impressive.

There's a tradition at the temple where you are handed a can of sticks. You shake the can until one stick falls out - it has a number on it that you can take to the side shops and get your fortune told. I figured that I'd probably never do this again, so I went ahead and paid for the fortune. My number was 83, but as to what was foretold... well, that's something I'll keep to myself for now.

The final stop was Nan Lian Garden and the Chi Lin Nunnery. The Nunnery was closed, so we only toured the garden. I had a very difficult time deciding between the temple and the garden as my favorite, but in terms of beauty, the garden wins hands down. We were greeted by local high school students; the idea was to encourage them to speak English, so they served as our tour guides. Some of them looked quite nervous; one was reading directly off a written script. The girls who were assigned to us were quite shy, but a few were more adventurous than most. They told us about the history and the type of architecture that were there, and overall it was a very good experience. I, being the sole American in the group, got dragged to the side to be "interviewed" by the teacher (we were being videotaped as part of the project), and when I was done, the teacher complimented me as being "spontaneous". HAH. It seems she told the same thing to my friend Nanda too when she got interviewed. Eh...

We came back to the university around 6 pm, and a few of us went to the local supermarket to buy dinner. We came back to the dorm, and one of the girls informed me that my ROOMMATE had moved in. This prompted a group of girls to crowd around my door as I struggled to find my key to let us in. Vicky wasn't there at the time, but she showed up a few minutes later. She's from Mainland China, and the universities just got done with exams. She's very nice though.

The initial dinner plan got changed very quickly; we were convinced to go out to dinner with a couple of girls from PMSR and other exchange students. The total number of students? 15... yeah... it was impressive and loads of fun. After taking a bus and walking around Central a bit, we found a place in SoHo (South of Hollywood St here) called "Taco Loco" and ate there. Vicky had her first taste of "Mexican food", and I had a tiny sip of a margarita. Loads of firsts all around. It was very fun being crowded into a large booth and talking and laughing, although someone didn't pay and thus we all had to pay extra. But it didn't matter in the end.

Sunday was the Hong Kong Island tour. The itinerary:

- Breakfast at a local cafe
- Sampan ride at Aberdeen
- Repulse Bay
- Stanley Market and Murray House
- HK Museum of Coastal Defense

There were a lot less people on this tour, but I personally think they missed out. We started out with breakfast in Central; everyone got a pineapple bun (it's a milk bun with several cuts on the top in the pattern of a pineapple) and an egg tart (a Portuguese (or as Adam claims, a British) treat like a tiny custard pie) as well as a choice between milk tea, coffee, or a mix of the two (a local favorite). The bun and tart were delicious, but everyone got the mix despite only two of us (me and another girl named Ellie) ordering it. All in all, it was AWFUL... we attacked it with lots of sugar but it was to no avail.

We then departed to the sampan ride, and it was so much fun. We were totally obnoxious and we didn't care; we waved to everyone and yelled and laughed loudly. The view was spectacular, and we got to see several boat houses as well as people drying fish by hanging them by the tail with string.

The next stop was Repulse Bay. According to a few people, if you ask the locals where the beaches are, they're very helpful... but they can't quite pronounce beach... the result is... well, I'm sure you can guess (big hint: female dog). So that was the running joke on the beach, but all crude jokes aside, the beach was the best stop. The water was gorgeous and soothingly cold (even though it's winter here, it was unusally hot that day), and we got lots of pictures (and sand everywhere from sand fights/dragging people to the water).

Stanley Market has a temple nearby, but we got lost and thus didn't go. At this point, we got lunch; several of us (myself included) opted for the rather fancy Thai restaurant while the rest went to McDonalds (it was apparently shitty). The food was pretty good; I had chicken satay in a peanut sauce with a cucumber relish. We talked about traffic, bugs/snakes, and what kind of meat you can eat in Australia (one of the girls at lunch is Australian) among other things. After lunch, we met up with the others outside a small Buddhist temple. I burned incense for family and friends there to pay my respect. Afterwards, we roamed around the market a bit and took quite a few pictures before heading to the last stop.

The HK Museum of Defense was boring. But at this point, I guess we were all extremely tired and not very interested, so the time dragged on. But we got a very pleasant view of the city and the surrounding mountains, so it was not a total waste.

All in all, the tours were super amazing. I know I've missed hundreds of little details, but so much happened, and I'm glad I got to spend it with the people I did (not that I didn't miss you guys).

School is a bit boring at the minute; Stats is review for now, CS is semi review, but both Physics... how do I describe it...

It is a bit like being lowered slowly into a vat of bubbling acid.

But for now, I'm very happy with where I am, and I'm super excited for the Chinese New Year. We get the whole of next week off! I'm planning on seeing things here in Hong Kong with a couple of other people staying here, so it should be good fun. Now all I need to do is finish my damn Physics hwk and I'll be free for the next few days.

So from Hong Kong, good morning and have fun in class for those of you in Urbana!

Post the Seventh - Physics Death

As per the title, Physics will kill me. So here are my classes and my analysis

CSIS1120 - It's a lot like CS 231 for right now; we're doing number representation at the minute, but we should shortly be moving on to the new stuff... I hope. But I will review it just so that I don't get caught off guard. I still feel really bad for the professor, but I give him props for teaching on top of the talking.

STAT1301 - Not a bad class, but that could change. The teacher is a self professed gambler (English is not too bad, but he stutters with "ah...ah...ah..." frequently)and has gambling examples for everything...but he's not a bad guy. There are two other exchange students there, so it shouldn't be so bad. We'll see

PHYS2627 - Quantum. My mind wants to explode. But I met a very nice local student who's also in 1415 AND a physics major, so I have someone to back me up. This is my only female professor, but the English is heavily accented. Luckily that's translatable... her handwriting, on the other hand, is not...

PHYS1415 - Holy Hell. I will seriously die. The man keeps saying "Oh, you're HKU students, it's a prestigious university, you know all this." GAH. The professor speaks English perfectly fine, although he tends to lapse into Cantonese. I've met a few local students here and have had dozens of questions asked about the US and the education system (they want to study abroad). I put up a disclaimer immediately, but I guess I'm the only direct source of information they have...

On that note, Week One is done, I'm mindlessly scared of my work, but this weekend is when all the tours take place, so I'm going to have to work diligently. I've already got my first 1415 assignment, due next Friday before the break, but after that, I've got nine days to catch up. I was planning on going to Bangkok, but it turned out to be more expensive than expected... so that got nixed. But hopefully I will be able to see another part of Asia before I go... if my classes permit...

For now, life is good. Food is pretty easy to come by; I've stocked up on snacks and the like for vegetarian days and have taken to drinking soy milk and V8 (I need vegetables!). Milk tea is a popular drink here, and I like it (it reminds me a little of Indian tea). So here's how the food thing works here:

There are several amenities centers, and each of them have restaurants. There's a dim sum/fast food restaurant in the Pokfulam Amenities Center (right next to my dorm), a coffee shop in the Global Lounge (where we ate sandwiches at orientation), another restaurant down at the amenities down Pok Fu Lam Road next to Starr Hall and Lady Ho Tung, and several restaurants in Chong Yuet Ming, which is in the dead center of campus. I generally eat there, so this is how the system works:

There are two food options there: one is a sandwich and tea shop, and the other is a conglomeration of restaurants: Chinese fast food, Chinese BBQ, International, and Western Cuisine. You pick what you want from the menu and order and pay at the counter before heading into the lines. Here (and in a good portion of restaurants), you put your receipt on your tray so that the people behind the counter can see it and call it out to the chefs. They place your food on your tray, and then you're off to find a seat and eat.

The food is very good and costs about US $3, which gets you quite a sizeable meal and a drink. The problem is finding a seat when it's super busy... the local students aren't really all that approachable. But it's worked out so far.

Well, that's how things are on my end. From Hong Kong, good morning.

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.