My Arrival, Part 2: This Place is Ridiculous

Camille and I arriving in Hong Kong after our flight!

So upon my exiting of the airport in Hong Kong, I was struck with two things:  the humidity in the air (not exactly a surprise, but you can't help but be struck by it) and the beauty of the mountains surrounding me.  Everywhere I looked, there were lush, green mountains that, at 7am on this morning, had a layer of mist surrounding the top.  And of course, this natural beauty is juxtaposed with all of the modern architecture of the Hong Kong high-rises, so it makes for a really interesting sight.  Check out the pictures below!

Driving out of the airport...

Some buildings in Kowloon - these were taken while driving, so forgive the slight blurriness.  

See, Kacie, here's a bridge for you!

Our first full day in Hong Kong was essentially an exercise in being wined and dined.  As soon as we dropped our bags off at our (precious, wonderful) apartment, we were whisked away to breakfast at the Hong Kong Jockey Club in Shatin, the closest city area to CUHK's campus.  About 20-30 years ago, Shatin was just a small fishing village on the outskirts of Hong Kong, but it is now a 600,000-strong metropolitan area with tons of retail and restaurants.  Perfect for decorating my apartment and stocking up on new wardrobe items!  The Jockey Club was delicious, but I decided to forgo the usual Chinese breakfast for waffles, though I made up for it at lunch!  Annie and Allyson (our two second-year Fellows) took us out for dim sum in Shatin for lunch, where we met up with Peter and Jonathan, the two out-going Yale-China Fellows.  Dim Sum was fantastic!!   I had lots of steamed dumplings (of the chicken, beef, and shrimp varieties) plus BBQ pork buns - my favorite so far - as well as, you guessed it, chicken feet!  Chicken feet were not nearly as scary as I would have thought, and while they were not my favorite thing we had that day (they're very bony), I'll be having them again.  Yum!

After the lunch excursion, we went shopping to look for the apartment essentials (bedding, towels, mirrors, etc.).  Being an indecisive shopper, it would take me three shopping trips to final decide on what to buy, needing to consider carefully what color scheme I wanted for my room, haha.  But after initial purchases were made, we headed back to the apartment for some unpacking and general relaxing.  Somehow, I managed not to sleep too much!  During the day, we also had the chance to go walk around CUHK's campus a bit, which I must say, is really quite lovely.  It's beautiful, though in a very different way than Yale is, but aside from the walking-uphill everyday, I feel like I will love it here very much.  

The whole campus is carved into the side of a mountain - I had heard this before I came, but didn't really realize how true this was until I got here.  Like actually, I live on top of a mountain.  I get off at University station at the bottom of the mountain and take the campus shuttle bus up the mountain, where I get off at New Asia College at the very, very top.  My apartment overlooks Tolo Harbour, and it's just lovely :)  The only problem I foresee living here is how tall the campus is - it takes about 20 minutes to get from one side of campus to the other, but it is beyond exhausting because you are climbing a mountain while doing it!  Here are a few pictures of campus so far!  More to come soon:

One of the sights on Central Campus - apparently many people get married in front of these.  I couldn't capture it with my camera, but the flowers and the whole scenery make this a really beautiful place.

Allyson and Camille in one of the many gardens around campus!  

Right across the street from University Station - this is at the bottom of campus, so you can see how all of campus rises up behind the field.  Pretty cool, huh?

For dinner on the first night, we were treated again by Dr. Man, who took us out to meet another former Fellow, Rachel, who now lives and works in Beijing.  The food was again delicious, though jet lag had definitely set in at this point, and it was the best I could do not to fall asleep on my plate of goose.  

The second day was nearly as eventful as the first, marked by Cantonese class orientation and meetings with the out-going and in-coming English Department chairs, as well as more shopping trips!  We met up with Peter and Jonathan again last night in Mong Kok for Peter's going-away gathering, so it was a nice cap to another busy day.  I can't believe I've only been here for two days, we have definitely packed a lot in!

I should have more fun stuff to report after today, we're going into Hong Kong Island for the day!  It's Hong Kong Establishment Day, which is kind of equivalent to July 4th, as July 1st was the day Hong Kong sovereignty was returned to the Chinese.  So there's lots going on today - I'll try and get lots of pictures and stories for you!

Happy Establishment Day!   

xoxo,

Jenny

My Arrival in HK! Part 1: The Almost-Didn't-Happen Journey

I have arrived in the beautiful and endlessly-muggy Hong Kong!  

I made it all in one piece, after a surprisingly restful and pleasant flight - shout out to Cathay Pacific Airline!  However, at the journey's start, it seemed like it might end before it could begin.  When I arrived at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Saturday evening, after a lovely day with the Holt Family, I was nearly turned away and denied a flight to Hong Kong.  According to the gate agent for American Airlines, I was not authorized to go to Hong Kong because I did not have a return ticket back the United States.  I showed him my HK visa - which allows for entrance into Hong Kong and a stay for 12 months, my proof of employment with CUHK, the Yale-China program details that outline it as a two-year program... and yet he still insisted they could not and would not allow me to go to Hong Kong.  I just stare at him and say (with perhaps not as much tact as needed) "That is just incorrect."  He then hands me (and my seething family) over to his supervisor, who proceeds to keep making the same (wrong) claims for the next hour.  I called both of my program directors to find out what was up (perhaps I had made some mistake and not applied for some important documentation), but it turns out, nope, I had done everything right, and they had never had this problem with Hong Kong before.  When my directors asked to speak to the gate agent directly, the agent just shook her head and said that she could only speak to me, as cell phones were a liability, and thus she continued to block my check-in for my flight.

Finally, after another few minutes of her being wrong, my family and I decide that it's best if I just get to LA, and re-check in with Cathay Pacific, where hopefully I'll have better luck.  The gate agent raises her eyebrows and says fine, but that I would run into the same problem there and would likely just get stuck in LA.  I had to bite my tongue to keep from replying that no, I'll just be dealing with people who know what they're doing and know the difference between Hong Kong and Mainland China.  Or I at least wanted to tell her I'd send her a postcard from Hong Kong, but I kept any snarky comments to myself since she probably would have "lost" my bags or something.  However, I managed to get on the flight to Los Angeles, though I wish I could have left Texas on a better note.  Yet, I will say, when we were coming up to the airport, I was feeling pretty nervous and kind of sad, but once the ticket agents tried to stop me, my nervousness was replaced with a "You can't stop me!" attitude and a renewed excitement to get to Hong Kong, if only just to spite them!  In a way, I'm glad that the humorous exasperation that followed the check-in overshadowed the sadness of saying goodbye to my mom and dad and sister, or else I could have been pretty mopey for the rest of the journey.   

Once in LA, I met up with Camille, my fellow Fellow, and when I went to check in with Cathay Pacific... not a word.  They checked my passport, gave me my boarding pass, smiled, and wished me a safe flight.  It was as painless as Dallas had been annoying.  In fact, painless is a good word for the rest of the flight to Hong Kong - everything ran smoothly: I slept well, ate well, enjoyed the movies, got my bags right away, sailed through Immigration, and immediately met up with Annie and Allyson, the two Second Year Yale-China Fellows, and Dr. Peter Man, who works for New Asia College at CUHK.  They packed us onto the minibus they rented for the occasion, and we were off!  I was just happy to get to Hong Kong, since my arrival had seemed in doubt for a while there, but I had much more to be excited about once I arrived...

Stay tuned!  As soon as I put away some stuff in my room and get back from dinner tonight, I will do one of the following:

1.  Write another detailed post about all of the fun adventures I've had, just in the past twelve hours!

2.  Do the above, but include pictures!

3.  Continue to unpack and put together my room

4.  Fall asleep

Which one will it be??   Check back soon!

xoxo

Jenny

Goal-Setting

Inspired by Will's TFA blog, in which one of his latest entries talks about the goals he has for the next two years, I've decided to write a similar post!  Thanks, Will, for the idea :)

The Program Manual for Yale-China Fellows outlines three succinct goals that the Yale-China Association has for its teachers:

1)  Professional commitment to excellence in teaching

2)  High level of proficiency in Chinese language

3)  Knowledge about and involvement in the local Chinese community  

As these goals have been the backbone of the Yale-China program for nearly 100 years, it goes without saying that I will be taking these to heart, and will do the best I can to honor the traditions of Yale-China.  However, I will also be setting a number of personal goals for myself for the next two years, many of which involve ways of meeting the Yale-China goals, and others just to prove something to myself for the future.  Here's a rough preview:

1)  Language learning  -  Languages and I have never been the best of friends.  I was passable at French in high school, and just barely decent at Italian in college, but I never was top of the class, exactly.  Given that Cantonese is, well, decidedly harder than any of the Romance languages, I will admit that I am approaching my upcoming language classes with a not-so-small feeling of queasiness, but I keep telling myself (by way of telling others) that because I will be surrounded by the language, I CAN learn the language and I WILL learn it!  Though I've heard that I could likely get through my two years without much Cantonese proficiency, owing to the high level of English speakers there, I want to get to know the city on a deeper level than just a passing tourist, and to do so, I need to work hard at learning the language.  Of course, mastery of the language may not come immediately (if at all), but I hope I can approach the task gamely.

2)  Teaching  -  Teaching is an art that I have much reverence for, much in part because I admire the patience it takes for a teacher to work with students.  I am hoping that I will somehow find this patience within me, or gradually develop it over the next two years.  This has always my biggest fear when thinking about teaching, or considering it for a job, that I would not have the patience it takes to guide students through the learning process at the pace that is right for them and not just the pace that is convenient for me.  I hope I can achieve this both in and out of the classroom, and perhaps most importantly, have patience with myself, knowing that I will not be a perfect teacher right away but giving myself the chance to enjoy the learning curve.

3)   The Culture - I definitely do not want my attitude towards China to be something akin to "Oooo, let me study you, strange and different culture!"  I want to absorb much of the culture and the ways of life in Hong Kong without constantly comparing it to life back home.  I had a hard time with this when I was at Yale - every time I would notice something peculiar about Northeastern culture, I often immediately compared it to life in Texas, many times viewing the northern counterpart in a negative light.  I want to appreciate Hong Kong life just for what it is - and honestly, I have no idea what that is yet.  I have heard so many different things about Hong Kong, that I truly do not know what to expect when I get off the plane in about 40 hours from now.  I hope when I get there, I can just go in, face forward, and soak it all in.

4) Responsibility - When it comes to my personal goals, working on this whole personal responsibility thing is right at the top of my list.  Managing my own finances, cooking for myself, taking care of my health - I'm eager to prove to myself that I can manage these tasks and not let the stress of them overwhelm me.  This is one of the things I have been looking forward to the most about graduation - a sentiment I'm sure anyone who has been out of college for a while will mock me for - but it's a challenge I've set for myself, and given the sink-or-swim nature of these responsibilities, I'll have no choice but to succeed at them :)

5) Keeping in touch  - I really want to commit to stay connected with friends from back home, as well as the latest news in the US, while remaining fully engaged in my life in Hong Kong and the goings-on of the city.  I don't ever want to be one-foot-out-the-door while in China, but I also hope that I do not become so involved with my life there that I neglect all of the relationships back home.  I feel pretty confident in this, given that I was able to stay in touch plenty well with my family and best friends from high school while at college, but then again, we weren't dealing with a 13 hour time difference.  So whether it's just through a quick e-mail, Facebook, or this blog, I'm setting a firm goal for myself to stay in touch with people back home, no matter how crazy and busy life in Hong Kong gets! 

So I'm hoping when I read this post two years from now, at the close of the Fellowship, I will have met most, if not all, of the goals along the way.  I'm sure I will set (and succeed, and probably break) many others along the way, which is why I didn't make these toooo specific (I apologize for the vague tone of this post).  What do you think?  Any other big goals I should set for myself for living abroad?  Here are two that are important for this blog:  1) Take lots of pictures!  2) Become more adept at humor in blog writings!

Ok, team!!  Off we go to Hong Kong!!

Legal now!!

I received my entrance visa for Hong Kong today!  So I will legally be going to Hong Kong now on Saturday :)  Glorious news!

Also spent the day getting together all of my financial business, so I feel like a big girl now!  It's starting to feel pretty real now.  Even more so after I started to pack this afternoon.  5 more days!

And so it begins!

My grand experiment in blogging!  

Through this blog, I hope to explore the joys and trials of moving across the world, learning a new language, taking up a new profession, and getting to know the ins-and-outs of Hong Kong life.  There will be a little something for everyone here (that's the plan at least): pictures and updates for family and friends, musings on being a Yale-China Fellow for prospective applicants, rants on the difficulty of Cantonese for future students, etc.  These next two years should be nothing short of a life-changing, thought-provoking, view-challenging roller coaster adventure, and I hope you all will come along for the ride with me!  

Over the next few days, I will be leaving little notes (Twitter-style) as I prepare for the big jump across the Pacific Ocean, as I take care of all the pesky logistical steps and take on the monstrous task of packing for the next two years.  And then, this Saturday, June 27th, I'll be jumping on a plane (with my lovely fellow Fellow Camille!) and heading to my new city!   So now I must be off to take care of the last of my to-do list for the evening (stealing Mom's music for my iTunes), but I will return soon.  Excitement!