FIRST IMPRESSIONS

ARRIVAL

Yesterday evening, after a looong flight (nearly 12 hrs) and two crappy aeroplane meals, I finally arrived to my new home for the next 12 months! Everything went quite smoothly; HKU arranges a ‘buddy program’ which means that a local student will come and meet you at the airport and help you with all sorts of matters in the first couple of days. I was met at the airport by my buddy Ming, who then took me to my Hall (accommodation) to register. I got a chance to meet some of my new flatmates (only local students so far, I'm the first exchange student on this floor) who all seem extremely nice! Despite being jetlagged and tired from traveling and the temperature, I ended up going out for a meal with some of them later in the evening, for my first taste of authentic Chinese food. Great it was! Also since I didn't quite understand what we actually ordered (all happened in Chinese), than made it even more interesting... Haven't met my roommate yet though, apparently she's traveling until the end of the week.


Today, my first actual day here, mostly involved getting registered at Uni, getting a new phone number, opening a bank account etc extremely-boring-but-want-to-get-this-out-of-way things. My buddy Ming was helping me a lot with that and showed me around the campus, which I find very confusing. It’s very compact but sort of works in many different levels: you may get on a lift and get off at bottom floor but actually end up being at the top floor of another building… I don’t trust the lifts anymore. I’m sure they are actually a port to another universe or something. However, in this heat and humidity, walking up several flights of stairs is not very tempting either... The campus seems ok though, one thing that makes me really happy is that there’s a dead cheap Starbucks! It's already cheap as it is - and students get 30% off the listed prices. Can't complain!

And yes, it is hot. Very hot. And humid. This is apparently the warmest it gets (thank goodness!); October should already be a lot cooler. Luckily everything is airconditioned: buses, taxis, lecture rooms, shops, the underground, our rooms (we have to pay for it though but it’s only like 10p an hour so not too bad). I tend to shower about 3 times a day and will probably run out of clean clothes under a week. Luckily there's a laundry room right above us.


REACHING FOR THE STARS: MY NEW HOME

Right, the accommodation. It was one of my biggest worries, but so far more pros than cons. The best thing first: the accommodation village is on a hill AND my flat is the top floor of a 23-storey building AND my room is facing the sea, so the view from my window is pretty amazing! There will be lots of photos later I promise! There’s 22 people altogether on the floor which is quite a lot but luckily there’s lots of showers and toilets. Kitchen however is quite tiny so I’m probably not gonna do much cooking, especially since food on campus, and sushi at the supermarket is very cheap so may just stick to those. I mean, you can get a nice Chinese meal for something like £1 at the Uni cafeteria! Also, as long as it stays this effing hot, I really don’t want to spend any time in front of a hot pan… perhaps when I get bored of rice and noodles I’m gonna make some good old Pasta Bolognese!

The name of my hall is Starr Hall, and since we are the top floor, our flat is called Stargazers. It's only girls on this flat, girl and boy floors alternate. We form a Unit with the boys on floor 22 and apparently there are a lot of Unit events, such as cooking together, which sounds like fun, even though the idea of over 40 people simultaneously cooking in our tiny kitchen seems somehow incomprehensible...

All the rooms are shared which is something I’m not used to so I was a bit worried… but like I said, still haven’t met my roommate, Mio, so can't say much of that experience yet. I’ve been spying on her bookshelf and seems that she knows Spanis, wants to improve her English and likes cartoons – including the Moomins! So can’t be too bad of a person ;)

Oh and I have to say that the people here are superfriendly! Only about half of the people in the flat are around now (Uni doesn’t actually even start until September 3rd) but the ones I’ve met are really nice and very eager to know more about me. All in all, everything ok so far! :)