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Peter CT Ha
University of Sydney, Australia
Exchange to City University Hong Kong, Hong Kong
My first day and first time living far away from home.
I arrived to the Hong Kong airport at about 7:30pm; it took me about 45 minutes to get through customs and then I hopped onto the bus that takes me to the University.
The trip from the airport to the University went through some very nice bridges. Some reminded me of the Anzac Bridge in Sydney, the Golden Gate in San Francisco and the London Bridge. I had the feeling of seeing all the famous bridges in one place. After the bridges, the bus went through many tall residential buildings and the dazzling lights gave me a burning sensation of excitement and happy to be alive for that moment.
After all that excitement, the student hostel check-in wasn・t smooth as the office was closed and the night security guards were having trouble understanding my English. Finally, they called for the senior manager who was able to help me checkin for the night. That night, although I was so tired from an eight and a half hour trip, I could not sleep but I found myself staring at the beautiful night lighting that lightened up the sky from downtown and Hong Kong island. The Financial Tower, I was told that it・s the tallest building in Hong Kong, was the stand-out and has a white light which beamed up into the cloud. It gave me the feeling of Star-gate movies where they beamed people up for transportation.
The student hostel was almost on top of a mountain and I was living on the 13th floor of a 14 floor building. Although the room was much smaller than at home, I was lucky to have a wide window. It has an almost a 180 degrees viewing of Hong Kong at night. Being at the top floor, the view is almost like being, sleeping, at the Centre Point in Sydney.
I got up early due to the time differences and again keeping my eyes on the view of the city and Hong Kong Island. Many sky scrapers were visible and some even touched the cloud above. I waste all my spare times looking, appreciating the view, and then referenced them on the travel tourist map.
Turning up to the University ground, I had to go through many steps and buildings to get to my supervisors・ office. Luckily he was an American Chinese and so no problem with communication. I got the paper work done and then found my way around the campus.
Another thing which amazed me was the canteen, many choices of oriented food and quite cheap too. The people there ate a full meal course at lunch and many, many of them. It・s almost like the rush hour at a Christmas sale. The people queue up in many long lines to pay for the food and then queue again to pick up the food.
Ah, the best thing was that they have the Octopus card, an electronic card that allows you to store cash in there and pay for all your travel, meals, and spending activities. It・s a very neat system and very efficient, especially when there are many people around and everywhere. It would be congested if they don・t have this card and the customer service officer worked very fast and efficiently as well. I don・t know how much they get paid per hour, but seeing them working inside the counter is like a robot, repeating moves, and fast calling for the next customers. It・s almost like watching a movie in fast-forward mode.
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