I've been in Hong Kong for approximately six months now. And although Hong Kong is a wonderful city to visit and in general have a good time, the longer I'm here, the less and less desire I have to actually consider making this city a home. Maybe its the atmosphere or just the competitive pressure or whatever, but this would be a great city to visit just not for me to live in.
Being a student here is quite difficult. I'll admit it makes the US schools or at least the schools I've been to look comparatively easier. However, that's also because it's a different system. I admit that I'm not used to memorizing a book, chapter after chapter, and having the test be pretty much everything I've memorized. I'll admit that I prefer the opportunity to express an opinion or conceptualize and be able to be awarded for that, and also that unlike the locals here, I wasn't conditioned to just study, study, and study. Grades don't mean EVERYTHING at home like they do here, a lot of times these days, it's also who you know. It's tough for us non-locals though. In each course only approximately 10-15% of the students in the course are allowed to receive A's. Participation points are awarded only if the Professor likes your answer (you can participate an entire semester and still receive no points), your group grades are docked if you have any type of group problems rather than the individual at fault, and students take full responsibility of everything (i.e.. if the entire class fails, it's because they're stupid rather than the Professor being a bad teacher). HKUST caters to its Professors, not its students. I was once warned to be wary of a certain Professor, known as the "king of complaints," in fear that if he made a complaint against the group I was in, we would likely lose all rights to the facilities we were using and had the possibility of having our group disbanded. Sounds unfair doesn't it.
People here are so competitive. They're trained to present themselves (even if they can't actually speak English outside the presentation), to study, and to do what it takes to get ahead (even if it means working endless hours with no overpay or recognition or anything). At times, I can see how the competitiveness gives them an edge. But I also thing it's sad at times. They are unable to enjoy more of life because lives here are spent moving so fast. There are no cafes where people can enjoy their food and chat, nobody really sits outside or walks outside just to enjoy the weather, and extracurricular activities usually serve to make themselves more accomplished and to look good on their resumés.
The economy is bad, we all understand that. It's been difficult for us to find jobs, yes. But we also find a lot of jobs through others or connections our parents had. Besides, many successful people don't always have top grades. My roommate only networks with Professors...but I think the fellow students she looks down on will be more helpful in the future than any of her Professors may be.
I would like to thank Tim, Naomi, and Jia for helping me pick up a very nifty and cool little utensil at Sushi One. It's got a spoon and one end and a fork on the other...and it has been one of the coolest utensils I have ever encountered. And now it's going to be my souvenir home! Oh, and damn the sushi there is good!
So my last 5 days have been spent in the warm and wet Philippines. We were in Manila for a night and Boracay the rest of the trip. It was so much fun (despite some rain). We got tans/burned, had live music, pretty good (and cheap) food + drinks, and just altogether hung out and had a great trip. There was 11 of us with 2 add ons. A couple of them did water sports (jet skis, parasailing), while I got a massage x).
We also saw some cool fire dancing, which I ended up getting lessons for. It was cool but definitely not a pain free activity! haha. The girl who taught me, she was definitely a wild one *cough* and I'm sure half the stories she told me were probably false. We also had a couple scary landings on the domestic planes in the Philippines and a retarded server (who mixed up EVERYONE's orders).
Anyways, I don't have enough rooms for the pictures and I still haven't figured out how to put in a slide show so I'm going to just attach the link. x). I'm still adding photos to the album so check back often! I'll post later when I have all the photos uploaded! Click below!
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On a side note, my roommate is being very troublesome! She has demanded that I'm not allowed to have friends over EVER; not even to knock on the door. She never comes back until like 10 pm but I can't have friends over when she's not around either. And I can't listen to music in the room. She accused my friends of stealing her credit card bill, snooping through her stuff, ruining her reputation (she doesn't even have friends), and having germs. I tried to compromise and she flat out refused. Demanded I respect her; as if she's respecting me! And she said to me, "I didn't say I didn't like you, I said MAYBE I didn't like you". <---that means you don't like me Becky. You just say it, I get the point.
I leave for the Philippines this week...Boracay, here I come! Anyways, here's a quickie of what I did today x). 
We, as in Carolyn, Carol, Jonny Nemani, Alan, Emily, Kelly, Kareen, Kelly, and I, went to bird market, fish market (where we also found puppies and turtles and more), and flower market. Was a lot of fun!
Anyways, I'm still annoyed that the school moved my nice and neat schedule of MWF to MTWRF when they moved the MARK112 class I was wait listed for (#9) from MW to TR. I'm emailing everyone to see if I can have that fixed. I was really looking forward to having Amy Dalton as a professor! Not only is she interesting and speaks good english, but I also don't fall asleep in her class; which is an incredibly amazing feat. Seriously.
Okay, I know I've been in Hong Kong too long when Misha, who's in Minnesota tell me:
Misha: Its warm here! Like 36!
Me: nice. how?
Misha: remember I was telling you people put on shorts as soon as the snow starts melting?
Me: yes. oh! 36 F not 36 C. (everything in HK is in Celsius)
Misha: well, I already saw one guy in shorts, a few guys in t-shirts, and even one girl in a tanktop
Well, today was warm enough to wear shorts here too. LOL
I just had a conversation that sounded no less different from the last couple times I've had it with the same person. It gets kind of repetitive to have to say the same things over and over and over with nothing coming of it. I'm tired of it.
Change is good. Apparently, so are listening skills.
So according to Misha, if I do this correctly, I should have a picture...wonderful!
This is a picture of the desert Jon took me to during break (somewhere past Victorville, CA)
here goes!
Monday:
1030-1150 mark 112
12-1320 mgto231
Wednesday:
1030-1150 mark 112
12-1320 mgto231
1330-1450 lang 113
1630-1750 mgto 328
Friday:
1330-1450 lang 113
1630-1750 mgto328
I'm going to try to make my lang class earlier. sucks though! MWF makes it hard to travel! -____---