Arrival

My Air China flight left Beijing half an hour late (as expected) just before 10 am. I had moved out of a center seat (given to me after asking the Air China check-in clerk for a window seat) to the back of the plane where I secured 3 empty seats in a row. Score! A whole row to myself!!!

About an hour into the flight, I sat up in my window seat to take my meal, that was when an Asian man asked if my aisle seat was taken, even though my blanket and things were on the chair! After about 20 minutes, it became obvious that he intended to sit there the rest of the flight. I was so disturbed by his "intrusion" that I couldn't manage to sleep in my remaining two seats as much as I tried. The other 5 people who also had rows to themselves, were still sprawled over their seats, so he apparently had only my row left to invade. Couldn't he see I was already quite sick and tired? Since I was in a not-so-loving mood, I made it a point to cough as much as possible in his direction.

I made it out of the airplane still cursing him. Still quite tired from all the activities from the night before. I picked up my 2 pieces of fairly heavy luggage and proceeded to the bus terminal. The A41 took me as far as Shatin for only $20 HKD. The ride was about an hour. The cab ride from the Shatin Bus Terminal to CUHK was $55 HKD. That ride was less than 10 minutes. Not knowing rules of etiquette in Hong Kong, I decided to err on the safe side and tipped the driver $15 HKD. Overall, my total transportation cost was $90 HKD, much cheaper than the suggested $300 taxi ride on the IASP website.

My accomodations were, to my surprise, a single room at the very end of the C block. They had already sent me my room assignment via email a week earlier, so I knew I was assigned to PGH1. A girl named Ruby who was standing at the front desk when I checked-in helped me bring my bags to my room; she happened to live a couple doors down from me. She told me she was from Guangzhou.

After some initial unpacking, I went straight to sleep. When I awoke, it was already 6:30 PM. I was pretty hungry so I roamed outside the dormitory and inquired to the first person I met about food; the person turned out to be a Chinese girl who also happened to live in my dormitory. She had studied in Beijing before pursuing her PhD at CUHK. She led me to a small restaurant called "Maxims" in the subway station. According to her, it was the only restaurant available at that time of night. I feasted on a bowl of white rice and two small dishes of the same green vegetable, which cost me $18 HKD. Here is where I began to miss Chinese prices. I calculated in my head while eating that the same meal probably would have cost me only $2 RMB at the most at school.

After my modest meal, I managed to remember my way back to my dorm, but after a few minutes in my room, I was antsy again. I still felt there were some more things which needed to be done as soon as possible. I needed to find the campus convenience store and get some necessities! I asked a tall, white guy walking into the dorm where I could find a convenience store. He said the campus store was probably already closed (it was 8:30 PM) and so I should take the train to Shatin and check the mall there.

I paid the $4HKD fare and off I went to Shatin, which was only 2 stops away. The train, unlike in Beijing, wasn't packed-like-sardines full. There may have even been some seats available. Once I reached the shiny and gorgeous mall, I managed to find shampoo and conditioner, but none of the daily necessities which were so easy to find in Beijing. Every market in China would have had them! I knew of three places in BSU （Beijing Sport University) alone that would have carried everything I was looking for that night! But in this large mall, they didn't seem to sell such basic goods as shower slippers, clothes hangers, and other such knick-knacks. I began to wish I had packed more with me, despite how full my luggage had already been.