Student Report: Haylie Lam, Hong Kong, Fall 2014
August 2014
I land in Hong Kong, SAR, to start my fall semester abroad. I chose Hong Kong because my family speaks Cantonese, the main language spoken in Hong Kong, at home and wanted to improve mine which is difficult to do in Knoxville.
Immediately upon arriving I could feel the humidity and heat seep into my body since the summer was still in full swing. Even though the temperature was about 80°F it felt more like 100°F.
This semester I studied at City University of Hong Kong. I chose this university for its variety of classes exchange students, like me, could choose from. For this semester I chose to take Basic Psychology, Basic Sociology, Women in Chinese History, and 3D Animation. Originally I had chosen to take Japanese as well but their textbook was in Chinese which I cannot read and, the course load from the other classes kept me busy enough that another class load would not have allowed me to enjoy my time as much. In the end I took on 12 credit hours.
The week before classes started Orientation Week helped me find new friends and settle down in this city. The day before classes started a new friend of mine invited me to go hiking ten minutes before the group left! I’m usually shy when it comes to going places with new people but I decided to take the chance and was not disappointed with the experience.
I was so surprised by the entire journey. Usually when I think of Hong Kong I see a densely populated urban city but it has an incredible amount of nature paths and forestry to go adventuring. My only regret was not bringing enough sunscreen. It was incredibly hot and sunny that day.
September 2014
Classes start on September 1. I was extremely nervous about the classes from the horror stories I heard from my family about the school system in Asia, but I pushed ahead and entered my first psychology class of the semester.
October 2014
So classes have been going on for a whole month and my schedule took a bit of transitioning. Classes met only once or twice a week so I only had maybe two classes at most a day and, I had Fridays off completely which was totally foreign to me after coming from my rigorous engineering course load. I even asked my roommate who was a local if this kind of scheduling was strange but, she told me it was normal to have a day off or two. With all this free time I had no idea how to spend it so I went with my friends to explore the city. There was more hiking and trips to favorite tourist destinations like Ocean Park, a popular theme park. During most of the hikes the first two months I saw giant spiders that scared me silly.
I spent Halloween in Hong Kong and, a group of friends, all guys, and I went to Ocean Park’s Halloween special. I won’t lie. I cried after entering one of their many haunted houses but overall the experience was a ton of fun.
November 2014
It’s hard to believe that I have stayed in Hong Kong for three months already. Classes have started to finish up. I had classes in English but on a sociology group project my team mates were all locals who liked to communicate in their native tongue, Cantonese. So my language skills were pushed to the extreme. Luckily I pulled through and we received high marks on the end presentation. Classes ended the last week of November but revision week, the week before finals started, had begun. The campus became eerily quiet during that time. I took that time to complete my 3D animation final project. It took five days of tweaking and no sleep but I finished with an extremely happy outcome since this was the first time I had ever used the modeling software, Autodesk Maya.
December 2014
Well this is the last month I have in Hong Kong. Classes had finished and finals were taken. I had begun to feel slightly depressed as one by one my new friends who I had grown extremely close to left to go back home. However before I left for home I took a side tour trip to Nagasaki, Japan, with my paternal grandmother and cousin during Christmas week. It was amazing and I got to see snow which is my favorite precipitation.
After my trip to Japan, it was time for me to leave to go back home. I had an incredible experience and I would tell anyone who listens to go abroad. I met so many interesting people not only from Hong Kong but also around the world. The friends I made during my stay I hope to stay in contact for the rest of my life. Without them, the Study Abroad Office, or the help from the City University Mainland and Exchange Office I could not have had as much fun as I did. I will forever treasure my time and hope that I can continue my global education sometime in the future.
On another not, during my stay in Hong Kong, I had this amazing opportunity to witness a political movement for democracy. Called the Umbrella Movement, the students and citizens of Hong Kong rallied to have the ability to choose candidates for their Chief Executive.
This was called the Lennon Wall where protesters and supporters voiced their support to the cause. Thousands of post-it notes and posters plastered to a wall close to government buildings. The protest was peaceful most of the time but there were riots and police intervention that was broadcasted. City University had classes during the initial movement of the protest but not many students attended. They studied at the protest site however. It was a very powerful movement that lasted for ten weeks. Unfortunately there was no real resolution and the protest sites were cleared out by the end of my stay.