Adjusting with Helping Hands

I've always been quite Independent. But lately, everything has just been out of my control. Hong Kong is efficient, Hong Kong is fast. However, Hong Kong is excruciatingly complicated. And for all its efficiency its complications seems to get the better of it. I've also had pretty next to nothing to do at times which is so uncommon for me as I would be running around back home, meeting people, doing things, getting business done.


This city runs on its bureaucracy and getting things done both at the University and the city is a nightmare for any person. The long queus and the 5 million different procedures can give you a migraine. I've been running around, literally running to get things done here. I've been applying for student records and faculty application stuff and I've literally run out of breathe getting to places. The most annoying thing was when I had missed one step in my application they said they would wait for me. However, lunch time means lunch time here and they CLOSE THE FREAKIN OFFICE! Yeah, wow, thanks for waiting. Yesterday I had a quick registration for my social science faculty. This was the most head splitting information session on course registration ever. Please don't complain back home at UBC about our registration and course selection, it's a breeze compared to the headache they've created here. So I'm only allowed to add drop courses in the first two weeks. However adding a course doesnt mean I've been approved for it. I have to wait for approval from my department before it is officially confirmed that I can take this course. This approval takes two weeks. Yes, yes THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIME I CAN ADD OR DROP, which means if I dont get approved for the class I'm fucked. So what happens here is that students take like 10 courses in the beginning of the term to see what they like and hope for the best in the add course period. How they juggle this? I have no freakin clue. It doesn't sound complicated but when you need to complete a certain amount of credits for your home institution or for your own graduation plan this is an unnecessary obstacle. BTW they have no waiting lists for courses if its full. You just need to constantly check the damn sight.........


On a lighter note. A bunch of us foreign kids went out for dinner today near LKF ( the bar district). We were joined by a friend of mine who was a friend of my exchange buddy. She met us up at a Cha Chang Teng called Tsui Wah, which is a HK style cafe(diner) that serves up metropolitan fare(HK Style). You'll learn that HK style means incorporating every kind of food style and making it their own. Drinks are alot sweeter ie: Milk Tea, Iced coffee, Lemonade. Food is a lot tastier in the sense that their is alot of seasoning, sodium, msg, etc etc. The food tastes good, but you have to be careful of what you'll eat as there is little vegetables in the meals unless its home cooked. I've been watching everything I've been eating as I don't want to bloat up like last summer. Saving money is also very easy if you know where to go. So we had dinner, there was about 10 of us and after dinner went to a bar in LKF called Oysters. I've been around the area before. Last summer I went to a sheesha bar/lounge called Jem right next to it. We had a drink or two and a good few puffs of the sheesha. This was the most relaxing moment I've had all week. We headed home around 11.

Our friend Shirley has been really helpful, showing us around and introducing us to the local eats and haunts. She took us to a foot massaging place in our second day here at causeway bay. Really appreciate some of the local's hospitality.

When I got home there was a real comotion going on. The local freshmen where having their orientation camp all week and they were in a for a treat tonight as they went from floor to floor or our residence doing tasks and biddings of the seniors. It was slightly juvenile and kinda innocent compared to the hasing done over in North America but it was all good and fun. The locals seemed to have fun, though we were never really offered the same kind of opportunity for integration. I went to bed after witnessing 1 group do their initiation.