Blogging
From Abroad

So, I should probably be asleep (or getting ready to go to sleep), especially with my proclivity for a run every morning, but instead I figured I would discuss a couple of my thoughts about my first full day here (which was SO long!).

Last night they told us they didn’t have heat in the hostels (dorms). Okay, I though, no big deal… Hong Kong is a sub-tropical climate. WRONG. I almost froze to death. Never again am I taking heat for granted. 46 degrees, one little blanket, and no heat. I ended up sleeping under my winter coat most of the night and still being cold. I have another blanket and a mattress pad for my wooden block of a bed so hopefully tonight’s sleep will be much more pleasurable.

We had a day-long orientation today… pretty much like WVU’s orientation for the most part. The US Consulate came and spoke to us after our Cantonese class (which I can tell is going to be just about as successful as Italian classes were for me… great haha) about what to do if we lose our passport, if we go to the hospital, about how the visit American citizens in prison in a foreign country once a quarter and can’t really do anything to get you out of jail…

Afterwards a local student took a group of us to dinner at this Thai place in town. We all kind of ordered different things and tried a little bit of everything. We had a traditional Chinese lunch today (which is so different from Americanized Chinese food) and you just put everything on a turn-table and get what you want with your chopsticks.

Culture shock hasn’t really hit yet and I’m not sure why. Maybe because Hong Kong is kind of like any Chinatown-esque place in America? Maybe I have done enough traveling I’m not affected like I used to be? Or maybe it just hasn’t hit yet because we’ve only been in town (which is still considerably larger than Morgantown… the University here is considerably smaller and this town is considered the countryside!).

No pictures yet, trying to let everything sit in and settle first.