Not a lot has really been going on here the past few days. After an intense week of the "exchange social life" (this is something my body is still getting used to), my weekend consisted of catching up on sleep and being a little bit productive. Although it may not have been the most fun filled weekend it is still pretty amazing to wake up and see a city skyline from the foot of my bed (the positives of living on the 14th floor).
While there are some bonuses of the 14th floor there are also some drawbacks. First of all the elevators are terrible! They take forever to get up/down after you push the button. I'm also having some roommate issues. Surprisingly, this is something that I thought would not be a problem and never something I was worried about. After having an amazing freshman year at IU with my international roommate Pei Pei I thought 5 months with a local in HK would be a breeze and a great learning experience (I was a little wrong about that). I'm not sure whether it's just her, my floor, or the attitude of local City U kids to exchange students but they are not always the most friendly. Of course, that is very stereotypical and I have met some really sweet locals. All of the security guards of my hall are fabulous (Amy is my favorite).
Another "mind-blown" moment that I have all the time is how much pride people here have in their jobs. Even the security guards at the library (that's right my library has security guards) do their jobs like their lives depend on it.
The whole stereotypical respect thing in Asia doesn't exactly ring true either. At least in the settings that I'm in I don't always see it. For example, in class there is very little respect for professors. Students walk into class 15-30 minutes late and are on their phones and computers for the entire lecture. This is definitely not something that American professors would tolerate.
Final thought for the day is the inefficiency thing again. I mentioned how we have a different school issued card for the myriad of activities I need ID for (gym, room, getting into my hall), but I have also found that everything else here seems to show very little efficiency. Just to get my gym card today I had to attend a pointless instructional video, provide a copy of my City U ID card (which they clearly already have in their system), and also provide my own photo (which again is already in the system).
Everyday is a new adventure and I'm looking forward to many more!
Side note- I booked flights to Taiwan last night! I'll be in the country for a long weekend to celebrate the lantern festival. We are traveling to Pingxi on the 24th of February where 2,000+ lanterns are released into the sky (google some pictures and of course i'll take some when I get there)!
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