Articles by Sean Donohoe - Hong Kong
September 1, 2005
I arrived in Hong Kong on August 15th (note: you can come as early as you want as long as you already have the visa) and the program’s official first check in day was on the 27th. This gave me plenty of time to adjust to the Hong Kong life before classes and school started. I had a rather uneventful airplane ride over. It was 11 hours from San Francisco to Tokyo, Japan and then another 4 hours from Tokyo to Hong Kong. In Japan there was a delay due to bad weather (heavy rain), and I think also some kind of problem with the airplane that made me wait an extra 2 hours at the airport.
Once in Hong Kong and settled down in my hotel it was time to venture to the “immigration tower.” This is the place where you must go to do all kinds of different government things, including apply for a HKID if you are staying in Hong Kong more than 180 days. The process was really very simple, the people were all very friendly, and the forms were easy to fill out as they were in English and Chinese. All you have to do is fill out a 1 page form, give them your passport to prove identity (and it better have a visa in it valid for more than 180 days) and then they will take your photo. They will then give you a temporary paper ID card and in 2 weeks you can come back to claim your final real card - it’s a “smart card” with a computer chip in it.
Hong Kong is really very different from the US and you will quickly see the differences if you leave Hong Kong island. The island is a very modern place as it is full of tall buildings and shopping malls. All the buildings are connected and you can walk for miles and never have to go outside. All the lower floors form one huge endless feeling shopping mall! You can jump on the MTR (subway) and go from any place to just about any other important place in just a few minuets. This is all very nice but as soon as you leave the island and go to the other places you begin to see the differences: it starts to feel more like China. The buildings mostly look old and run down. Many of them are housing buildings which are built by the government for low income people. They are about 20 or 30 floors tall and on the outside just look really dirty. (I think it is because of the dirty air in this city). On HK Island it is rather easy to survive only knowing English but in many other places people hardly know English and it becomes a bit difficult. In all the areas I have been the food is good and usually rather cheap ($4 or less) if you go to “fast food” types of places.
After my 16 day stay traveling around Hong Kong it was finally time to go to the school for orientation. The orientation was about what you would expect; they give you some materials to read about different policies of the school and then have a power point slide show that is basically a copy of the same thing they gave you to read. This goes on for 2.5 hours and after it is over everyone goes to a buffet lunch for 1.5 hours in a Chinese restaurant on campus. The food is good, you get to meet your fellow exchange students as well as some professors, everyone is in a good mood and there are many new kinds of food to try. After this, if you have not already done so, you can go do your official registration and receive your student ID card almost instantly. The student ID card is also a “smart card” with a computer chip although I have not yet figured out what exactly it is good for.
Sean Donohoe
Hong Kong
October 1, 2005
My fellow students all call HKUST (UST as it is known in Hong Kong) the “University of Stress and Tension,” but I have not seen/felt this pressure. The first 2 weeks at school are a very lazy time. All the lab classes and the tutorials (more on that later) are canceled, and the professors just don’t do much. Homework in the school of engineering (mechanical department) is basically non-existent. I highly recommend everyone use this time to explore the city, explore the school, meet new people, and have fun. As I write this we are entering week 6. Of course we now have more work and more classes than we did in the first 2 weeks (labs and tutorials and all that) but it is not nearly as heavy as we are used to at UC Davis (with the quarter system). For me making the transition from College of the Redwoods (semester system) to UC Davis (quarter system) was very easy and natural. Now making the transition from the quarter system back to the semester system leaves me feeling lazy and sluggish.
I live in UG Hall 1, which is close to the main campus and connected by a bridge link. I must say it is a very convenient place to be, because you are always just a few minutes away from you classes. Even with its advantages, adjusting to the dorm life for me has been rather difficult! It’s hot - you are required to buy pre-paid cards for the AC - it’s small, it’s not comfortable, it’s noisy, and I just generally don’t like it. On September 27th I went to school to “check in” to my room, and almost instantly 4 people approached me wanting to swap rooms. Some were offering sea view rooms, some were offering rooms on floor 1 (the “quiet” floor), and some were offering rooms on the mixed male/female floor. I had no idea why so many people would want my room on floor 4 with a rather dull mountain view. Soon after I agreed to a swap to floor 1 (Note: HK system GF, 1, 2, 3, etc… floor 1 is the same as floor 2 in the US) I discovered the reason everyone wanted my 4th floor room. Apparently that is the real lively floor, the one with things to do all night, noise all night, and the large group of friends who like to go out and cruse the night life. I am thankful that I did not stay on that floor, as even floor 1 is noisy enough for me.
Food on campus is very nice; there are many options to pick from: Chinese food, western food, McDonalds, coffee shops, “Grab and Go” (a place with pre-made foods), and even a super market called Park and Shop. I find that eating meals at the school usually costs me about 25HKD ($3.20 USD), not a bad price, but it does start to add up eating 3 meals a day like that.
The school turns into a ghost town on the weekends (and I hear holidays also) as all the local students go home. Hong Kong is a small place so why not go home if home is only maybe 45 minutes away by car? I too try to leave on the weekends, go explore, and see what there is to offer in this city. If you do stay at the school on weekends, you will find many of the foreign exchange students still there, as well as many of the students from mainland China. This can be a good opportunity to meet your fellow exchange students and/or make plans for fun next weekend.
Now for what you have all been waiting for; classes, tutorials, homework, and exams. The UST mechanical engineering department is really very different from what I experienced at UC Davis. Classes are of course mandatory as in all schools but no points are added or subtracted if you go or don’t go to class. I find that on any given day most classes will be totally missing about 10% of the students, and another good 10-20% will be in class, but will be sleeping. Some people will take a different approach however; some people will play video games on their cell phones. One time I even saw a person sitting in the very front row playing a Sony PSP! Of course that does mean, well over half of the class is listening and working, but the image of the people who are not working is just more apparent. All the lecture notes are on the internet so I guess that does take away some of the incentive to pay attention in class, although I still find it helpful to take notes and just use the internet notes as a general outline. Tutorials are closely linked to the class and are held once every week, or every other week, although some of them may not start till the 4th week of instruction. I am tempted to compare the tutorials to discussions at UC Davis, although they are in fact really very different. Usually they consist of one TA (a graduate student) and a large group of UG students (about half of the lecture) in a single room. It has been my experience that usually the TA will choose to go over again what they consider the most important parts of the last week’s lecture, but keep in mind they only have 50 min to do this. Most of the students (in the engineering classes) seem uncooperative and will usually be noisy and talk amongst themselves during the tutorial rather than listen to the TA. I have found the homework load to be many times lighter than at UC Davis. For example in MECH141 (the same as ENG45) we have one homework assignment per week, but it is expected to take no more than 50min to complete. In my other MECH classes I still have not yet seen an assignment. Personally I find no homework and no quizzes to be a bit scary as you never really know what the teachers expect you to understand at any point in the class. At the same time, it gives us more freedom and puts the responsibility on us to be confident with everything covered up to the current lecture. Still, I don’t know about you, but at UC Davis I do much of my learning when working on various assignments with a small group of other students. This brings me to the last topic, exams. Here at UST (well in all my classes anyway) there are just 2 exams, the midterm and the final, and they add up to be about 75% or more of the grade (similar to engineering department at UC Davis). However since it is a semester system, the exams are spaced much farther apart in time.
It turns out that Hong Kong UST and UC Davis are very different, and yet really much the same. When you boil it all down it is still a university, and students still come here first and foremost to learn. It is just a “new” (new to me) spin on the same things we have all experienced in some form or another.
December 7th, 2005
My time here at HKUST has been very interesting, I have had lots of fun, enjoyed seeing lots of new things, tried many new foods, and meet lots of new people. Of course there have been some rough spots, and some things I had to deal with, but nothing major, just some logistics, and errors in paperwork that undoubtedly always happen in situations as complex as evolving into a different culture. So far I have not been really sick; actually with all of the people around I am a bit surprised I have not caught any kind of bug. One time I did start to feel bad, it lasted for 2 weeks before I finally went to the doctor. Well, after two doctors, one specialist (and a lot of money), I discovered my problem is really a very bad allergy brought on by the air in Hong Kong. I have never in my life lived in a big city, and have never had to deal with big city air quality reactions like this before, so I think it is only natural to have some side effects.
We had 2 holidays (sadly one fell on a Saturday) National Day on October 1st and Chung Yeung Festival on October 11th. National Day is something like July 4th in the United States and there are lots of fireworks that can be seen in the sky near Hong Kong Island (although I just watched them on TV). Chung Yeung Festival is something totally different that has no equivalent in the US. It is a holiday about hiking I found out from my roommate, and sure enough I did see many people take to the hills on short and long hikes. People also go to remember their dead ancestors. I have no ancestors in Hong Kong, so I chose to go on a hike. The day started around 8am and I got back around 9pm I think. I was not hiking that whole time some of it was spent in transit. After much planning and thinking and trying to find maps, I set my sights on Sai Kung. I was informed they had a great beach with white sand and clear water, and it has very few people. It was quite the experience, first I had to take a bus that only runs on holidays into the far countryside. Then I switched to a ferry and went to a very small village which looked like a land that time forgot. Then the walk began. It took about 2 hours and on the way there was another even smaller village with a nice little restaurant that I tried (good food). I am still wondering why people would choose to live so far away from everything. When I finally got to the beach, it was everything I had hoped for, clean clear water, and not too many people. But first there was one last obstacle… the bridge (seen in photo)! Being an engineer, I took one look at this thing, and would not trust it, but I really wanted to go to the beach, and the water it spanned was not so deep, so I went for it. On the way, some other people turned this narrow thing into a two way bridge! They must be more fearless than me.The last time I wrote my article I said I had no idea why students called this the University of Stress and Tension but now I think I have more of an idea. The 3 weeks surrounding midterms (October 17 – November 4th) for me have been pretty busy times, with less sleep than I normally like to get. I have also noticed that class attendance is greatly improved during this time (similar to UC Davis when you find people you never knew were in the class on the day of the exam). Here is a list of some of the extra stuff I had to do during this time:
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Week 1: Study for upcoming exams, work on 3D presentation.
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Week 2: Study more, give 2 presentations, take 2 midterm exams, and start homework.
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Week 3: Finish homework, take last midterm exam, and complete 2 labs.
It must be pointed out that this is of course just the extra stuff that has been added on top of my normal classes and reviewing notes. If you just take a look at my PDA for these 3 weeks you will see the calendar is all filled up with only a few free slots. I think other students would agree with me, midterms are a busy time. I have noticed even the library has more people than normal studying hard and long. I am definitely looking forward to a little R&R time after this part is all over.
On my “to do” list before I leave Hong Kong-- I still want to learn some Cantonese. So far I have been able to pick up the numbers 1-10 and it has helped me a lot in restaurants. Many fast food type places here use a system I find similar to Burger King back home. After you order your food you get a number, and you must wait until the number is called to pick it up. Well, if you don’t know Cantonese it gets a bit tricky, and usually you just have to stand right next to the counter with your ticket. When your food is ready, the staff (if they see you standing there) will let you know.
October 31st (Halloween if you did not know), after my economics midterm exam, I decided to go with some people to LKF (Lan Kwai Fong). It was my first time to go there for real (I had walked through the area one other time). Wearing my Halloween costume (which I also wore to the midterm exam) and with 3 other people, Alexia (Chinese), and 2 French friends, we set out for an interesting night. None of us had any idea how popular this place would be on Halloween, but it was free, and only about 1 hour away so we decided to go. LKF is a big club/bar/party area in Hong Kong. They have some famous clubs and some great places to eat. When I exited the MTR (mass transit railway) I saw people… thousands of people! The police were out in force, the roads were blocked, the crowd was actively managed. We were like ants marching to sugar water in a very slow manner. It took almost 1 hour to make the walk, which normally takes 2-5min. Once I got there I found the streets were crowded but the clubs were not really. We went into one to give our feet a rest and sat down. Of course it was full of black lights and we looked extra nice in our costumes then. I tried a much overpriced glass of apple juice for 45HKD ($7.50), and the rest of my group also tried some expensive juices (it was required to enter). After some time we decided to leave and walk around some more. Outside many people stopped us and wanted to take photos of Alexia and I wearing the costumes she had designed to be 100% unique. I think I know what it is like to be famous now, always being stopped for photos. I noticed the time was about 12:20am so we decided to leave, but we had forgotten about the long walk back! We got to the train just after 1am, and of course it was already closed (closes at 12:57am). The only choice was take an expensive taxi, or take a night bus if we could find one. At this point in time it was down to one of my French friends and me. Alexia had taken the bus home and the other French friend had left maybe 2 hours earlier (actually as soon as he saw the huge crowds he left). We wandered around a bit and found a bus that appeared to go closer to the school than we were now so we decided to take it. The bus stop sign said it went to some place called Choi Hung Street and we hoped this meant it went close to the Choi Hung MTR station where there is an all night mini-bus to go to the school. It did go to Choi Hung but it did not stop at the MTR; we saw it go on by and go quite far by. No matter, our legs worked okay, and we walked back to the all night mini-bus. Soon we were back at school (about 3:30am) and for me it was time to go to bed, I had a class the next day at 9am ( soI wanted to be back by 1am).
Hong Kong really is an interesting, lively place. If someone reading this comes here in the future on EAP, I am sure they will not be bored. There is always shopping, great food, and always LKF (if you like that kind of thing). As for me, I don’t think I will be going back to LKF often (like some people I know.) It is an interesting place, but not really my kind of place.
December 23rd, 2005
It is final exam time here at HKUST the school is buzzing with activities and the "cold" weather has set in. People have all traded in their shorts and short sleeve shirts for long pants and heavy sweaters. The outdoor swimming pool is closed and generally people try to avoid being outside as much as possible. As I gaze upon my thermometer I see it is 69F inside the dorm right now.
Today was officially the last day of classes for me and many fellow companions here. It is a mix of happiness and sadness for many, in that a lot of the people I know will be going home now (as only a handful of us are staying the year). My own thoughts have mostly turned toward the 4 final exams that are looming just around the corner next week. Final exams seem to be a much bigger and more elaborate thing here in Hong Kong than they are at UCD. The final exams are not in your class room; they are held in special "exam halls", and you are required to bring along your student ID card which is checked to ensure you are who you say you are. I find it all rather interesting, and look forward to seeing what final exams in Hong Kong will be like.
In the city it is really starting to feel a lot like Christmas. There are skyscrapers with lights all up and down them, there are decorations all over the place, all the old familiar Christmas carols you have heard in the US are being played around the city, and people seem maybe just a bit happier with the holidays coming so soon. When I first came to Hong Kong I was totally un-aware that Christmas was such a big thing here. I assumed it would be more like China, but in fact it is not. I don't know what people here do in their homes - how many have Christmas trees, what (if any) Christmas rituals they observe - but the city as a whole seems to outwardly embrace Christmas even a bit more than in the US.
I am of course also looking forward to my first every Chinese New Year's celebration. I have seen photos of it, and I have seen a fancy observance of it in Las Vegas, but I have never been a part of a real authentic Chinese New Year's celebration before. I will of course take a lot of photos and some of them may make it here so stay tuned (it happens toward the end of January).
That's all I have for now, I think I better go add a few more layers of clothes, and maybe a scarf so I can fit in better (and truth be told it does feel a lot colder here than the thermometer seems to indicate).
January 2006
Being back on the semester system here at UST means once again enjoying those ever so long 6 week Christmas holidays. When I first realized this would be the case I started to try and think how I could ever deal with it. What would I do for 6 weeks, should I go traveling? Should I spend it in HK? Should I listen to my friends back home and come home for the holidays? Coming home was never an option I really considered because I knew I may never have a chance like this again. Traveling was a big possibility, or of course staying in HK. When I found out my parents would come to Hong Kong for 11 days I decided to stay in HK. The tables were turned, now it was time for me to use all that I had learned here to be a tour guide for other people. Showing them all the things I had enjoyed, as well as letting them experience the HK life (like the busy subways at rush hour) and explain all the little yet ever so important things. Like what is an Octopus card, how do you find the trains, were are good places to eat, can you trust street venders, the prices in Mong Kok almost always start out way to high, and others like this. I recall one time on the subway (on the way to Central) we were in a crowd and the second the doors opened we were literally pushed into the train. If I had changed my mind at the last minute there would have been no way to stop. Once inside I did not even have to worry about losing my balance because there was a solid immovable mass of people all supporting each other. I think if there were giants looking down on us they must feel we act like something similar to ants, or a bee hive, so close together, in such a small area.
Chinese New Year came and went and it was all very interesting. The people were all busy running around buying gifts and warping them in colorful paper. There are miniature orange trees for good luck, there are a whole host of flowers with different meanings, and everyone seems to be joyful. All the gifts and things that were missing here in Christmas time seem to be saved for Chinese New Year. There are also plenty of “Red Pockets” to be had this time of year. Actually I find it is a bit like Halloween in the United States but with no costumes, and instead of getting cheap little candies you get red pockets. Red Pockets stuffed full of cash! I have been told it is very common to collect $200-$250 US from people during this time of year. It is not exactly Halloween though as these are not total strangers: it is only married people giving money to their unwed younger relations. I think the holidays here in Hong Kong are a very interesting time, I would suggest to all who come after me to make sure you stay in China or Hong Kong for the Chinese New Year, don’t get homesick and go home for the holidays or travel to a country that does not observe it.
February 23rd, 2006
The first few weeks of each semester all the student societies need to have elections for their new board members. This is a fun time for all the students both members and non-members alike. They set up little booths in the Jockey Club Atrium about their clubs and they have lots of spirit. There are chants, costumes, banners, and flags. There are advertisements sponsored by many companies, and of course like any good campaign there is lots of free stuff to be had including drinks, candy, snacks, coffee, and many coupons good for 15 or even 30% off various things around Hong Kong. Most people seem to really enjoy this time (myself included), with the exception of a few professors who seem to think that these activities distract students from their classes, and is not befitting future business professionals.
Speaking of business HKUST is a rather famous school for its business programs; I just recently learned that it is #2 in the world for the executive MBA program. In the past I always believed that science, technology, and engineering could solve all the problems in the world, but now being in this business environment of Hong Kong and HKUST I have started to think in a new direction. This semester my schedule is a rather interesting, and healthy mix of engineering (my major) and business courses, such as Intro to Management, Chinese Law, and a class about the effects of technology on society. You may be able to guess from this mix of classes that I am hoping to pursue a Masters in business after I am done with my engineering degree. I had wanted to go into business in the past, but now I am convinced it is the right thing to do. I have realized that the problems of this world are not really things that can be solved with engineering alone. We need leaders, managers, and smart business men to figure out the logistics of our engineering projects. We need movers and shakers in the financial world to get the resources for our projects, and we need people who are not afraid to try and innovate. I want to be one of these people. By clearly understanding both the engineering and business I hope to help innovate and push our world just a bit closer to making science fiction into science reality. The dreams and ideas various sci-fi writers and movie directors have shown us has always attracted me (well except for the strange foods they sometimes have).
Food is something that is really different here in Hong Kong, it is not like American food, it is not like American “Chinese” food, and it is not like the food I found in my travels through China. People say Americans really like food fried but the truth is Americans can’t hold a candle to the Chinese. How about Deep Fried Ice Cream anyone? Yes that is right deep fried ice cream! I was at an outdoor business fair, and in the food section they actually had this (of course I had to try it). You start with some ice cream on a stick, add some kind of batter to the outside and then throw it in the old deep fryer. After a few minutes it is done, and it is rather tasty (although very messy). If that just does not quite do it for you how about some stir fried lettuce? I personally find this rather tasty. But really my favorite food here is not even a fried food at all, it is a BBQ food. BBQ Pork rice to be exact! Its one of those interesting foods that looks totally strange to our western eyes, but it just tastes so good (and it’s very cheap). In fact I don’t even know why it is call BBQ when it is really roasted. You can find it at many restaurants in the form of strips of meat hanging in the windows. When you order it they will grab one of the strips of meat from the window, slice it into smaller strips, add a good helping of rice, and you have a filling meal for about $19-$26 HKD ($2.50-$3.30 USD).
I have been in Hong Kong for 6 months now and I am still learning new things every day. It’s really an interesting learning experience (not just in school but in everyday life). I would recommend everyone try to find a way to go abroad for at least 1 quarter.
March 2006
Everywhere I look I am reminded that people are all 90% the same and 10% different. It’s nothing big that sets us apart from each other. It’s just the sum of all the little things like 2-ring binders, 220VAC, girls with heeled leather boots, right hand drive cars/roads, 5.5 or 6-day-work weeks, and the ever-present live chickens at the markets. It’s kind of funny that small things like this can make up a “world” of differences. Everywhere you go people are just people. We may look different, think different, dress different, argue about which side of the road is better to drive on, or even speak different languages, but we are all just people, and the more connected the world gets the more the same we become.
With every new day, and every new person I meet, I feel the world is shrinking. You would not believe how many people I know in the USA have told me “if you see xxxxx at HKUST tell him hi for me…” Even here in Hong Kong, half a world away, there are so many connections to home. It almost feels like I am plugged into some kind of global network... “The Matrix?”… Technology and globalization is the key to this, I think. Gone are the days of letters and passenger ships taking months to cross the ocean, and perish the thought of using a high-priced medium limited (like land line phones) to communicate with people in a different country. In this modern world of cellular phones, IM, internet phones, video chat, and more, it is just so easy to communicate for little or no cost. Of course, all of this did not happen without effort. It all took engineers and business to create and implement these modern technologies that have changed the world so much. It took dedication, learning, experimentation and evolutionary innovation to get to this point, a process that must continue.
Experiments and innovations are little more than just real world exams and, speaking of that, it is midterm time again (it always seems to be finals or midterm time here at HKUST). Not only is it midterm time, but the school has decided that now is a good time to remind us of final exams lurking in the distance. I was just looking at the finals schedule, and it seems I am graced to have an exam on Saturday. And my last exam is on Monday, May 29th, only 8 days before my visa expires, and I go back to the USA. 75% of my time in Hong Kong has already expired; it feels so strange to think that in a short time I will be leaving this side of the Pacific and going back home. I have decided there is no such thing as culture shock, but I wonder if there is such a thing as reverse culture shock?
April 8th, 2006
Here I am standing in a crowded van/bus full of people who don’t know even one word of English, with little kids staring at me, and a few people wearing shirts that say US Army (I am sure they don’t know what it is). On this particular bus some of the people are not even speaking Mandarin, but instead some sort of local dialect. Did I mention this was a local bus in the countryside of China surrounded by farm lands and small villages? Imagine if you can a bus full of Chinese farmers, and then there was me. In this place I was not just Sean the UC Davis student, I was ambassador of a whole different world. A world of McDonalds, the internet, private cars, movies, TV, video games, fancy schools, in short a world of money far beyond anything these people will probably ever get to experience. The world of the Chinese country side is much different than the Chinese metropolitan cities; here it is rare to find a person with a private car, taxies almost don’t exist (except in the largest local cities), and the normal western food chains (McDonalds, KFC, Pizza hut) are all absent. It is a slower-paced world, and many people can be seen just taking their time walking around the streets, or sitting on some empty steps. Students wearing colorful uniforms are racing around on bicycles, and small shops are selling produce (instead of clothes or copy watches). However there is one thing I have found consistent no matter where I am in mainland China; the people are all so friendly and so willing to help, and they are always very surprised if you can speak a few words of mandarin (even if badly).
Traveling to mainland China has once again renewed my interest to learn mandarin, I took an adult education class on it in the past but I could use so much more! Cantonese (as is spoken here in Hong Kong) is also interesting, but it is so much harder to learn with the 9 tones (and even most locals can’t make all 9). The locals are not as willing to help you speak it and are not very patient if you speak it badly, not to mention I always think Cantonese people sound angry when they talk. Cantonese is a very limited-use language, while mandarin is spoken by countless millions of Chinese now.
On the way back to Hong Kong I made a quick stop in Shenzhen (a city on mainland China just across the border of Hong Kong). Since the subway is new there (only opened about 6 months past) I decided to give it a try. On my particular trip I saw men laying down on the bench seats (taking up 3 or 4 spaces) while others (most likely from Hong Kong) were getting annoyed. There were many empty seats, but no one seemed to be particularly interested in sitting. Maybe as this is a new subway, the “rules of etiquette” are not yet totally established, but in Hong Kong they clearly are (and it is very funny). On the Hong Kong MTR (subway) system people generally move about at a normal to lazy pace on the escalators, in the gate areas, or waiting on the platform, but when you get to an interchange station something totally different happens. It is easy to tell when a interchange station is coming up (even if they did not announce it, and even if you could not see the electronic map); all the people on board who had previously been maneuvering for the best seats, or if that is not available the best areas to stand, now totally shift their attention to being the first one to the doors that will open soon. Then there is a mad rush, everyone is like a race horse out of the gate, and people literally run across from the one train to the other: men in business suits, girls in skirts and high heels, students, and children alike. The goal is to be the first to the new train and once again get the best seat. However, as soon as you get to the seat, it seems you have to stand in front of it, stretch a little, act like you don’t really want it, and then slowly sit. Then you play with your phone or listen to your ipod and try to avoid talking to other people.
So it seems mainland China and Hong Kong are very different worlds; the people look the same but that is about where it ends. The food is very different, the language is different, the actions are different, and the way of thinking is different. I personally like both places, and I always feel at ease when in mainland China.
Sean Donohoe
Hong Kong
May 2006
Since my time is just about finished here in Hong Kong I thought I would leave a few comments for the powers that be and for future students. I leave Hong Kong thinking that going abroad was generally a good experience and that I would do it again, although I fear it is an experience that will have lowered my GPA somewhat. The GPA issue really is the proverbial “fly in the ointment” that damages what could be the perfect experience. It’s not a matter of classes being harder; they are not. It’s purely a matter of different teaching and examination techniques that are not 100% compatible with the norms and methods that a student from California would have developed over the past 14-16 years in school. It’s the sum of all the little things such as exams that are closed book and notes, thus requiring you to memorize lots of little details that we at UC Davis in the College of Engineering are not accustomed to. Lecture notes generally all on PowerPoint, with much less interaction between the professor and the student, with the idea that you should not take notes on your own, and that you should only use the web note and add little points that are useful to you. I think, however, that this issue could be very easily solved by making all abroad classes Pass/No Pass (P/PN). Almost 100% of the friends I have made here from Europe and the USA have all P/NP classes while abroad. Students from HKUST going abroad to UC Davis also get the benefit of all classes as P/NP. This not only helps to eliminate grade pressure, but it can inspire students to have more confidence to try new things: give all of us more opportunities to take risks and sign up for that language class on the side, add that class about culture, take those history classes, don’t just stick with what you know, try new things. I don’t know exactly how UC Davis could go about making the program purely P/NP, but I know it is possible, even the engineering department at Georgia Tech has this.
Now that I have finished on the subject of GPA let me give the future dorm students a bit of a warning. Be wary of mold! Mold is something that must exist in our world and yet something we all hate to see in our homes. Being from a dry area like Davis we never think much about mold problems, but here in the dorm of HKUST it has become a very real issue to me. Here in Hong Kong there is a lot of humidity and as a result there is a lot of mold and fungus in the air (not to mention other pollutants), and this combination has made the normal healthy me turn into an allergy nightmare. One doctor told me that as long as I stay in Hong Kong it will affect my health in a negative way, and that the best solution is to go home to California. I therefore suggest that in order to save yourself from despair you should invest in an air cleaner and a dehumidifier. The dehumidifier is especially important if you live in one of the rooms at the end of the building with 2 outer walls (like me). The electronic kind of de-humidifier or the ever popular chemical kind would be fine. Otherwise remember my warning; you may discover many moldy items when you start to pack to go home, including: suitcase, leather laptop case, jacket, camera case, suit dust cover, passport case, etc. Luckily, I was able to clean all these items and to date no mold has returned to haunt me. As for the allergy, a good helping of allergy pills has helped to relieve me of that.
Hong Kong is an interesting place and now that it is time to leave I find myself wishing I had more time to stay. I do miss California, and I am looking forward to seeing friendly faces and eating familiar food like Taco Bell, In-N-Out Burger, Burger King, “Real” McDonalds, and many others. However, there are things in Hong Kong I will miss greatly,first and foremost is Alexia, my friend of 4 years and now fiancée. But don’t be too sad people, I have a feeling she won’t be in Hong Kong too much longer after I have to leave here ;-). Then there is the beautiful city on Hong Kong Island; it always cheered me up to see it, all bright and fancy looking at night. The endless electronics shopping in Sham Shui Po inspired me to see all the engineering that can go on and all the new items people can build for such low cost. Let us not forget the interesting food that I have never seen before: BBQ pork, beef balls in noodles, prawns, strange clam-like things, and of course the Jello-looking stuff that is made from boiled turtles that is supposed to be good for your health. This is my last correspondence from Hong Kong, but it is not my last memory of Hong Kong. If anyone sees me in the future riding my electric bicycle around campus or happens to visit one of my old haunts, feel free to ask me any questions you may have.
-Sean in Hong Kong
May 2006
