Hong Kong post 1

Hello,

First off, I'd should let you all know I'm alive and well. It's been just over a month since I arrived and I could already write volumes on everything I've come across, experienced, overheard, been told, and read. I'm as busy as I've ever been in my life and I go to bed every night wanting to do more the next day.

There is no easy starting point, so I'll aim for a brief overview of life during the past month for me. I made it to Hong Kong on the night of January 2 and was essentially dropped off at my building with a room key. I was itching to go out, but just wandered around my building in disbelief of everything. At first it was only the exchange students on campus, so we got to know each other a bit and took care of errands and paperwork for the first couple days, trying to learn how to get around. Then everything blew up at once: school started and exploring commenced.

School
I'm taking classes all across disciplines; anthropology, government and public administration, puthongua (chinese language), environmental science, economics, too much. The work is heavy, or maybe it just seems so because I can hardly squeeze the time for schoolwork/readings/studying into the schedule packed with extracurriculars on weekdays and exloring on the weekends. I just now made the time to blog because I had a 45 minute presentation about asian international relations I've been reading for when I had spare time. My Chinese teacher is good and I'm learing, but progress is slow in chinese language. I must also mention my anthropology class called "Globalization and Culture," because it is, so far, the best class I've ever had. The professor is great and the topic is of such interest to me.

Campus life














Well, the campus is beautiful and there are always strange events going on (ex. fashion show or hiphop dancers in the middle of the school day). My roommate is cool, as are the rest of the guys I've met on my floor. They are all local students. Sometimes we play videogames together or cardgames. There are so many campus clubs and organizations to join. I'm working on getting into the astronomy club, and I've already done two broadcasts on the student radio station with a student from the US and an exchange student from Mexico.

The city
Whoa, there are too many things to cover. I've been to a theme park, temples, street markets of every type, hiking trails, parks, restaurants, monuments, museums, boats, bike trails, churches, skyscrapers, scenic views, malls, a ghetto apartment, a horse race, and other random places. Understanding Hong Kong requires a bit of a history lesson. In short, it was a former British colony, transforming it into the financial center of China, southeast Asia, and even the globe to some extent. The city has nearly 7 million people, all of them living in high-rise apartments. The city divided by Victoria Harbor into Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The city's area is not so large and public transport is great. The trains are amazing, and there are buses as well, but they are difficult to navigate. There are also surrounding islands with ferry service to see them. I'll avoid covering any place specifically in this post, because I couldn't so them justice in a brief few sentences.

I hope to post bi-weekly, but I keep photos updated often on my photosite: www.flickr.com/photos/birthdaybeard

take care,

tim