Orientation day

Yesterday we had the orientation day. Orientation started 9:30am at the campus by lectures. There are apparently about 350 new exchange students this spring at HKU and it seems like half of them are from US. The speakers at the orientation were really easygoing and thus the presentations were fun to listen.

The green gowns seems to be kinda like our teekkari caps, worn in formal enough situations.

After the presentations we were supposed to go to explore campus in small groups and find some places, take pictures of them, return and get prices. We already got drink containers (tumblers?) after returning a feedback form. So our group just walked around a bit, talked and returned to grab lunch the organizers had gotten for us. It was three toasts, juice and an apple. And the bread was white, really white. Andy, a Dutch guy, said that that must not even be bread in Finland. Yeah, it's not, as you can't get so white bread anywhere. :P

The only point we completed: Main library.

I then went to the small "orientation" for Finnish students. A person from the Finnish consulate wanted to see and talk with us. There were five of us, two from Aalto, two from Helsinki University and one girl studying in UK. With us there was also a guy named Timo, who has been in HK for five years and is now doing his master here. He also participated the orientation in the morning as one of the speakers.

Anyway, it was nice to chat with them and talk about some basic things. We gave our contact info to the conslate as we're having a dinner during the spring with all Finnish students currently in HK. Sounds nice. :)

Then it was the turn of Chinese courses "orientation", in which they told about the courses and the sign-up. I'm going to take Cantonese course, but most of the international students are going to take Putonghua (Mandarin). The Cantonese course is mostly a spoken language course and it doesn't include any Chinese character writing. And as I already have studied some Putonghua, the character course here is too easy for me. So going to pick up Cantonese and maybe study some characters on my own.

The Cantonese "orientation" was in a different lecture hall than the Putonghua one. With me in the Cantonese hall were a couple of US students with no prior knowledge of any Chinese and then almost all the other people were Asian looking people who most likely speak some Chinese in their homes.

Even though Putonghua would be more useful, I want to try Cantonese as they speak it in HK and in my hall and I can't study it in Finland. I can continue with the Putonghua when I go back to Finland if I want.

After the orientations I went with Chen and Andy to eat at Westwood, the shopping mall near our hall and we got some Japanese food.

Later in the evening me, Keun Hee (South Korea), Andy (Netherlands), Simon (Australia) and Chen (US) decided to go to Mong Kok to have Chinese dinner. Simon was born in Australia, but his parents are originally from Hong Kong, so to us his almost as a local. We went to eat hongkongese food, ordered many different types of it and shared them. What we all drank was Hong Kong Milk Tea, which you can get either hot or cold. I got mine hot, since the weather was cold. The tea was quite strong in taste so we had to add some sugar in it.

Tsui Wah Restaurant in Mong Kok.

Good food and only $492 ~48e total. So ~10e/person. One dish still missing.

Andy, Simon, Chen, Keun Hee and me.

After that we went to get dessert and chose Hui Lau Shan and mango. Mango as a dessert is hongkongese, said Simon.

I had mango, mango, mango, and mango. The white balls on the left are rice balls. Everything tasted good. :)

Simon got black sesame... Doesn't look good at all, but it was ok.

We then took MTR to Central, meet with some other international students and headed to Lan Kwai Fong (LKF for short), the bar district. I'll say it right at the start: I don't like LKF. So my (most likely only) visit to LKF was less than an hour, but I saw enough. Had to experience it at least once and now it's done.

Bars/discos blast the music also outside, so people hang out on the streets and drink and talk. You can also get beer even from 7Eleven (a store like Ärrä in Finland).

Friday night = lots of people.

But in my opinion too many people, too loud music even on the streets etc. Our group wanted to go to some club, so me and Keun Hee decided to go back home.

But have to say that I like the taxi drivers' attitude towards the people trying to cut in line. If there is a queue for the taxi, they don't take people in that are trying to cut the queue.

It was midnight and the police were there setting up the marks for queues, so we first didn't know where to go, but a taxi driver pointed us there. When it was our turn (queue was not long and there were taxis coming in a line), some guys were trying to cut us in the line like "we're taking this one!". The driver waved his hand and shouted something in Cantonese that it was not their turn. Then some guy, I don't know if he was some security guy or just someone from the line, but he literally threw that other guy from the taxi door like "Fuck off, don't do that again". In Finland people just nicely wait in the queue.

The taxi ride back didn't take that long and was only $35 ~3,5e, which we split.