Week 6 - Life in Hong Kong (Personal Blog)

When reflecting on my personal experience of studying and living in Hong Kong, and reading with great interest the experiences of the other international students in their respective countries, I  realise that everyone is having their own exciting but unique experience. 

Having been in Hong Kong now for six weeks, I feel that I have settled in really well and have adapted to living away from home. I particularly appreciate living in Tai Po, where the university is situated. I remember in my first week here in Hong Kong when people found out where I was staying, they responded ‘wow that’s quite far away’ or ‘I haven’t been to Tai Po yet!’  As Tai Po is over one hour away from Hong Kong Island it is much more peaceful, and living here, in the New Territories, gives me a different perspective as there are much fewer ‘Westerners’ in this part of Hong Kong.

After talking to some people who live in Hong Kong Island, I discovered that it is quite a different world for them as you can live in central without having to venture off Hong Kong Island. Actually, in certain parts of Central, such as Soho, local people would be in the minority. Indeed, when I am walking down through the streets sometimes it is difficult to remember that I am even in Hong Kong – apart from the skyscrapers all around me!

I am also starting to enjoy the local cuisine much more.  I particularly enjoy dim sum for lunch - sharing lots of different dishes together. Hazel, a fourth year student in Robert Black Halls, was kind enough to take us to a local restaurant during the week (where the menu is in Cantonese) and we ordered some traditional Chinese dishes. I discovered that I absolutely love the barbeque pork buns! Fortunately, after constantly complaining for the first few weeks, I have managed to seek out some good (and cheap) restaurants in Tai Po which produce some tasty curry dishes.  I have also located a favourite burrito place in Soho, Central. Of course, to balance our diet the canteen on campus is cheap and cheerful...at best!

Hazel and I at the dim sum restaurant!

The weather during this week has been really good compared to the intermittent rain of last week. In fact, last night the international students gathered for a barbeque which was great “craic” and especially hard to believe that we were having a barbeque as early as the end of February!

Everyone gathered around the barbeque!

This week, along with Allen, Rachel and Simon Duff, I booked a holiday to Vietnam at Easter which we are all looking forward to. It’s good to take the opportunity to explore surrounding countries (and flights to Vietnam were relatively cheap!)

Simon looks very responsible!

I also met Jim Nelson, a previous Stranmillis student at church on Sunday. He is teaching just across the border in China and after talking to him I will try to get a visa so that I can visit the Mainland and see how different it is to Hong Kong. Unfortunately, some of the other international students were not allowed across the border into China this week. Two of them were French and were not given any reason and the other was a Swedish girl, who has lived there all her life (but was born in Iran). They felt they had been treated unfairly but you do not question Chinese decisions. Inexplicably, the price of a visa to China depends on which sort of passport you hold; unfortunately with a British passport it is more expensive!

On Tuesday night I joined Simon at football training and fortunately I managed not to show myself up to much! On Friday Rachel, Allen and I joined Simon and some of his friends to go to his favourite jazz bar called Ned Kelly’s Last Stand, this was a really good evening and the jazz band was fantastic. 

The jazz band was really good!

There was also a karaoke night this week in Robert Black Halls. Allen and I attempted a rendition of Westlife – My Love (to explain - the only other English songs we could pick were a selection of songs by Avril Lavinge!) Somehow the windows didn’t break especially after a shaky start to put it nicely! The unbelievable thing is that we didn’t know it was a karaoke competition and we somehow got through to the final! I realised shortly after that I had a missed call on my mobile phone – I just hope it wasn’t Simon Cowell!

Karaoke night in our halls!

On Saturday evening I went to a basketball match, Victor (who studied at Stranmillis last year and lives in Robert Black Halls) invited us along. Due to heavy traffic from a road accident, we arrived late to find that HKIEd were already losing badly 52-35. However, the momentum changed (with our arrival) and it ended up with only a few points separating the two teams – HKIEd unfortunately on the losing side. This was actually the first ever basketball match I had been to; there was a great atmosphere and it was in fact quite a good standard. I really enjoyed watching the match and I hope to go along the next time there is a game.

Allen and I with Victor who studies at Stanmillis last year!

This week we have to start again into group work. We have a couple of big group presentations ahead of us in the next few weeks so we will have to start researching and preparing for these.

Until next time.....

Joi Gin (Goodbye)

Michael