Monday, May 20, 2013

Some Parting Words for Hong Kong...



So, the day is finally here. The end of an era! I can't believe I'm saying this, but this is the last day of my study abroad adventure. In roughly twelve hours, I will be getting on a plane and heading back to California. The best way to describe my feelings right now are a savory blend of excitement, sadness, anxiety and a tiny dash of nausea. I've been anticipating heading back to home sweet home for awhile now, but when all is said and done, I'm really, really sad to be leaving.

I'm going to miss a lot of things here- the walk to school, the cheap food, the surprise in locals' faces when I kinda sorta speak Cantonese, the weird desserts, my little dorm room, the constant supply of noodles, the mini-buses, Lan Kwai Fong nights out... but what I'm really going to get heart-sick over are the people here. My international friends, my local friends, my professors, the security guard at our building, the kind strangers helping out silly foreign me- Hong Kong has become a place synonymous with kindness and benevolence for me. So many people have touched my life here, and I am so sad to leave them behind. Thank God for Skype, am I right?

I now have a slew of international friends, contacts and connections. Everyone I've met here has contributed a new perspective and a new way of thinking to my worldview and I don't think I'll ever think in quite the same way again. I don't know if it's silly to say, but living in another country, even for a short time, gave me a sense of a much, much wider world than I previously understood. And now I have couches to sleep on in tons of other countries! It's awesome!

I came here with nothing but fear and excitement, I'm leaving as a confident, slightly less awkward lady. I feel like I can do anything! I made friends with all sorts of people! I'm independent! I bought my own food and learned to cook like a champ! I've seen a little bit of the world and I can talk to backpackers without feeling intimidated! I have actually been a backpacker! Wow!

I also feel that I've gained a new love and respect for my California home. I miss my family and friends all the time, and consistently reminisced with other Cali locals about our awesome people, food and beaches. I remember growing up in Huntington Beach, enjoying bonfires and being silly with my friends so fondly. I always talk about my friends back in Santa Cruz, and how much I appreciate their kindness, humor and generosity, and the magic of the UCSC campus in the woods. Everything I look back on is colored with a rosy light, and I can't wait to be reunited with so many little parts of California I've missed while I've been abroad. Don't get me wrong- I love exploring and trying new things, but it seems as though in the end I'll always want to go back to my Redwoods, beaches and Mexican food. I don't know where I'm going, but this experience makes me think I know where I'll end up.

And this is my last schmaltzy thought, I promise. This experience has taught me that anything is possible. Life is always more interesting when you say yes and take chances, rather than saying no and feeling safe. I don't know what's in store for me next, but I definitely want to live abroad again at some point.


For my last day here, a few of my friends and I braved the unbearable humidity to hike Dragon's Back, and here are a few of my favorite photographs of the afternoon. Thank you for sharing this journey with me! I really appreciated all of the support from my friends and family throughout this experience and I can't wait to be reunited with all of my lovely Californians! Until next time!











I'll miss you Hong Kong!

Friday, May 17, 2013

8 Things to Know About HKU

Chi Wah Learning Commons
My journey through Hong Kong is almost to a close and I feel as if I've really gotten to know the area.  It's incredibly safe, pretty affordable (if you don't shop at Cartier/like eating noodles) and it's easy to navigate for English speakers and Canto speakers alike. I am so happy I chose this destination because it's wasn't too intimidating for me as a first time traveler, yet it put me into situations where I had to try new things and be slightly uncomfortable, which made me grow up a little bit. Until you have to ask other people in line at the grocery store why the lady at the cash register is yelling at you, you're not a real HK education abroad student. It's safe to say that anything can happen in a place where you don't speak the language, and being okay with that is probably one of the best lessons I've learned in Hong Kong. Ditch the fear and anxiety! Take control of your situation, even if it's awkward and you have to use hand gestures!

For any folks who are thinking about studying abroad, I realize I've barely talked about the university that I've come to know and love! This is especially dumb of me, because the whole reason I created this blog was to show other undergraduates who were interested in education abroad in Hong Kong exactly what was going on, and essentially it became a bit more like a travel diary. No matter! I had to put those photos somewhere...

So! Hong Kong University! What's up with that? Well, not to brag, buuut HKU is the top university in Asia and apparently, the 16th best university in the world. The students here are incredibly friendly, the classes are engaging and the teachers really love to see their pupils succeed. I thought the campus was beautiful (especially Centennial Campus, which was just built recently and the modern architecture is unlike anything I've ever seen!) and though it's fairly difficult to find your way around at first, people are always willing to help out!

Here are a few fun facts that I wish I had known before studying abroad at HKU.


1. Starbucks has student discounts.


Seriously, try their creamy tea lattes...
So maybe it's silly to start this list here, but when really thinking about it, this was the main source of my joy/money issues. Hong Kong University has two on-campus Starbucks locations. And both of them give you a discount. For example, my favorite, the matcha green tea latte is 28 HKD normally. With the student discount, it's 19.5 HKD. If you bring your own tumbler, it's 16 HKD. That is 2 US dollars for a Starbucks drink. Do not tell me that's not incredible. They also have a special deal where you can add a muffin to your drink order for an extra 10 HKD (1.50 USD)! For me, this was awesome.


2. Choosing your faculty is important.

Main Building
When you are accepted to HKU, you have to start apply to a faculty and then to a major within that faculty. As a film student back in UCSC, I applied to the Arts Faculty. However, it's important to note that there is no film program at HKU. "What?" you ask, "No film program? That makes no sense!" Ah, but there are film courses within other majors, and for my film degree, I only need two upper division film electives to transfer. So, I looked through all the faculties and majors, chose one that had numerous film courses (Comparative Literature), and applied to that. Since you have to get approved for courses here, and three of the five have to be in your faculty, it's important to choose a faculty that has a lot of courses you are interested in/transfer back home. This sounds complicated, but they make it easy for you. Just remember, choose a faculty with classes you want to take! It's important!

3. They offer great Mandarin and Cantonese classes for foreigners here.

Centennial Campus
Everyone speaks Cantonese in Hong Kong, but most people also speak some Mandarin and some English. So if you speak any of these languages, you'll be fine around town. However, taking a Cantonese class was one of the most rewarding parts of being in Hong Kong. I was able to converse with locals (kind of) and we had awesome field trips to HK style cafes, dim sum restaurants and one day my teacher brought in egg tarts! During the lecture! For everyone! It was so great! If you can get into one of Chow Bun Ching's classes, you're set. She's one of the best teachers I've ever had, and she literally wrote the book on Hong Kong Cantonese. Some of my friends chose to take Mandarin because they can continue their studies at their home uni, but honestly, I felt more excited about using these skills now rather than continuing them later. Either way, take a language!

4. It's helpful to ask other students about the classes they're taking.

In front of Run Run Shaw Building
When I arrived at HKU, I was planning to take a documentary film appreciation course and a film/television production course, both of which were considered Journalism courses rather than Comparative Literature courses. Even though I applied for these classes way in advance, because they were outside my faculty, I wasn't approved for either one. As a result, I had to scramble a bit to find some classes that worked in my schedule. When I spoke to other arts students, they all told me about interesting classes they were taking and I tried a few out. At the end of each one, I would go up to the professor, tell them I was really interested in the material and that I was an exchange student from California. Surprisingly, this got me into a couple of classes that I might have not been able to take otherwise!

5. The first two weeks of school are called the add/drop period for a reason.

Main Building Second Floor
At HKU, you have to be approved for courses. It's not first come, first served, so there's always a chance you won't be accepted into your top choices. You find out within the first two weeks whether or  not you got in, and until you know, you're not locked into any courses. I repeat. You are not locked into any courses. You can take anything you like, try it all out, see what fits you! I understand this is pretty uncomfortable for UC kids, since crashing and switching around your schedule once the quarter has started always feels a bit weird, but at HKU It's always better to take a few random courses you may or may not be super serious about.  You don't want to be stuck with too few approved classes at the very last minute!


6. The second semester is chock full of vacation time.

Main Building
Don't spend all your money at the racetrack! The best part of studying abroad for me was definitely taking trips to Southeast Asia with my friends and the second semester at HKU gives you plenty of opportunities to do so. From a day off to a week off, we had time during Chinese New Year, Reading Week, Easter Break, Ching Ming Festival and Labor Day to do anything and everything. It's pretty much the best thing an exchange student could ask for.

7. Finals week is a whole month long.

Chi Wah Learning Commons
Don't start hyperventilating quite yet! Yes, finals week takes forever, but it gives you extra time to study and (if you have money after all those vacations) travel! As an arts student, I didn't even have any final exams, just final papers, and as a result my semester ended as early as May 13th! One of my friends went back to his home country on May 4th! Your semester can be as long or as short as you want/your finals will allow.

8. HKU has an awesome location.

In front of Bijas Vegetarian Restaurant
Right in the heart of Hong Kong Island, you can really go anywhere in Hong Kong from HKU in less than an hour and a half. There are a couple of other universities here (CUHK, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Polytechnic), but I would say that HKU is far more geographically convenient. And it's also, you know, amazing and wonderful.


Study abroad in Hong Kong. Seriously. Just do it.
Those are a few of my best tips/things to know if you're interested in studying abroad at HKU. I hope you consider this destination because it really has been an amazing experience for me and I would recommend it to any potential exchange student, especially if you want to live in a city, love business, finance or kung fu movies, or if you are interested in Asian culture. If you have any other questions, feel free to email me at lkkincai@ucsc.edu. I'll tell you everything and anything I know!

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

New Territories, I Love You



Hello gang! How is May treating you? I've spent the last few of my free days visiting the beach, spending time with my international friends (who I probably won't be seeing for a very long time) and mentally preparing for the reverse culture shock I'm expecting to experience back in the US. Not as ambitious as I'd hoped with all my hiking and exploring, but sometimes a girl just needs a break from all the hectic responsibility.

I finished reading Madame Bovary (I honestly wasn't that impressed) and got through season 2 of Game of Thrones (now I can start catching up to everyone!). Tonight a group of my close friends and I are getting free drinks in Wan Chai, my roommate and I had a nice breakfast across the street and talked about the future, and when I was walking home I realized I'll only be going this way six more times before I'm back in California. I'm really going to miss a lot of things here, even if I'm itching a bit to get back home.

During late April, I visited the New Territories a couple of times with my friends, once on a school sponsored eco-bike trip (I've mentioned it here before, I adore bike trips) and once to visit a wetland park (which ended up being closed). I really love visiting the New Territories, just because it feels like an entirely different world than the crowded city in Hong Kong. You can see all sorts of birds and other wildlife, and it just feels like another world. If you come to visit Hong Kong, make sure you take a trip somewhere in the New Territories.
























Sunday, May 12, 2013

Can it be?! The End of Finals?!


Done with finals! Done with finals! Done with finals!

I feel like I should be more coherent than I am acting currently but, what the heck, I'M DONE WITH FINALS! This is cause for celebration!

It feels a little bit like I'm back in high school since I've finished all my work. The past few summer vacations I had a job or an internship lined up to keep me busy through the summer heat, but this year, I have no plans whatsoever! Yay! Exciting! But also a bit depressing.

I had an internship lined up but thanks to some really, really, REALLY bad luck, bureaucracy ended up doing some damage and everything got a little bit destroyed. So for the first time since starting college, I'm going into my summer jobless/internship-less. At first, I was totally heartbroken about it (a lot of my finals week was spent moping about and eating cereal in an oversized T-shirt) but then, when I thought about it, this is the last chance I'll have to live with my parents before I'm the post-grad who couldn't find a job. Right now, I'm just an out-of-luck student! I can work anywhere, doing anything! I can do anything! I can braid my hair, get a suntan, be a vegan! All those fun things that Californians do!

So I'm trying to be positive about it. I also have tons of customer service experience, so as long as SOMEONE SOMEWHERE needs work over summer, I think I'll be able to bring a little income in. We'll see how it goes.

I have 9 days until I'm flying home, and until then I get to do nothing but have fun Hong Kong adventures. Some of the highlights of the week include:
- Sai Kung Villages (Cliff-diving maybe?)
- Dragons' Back Hike
- Stanley Beach/Stanley Market
- Ladies' Market (last minute souvenirs!)
- Wan Chai Ladies' Night (Free drinks! In 9 days, I have to be under 21 again...)
- Lan Kwai Fong Ladies' Night (More free drinks!)
- Finishing Season 2 of Game of Thrones (DON'T JUDGE.)

I'm really excited to go home to see my family and my boyfriend and my dog and my friends and Mexican food, but these last few days are going to be incredibly bittersweet. I walked to the gym this morning and practically started crying because the walk was just SO beautiful and I'm going to miss it so much! It had just rained and all the little snails were out and I could see the ocean and everything was so nice.

It's funny, it feels as if it took my whole study abroad experience just to feel like I really belonged in Hong Kong. I now feel like I'm settled into my routine, I'm working out, eating right, making friends in the community, and just like that I have to pack everything up and move away again. It's a strange sensation. But I'm definitely not done with living abroad. Next time I'll just have to stay a bit longer I think.

I'm close to the end of this blog, and if you've been reading throughout my adventure, I really appreciate it! I'll be blogging a lot more throughout this next week since I expect to have so much free time. And if you know a good place to get a summer job, let me know!

Sunday, May 5, 2013

The Happiest Place on Earth isn't Disneyland After All...

Since I heard about Ocean Park in Hong Kong, I have been dying for a visit. Aquariums are one of my favorite places to relax, I adore rollercoasters and when I heard they had pandas, I was basically chomping at the bit to get over there. So for Fiona's birthday (and to celebrate our last day of real classes at HKU), a few of us put our walking-all-day shoes on and made our way to the park.

I was not disappointed.

Ocean Park is basically part aquarium/part zoo/part theme park, sprinkled with Hong Kong spirit and dried squid for sale. I fell in love with the animals, the beauty and cheesy spectacle of the Old Hong Kong section (which really looks like what I imagine to be the setting of those awesome Hong Kong noir novels) and the view from the cable cars was just spectacular. The beauty of the aquarium was especially moving for me. The colors and shapes of these animals just makes you realize that nature is extraordinary and way more complex than any wild visions of your imagination! For a day, my friends and I had a chance to be kids again, and it was one of the most wonderful days I've had here in Hong Kong.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of the day. We used Fiona's camera so the quality is, once again, a bit strange.

A (blurry) bird's eye view from the cable car

This is probably why they call it Ocean Park...

Being cute... in hats!
This could be an electrojam album cover...

The stingrays, sharks and fish moved so fast, it was impossible to get a decent picture!

My absolute favorite creature in the aquarium is the leafy seadragon


Besitos from Nadine to the weirdest fish in the world

Ying Ying snacking on some tasty leaves
Look! It's Shifu!



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I thought this badass robo seahorse might have been the best thing I'd ever seen.

The end of the night



Nadine is eaten by the world's scariest clown.

The birthday girl and her special friend
After all the fun and craziness of the day, we went back to the dorm, watched Django Unchained and had McDonald's deliver cheeseburgers, milkshakes and french fries (McDonald's does delivery here!). With only 16 days left in Hong Kong, I couldn't have asked for a sillier, more exciting day.

Now to write final essays. To the library!