First day in Hong Kong!

I am currently sitting in my cool dorm room feeling very accomplished for many reasons. First of all, I made it to Hong Kong in the first place! Our flight left at 11:50 PM from LA and was scheduled to arrive in HK at 5:30 AM. I flew on the airline Cathay Pacific and let me just say... it was the coolest plane I have ever been on! Chris and I had seats in the very back of the plane and we concerned about whether or not we would be able to recline in our seats. We discovered upon finding our tiny little bucket chairs that the seats did a neat thing where they slide down to allow you to recline without leaning back into the person's seat behind you. While clever, it made the leg room for us "tall" passengers very squished. However, the tv that was placed in front of every passenger's individual seat more than made up for the squished knees and strained necks. It was so cool. We could play games on the screen, choose which movies we wanted to watch (good ones too!), and we could even change the view to an outside camera located underneath the belly of the plane. Now while all of this was amazing, it did not compare to the foot rests, private rooms/areas, personal massagers and free alcohol that was provided to the first and business class passengers. The service was great and the vegetarian meal was wonderful as well. It should be noted that I managed to sleep fairly soundly for the first 8-9 hours. My professor later commented that I looked so incredibly uncomfortable at one point while sleeping in a pretzel like position that he had no idea how I managed to rest at all. Well, I did! I am however getting very tired as we speak. I had an amazingly full day and yet it is only about 6:30PM here.

We arrived at about 5 this morning (Wednesday). It is very strange that I lost Tuesday the 8th of June forever because of the time change and the length of the flight! But I think it was worth it. When we arrived, we grabbed our luggage fairly painlessly and prepared ourselves for the burden of customs, yet were surprisingly satisfied when all we had to do was walk through an area lined with customs officers. Very painless. A group of about ten or so students, including Chris and me, then proceeded to try to find our way out of the airport and to the dorm and CUHK, Chinese University of Hong Kong. We rode the AirBus A41 from the airport all the way to the Sha Tin bus stop located on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. The bus was very cool and a double decker so we got to see the amazing countryside. So far the weather has been rainy, muggy and overcast. I have been told that that is the norm for June though. Once we arrived at the bus stop the group split up and we all took cabs to the I-House, which is our dorm at CUHK! Since we had a lot of luggage this was the best option. I rode in a cab with Chris and the rest of the group followed shortly after. Once we arrived at the I-House, we checked in painlessly… minus the part where the tiny Chinese women took our temperature with a gun looking device that she pointed at our foreheads! I finally got to my “flat” and I have an awesome corner room, which I am sharing with two other girls… including my TA for the class! I was getting settled when I met some ladies from the accounting program that is also being held here for UT students. Almost immediately after changing shirts and making my bed, we decided to venture out into the city. We took the MTR (metro) to the stop of Hung Hom. Once we got there, we found the Metropolis shopping mall. We were very hungry and searching for breakfast until we realized that it was only about 9am in HK. So we came across a food court in the mall where a few restaurants were open. I chose a tomato salad that ended up being tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, and mayo. Needless to say, I only ate the tomatoes. Chris and I then shared some veggie-fried rice while some of our other friends ate shrimp dumplings (questionable) and beef fried rice (also questionable!). We shopped after breakfast but did not find anything too interesting so we headed back to the MTR station. It was at this station that I decided to use the restroom before we went to ladies market. Once I managed to find the bathroom, it became clear that the toilets were located on the floor of the stall… aka a hole in the floor! Needless to say, that was an experience.

We then headed to the Mong Kok East area and found a ladies market, fish market , and produce market. It was raining and a lot of students bought umbrellas for 10 HKD which is around $1.30 USD. I literally felt like I was in Chinatown in NYC, yet it was actually China! We had so much fun.

After the authentic market experience, a group of the group headed back to a mall in the area on the search for phones. I found one, along with a few others, at an electronic store for about $25 USD. We then bought SIM cards from a man on the street near the MTR. I was a little nervous, but they actually worked! I was able to call my mom on the bus ride back to the I-House at CUHK. It was great and I love my little phone.

After making it back to the school, we had an orientation meeting where we learned about the school. It was great to take a tour of the campus and find things like the swimming pool, canteen, bank, and market. I bought some food and then took the bus back to the dorm with my two roommates, Julie and Elizabeth.

After all the excitement of the day, I was very tired. I started to blog but then ended up taking a short nap. I then did hw until about 1 am with my roommate and went to bed! I slept great.

Day two begins… more to come later!