Saturday 28 August 2010

Time for a few pictures? I think so!

Hey everybody!
So, I've finally adjusted to Hong Kong I think. I'm back to sleeping my usual hours, eating three meals a day, and exploring the city. Even the heat seems to bother me a little less.
I figure that this is probably a good opportunity to include some of the things that I've learned or noticed since I've been here in HK.
1)You can use a spoon to eat rice, but you should use chopsticks to put the food onto the spoon. Also, one should eat the rice with the accompanying meat etc., not as separate dishes
2) Not even the local people drink the tap-water without boiling it. Water can actually be ordered steaming hot at restaurants, and bottled water is sold with the distillation temperature on it.
3)One should stand on the right side of the escalator, and leave the left side for walking down. Also, the MTR (underground) escalators are the fastest I've ever seen.
4)Octopus cards are the most ingenious payment method I think I've ever seen. It's a little card used to pay for small purchases and public transit, but all you have to do is tap it to the reader. Best part? You don't even have to take it out of a bag/wallet to use it, just tap whatever the card is in to the reader
5)Rain storms in Hong Kong are insane!
6)A meal at a fast food restaurant is called a 'set', not a 'combo', and the latter will just confuse the staff.

And now, how about a few pictures of my escapades?
Here we have: The View outside my window; the first Chinese meal I ate in Hong Kong,The Castle I live in, and the route that we took on the plane. If you look closely, you'll notice that it goes right over the North Pole!We also have: The A temple we found in the SoHo neighbourhood; The Mid-Levels escalator, which connects some hillsides in the city; The cascading water caused by the massive rainstorm we got caught in; The first of several Geckos I've found in my room; and, last but not least, Bamboo scaffolding, which is all I've seen here thus far!
Hope everyone is well!









Friday 27 August 2010

First Post!

Hello Everyone!

Well, it's been a busy few days, but I've finally found the chance come online and update a blog with what's been going on over here in HK. There've been a lot of adjustments to make, most of which are, of course, still in the making. I arrived a little more than 48 hours ago already.

Basically, I arrived here after a 15 hour flight from JFK. I was actually awake in Halifax around 3:30 AM local time, and then had to connect in New York. By the time I landed at the airport, I had been up for exactly 24 hours, having only slept a little bit on the plane. Surprisingly enough, I actually didn't go right to bed. Rather, I went and introduced myself to a few other foreign students, and went to the mall with one of them.

Yesterday, I met up with a local buddy assigned to me by the university. She and I went to the campus so that I could register, then we went to an area called Causeway Bay, where I bought a local cell-phone, and then again I went to the mall and went to bed.

By far, the biggest adjustment so far, and the one that's probably going to continue for the longest, is the temperature. HK is not only very hot, but quite humid. On the plus side, the climate being so different than that of Canada makes for a lot of interesting flora and fauna. There is bamboo growing outside my residence, and yesterday a gecko ran into my room, so there's an experience in and of itself.

Another big adjustment is the time change: 13 Hours ahead of Nova Scotia. Currently, I'm about half-way through, going to bed around 8 or 9 PM and waking up around 5 or 6 am. As my friends and family all know, this is not near my usual routine, which is usually closer to sleeping at midnight and waking at 10. Hopefully, though, I'll have my sleeping pattern a little better adjusted within the next couple of days.

Well, I think I'll do more updating later. Hope everyone is well!