Category: Hong Kong

(12/21/22)

I find myself recollecting all the sights and sounds and smells and tastes and feel of Hong Kong. From the dorm room that has come to feel like home, as they always do, having somewhere to come home to even in a place so far from home. To the particular beep of the Octopus card when I scan it on a bus or at the metro. To the closeness of the city and the skyscrapers all around me. To the lights and designs that light up the sides of those same buildings. To the brilliant greens of trees against a blue sky. To the comfort of a warm cup of tea, even on the hotter days at the beginning of my exchange abroad. To the sound of laughs around the table at dim sum as we struggle to divide the dim sum dishes that usually come in quantities of three, between a group of four. To the distinct rattle of a two-story bus that is somehow comforting, familiar as a moment of calm on the way to some activity, or else a companion on the ride back after a long day of delicious food and beautiful sights. To the sweet smell and taste of a custard bun or the pepper of the pepper beef dish that I discovered here. To the dazzling sunsets bright against the buildings clustered at the horizon…

It’s my last day in Hong Kong and I join my friends in going to the Tai O fishing village again, wandering around by the water and between shops, counting eight or so cats over the course of our trip. Then we take a ferry to the place where a cable car will take us to the Tian Tan Buddha. On the cable car, we realize that all four of us are to some extent intimidated by the distance between us and the ground, dangling by only a strengthened cable over water and hills on our trip to the buddha.

It turned out that the last cable car returned at 6 pm, and we only had half an hour to see the buddha and return to the cable cars. The stairs up to the buddha also closed at around 5:30, so we weren’t able to walk up to it, but we did get to see it from the bottom of the stairs.

On the way back, we ended up in a car with a see-through floor, as at the end of the day, all the cable cars were used, regardless of one’s kind of ticket (we had opted against paying the additional cost for the cable car with a clear floor). But taking the cable cars at the end of the day and being able to see the sunset over the hills in a 360, with absolutely nothing obstructing the view, blew me away.

As we approached the destination, it was getting towards dusk, and we could only see the vague outlines of trees beneath us, and then the lights of the city and the cars reflecting in the water. A last, lingering view of Hong Kong.

Until next time,

Kelsi

I just took my last final this afternoon. While I’m very glad to be done with finals after weeks of stressing over them, I’m starting to feel that the tether tying me to Hong Kong is unravelling as my time here dwindles. My roommate also returned home yesterday. I have five more days here, including today. I’m caught between missing my family and being unready to leave behind Hong Kong, the friends I’ve made here, and all the experiences and things I have known here. I’m not ready to recollect Hong Kong from the United States, to consider it as an experience gone by, knowing that I most likely will never experience anything like this study abroad again.

It’s starting to really feel like winter, as a couple weeks ago the temperature dropped from the upper/mid 70s to the 50s and 60s. With only air-conditioning in my room, I feel like the humid cold has settled into my bones… I’m always bundled in my three to four layers when I leave the dorm halls.

But before I talk too much about that, I’m going to talk about my exams. For one of my classes, I just had a couple projects to finish. For my other classes, I had more or less traditional final exams, although they differed a bit from the type of exams that I’m used to taking back at Linfield.

The Cantonese-speaking final was like the midterm:  we met with the professor and demonstrated our pronunciation ability and that we could respond to simple questions. However, for the written final, it was much more formal than exams I’m used to taking in college. We had a one-hour time slot outside of class time, in a different building than our normal class took place. Additionally, we were assigned a seat number; both classroom and seat number were posted on our school accounts. The environment reminded me of an AP exam, as we had to wait until it was exactly 1  pm to start the exam, and the exam paper had a front cover to fill out with your information.

The final for one of my literature classes was perhaps the most differently-structured exam I took. We had 24 hours outside of class to write our responses to two essay questions. We received the prompts at 6 pm on the first day of the exam, and we had until 6 pm on the next day to submit our responses.

For the next exam, we received four essay questions that we had to respond to in approximately five hundred words. We had five days to write our responses to that exam. I submitted it last night.

Today’s exam really reminded me of an AP exam. It, again, was in person, in a different classroom than the one where we had normal classes, and we were assigned seat numbers. I believe they combined our class (perhaps two different sections of the same class) with another one, as there were two professors proctoring the exam – my professor and one other. When I arrived at the exam room and saw so many people outside that I didn’t recognize, I was originally worried I had gone to the wrong building. Fortunately, that was not the case. I would estimate our class had around 25-ish students, and there were nearly sixty exam booklets set out. We had two hours to write responses to two essay questions. I haven’t had to write an essay in a timed limit since high school, so it was a little bit stressful having to do that again, but it ended up being alright. And now all my exams are over.

Then, my friends and I went out for dinner. 🙂

Until next time,

Kelsi Otto

(11/30/2022)

It has come to the last week of classes. Next Tuesday is my last class, and then the rest of December, until the 22^nd when I depart for home again, is dedicated to finals. No matter my initial uncertainty about studying abroad and being so far away from home and everyone and everything I have ever known, I now find myself very uncertain and melancholy at the thought of returning home, although I’m excited to see my family, friends, and cats.

As a very introverted person, I was concerned about making friends abroad, but I have found amazing friends here, with whom to laugh, to learn about and explore Hong Kong and each other’s cultures, share about our different experiences… It’s a difficult thought of making friends while abroad knowing that, at the end of the semester, everyone will go their separate ways, and that even if one keeps in contact over WhatsApp, that you might never see those friends in person again. But I suppose life takes you that way with people you meet whether or not there is a definite deadline assigned to your relationship. I know I will always treasure the experiences and friends I have made here in Hong Kong.

Change as a person is a hard thing to define as it is something that occurs in slight degrees and shifts, ups and downs, over weeks and months and years. I can’t say with certainty in what ways I have changed this last semester, but I know it has changed my perspective on life in many ways. It has changed my worldview, for one.  There’s something about living on a different continent, some 7,000 miles away from home, interacting constantly with people from different places than you (although I do have a few friends who are from the U.S.), that makes the world seem so much smaller and closer.

I have been fortunate enough to travel abroad prior to coming to Hong Kong, but traveling around for a couple weeks, and mostly to visit historical sites, didn’t give me the same sense of perspective that studying abroad in Hong Kong for over three months as of now, has given me. I remember how I felt looking out the window of the bus to take me to my quarantine hotel on the day I arrived. After midnight, after my 24-ish hours of travel from Portland to Hong Kong, looking out at the lights that we passed, the bridges we passed over, the signs in English and traditional Chinese. The buildings taller than I had ever seen before; the crowdedness;  the markers of a big city; the anxieties of knowing no one and nothing; being handed a bunch of papers after arriving at the quarantine hotel; and being sent to my hotel room for the next three days of quarantine.

Now I see the beauty of the multiplicity of buildings reaching to the sky, the lush green of the trees that are plentiful around Hong Kong, which I wouldn’t have expected in a big city (Hong Kong has more greenery than I’m used to seeing at home).

I have to admit a certain uncertainty about returning home after this experience abroad. And while I plan to enjoy every second I have left in this beautiful city and culture, I’m not sure how to fit who I am now into the place of who and where I was before. This experience has certainly given me a perspective on who I want to be in life, and how to move forward.

Talk to you again soon!

Kelsi

(11/20/2022)

I went on a trip with some people from my dorm hall to Tai O, a fishing village, today. It was a two-hour trip out to the village, split between two bus rides, but it was definitely worth the trip.

After arriving, we had lunch. And if I had to say which meal has been the best meal I’ve had so far in Hong Kong, this would definitely be among the top ones to come to mind. There was a fried rice dish; a beef with rice noodles dish; calamari; a dish with pineapple and chicken; a beef and bell pepper dish; and then a noodle dish which I think may be chicken in a sauce on top.

We didn’t really talk at all during the meal, we just alternated reaching across the table for food, but it was delicious. One interesting cultural difference that came up was where one was supposed to eat one’s food from. We had a bowl and plate, and it seems that in Hong Kong and China, one puts food in the bowl and eats from the bowl, while the plate is for bones. In contrast, in Malaysia, I believe, it appeared to be the reverse: one would spoon food onto one’s plate and eat off the plate.

After lunch, we walked back through a little market, where among other fish and seafood were pufferfish hanging from the ceilings of the shops. There were also what I think were small dried pufferfish, with googly eyes put on them and a hat as decorations to be bought. These were both things I definitely would not have found in the U.S.

Then we went on a little boat ride, which was called a dolphin boat ride, so you know what we were looking out for. It was quite a nice ride, first between seaside-houses, and then out into the open water, with the late afternoon sun, gazing at the green hills covered with trees to our left and right, out to seeing the bridge between Tai O and Macao.

At one point, we came across a shiny moving object. We all collectively held our breath, thinking it… a dolphin. At varying moments as we approached, I thought it was a dolphin, then a flip flop drifting about, or some sort of other circular object. It turned out to be a poor fish at the surface of the water, swimming around in circles, with something wrong with one of its fins, poor thing. The boat master circled around for upwards of ten minutes trying to come alongside the fish, and I, in my happy-ending hopes, hoped it would be to help the poor fish, perhaps release it if it was caught on something, or else try to right the fish. However, instead, he caught it with the net.

Next, we landed and took some pictures against the nearing sunset, and went on a hike. However, first, at the foot of the hill we were going to hike up, there was a stand with some local snacks. I ended up getting a frozen watermelon (my favorite fruit) slice. Some of the other people got frozen pineapple or one of the warm snacks. I found the watermelon quite good, although it was hard as a rock when I first got it. We ended the hike around dark, got dinner, and then headed back to HKBU.

 

 

 

 

 

Until next time,

Kelsi

(10/17/2022)

It’s the seventh week of classes and midterms are coming up in the next couple weeks. I’ve seen so many things and experienced so much that it’s impossible to recount it all. But for this post, I’m going to try to focus on classes and studies.

Most classes here are three credits, so I’m taking five classes: two literature classes, a mindfulness class, intro to Cantonese, and a science fiction film classs. Rather than two or three classes a week, most courses have a single, three-hour session, a week (however, my mindfulness class is only two hours/2 credits, and my Cantonese class is split up into a one-hour and a two-hour section, but the rest are three hours). I have to admit that concentrating on classes for three hours is rather difficult, although sometimes professors will let us out early, and usually give a ten-minute break in the middle. Lunch/breakfast is very welcome after my 8:30/9:30ams.

Classes tend to have more lecture component than those that I’m used to in the U.S., although participation is still counted toward the grade in some of my classes.

However, course grades at HKBU (Hong Kong Baptist University) tend to be based on much fewer, but more heavily-weighted, assignments – for one of my classes, for example, the grade is determined by a midterm paper, final paper, a presentation and presentation report and participation.

Okay! So, the presentation! It appears that presentations are a key part of the grades for classes here at HKBU, and my three main academic courses all have an important presentation. For one of my literature classes, I gave a presentation a few weeks back. It was the first presentation of the semester (there is a presentation for every class session for half of the semester), which perhaps wasn’t a wise choice, given I didn’t know anything about how it was expected to be structured. And it was not a one-minute presentation—not two or five or ten. But a fifteen-minute presentation, for each of me and my two partners… so, I’ve now given a fifteen-minute presentation!

The other two presentations are five-minutes long, so around a normal length for presentations back home. I’ve now given two presentations, but I haven’t received any grades yet, so I have to admit I’m a little uncertain about how things – presentations and otherwise – will be graded here, as there were no concrete guidelines about the presentations.

My classes at HKBU are much smaller than I expected, somewhere between twenty and forty students, so larger than most Linfield classes, but nowhere near the size of classes at state schools — I think HKBU has around 10,000 total students.

Talk to you again soon!

Kelsi

(8/28/2022)

I woke up this morning to 18 new bug bites, and my two from the previous days were quite inflamed and red. Nevertheless, I ended up joining the people on my dorm floor on a trip to a fishing village and the beach. I am honestly astonished by how many events I have been going to recently. It would not have been at all out of character for me to have taken the day to rest after everything that I’ve been up to for the last few days—the karaoke/hot pot dinner event of two days ago, and the hike I went on yesterday.

But, to explore as much as I can of Hong Kong before classes start, I’ve kept joining activities. And although I’ve been exhausted all the time–my legs feel ready to fall off from the steep uphill and downhill path from the hike yesterday, especially when we take a similarly steep path to the beach, it’s been worth it.

I’ve introduced myself countless times over the past week, my name, where I’m from, and my major (creative writing)—always a conversation starter that leads into a discussion of books, my planned path after college, etc.—but the conversations have all been really nice.

So, taking it from the top, the group met up at 1pm and walked to the closest MTR station. We scanned our Octopus cards (which are used primarily for paying for public transportation and at some stores, in addition to paying for the air conditioning and for laundry in the dorms) and found our first train. We stayed on for a few stops then switched trains, got off (scanned the Octopus card again, which calculates the charge based on where you first scanned it—I don’t have much experience with public transportation so I don’t know the system for paying for the metro in other places, but I assumed it would be more like buying a ticket for a particular stop; the Octopus method seemed a lot simpler). We got on a bus, and then we had arrived at the fishing village, where we had dim sum for lunch.

I’ve had dim sum before getting to Hong Kong, but this experience was distinct. To begin, when we got to the table, there were a couple tea pots filled with near-boiling water and an empty glass bowl. One member of our party, who is from Hong Kong, poured the hot water in the bowl, and began dipping the tips of everyone’s chopsticks, and then the cups, bowls, and spoons in the water to sanitize them, saying it was a tradition to ensure everything is fully cleaned.

The flavors in the food were quite different to what I was used to when I’ve had dim sum at home. Also, rather than ordering dishes separately, we got several dishes for everyone to share and then divided the bill equally between all of us. I can use chopsticks fairly well, but I’m still trying to learn how utensils are used in Hong Kong—often, by using a fork or chopsticks with one hand to eat, and then holding a spoon with the other hand beneath the food, I assume in case anything falls.

After lunch, we boarded another bus. I ended up sitting next to a guy from mainland China, and after exchanging information on where we’re from and a little bit of small talk, we began sharing songs. I’m not really one to start conversation, and he gave me the impression of not being super talkative either, but it was a nice way to exchange things about ourselves and the cultures we come from.

On the second bus toward our final destination (the beach), I hadn’t reached my seat before the bus started moving, and I didn’t walk toward my seat as much as I was propelled toward it.

I hadn’t thought to bring my swimsuit, so I sat on the beach with another student studying abroad, and we chatted about ourselves and our experiences of arriving in Hong Kong, but after that mostly just sat in silence with our thoughts, watching the view of the mountains and the water and the rest of our group playing in the water.

A little after sunset, we walked up to the bus stop. We had to wait 15 minutes since we had missed the last one, and when a bus arrived, I was very doubtful that we would all fit. And indeed, sardines could hardly be more packed more than we were. I could only hope that no one would fall over. People were packed up to the front door and if someone fell sideways at the front, they would’ve landed on the driver. There were too many feet for me to stand in a very stable way. I wouldn’t say I’m necessarily claustrophobic, but I don’t really like people to be super close to me, and someone’s backpack was pressed against me for the whole ride, but I preferred many times to be in that packed bus than outside at mercy of the biting bugs. I was amazed that at the progressive stops people kept boarding.

At one particularly sharp stop, someone did fall on me, but I managed not to fall over completely. I had thought we were packed tightly enough that we couldn’t fall, but it was more like dominoes. Luckily only a few of us were affected. Then we were at the metro, and  it was just a short bus ride home. The charge was around 6 HKD for that final bus ride to get back, but students get a discount if they say suk se (“dorms” in Cantonese) to the driver. I gave myself the rest of the night off and ate a cup of noodles for dinner – my dorm floor has a machine for hot water and cold water, which can I just say is amazing.

I’ll write again soon!

Kelsi

Today’s adventure was a hike along Dragon’s Back Trail. We were supposed to meet at the metro station at 2pm, but me and one other student missed the bus to the station because it was too full, so we walked the 13 minutes to the metro station. I’ve gotten used to walking a lot since I got here, and walking in hot weather, though my body is still getting used to it: my ankles are stiff and a little bit painful but not unbearably so.

Most places I would need to go are about a 15-20 minute walk away from campus, including the closest Community Testing Center (to get the required PCR tests after arriving), and a mall to buy supplies or get food (I didn’t realize until I was allowed to eat out in a restaurant again after 7 days of quarantine/medical surveillance that the canteens on campus allowed takeout). I was glad I was going on the trip in a group, as I most likely would’ve gotten lost if navigating by myself the bus rides and train stops to our final destination.

The hike was supposed to be 2 hours long, but it ended up being closer to 4 hours. I have never in my life sweat as much as on that hike, and I don’t know if even waterproof sunscreen would have been enough. Luckily most of the trail was shaded by trees and bushes.

At the end of the hike, my part of the group fell behind and were momentarily concerned we had taken the wrong path, and, to complete the picture, it was getting dark and we were too far behind to hear anyone in our larger group. Luckily, cell phones prevailed and we were able to contact the rest of the group. We sped up and were able to join the others. On the last stretch of our walk, we passed by the largest spider I have ever seen (excluding tarantulas). It was probably a good two or three inches in diameter, sitting in its web just off the path.

After the hike, we all went out to dinner. Over dinner, as I’m a creative writing major, the conversation came to books, my favorite book, favorite author, etc. One person at the table asked about the first book that started my love for reading and writing. Up to this point in my life, I guess I had never realized the extent to which globalization causes the exchange of popular culture between countries. Someone suggested Geronimo Stilton (until writing this, I had not realized that this book series originated from Italy), and when I brought up A Series of Unfortunate Events, everyone exploded with excitement. I hadn’t expected that, or really for anyone to have recognized the series, much less to apparently have grown up with the same series that I had grown up with in the U.S. But I guess that, given how books, movies, songs, and other media originating outside the U.S. have become famous within the U.S., it’s not surprising that U.S. media would also be well-known outside the U.S.

Classes start in a few days but I’m looking forward to exploring more sights before starting!

That’s all for now!

Kelsi

I woke up the morning of the 16^th of August knowing the day had finally arrived when I would depart for Hong Kong, all nerves. All the preparations made: airplane flights, quarantine hotel arrangements, visa, PCR test result back negative…

My first flight was out of Portland on Air Canada, to Vancouver. I sat one row back from the front of the plane, with no one sitting next to me, enjoying the view out the window and picking up on a few words in French every so often as the flight attendants made announcements in English and French, and amazed by the numerous small islands that passed beneath us.

My second flight required me to check all my documents again at the gate—a three-day quarantine hotel reservation, visa, negative PCR test result (the sample taken within 48 hours of the time my flight flying into Hong Kong departed), vaccination record. And then to boarding. When I got on the plane, a calming music was playing over the speakers, which made the moment feel all the more bittersweet. In a rush, I was seized by a quote from Sam in The Fellowship of the Ring, Sam stopping behind Frodo in the wheat field at the beginning of their journey, telling him that if he took one more step, he would be farther from home than he had ever been before. Once my plane arrived at its destination, that would be the case for me. The wheat waved before my eyes as I stepped forward to the next cabin.

11 hours later, I arrived in Korea, and around 5 hours after that, at midnight, I arrived in Hong Kong. The airport was emptier than I had ever seen one, and the path they had constructed for us to get our required PCR and RAT (rapid antigen test) reminded me of the line to get on a ride at an amusement park, but after everyone has left for the day. We presented our QR codes (we had to fill out a Health Declaration form before arrival, with information on vaccination status, quarantine hotel booking, plans after arriving in Hong Kong, etc., and the QR codes held the information from the Declaration) and got a test kit and a lanyard with a code on it, got the tests, left them in a bin (they used the numbers/code on the side to connect each of us with our test results), got on a tram to somewhere else in the airport, through more checkpoints for documents, to the baggage claim, and then into a line for a bus to send us to our designated quarantine hotels.

I was dropped off at my hotel around 2 am, after nearly 24 full hours of travel. I checked in at the desk, signed agreements, received a stack of papers, then got handed a bag of my dinner, got put in an elevator, and sent to my floor with my luggage.

Over the following days, I had to take a RAT every day, submit a picture and the result to an online program and leave the test outside my room, and take my temperature once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and record if I was feeling any Covid symptoms.

And then, on the 20^th of August, I checked out and boarded an Uber for campus. I had to check in with a provisionary ID card and have my temperature checked (temperatures are checked at every entrance to campus, as well as to the residence halls and cafeterias). This was my first real exposure to the heat (around 90 degrees Fahrenheit and humid), as the hotel had been at an unchangeable 68 degrees AC temperature, and I was hauling around two suitcases and a backpack. I got my student ID card, room key, key to the unit box, some disposable masks, and a package of 7 RAT tests (I was required to take a RAT test for every day until the 10^th day after arrival).

The way dorms are set up at HKBU is entirely different than at Linfield: there are two towers, each 20 floors tall, and my dorm is on the 17^th floor. The dorm itself looks like a typical dorm room, albeit arranged somewhat differently than the other dorm rooms I’ve lived in before. There’s a closet with some drawers and a rod for hanging clothes, drawers under the bed, a desk with two book shelves above it, and several drawers underneath it, as well as a fridge and freezer.

Rather than a whole floor sharing a bathroom, in the arrangement here, two dorm rooms (both doubles) share a bathroom—two sinks, one toilet, and one shower. There’s also a rod for hanging clothes to dry spanning the ceiling of the dorm room, and a station for hot and chilled water in the lounge on my floor, which is extremely convenient.

Students pay for AC and laundry with what’s called an Octopus card, which holds money. There’s a machine connected to the AC unit, and a separate one for the washers and dryers, by which to pay with the Octopus.

On this first day, I started by walking the 15 minutes to Lok Fu, a mall nearby, with someone else on my floor, sweat pouring down my face (not an exaggeration) because of the humidity. And for an awakening to the different weather patterns in Hong Kong, just before reaching the mall, it went from clear skies to pouring, though the rain was welcome in the heat.

Class doesn’t start until the 5^th of September, so I have the next 16 days to explore Hong Kong and get used to living on campus, but those are stories for another day.

Until next time!

Kelsi