January 2010 - Hong Kong - On the road yet again

..."On the road yet again" is a way to put it, of course, because I will be living in Hong Kong for the next year, not doing some sort of world tour or something.

Hey, it could have been the case. I've been there before.

So yes, after a whole year (2009) that can be summarized as having been swallowed by a black hole in my memory, I am back at doing what I really love, that is: study in Political Sciences.

There are a few things that led me back on the PS track - even though I went, say, pretty astray, studying in a completely different field in 2009 -, but I think reading the Prince again and watching the entire House of Cards BBC series have something to do with it.
(What can I say: I love you, F.U.).

This is, of course, loads of bolcheviks. In fact, I just came to realize that my crazy side - or whatever you want to call the desire not to settle down in a reliable,-prestigious,-well-payed,-yet-somewhat-not-fulfilling-job - was not going away anytime soon. So there. I'm doing a Masters in International and Public Affairs (another fancy name for an M.Sc. International Relations) in Hong Kong University.

I'll spare you all the silly details that come with such a sudden life change and I'll just give you the juicy part - the "chicken essence" (as my roomate would put it) of my crazy month changing countries, changing careers and changing life.

1. I got the acceptation letter at 3:00 AM on December 29th, 2009. At 3:10AM, my mind was set. The courses were to start 12 days later.
2. I spent my NYE moving out of my appartment.
3. I didn't sleep for a week with various pre-departure preparations - and flew out on the 8th.
4. I could have never done anything without the help of my mother. She didn't get any more sleep than I did - and she even drove me to the Albany airport. So a great big thank you to you <3
5. I told my Canadian faculty/University I was leaving the programme (as well as my friends!) the day before my flight to Hong Kong.
6. I was lacking sleep so much that I forgot my wallet - yes, with all my cards - in my mother's car in a parking in Albany, New York, USA. Of course, I only realized it when in the Narida (Tokyo) airport in Japan. My first thought was that it had been stolen ( I was beyond passed out on the plane). Hence at that point, I "Sorta" freaked out. Thus, I called Montreal and realized I was actually just the biggest clutz since Chaplin (and then again, in defense of his case he only was a fictionnal character).
7. Did you know, entering a country for an extended period of time (one year) with only your passport and 500 CAD on you is not exactly a battle won in advance? Fortunately, when I told the border agent I forgot my wallet in my car, he just looked at me with these eyes - you know, the "you are just a small and idiotic white girl" stare? Outch. But still, better than "I KNOW you really came here to make bombs blow" stare. So thank you, Mr-douane-guy.
8. I didn't have a place to stay when I arrived. All in all, Residence halls applications in Hong Kong are probably more competitive than getting into Harvard Business School, or something. People apply 1 year+ in advance, so I tried and obviously failed. Thus, I just booked the closest thing to Uni on hostels.com and decided to stay in whatever hostel I would find until I found an appartment. That Was a mistake. Because of course, it was in the most sketchy thing Hong Kong has to offer: the Chung King Mansions (CKM) .Have you seen the movie Chung King Express? Well if not, do it, fools. If you did, do you remember the place where there are loads of stalls and Indians and there is the lady with a blonde wig doing a gun shotting? That would be there. After I crossed the HK border/remembered how to breathe, I took a taxi downtown to the CKM. And Oh. My.First thing greating me in Hong Kong - that is to say, first impression of it - are "brown" guys (that's how they call indians/pakistanis here) running after my taxis, asking me if they can carry my luggage and if I want to buy fake brands watches."This is going to be a long year", I told myself. But of course, this ended up being another loads of bolcheviks. A girl alone in a country I didn't know, and not getting where in the world was my guesthouse in that maze, I was on my guards, let's put it this way. So some guy comes up to me and says he had been waiting for me. I just give him a 'yeah, right' look, just like the one I gave all the other people coming to me in the last 20 minutes. After walking around for a while I got sick of it and decided to test my luck and follow the guy. And I must have a guardian angel or something: the thing was he ended up really being the receptionnist of the Guesthouse I was staying in - and thus he was really, really waiting for me when he said he was. His name is Toby and he ended up being a pretty cool guy. And yes, if you you were wondering, he actually knew it was me because I was sporting a hoodie with "CANADA" written on it (for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic games) and all he knew about me was that I was a canadian girl arriving at that time. Even though the staff of the New China Guesthouse was neat and all, the Mansions themselves have a pretty bad reputation in HK. Everybody I've spoke to so far knew what it was - and Asian some guy I had just met asked me if I needed a hug after I told him where I lived. Yes, a random Asian guy, giving a HUG to someone he's never met before.
9. But it ended up being a good thing that I lived my first week in such a place. After I told the Student Affairs of HKU where I lived, Iris, the adorable Student Affairs lady, just made a horrified face, made me fill a form of some kind and offered me a non-campus accommodation the next day.
10. After a little over a week spent in the CKM, I moved into my new place.And I love it :)I had 3 rockin' roomates originally - Kisson, Debrah and Citrine - but Citrine just moved out to a bigger place yesterday. Kisson is a "mainlander" while the two others are Malay-Chinese. I don't have any excuses not to practice my putonghua now, do I? The flat is 5 minutes walk from Uni (ok, maybe 8-10 mins, with all those stupid stairs and people walking in the middle of the road just like des vaches tyroliennes).
11. My classes started on the 11th and they are awesome. So are my classmates :) However, I don't feel I really got to enjoy it yet because of all the
12. PAPERWORK I HAD TO FILL. Student card, accommodation form, survey of services, application, department, faculty, visa, official, form, office, registration, documents, statements, acceptation letter, fill, send to, scan, copy, email to, approved. I'm surprised I don't look any more tan on my passport picture from all the times it has spent in photocopy machines. You went to McGill and thought their administrative process was the epitome of road apples? Well, welcome to HKU. Just the process to get my student card - which I need to do practically anything - took over 2 weeks. And so was the student visa. I finally got the latter yesterday!! Just need to apply to the HK ID card now, but it should (?) be daisies.
13. And you know what? I promised myself once all of this would be done, I would just sit back and relax for a couple of weeks - you know, just enjoy the quietness, the tranquility, the routine, the absence of waiting rooms, paperwork, transportations, disruption from daily life...
14. But - oops. A few minutes ago, I just bought a flight to South Korea.