I'm definitely loving the location--much more convenient than Shaw College. Then, a glimpse into my dorm room. Of course things are slightly messy, but what can you expect from a dorm room? That's my bed with the same hideous green-and-white floral blanket from the on-sale pile at IKEA, and my desk is the one right next to it. I absolutely love that window, by the way. I may not have a half-a-million dollar view anymore, but at least I have a cool tree. The curtains are a big plus. At Shaw College, it was practically impossible to sleep much past dawn because there were no curtains and the blinds were broken. That nice thick curtain keeps the sun OUT, which makes sleeping in a lot easier. This is especially helpful when you don't have early morning classes. The second best thing about the window is that there is a rather large ledge, which you can somewhat see in this picture. I guess I'm a little bit like a cat; if there's a window ledge, I want to sit on it. I've found myself a nice, cozy, well-lit reading spot.
Here's the better view of my desk and my shelves. Unfortunately, I have less shelving space than I did before, but I don't have too much stuff, so no problem.
Now that you've seen what the room looks like, you've probably noticed that there are not 2, but 3 beds in there. That's right, I'm living in a triple. When I first found out, I had a really big oh great moment. All kinds of things ran through my head: What if the 2 roommates get buddy-buddy with each other and try to exclude me? What if they hate each other and want me to choose sides? Learning to live with one person can be hard enough, so how hard will it be living with 2? What if they're both from Hong Kong and speak in Cantonese all the time?
I'm not usually a big worrywort, but it suddenly seemed like having 2 roommates would be a totally different playing field from the one I'm used to. My worries were soon put to rest, though. My 2 new roommates are both 3rd-year students, one named Menglu and the other Yiyun. They already knew each other, but have never lived together. They decided beforehand that they wanted to live in a triple room and "take in" a foreign exchange student (It's good to know my arrival wasn't an unwelcome surprise). Both of them have been nothing but nice and extremely helpful. We seem to have a lot in common between the 3 of us...even the humor is rarely lost in conversation. To me, though, the best part is that both Menglu and Yiyun are from Mainland China and not Hong Kong.
Since Menglu is from Beijing and Yiyun is from Sichuan, they're both native Mandarin speakers! With that in mind, it's actually very lucky that I'm in a triple room. You can learn a lot in another language by talking to someone one on one, but sometimes it's more helpful to hear conversations between people. I've already learned all kinds of new words and phrases just from listening. Of course, I also get to practice a lot. I think that, as I get further along in the semester, I'll be able to use Mandarin more and more with my roommates, but for now I use it when I can. They also like to practice their English with me so it's mutually beneficial. I think things are shaping up well on the social front.
As for the academic side of things, there's been a few more flies in the semester soup. I'll just start with Monday and go from there:
Monday (Sep. 6)
I'm currently signed up for one Monday class (Business Statistics), although I was told to add another one (Business Communications in English) during the add/drop period so I made a point of attending both. My first class didn't start until 2:30pm, though, so I spent the morning "running errands." I changed my mailing address at the bank, checked my mail, picked up some stuff for foreign exchange students, and so on and so forth. I came to my 2:30pm class (Business Communications) and, lo and behold, the class is full! I stayed anyway, but decided to try and add a different section of the same class.
That class was in a building called Tsang Shiu Tim, which was a 2 minute walk from my dorm. That in itself is a nice change. However, my next class was in a place nicknamed TCW (Teaching Complex at West Campus), which also was only about a 2 minute walk. I could get used to that. Business Statistics was a really huge class with a lot of familiar American faces, but the teacher, Dr. Jiang, seems pretty good. The worst part is that the class ends at 6:15pm. But, hey, that's just life.
Tuesday (Sep. 7)
I can tell I'm going to like Tuesdays. My only class is "Principles of Management" with Dr. Chiu (a.k.a. Jimmy), and it's my "cohort class." That means it's got all the IBCE kids--American and Hong Konger--and no one else. It's kind of neat having a specially tailored class. True, it has around 40 people in it, but we're all friends after being dragged around Shanghai for a week together. It seems Dr. Chiu (I feel weird calling him just "Jimmy" even though he insists) has a habit of dismissing class very early, and a reputation for teaching easy but meaningful classes. He himself said his class was going to be easy because we're "learning skills, not how to memorize." I like teachers like that.
Class may have begun at 10:30am (intended to end at 12:15pm), but I was out of there by 11:00am. Wow. I don't think getting out that early will be a normal thing, but it was still nice. With a free afternoon ahead of me, I set out to do my laundry. I'm an old pro at this after being here for 3 months. For those of you who may not remember CUHK's roundabout method for getting your clothes washed, I'll provide a brief recap. We all have CU-Link Cards (like Carolina Cards, or other types of campus credit cards). You put money on it from your bank account using one of the Add-Value Machines on campus. 1 credit costs HK$1. You use it to pay for printing at the library, washing clothes, and A/C in your room. When you want to do laundry, you load your clothes into the washer, add the detergent to it's little tray in the top, and use your CU-Link Card to pay at a machine that looks like a mini-ATM.
First, I found the laundry room, seen below:
It's on the ground floor of my dorm, meaning it's 3 flights of stairs down from my room (no elevator, you remember).
After finding it, I picked up my laundry hamper, my CU-Link Card, and my room-key and headed downstairs. I had a lot of dirty clothes after spending 11 days in China and they were, admittedly, pretty heavy. I ended up duct-taping the top of the hamper shut and slinging it over my shoulder. I think this is the least strenuous way to carry something heavy, but I never see girls do it--only guys. I wonder why...but I digress!
I got my clothes and detergent settled and went to the little machine to pay. I inserted my card, keyed in my password, and was kindly informed that my card held 0.00 credits. Say what?! I had just over HK$50 on that sucker when I left for Mainland China and I sure didn't spend any CUHK credits while I was over there. Frustrated and confused, I went to the dormitory help desk. The people there couldn't really explain what happened (they were as confused as me), so they sent me to the Office of the Dean at United College. Apparently this office is the one that deals with petty student problems like not being able to do laundry. Leaving my clothes in the washer, I made the super-short trek over to the Dean's Office where a nice lady (I have no idea who she is) explained the problem.
I bought my previous 50 some-odd CUHK credits at one of the Add-Value Machines in Shaw College. It seems that those credits don't transfer over to United College. How silly of me to think that CUHK credits could be used anywhere at CUHK. That would make too much sense, wouldn't it? So, I guess I can kiss those credits goodbye. I ended up buying new ones at one of the United College Add-Value Machines. Maybe I'll go to the Shaw Computer Lab to print stuff until I run out of credits. I feel bad just not using them.
Anyway, the clothes got washed and I safely hauled the hamper upstairs and back to the bat-cave. Other than my little laundry adventure, nothing much else happened.
Wednesday (Sep. 8)
Ah, Wednesday! What else could be lovelier than waking up to an email from Yammy Lai informing me that (whoops!) it looked like all those Business Communications classes I needed had already been filled a long time ago? Well, that didn't help me much, did it?
It's not her fault that none of us in IBCE can take that class, but it would have been nice to know that earlier. Still, I must applaud Ms. Lai because she quickly came up with an alternative. Because I've already taken ACCT225 (Financial Accounting) and ECON221 (Microeconomics) at USC, I meet all the prerequisites for FINA2010 (Financial Management), which is a class I was originally schedule to take next year at USC. It fit into my schedule so I quickly replied and told her to sign me up.
With that out of the way, my first class was at 12:30pm, my first Mandarin course of the semester. There's a good number of IBCE kids in there, but it's mostly people from other places: other Americans, a German, some Koreans, and a couple Japanese kids. I think there's also a girl from New Zealand. So far we all seem to be around the same level. I made friends with the girl next to me, Alice (from California), and we exchanged phone numbers with the intention of becoming study-buddies.
I think the coolest part about this class is that I already know my teacher: it's Chen Chen! Remember Chen Chen from church? I guess I should call her Chen Chen Laoshi in class, but I'm so glad it's her. She's a young and very energetic teacher as well as a fun person. I will definitely like this class.
After class, it was basically a Chinese Language Center reunion. I ran into Zhang Laoshi and Han Laoshi within just a few seconds. Han Laoshi was particularly glad to hear that I had a roommate from Beijing, as she is, herself, a Beijinger. I've had so many teachers from Beijing that my accent when speaking Chinese is apparently closest to the Beijing dialect. I say fanguanr, dianr, nar, haohaor, and so on instead of just regular fanguan, dian, nali, or haohao. As much as I think adding that "argh" sound onto the end of so many words makes people sound like pirates, it really is a hard habit to break. Anyway, it was great catching up with my summer teacher. I still love Han Laoshi. I love her to pieces.
I had another session of Business Statistics that afternoon also, but it was completely uneventful. However, all my classes were still within the same 3 buildings--and all of them the closest buildings to my dorm.
Thursday (Sep. 9)
There is no time like the present and, as I'm writing this, it's Thursday at around 9:00pm. This morning, I saw that Yammy Lai had gotten back to me about the alternate course, and she assured me that she would register me for the class. According to my online schedule, I'm still not officially enrolled. Nevertheless, I have no choice but to trust her on this one.
I had an 8:30am class, which is the earliest I have all week. It's my Social Science elective, "The Political Economy of Asia," a political science class. Despite being so early in the morning, the teacher was cheerful and very engaging. I like him already. He got over half the class talking before 9:00am and the rest of them by the time we left. At the risk of sounding redundant, let me say that, once again, I think I will like this class. By the way, I'm the only IBCE member taking it.
There was one not-so-great part about this, though: the textbook is out of print. Isn't that just lovely? The professor kindly informed the class of around 40 people that 3-4 copies were still at the bookstore, and he had placed one copy in the University Library so we could check it out. Given that we have weekly readings out of that book, and one person could check it out and renew it indefinitely, the atmosphere suddenly obtained a subtle undercurrent of every-man-for-himself.
Immediately after class, I ran to the campus bookstore. I had to ask for help finding the book because it was hidden among so many others. Another guy in my class, who had come in right behind me asked where I'd found the book. I pointed him in the general direction and, as I was paying for my textbook, overhead a store employee telling him that they had just sold the last copy to "that foreign girl in the yellow shirt." I felt bad for the poor guy, but I was still more pumped about buying the very last copy. Mean, I know, but still awesome.
I also managed to find most of my other textbooks, and I exchanged my book at the library. I finished "The Right Stuff" during the trip to Mainland China and so I had checked out Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" sometime on Sunday. I highly recommend it, by the way, especially to fans of both world mythologies and small-town America. Sadly, though, it had ended. Since I enjoyed that one so much, I just checked out another Neil Gaiman book: "The Graveyard Book." This one's a slightly morbid parody of "The Jungle Book." Instead of being raised by animals in the jungle like little Mowgli, Nobody Owens receives his primary care-giving from the kindly ghosts in a local graveyard. It's been a fun read so far. Sarah would like it.
I had another meeting of Principles of Management this afternoon, which went well, and then after it my first Financial Management class. I don't plan to buy the book, however, until my schedule online officially lists me as enrolled in the class. I was in class straight from 1:30--5:15pm. 2:30--5:15pm is all Financial Management. It's one huge chunk of time, but it's only once a week. By the time it let out, I was really hungry.
Normally, I eat kind of a late dinner, but lunch had been far less than satisfactory. I got what looked like tasty chicken, onions, and green bell peppers with a side of rice and Chinese cabbage. Instead I discovered that those "green bell peppers," which made up about 2/3 of my plate, were really my old nemesis in disguise. Bitter melon, the evil-incarnate fruit that occasionally arises to defile my mouth with its strong flavor of well-blended Nyquil, orange juice, and toothpaste, had again hidden in plain sight pretending to be delicious bell peppers. I ate the chicken, the tiny pieces of onion, and a little rice. Just one mouthful of bitter melon was enough to knock the appetite out of me.
By 5:15pm, though, it had come back with a vengeance. My first stop was going to be the canteen--even before dropping off my books at the dorm. On the way, I ran into Carol, Fion, and Wayne (3 kids from the CUHK cohort) and it turns out they were also heading for an early dinner. With 4 of us there, we decided to eat at the United College Chinese Restaurant instead of the Student Canteen. We ordered Fujian Fried Rice, Sweet & Sour Tofu, Sauteed Broccoli with Garlic, and Beef Vermicelli. It made for a fun and tasty meal, although slightly more expensive than the Student Canteen. It's much better when you have enough people to share a few dishes. We left the restaurant around 6:30pm and went our separate ways. I did, however, find out that 3 of the CUHK IBCE girls live in my dorm: Carol, Fion, and Elaine. None of the girls from the American side do, but that's OK.
Well, that's been my week so far. Tomorrow I just have Mandarin class with Chen Chen Laoshi. I still don't know my entire exam schedule but it seems that Dec. 10th is the very latest I might have any obligations here. I still hope I can leave earlier than that. I love Hong Kong, but it'll be much more fun spending Christmas at home in the US with my friends and family instead of here in Hong Kong in an empty dorm with just a few friends.
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