Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Settling In
Today, I will have been in Hong Kong for approximately 4 weeks. 四个星期来我住在香港了。I would say 4 weeks is about the time it took me to settle myself in. 我认为四个星期过了才可以适应了。Although I am by no means close to feeling "at home" or know my way around in the least bit, I do feel that the stresses of adjustment have leveled off. 虽然我还没适应但是我现在没有那么紧张。
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
中文桌子 - Mandarin Table
Every Monday night, the New Asia College hosts a Mandarin table for local students to practice their Mandarin with native Mandarin speakers. It's quite a lot of fun since everyone is speaking Mandarin and the food is buffet-style, plentiful, and delicious. (Lots of vegetarian choices).
In the latter half of the dinner, an invited speaker will present a subject. Each table will then have 5-10 minutes to discuss. A balloon will go round each table and the person caught with the balloon when the music stops must speak about the table's conclusions. I have learned quite a few new things from attending this event!
Fitness Passes and Basketball
Today the OAL finally gave out the first round of fitness passes to those who applied early. My pass is apparently good until after the 2008 Olympics. I look forward to utilizing the fitness bunker which is just in front of my dormitory. There is no way I can leave my dorm for class without passing it and doing some crunches.
The nearest basketball courts to PGH1 are located in the Chung Chi College track which is opposite the KCR station. Basketballs and soccerballs can be borrowed from the room which is embedded in the bleachers.
The nearest basketball courts to PGH1 are located in the Chung Chi College track which is opposite the KCR station. Basketballs and soccerballs can be borrowed from the room which is embedded in the bleachers.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Interesting Behavior
I've noticed an interesting behavior here in Hong Kong which I've come across twice now. I'm not sure where it comes from, but it boggles me.
Example #1
During my first week in the PGH1 dorm, I was anxious to get internet access via the ethernet jack in my room. All the documentation I found on connecting was Windows specific so I called ITS to inquire about how to get my mac powerbook on the VPN from my room. The reply was simply, "Your dorm doesn't support mac connections." After asking some more questions, the voice simply said, "CUHK doesn't support macs." And that was that. Being new to Hong Kong and noticing the domination of Windows, I was ready to accept that there may be some modern cities and universities that simply ignore the Mac OS. However, my hazy knowledge about networks told me that connection issues were OS independent, especially since I was able to leech off of some faint wireless network nearby. After two weeks of tolerating patchy internet, I decided to call ITS back. Again, the initial response was, "You can't connect to the internet from your dorm." This time I badgered the guy because I simply couldn't believe that a university like CUHK could so blatantly neglect mac users. He put me on hold for a minute or so to consult with his co-worker and when he came back, lo-and-behold, macs COULD connect to the VPN from CUHK dorms and he walked me through the steps.
Example #2
I go to the university dining halls (called canteens here) for meals. Usually after a couple minutes of staring at the huge menu on the board, I can decipher what is vegetarian...which is about 1-3 choices out of 50. However, some items are clearly easy to turn into vegetarian dishes. For example: can they make the beef fried noodles without beef? can they just not add the pork chop to the rice and tofu dish? On three occassions, when I asked the cashier if this was possible, they would say no. Finally, I would have to go straight to the cook and they would say it was no problem.
So, my question is, why is it that locals here are so quick to say something is not possible, when they are not sure yet whether it IS possible or not? It is not that they give me attitude or are pessimists, not in the least. They genuinely think it is not possible. This way of thinking differs greatly from what I encountered in Beijing. In Beijing, I found that nothing is impossible. Whatever you want, they can make it happen. Who can say no to a customer with cash in their hand? Especially for such a small request?
Example #1
During my first week in the PGH1 dorm, I was anxious to get internet access via the ethernet jack in my room. All the documentation I found on connecting was Windows specific so I called ITS to inquire about how to get my mac powerbook on the VPN from my room. The reply was simply, "Your dorm doesn't support mac connections." After asking some more questions, the voice simply said, "CUHK doesn't support macs." And that was that. Being new to Hong Kong and noticing the domination of Windows, I was ready to accept that there may be some modern cities and universities that simply ignore the Mac OS. However, my hazy knowledge about networks told me that connection issues were OS independent, especially since I was able to leech off of some faint wireless network nearby. After two weeks of tolerating patchy internet, I decided to call ITS back. Again, the initial response was, "You can't connect to the internet from your dorm." This time I badgered the guy because I simply couldn't believe that a university like CUHK could so blatantly neglect mac users. He put me on hold for a minute or so to consult with his co-worker and when he came back, lo-and-behold, macs COULD connect to the VPN from CUHK dorms and he walked me through the steps.
Example #2
I go to the university dining halls (called canteens here) for meals. Usually after a couple minutes of staring at the huge menu on the board, I can decipher what is vegetarian...which is about 1-3 choices out of 50. However, some items are clearly easy to turn into vegetarian dishes. For example: can they make the beef fried noodles without beef? can they just not add the pork chop to the rice and tofu dish? On three occassions, when I asked the cashier if this was possible, they would say no. Finally, I would have to go straight to the cook and they would say it was no problem.
So, my question is, why is it that locals here are so quick to say something is not possible, when they are not sure yet whether it IS possible or not? It is not that they give me attitude or are pessimists, not in the least. They genuinely think it is not possible. This way of thinking differs greatly from what I encountered in Beijing. In Beijing, I found that nothing is impossible. Whatever you want, they can make it happen. Who can say no to a customer with cash in their hand? Especially for such a small request?
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Great Dance Performance
Coming out from the New Asia College Building, I discovered several dance groups performing for each other and a couple dozen bystanders. They were really quite good. Watching them reminded me of dance groups during my undergrad years and how they all really highlighted and showed off a young, sexy attitude. I saw nothing remotely like this in Beijing. The young people there still seem to be pretty "well-behaved".
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