Daniel TRACEY

Student of The University of Sydney, Australia
Exchange to The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Before going on exchange, what I most looked forward to (among many things) was the opportunity to be among a new group of people from a totally different culture. And after 4 months living in a hall (dormitory) with local Hong Kong students, this indeed turned out to be the most enjoyable and rewarding part of my time – so much so that I stayed on an extra 3 weeks with my new friends after exams finished.

Exchange students at my hall had generally not mixed closely with the local students in the past (due in no small part to some ‘unusual’ practices of the HK students, such as occupying the lift for 15 minutes at a time while advertising some upcoming event to students on every floor, and deciding 2am was a great time to shout through the corridors every night). So it took persistence to let them know I wanted to be part of their community – the first time I asked to join them for dinner, they didn't think I was serious and I was left waiting in the foyer! But pretty soon my Canadian roommate and I connected with our ‘floormates’ and joined in with whatever they were up to – meals, basketball, card games, the Hall band contest, and going out to different places in the city. We even managed to introduce them to a new restaurant ourselves (although unfortunately it was raided by police just as we started eating!).

Towards the end of my time, my floormates took me to explore some further parts of Hong Kong and one took me to his family's (very tiny) home, which was a fantastic experience. It was really worthwhile and fun getting to know the local students, gradually understanding their vastly different culture and customs (including their sense of humour), and sharing a bit of my background too. It's great to have made some good friends in a completely different country.

Of course, this was just one side of my exchange experience. It was terrific to meet other exchange students from all over the world as well. Hong Kong itself was a fascinating city: there was so much happening all the time (restaurants that open and are packed out at 3am!), and incredible food and shopping, but there were also some things I didn't expect – like beaches and beautiful hikes. I was lucky enough to travel to Burma, Vietnam, Singapore and mainland China, being especially captivated by the latter. Studying at a different university in a new environment was also a worthwhile experience.

Thank you to the Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Awards for making the whole adventure far simpler.

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