Adjusting to CUHK & SoHo 蘇豪

The past week and a half has been hectic with the first week of classes, trying to special register for certain classes, and getting used to having local students back again. During orientation week, there was mostly only international/exchange students on campus so it was a lot less crowded. It also took a while to figure out how to get anywhere on campus without getting lost since the school is enormous and basically built on a mountain, so walking anywhere requires either walking uphill or downhill. After about 2 weeks though, I think I'm getting  the hang of this.

The first week of classes went alright, I'm taking mostly anthropology and sociology classes for requirements back at my home university. It will be really fascinating to learn about Chinese & Hong Kong culture simultaneously in the classroom and out. I am also in an independent research type class, I'm in a group with two other people and our research topic is free media in Hong Kong in relation to Hong Kong being a Special Administrative Region of China and the way media is regulated in the People's Republic of China. This is exactly what I wanted to study during my time in Hong Kong and the research I conduct here this semester can probably also be applied to my thesis paper next year! I like all the classes I'm enrolled in and I feel like I will learn a lot this semester. My Cantonese class professor is especially enthusiastic when teaching and I think he's quickly becoming my favorite teacher here, although I think all of my professors this semester are really knowledgeable in their field.

Socially, I've been meeting and getting to know a lot of people but they have been mostly other exchange students. I know back at my home university in the states, we would comment that all the international students seem to like to stick together. Even though we'd like to get to know them, they seem interested in only hanging out with each other, especially the students from Asia. Now that I'm an international student myself, I can see that it doesn't only apply when students go to the States to study. The other exchange students and I are doing it too, although unintentionally. I understand why the international students who go to the U.S. to study stick together, now that I'm in a similar situation as them. I'd love to meet more local students here and have them show me around Hong Kong. But they still seem kind of shy even though I'm trying to be more outgoing and befriend them. I guess I'll make more local friends as time progresses.

Last Monday, on the 10th was my friend Kai's birthday. He is a fellow exchange student from Germany and he was turning 22! So a big group of the exchange students convened that night and there was a birthday bash of sorts for him outside near the United College hostel. It was really nice, the atmosphere was really chill and conducive to friendly conversation. We just sat around on patio furniture outside overlooking the water and chatted about how it's like at home in our respective countries and respective schools over some beers. The legal drinking age in Hong Kong in 18, so we were all legal for those who were wondering. :) Although on a related note, I turned 21 last Thursday! However, I got sick and had a fever with extreme nausea all of Friday, so I stayed in bed most of this past weekend recuperating. I will definitely try to make up for this later this week and when I get back to the States.

A big group of us went to SoHo for dinner last Tuesday on the 11th. SoHo 蘇豪 is located in the Central District on Hong Kong island. This name really throws me off because I keep thinking about the SoHo in NYC and thus the images that my mind conjures up is of the one in New York, except with a lot more Asian people. I actually wasn't too far off. There were a lot of boutique stores, restaurants and quite a lot of people that I would assume to be expatriates walking around the area. It felt like a trendy area and I think I'd return just to have more time to look around the shops.We were looking for a specific Vietnamese restaurant to eat at in SoHo, but upon arrival, we realized they weren't going to be able to seat all 20 of us without an extremely long wait. So we split up into groups to go to different places and planned to meet up afterwards to go for dessert together. I wound up in the group that went to a restaurant called Dumpling Yuan 餃子園 that specializes in Pekingese food.

We ordered a lot of dumplings, potstickers, noodles, & choi. It wasn't an overly flavorful meal, but it was pretty good and has a rather local home grown feel to it. Although they probably cater to foreign palates since this place is located in the trendy Soho district, but perhaps that's why I liked this place. 

The Americans & Canadians after a Pekingese dinner!

Of course no meal is concluded without dessert, and that night we decided to go back to the tried and true Hui Lau Shan. Becky and I ordered my usual mango and black glutinous rice in coconut & mango juice while Kristen got the mango nuomici 糯米糍 which had chunks of mango inside! 

When we took the MTR back to campus, we passed by this vending machine inside the subway station that sold toner. hmm Obviously when I'm taking the subway, I usually realize I need to buy ink for my printer. The MTR knows exactly what I need.