ohhhh, we’re half-halfway there…

So I’ve now officially been living in Hong Kong for a month.  What a strange thing to say; but the strangest part of this is that although I’ve been at City U(niversity of Hong Kong for the uninitiated) for longer than the Greco-Turkish War and Britney’s marriage to Jason Alexander – no, not that Jason Alexander – combined (30 days and 55 hours, respectively) and I’ve had the opportunity to have some amazing experiences already, it still feels as though I’ve just gotten here and that I haven’t really done anything at all.  So in the interest of (relative) brevity, here’s a snapshot of my first month abroad:

Week 1

I arrived August 24 after a grueling 18 hour flight which I do not recommend – the flight is so long that I got over my jet lag before I even landed in HK.

First week of exchange: Characterized by continually meeting and re-meeting the hundreds of Europeans (I’m one of maybe a dozen Americans) who have descended upon CityU (not to mention the thousands elsewhere) in various bars almost every night; more on the bar scene in another post, I think.  Since school hasn’t started yet we can just explore the city and meet other students, which has been the best part so far and made adjusting to life here really easy.  When you have hundreds of people your age experiencing the same thing, it gets exponentially more bearable.  We made a school-organized group trip to IKEA and all of the Swedes got a little bit homesick – no, I’m not kidding.  I picked up a couple pillows for myself after having slept on a pair of sweatpants over a towel the first night, well on my way to being a college student in a real dorm for the first time.

My third day in Hong Kong, I finally get a cell phone plan and then take a spontaneous trip to Macau – yes, that Macau – to activate some fellow students’ visas and spend the day walking around the small island country.

Week 2

Classes begin. If you think syllabus week in the States is a waste of time, you haven’t been to syllabus week on exchange.  Class this week was more of a distraction to all of the exploring we had to do than it was the sole focus of being in college.  Remembering that I’m here to actually take some courses will be a goal for me going forward.  I spend the days taking mini exploration trips to nearby neighborhoods like Mong Kok and Causeway Bay with my new friends and, of course, going out at night and pretending I remember everyone’s name from the week prior.

Over the weekend, we take a 14-mile hike to the Tai Long Wan beach in Sai Kung, the new territories of Hong Kong. It’s hard to believe that after traveling the distance from Manhattan to my house we’re looking over at this:

yes, the blue stuff is water

Week 3

Nothing of much note this week, just getting into the swing of my classes and finalizing my schedule, figuring out where everything is and the rest.  On Wednesday I decided that I was going to book my tickets to go to Bangkok for Rosh HaShanah as some of you may have seen on Facebook…

…and I discovered the wonder that is the Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong. Imagine if Belmont Stakes was located in Central Park and you’ll have some idea of what this racetrack is like.

Moving on – after a fervent late night packing session I hopped in a cab to the airport for my solo flight HKG —> BKK, leading me to five days in Bangkok for…

Week 4

Bangkok is basically Israel’s playground.  More accurately, Southeast Asia is Israel’s playground and Bangkok is the crossroads.  There are signs in Hebrew, a language which Thai people speak better than English in many instances.  Therefore, I wasn’t really surprised to find that dinner on the first night of RH was to be shared with 500 Israeli travelers who were all eating at the Chabad (G-d bless their souls) free of charge as long as they followed the request on the wall (in Hebrew, of course) which asked that no pictures be taken after 6:30pm.  The prayers were beautiful and inspired and after the holiday ended I quickly packed up and took a van to the airport in a torrential downpour, typical of Bangkok in September.  Although I only had one day to actually explore, I was able to visit the Grand Palace, which houses many Buddhas and the royal palace.  I can’t wait to return and visit the Thai islands, which I hear are stunning.  I landed in Hong Kong in time for my 9am class and then napped the day away before heading to the racetrack again and meeting up with friends.  I spent the weekend with the lovely Jewish community in Hong Kong – much more on them in later posts.

Week 5

Week 5 brought Yom Kippur, which I spent with the community again, praying at Ohel Leah.  Established in 1902, Ohel Leah is the oldest shul in Hong Kong and has a vibrant community and the service was moving – there is a men’s choir that sings back up for the chazan, an amazingly talented individual from Israel who happens to moonlight as a doctor during the year.

Although I apologize for the lack of detail and the large data dump, I hope you will continue to read my (more frequent and shorter) posts about my semester abroad.

Missing you all.

-JS