Dorm Life and Night Life

The hustle and bustle of Causeway Bay

Happy MLK day everyone!

Unfortunately, here in HK, MLK day is not a national holiday, so I had to go to school like a loser! I've had my first two days of school and so far, I think I'll really enjoy classes at HKU. The classes are much much smaller than at UCSC, so far I've only had courses that have under 30 students enrolled. It's amazing! It's wonderful! It's spectacular!

I've also got my dorm room all set up. I love it! For those people who are planning to attend HKU or just want to know what my dorm looks like, here's a little photo tour of my room:

My home for the next five months.

My new pet fish: Hot Pot, Dim Sum and Noodle

No Hong Kong dorm room is complete without junk food. Specifically, salmon sushi potato chips. 

The view from my room!

I feel really comfortable here now that I have a space that's all my own. It's surprising how photos of home coupled with a nice clean bed and a full closet can give you a sense of belonging. And just saying, my IKEA alarm clock is just loud enough and reminds me of all the little japanese apartments I see in Miyazaki movies. 

I've refrained from taking too many pictures over the weekend since we mostly frequented Lan Kwai Fong (LKF-my initials! It's calling to me!), which is the clubbing/drinking square where all the white people in HK go to let off steam. And when I say all the white people, I mean it. During the day, I feel like it's kind of rare to see a white person in the streets, but in LKF, westerners are everywhere! It makes me think the locals are partying somewhere else where western people aren't invited. Anyways, it was a fun couple of days, and I'm pretty sure the pictures would have been priceless, but I didn't want to risk damaging my camera as much as I was damaging my liver. Just kidding mom! But seriously, LKF is not a place you want to have your expensive new camera hanging around your neck. 

The clubs almost always seem to let girls in for free (which was really nice for my wallet), but alcohol was expensive, so everyone just bought liquor (pre-mixed jack and coke anyone?) from the 7-11 and drank and chatted in the street in front of the clubs before going in to dance. It was like one huge block party, and all the whiteys showed up!

After the weekend was over, I brought my camera out for some serious documentation. Last night, my floor-mate Jenny and I went to Causeway Bay for some street food and shopping:

Causeway Bay at night is just beautiful: here you'll find HK time square.

We stopped at a street food stand for some local treats!

Jenny and her dumplings!

For 10 HK dollars, I bought a skewer of five different fried treats. That's less than $1.50!

I also had an HK egg waffle, which is kind of like a sweet waffle-y hush puppy.

We also checked out the shopping in Causeway. If you go to the right places, it can be incredibly cheap. I bought a thin windbreaker jacket from a street stand, quotation mark earrings from Maple (they're so literary!), thick polka dot tights from a street stand and two nail polishes with remover from Sasa (I think it's like a cute version of CVS) for under fifteen US dollars! Jenny and I were pretty smart shoppers though, and we only bought things we really liked and could afford. I might go back and buy a red sweater that I loved for 12 US dollars... It had anchors on it. How can I pass that up?!

Anyways I'm off to Temple Street Market with my floormates! Thanks for checking in, ciao!

Or as they say in Cantonese, zoi gin!