Arrival and the first few days...

8 January 2008

Hello all!

Well, I have made it to Hong Kong! I have been here for a couple days now and I love it so far. It is very neat, very different, but very neat.

I flew out this past Saturday. I left my house at 6:20 a.m. and I flew to L.A., then Taipei, Taiwan, and then to Hong Kong. By the time I landed in Hong Kong it was 9:00 a.m. on Sunday my time but 11:00 p.m. on Sunday Hong Kong time. (The time difference is 14 hours!) The flight itself was pretty good. I watched four movies and learned how to count to ten in Cantonese.

On Monday I was able to check into my dorm. The dorm itself isn’t bad. A little smaller than dorms at La Crosse… And people here do not deck out their dorms quite like we do. No futons, t.v.s, refrigerators, or even microwaves in the dorm. The beds are very short too. I fit alright but if I was much taller I would hang off the end! The showers are interesting to work- you have to turn the hot water heater on and then turn a lever to the left and then turn the water handle to “cold” in order to get hot…that took me a while to figure out. I am on the fourth floor of a 14 story building… (Thankfully we do have elevators—or else living on the 14 story would be a bear!) The dorms themselves are a hike away from campus. There is a big hill between the dorms and the academic building.

There are many hills here. It is almost like San Francisco. The hills are never ending and steep. The campus is not at all like La Crosse. It has only three buildings: the academic building (where all of the classes are), the amenities building (where all of the offices are) and the sports complex. All three buildings are very large and basically attached. Each building is about seven stories high and there are escalators everywhere. The academic building is also connected (by a walkway bridge) to a 7 story shopping mall! The subway system (which is called the MTR here) is on the bottom floor of the mall.

It is very easy to get around. The public transportation is great. The MTR is pretty easy to navigate. We (some other exchange students and I) had to take the wrong train a few time in order to figure it out but I think we have the hang of it now. The pollution and smog is very bad in some parts though and in some places I found it almost hard to breathe… It makes me appreciate clean air!

On Monday afternoon I met up with four students from the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Foundation (HOBY) that I met in the states at a leadership seminar last year and who live in Hong Kong. They showed me around Hong Kong a bit and took me to Mong Kok. It is an area of Hong Kong that is exactly what you would picture Hong Kong being. Flashing lights and advertisement everywhere, tons of street markets, tons of people, big busses and cars everywhere…. It was really neat. We ate some kind of squid balls and fish balls (I liked the squid ball but not the fish ball) and then we got some tea drink that had black jelly ball things in it—they tasted kind of like gummy bears. It was interesting. Pretty tasty. I have eaten only Chinese meals since arriving except for one (at dinner last night I had pizza----it’s my favorite food-hard to give up!!). I have tried some very interesting foods…

Yesterday we went to Hong Kong Island and explored. Hong Kong Island is where all of the big businesses are. We walked around a few parks and saw all of the tall buildings. Some have very neat architecture. We went to see the Star Ferry at Victoria Harbor and we walked through Hong Kong Park. We also saw St. Andrews Cathedral.

I do not have internet service in my room as of yet, I am working on that. I have to apply for wireless internet. I am able to get online and check my email at the academic building. I do however have an address and a phone number:

Cassandra Holtz
403A, Hall 5
Student Residence
City University of Hong Kong
22 Cornwall Street
Kowloon
HONG KONG

My room phone number is:
85234423231

(I’m not in my room all that often though… soon I will have a cell phone and I will email that number when I have it.)

Tonight I am going out with some other exchange students and tomorrow I have some orientation program. On Saturday there is a tour and my classes start on Monday.

Overall things are going great… The airport had lost my luggage but I got it back yesterday!! and the hills are crazy, but I’ll get in shape… The smog is thick but bearable, maybe I’ll get one of those health masks to wear around (probably not but…)—many people wear them actually. So, I don’t have too many complaints. I am enjoying myself so far and already learning a lot!

Please send emails or letters or call- it is nice to hear from people at home

I miss everyone and will write again soon!

Cassie