The flight went quite smoothly although it's never that comfortable to sleep on the plane. I had the straight Finnair flight so it only took 9h 50mins. In HK I took the Airport MTR to Hong Kong Station and continued by bus to my accomondation. Have to say based on two days' experience: the buses here are so eager to leave! They don't wait a single moment. They open their doors while they're still in motion and leave when they get the change to close the doors. Well, nothing to complain really, but just have to get used to that.
After I found the right bus, the hall was easy to find (thanks to Google Street View). The bus stop is also named by the hall which made it even easier. In some buses they even have announcements like "Next stop Central Station" with text and voice.
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| My bus stop |
After signing in to the hall, I spent my first evening walking around the neigborhood. I walked first to the nearby sport hall, which was like 10 minutes away from the hall. I thought the walking would take longer, so I decided to also check out the main building of the campus. Suprisingly the main building was open and I was able to get inside. It was weird to walk there alone.
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| Main building hallways are "outdoors". |
Before getting back to my hall, I checked the nearby supermarket... and yep, it's really big and I think I can get just anything from there. And it was actually inside a shopping mall. So shopping mall right behind the corner, yay. Or maybe I should say right under the hill. There's long stairs down to get to the shopping mall, but luckily also escalators to go up. :) Didn't get a good photo of the stairs, so I'll add it later.
Unfortunately, my first night in the hall wasn't that good. Hongkongese don't warm up their indoors so my room is actually quite cold. I also didn't have time or energy to go blanket and pillow shopping after I arrived. And also my roommate (who I haven't met yet as she's still on vacation) had left windows open so I closed them just before I went to sleep.
So didn't have pillow or blanket, just sheets that I brought with me. Dressed up in warmest clothes I found and still it was chilly. Warm shower has never felt as good as it did this morning.
Today I went to IKEA in Causeway Bay to buy a pillow, a blanket and some basic stuff (totally ~650HKD ~65e). Tonight I will sleep better. :)
I'll tell you more about my accomondation when I manage to take some pictures. But the hall is ok, nothing fancy, but clean and nice enough. :) Locals like to talk Cantonese, but I'll try to learn it! Of course they all speak English too.
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| I already know 2/8 of those characters! And what I understand is basically "no / don't" "here". |
In the morning I went to the university to sign up and get the welcome materials. Had to go to three different places and like 80% of the new exchange students I talked to are studying in the Faculty of Business. I also got my first HKU thing with the materials. A bag I can use as a shopping bag.
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| Notice the Comic Sans -font and that the Chinese characters are actually in reversed order. |
HKU campus is build on a hillside so lots of stairs can be see around the campus. Of course I didn't find the right way on the first try so I had to climb some stairs.
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| Long stairs (not photographed from the lowest point). |
At noon I met up with few exchange student girls (2 Americans and 1 from New Zealand) I had talked with in our group in Facebook. We then went to Central to buy prepaid SIM-cards for our phones, explored Central area, ate $16 (~1,5e) Won Ton (actually quite good), some mini egg tarts (super good, in the picture) and went to IKEA.
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| Thought about the picture when had already eaten half of the last tart. |
But for now, good night! :)
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| A polite electronic device asks you kindly to wait for the next post for more pictures. |
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