Hong Kong Study Abroad

The last few days have been a bit more quiet with school starting, but I have still been able to do a few things. School is a lot different here. First, each class is comprised of a lecture and a tutorial. Lectures are 2 hours with about 300 people, and my tutorial is me and a group of about 20 students that have another class for 50 minutes with the professor. We only have one lecture and one tutorial per class per week, so I have an awesome schedule! Second, there is no homework here, solely a midterm, a final exam, and a project (and maybe one more assignment), which will make the exams very stressful. Lastly, and most obviously, the professors don't speak the best English, which can be annoying at times, but its something I've gotten used to with everybody here.
The weather on Monday and Tuesday were rainy, which kind of ruined our plans, but we still found stuff to do. My friend Eden and I went to “Freeing Hong Kong,” which is like breaking out of jail and you have 45 minutes to do so. Inside a small room, we had to find clues to find the codes to open locks that led to more clues, and eventually we found the code that unlocked the door. Definitely nothing like I've ever done in America!

While we were in the area, we went to the Temple Street Night Markets, and it was so interesting to see. There was everything you could think of there (including half of the people of Hong Kong), nothing like what you would expect from a stall on the road. From phones to remote control cars to clothes to high powered binoculars, they had it all (but the quality of the products may not always be the best). Just for fun because I didn't want to buy anything, I bartered with a watch seller and I got him to go from 380 dollars down to 250 dollars. Not bad for my first barter!

Today we went to The Peak finally (which is the highest viewing point in Hong Kong, a building on top of the tallest mountain), and it did not disappoint. Although the bus ride up was scary (going around big curves on the edge of cliffs without a guardrail), it was still fun. Once on top, we could see both the northern and southern sides of the island, and it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. We didn't have time to look out the south side of the mountain, so we spent the whole time looking out the north side from the terrace, which overlooks the bazillion skyscrapers of Hong Kong.

We could see all of Hong Kong from the terrace (no really, I think we could. And even part of China), and it was awesome to see mountains in the background of the skyscrapers. We stayed for sunset, and we got to see the sun set over the Sea-something I’ll never forget. Then once it got dark, the city lit up and it was so cool to see all the buildings lit up from above. It didn’t seem like we were in Hong Kong at all, but more like on the outside looking in. Hopefully with the weekend coming and me adjusting to school I will be able to do a lot more things, I'm excited!