Hong Kong so far

Here comes the first update of my life in Hong Kong.

• Been here 2 weeks already. Lots of things have happened, lots of things to come.
• I live at the 25th floor [out of 27] in a shopping centre building [Fanling Centre more exactly] - at the 1st and ground level I have all kinds of restaurants, shops, supermarkets, banks. Almost everything I need. If I wake up early [around 6:45] I can see the sun rising from the mountains. It’s an amazing view. Although it’s a bit far from the centre, I quite like our neighbourhood. It’s safe, green, the air is clean and the scenery is amazing. And it is close to China.
• I think that me and my flamate-Olga [an intern from Greece, working in the same department with me at the PolyU] are the only foreigners living there. People usually stare at us, but we got used to it.
• The train station is just 5 minutes away. I travel everyday with the KCR to go downtown and this gives me the chance to observe lots of behaviours, dressing styles, diversity of faces, haircuts and so on. Here everybody wears a bag [including boys]. And they seem to like Louis Vuitton a lot.
• Clothes are very pretty. Short skirts, leggings, lace, lots of colours. Shoes are pretty also. The girls don’t usually wear high heels.
• Although the weather in this period is hot and humid, I feel cold most of the times because everywhere is air condition. In the train, in the classes at the University, in the buses, shops, malls. Everywhere. Even at home we have 3 air con. In every room. How cool is that?
• I eat sushi almost every day. I think I like more the Japanese food than the Chinese one. Most of the Hong Kong people enjoy more the Japanese one. Although they are so thin and small, people eat a lot. Noodles, seafood, duck, chicken, beef, pork, vegetables, spaghetti, fish and of course lots of rice. And everybody dines out. In the evening, if you want to go out for dinner, you need to stay in a line to wait to get a table. That’s how crowded it is.
• Another interesting thing: if you want to get in a bus, you have to que up. So, everyday and almost everywhere you can see people waiting in a line for the bus. In the centre, in Hung Kom, near the University every morning when I come to work and every evening there are lots of big lines of people waiting patiently to get a place in one of the buses.
• They drive on the left side of the road and the wheel is usually in the right. Young people don’t have a driving license and most people don’t own a car. Just because the public transport is so efficient.
• At the University, I have 16 classes of 2nd and 3rd year students [around 33o students]. Our subject is Personal Skills development [in our curricula we have creativity, communication skills, problem solving, critical thinking, ethical skills, entrepreneurship, trilingualism, global outlook, learning to learn, table manners, juggling and so on]. So far, is quite interesting.
• Last week-end I learned how to bake mooncakes – a special cake that should be eaten during the mid Autumn festival. I think we are only one of the few foreign people that know how to do that.
• Next week, on Friday, 21st of September, I will attend a wedding here. We were invited by our “hosting family” [the family of an AIESEC member that hosted us during our first days in HK and helped us to settle in -find the apartment, buy the furniture, deal with the Water supplier, Town gas, etc]. Usually, on Sundays we spent time with them and we eat delicious dishes at their place. They are great people.
• AIESEC was very helpful. Our buddy team – Tommy, Stephanie and Claudia are really nice and they were a great support during our first days.
• Next week I’ll have my HK Id card. And I’ll have my Chinese name. I have some options suggested by my students, by my teacher and AIESEC. I just need to decide which one.

More exciting news will come next week. Until then, have a look at the photos here.

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