It feels like freshman year all over again – in a good way. I remember coming into ECU as a freshman who was more excited than nervous. Before classes had started, I had spent a week at the EC Scholars Ocracoke Retreat with the other nineteen freshmen scholars. Through bike rides in the rain, spontaneous beach nights, and an unforgettable pizza pool party, we quickly became a family with our own inside jokes and silly photos of each other. With them, freshman year was a breeze. (Miss you guys!)
Fortunately, it’s not too different this semester. Months before arriving to Hong Kong, I joined groups on Facebook, Groupme, and Whatsapp for exchange students studying at CUHK and got a head start in getting to know some people. Upon arrival, everyone was eager to make friends. In the past two weeks, I’ve become friends with students from all over the world and most of us have easily adapted to life on campus at CUHK. On day one, the campus felt gigantic. After 14 days, I now know my way around most of campus, and a clever exchange student (who also happens to be from NC!) showed me an elevator shortcut for getting higher into the mountain the other day. The shuttle bus system also runs surprisingly smoothly, although it’s still almost a 15-minute ride from my hostel to the MTR Station (and then quite a trek up the hill to the psychology building). See the maps below for a size comparison of ECU and CUHK’s campuses. I spent half an hour trying to get the scales of both maps to match. What’s circled in purple is homebase. The red circles are where I usually spend most of my class time.
Fun fact about CUHK: Like Holly Springs High School and East Carolina University, CUHK’s school colors are purple and gold! There’s no escape. However, instead of Golden Hawk and PeeDee the Pirate, our mascot is the Phoenix.
I had my first day of classes on Monday and was surprised at how much the students talked while the professor was lecturing. I found it distracting. My evening class was Perspectives in Human Sexuality and sounded promising, based on the first lecture. However, when the professor asked the class questions, no one answered. I admit that the topics we discussed were a bit taboo, but it was disappointing that the class went quiet. I guess no one wanted to be the one to raise their hand and say “orgasm.” After class, I made a friend from Sweden and we decided to break the ice next time by answering the professor’s questions, no matter how awkward the answer might be.
After classes, we had the CUHK IASP Spring Orientation welcoming dinner for exchange students, which turned out to be an 8 course, 2.5 hour long banquet. I’ve experienced meals like this before at weddings or special birthdays in NY. This was similarly impressive and authentic (they left the head of the chicken there for us.)
At the end of the banquet the advisors made an announcement and told us that we had to find our own way back. We all thought it was a joke since they had provided transportation there. It wasn’t a joke. Luckily for us, the MTR station was only a block away and as we stumbled into the shopping center, eyes glazed and stomachs way too full, we ran into an army of paparazzi taking photos of, who I assume were, celebrities. I believe I recognized one of the men on the stage from ads in the stations.
CUHK is made of up several colleges and I had been assigned to Shaw College, which is tucked away in the northwest corner of the campus on a hill.
Shaw College is apparently known as the “party college,” evident by the noise level at 2am. My hostel, Kuo Mou Hall, is also located in front of the main entrance of the college. So unfortunately, it’s become harder to get a decent night’s sleep. A classmate in my physiological psychology class even recommended that I invest in some earplugs!
The remainder of the week was dedicated to completing applications for summer internships (the real world never stops) and working out in the gym (walking several flights a day because of a broken elevator does not count.)
ABC in HK 