First Day in Hong Kong

LOL.

On my first day in Hong Kong (June 29th), it was just as chaotic as I had expected it to be.

I started off the day doing some final packing for my 9 a.m. flight to Shenzhen (which is a neighboring city in Mainland China close by to Hong Kong). I actually flew to Hangzhou, China a few days before to visit relatives (and also to try to adjust to the 13 hour time difference). Surprisingly, I didn't have much jet lag this time around. The only really noteworthy part of this flight was the video they showed about all the safety features of the aircraft and what to do in case of an emergency. Pretty standard video right? WRONG. I honest to god could have died laughing. They had traditionally dressed Chinese actors/actresses assisting to demonstrate everything with the stewardesses in the video and had them doing even more traditional tai chi movements. I guess this was pretty typical though since I seemed to be the only one amused by it.

Forever in the Foreigner Line

Eventually, I reached Shenzhen where I next had to ride the subway from one end (the East Airport) to Luo Hu (where I would cross the border to Hong Kong) which took about an hour and a half. Luo Hu is HUGE and has the subway station, a train station, customs and immigration all under one roof. I followed the signs through the place indicating "Hong Kong Immigration" or "Foreigners" and ended up at a very long line with lots of, well, foreigners. Oh, I'm also technically considered a "Hong Kong Resident" since I have a student visa from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. (I learned this the hard way when I had originally went to the "Foreigners" gate and was told to go upstairs to the "Hong Kong Residents")

Finally, I made it through all the immigration gates and saw Hong Kong for the first time.

About 75% of Hong Kong is countryside 

After a short, five stop, subway ride, I arrived at the University subway stop. By now it was right around 3 p.m. After asking some people how to actually get to my University, I walked through a tunnel under the subway station and saw a huge line of people waiting for something. One of the helpers I had talked to earlier had said to just keep walking straight to get to my dorm so I had assumed it was within walking distance. Boy was I wrong.

I ended up getting on the bus that came about ten minutes later with all the people that were there and I was the only one with a huge suitcase, backpack and purse so naturally I took up a lot of room in the bus. Since the stairs were narrow I was pretty awkwardly carrying all my luggage up into the bus.

Here's a few things I noticed about Hong Kong at that point:
-It was HOT. It's mostly the humidity that makes Hong Kong borderline unbearable.
-Everything seems to be a little cramped. Maybe this is just my opinion as an American coming to China since I'm not used to such densely populated areas but I seem to always be bumping into someone or something. I also could barely fit into the tiny 7Eleven outside my University with all my luggage.
-Hong Kong has a lot of rural areas. I had always assumed Hong Kong was all skyscrapers and bustling city, but on the subway ride over after I left Mainland China, it was mostly hills and tunnels when we went under small mountains.

This is the bus stop that I'll be using for the rest
of my stay at CUHK to get around campus

By this point on the bus ride I was definitely lost. There wasn't any sort of announcing which station we were at like all the other buses I had ever been on. Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, I just got off at a stop and hoped for the best. Turns out I somehow got off about a 30 second walk from my hostel! (My program calls them 'hostels' which makes me think of the terrifying hostels from the creatively named, 2005 American horror movie, Hostel) It's a pretty standard dorm though, with two beds to a room, two desks, two closets, a fridge, and a communal bathroom for the floor.

I was pretty much a mess at this point. Sweaty was kind of an understatement and I was pretty wary from traveling so long on so many different forms of transportation (I also hadn't eaten lunch). After checking in and receiving my access card, I meandered over to the North wing of the hostel.

FINALLY made it to my hostel, Lee Woo Sing

There are security gates right at the beginning of the North block that you have to swipe your access card to be let in and out (I made the mistake of swiping my card too soon after the person before me so it hadn't registered me as I walked through the gate. When I came back later that day, the gate wouldn't let me back in since I technically never left. One of the student ambassadors came and helped me get through though). Nifty, huh?

My Student ID card!

After a short elevator ride up to the third floor, I was standing in front of my room for the summer, N310. To be honest, I was a little worried to meet my roommate. I knew she was already in there, mostly because the door was unlocked but also because I was definitely one of the last students to arrive at the hostel. I had always gotten along with and became very good friends with all of my roommates in the past, whether they were random or not. I guess unlike my roommates in the past, I had absolutely no prior knowledge of who this person was. Would she like me? Would she take great offense to my sometimes snoring? I've never experienced one of those horror roommate stories that some of my friends have experienced: roommates that completely, awkwardly ignore them, roommates that bring boys into the room while you're sleeping, or roommates that get your younger sister's name tattooed on their chest (The Roommate reference anyone?).

There's also about five more feet behind me with two
closets.

She turned out to be a Chinese girl who is studying at a university in Beijing. She's kind of like a lot of Chinese girls I've met; super skinny, small, quiet, and very responsible. She's always trying to make hour by hour schedules for the next day which, although can be kind of stressful, is also kind of nice. We had our introductions; she told me when she arrived and I warned her about my snoring.

By this point, it was 4:45 p.m. and we went on the last Campus Tour given by a few student ambassadors. They showed us various buildings, cafeterias, and roads. Eventually we ended up at the iCenter, which is where we officially registered and filled out even more paperwork for the University. We also received some CUHK swag items, like CUHK black t-shirts, CUHK pens, and CUHK umbrellas. I thought the umbrellas were a sort of cool, odd thing to give to incoming students but I soon realized it was the most practical thing they could have given us... It pretty much rains DAILY in Hong Kong. So far it's just been light, five minute showers every so often, disrupted by relentless sunshine. I'm knocking on wood right now nothing more serious comes.

It literally started raining the moment they
gave me this

After a trip back up to the hostel, my roommate and I decided to go to the nearby mall (two subway stops away) to buy a few necessities. I had completely forgotten Hong Kong outlets are different from the rest in Mainland China so buying an outlet converter was kind of important. My roommate wanted to buy shoes. The mall itself is connected to the subway station (or the subway station is connected to it) and is HUGE. There are at least six levels of endless stores, some familiar brands like Calvin Klein, Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Zara, but mostly ones I had never heard of. Each store itself isn't very big, with the average size about 15'X15' (the bigger companies can afford to have more space though).

I could eat this for the rest of my life.

We stopped for dinner at this little restaurant, and I ordered an egg, beef, and vegetable dish with rice. It was DELICIOUS but especially so because I hadn't eaten lunch that day. After that, we made a few more stops: my roommate bought a pair of shoes and we bought some fruit/breakfast at the supermarket. A short subway and bus ride later, we finally arrived back at our hostel to spend our first night at Lee Woo Sing.

Although this first day was absolutely exhausting, I think it definitely added to my studying abroad experience. On the bright side, I definitely learned how to use the bus and Hong Kong subway!