The only bit of luck that I had with the plane trip was that I was set up with an exit row seat on the flight from Chicago to Hong Kong. Other than that, the plane from MSP to OHare was delayed three times (crew delay, takeoff delay, and “flap indicator light” while landing delay). These added up to ensure that I would miss my connection to Hong Kong, but luckily I got on the next flight, which was only about two hours after my scheduled flight.
After eating my first Chinese noodles over the North Pole, I touched down in Hong Kong where I found out that my bags had been left in Chicago. Since I half expected this I had helped myself to a blanket as I disembarked from the plane. I then gave my information to the UA lost baggage guy and contemplated my seemingly endless transportation options.
Not as many people
as I expected at the
airport! The only
person worth noting is
this guy and his
sweet glasses!
I settled on a route that took me from the airport via MTR (Mass Transit Rail) to the famous Star Ferry, which I took across Victoria Harbor to hop back on the MTR. I took the MTR as far as I could and took a cab the rest of the way, which proved to be very reasonable. The hardest part about this was trying to get the driver to accept a tip!
This is by far the most
intuitive method I have
seen to indicate travel
time/position.
Upon arrival at HKUST and finally finding the correct place to check in, I met my roommate, Benoit (Ben), who is from France. After talking with him for a bit I attempted to get some sleep on my airline pillow and blanket. Although I was already skeptical of most French stereotypes, so far Ben has wiped most of them out.
The conditions aided my prompt awakening fairly early, which was okay because I had much to do. I made several stops at various offices to try to make the correct arrangements. During my visit to the Student Housing Office I met a fellow American ,Tyler, and an Irish/Romanian named Daniel who were thinking about heading into the city after setting up bank accounts. We bumped into each other again at the Hang Seng Bank and I joined them to meet up with several other international students in the dining facility. There I met Belin (?) (Ecuador), Nadja (Sweden), Steve (US), and Marton (Hungary) among others, and we all headed for the city to meet our various needs.
First on the list was a cell phone, so Nadja, Jenna (US), Daniel, Tyler, and I went searching and eventually all got our phones. We got some local food and then, after loosing Jenna and Daniel, proceeded to IKEA to get our bedding and other essentials.
Upon return to the dorms everyone is fairly beat, and instead of going out for a night on the town, a small group decided to have a few drinks on the beach. I, however, was waiting for my bag to come (supposedly at 9 or 10 pm) and was far to tired to go out anyways. So I lost no time in falling dead asleep.
Pictures:
Check out the room and campus:
Friday, January 19, 2007
