One Week Just Like That

Very quickly, tomorrow will mark a week in hong kong already. Day by day, I'm getting more used to life here in hk. With this said, I'm getting lazier in terms of blogging and taking photos.

As the days go by, I think it will be harder to really account for each day's activities, so I will perhaps do a photo journal summary for each week, starting from the one that has just passed. Haven't really thought of how I'm going to go about doing so, but I promise to get something up by mid week. Photos will be courtesy of josh, and some from my own camera of course.

I just realised that we have been out till very late for almost every single night since arriving in HK, and we have really walked alot. We have gone to Shatin, Tsim Sha Tsui, Mongkok, Central, Causeway Bay, Victoria Harbour, The Peak, and many more, but there's still so many more places we haven't covered. Furthermore, we haven really covered the entire places of the areas I just mentioned, so there's lots lots more to cover.

School starts tomorrow, and I am actually interested to see what lessons are like here. Josh and I just realised that it has been about 4 months since our last lesson in school, and that is equivalent to almost one whole semester! Amazing.

My canto level has improved from -2 to perhaps -1 or something like that, as I have managed to learn from basic cantonese words over the past week. Still can't really converse, and am still giving the 'huh?!' look to the people who speak to me in canto, but well there's at least some improvement. Really hoping to up my level in the weeks to come.

Settling in All Over Again

Yesterday was yet again more administrative stuff, before going for a welcoming dinner at Tsim Sha Shui. Food was not bad, and including the buffet lunch that was provided, yesterday was officially the day which I ate the most after 4 days or so in hong kong. Time to hit the gym.

The highlight of yesterday was the pub and karaoke session with the 'Singapore gang'. It was time well spent together, as I'm sure it kinda brought all of us much closer to each other. Oh and karaoke in HK, real cheap! The simple games and drinks at the pub was fun and nice, and the singing was good and crazy too. And to think we just knew each other for about a day or so. Am feeling very tired now after my first stayout night in hong kong.

As for today, it was finally time to move to our permanent hostels. We could finally unpack all our stuff and feel really 'settled down'. After moving in to my perm hostel, I personally think that the idea of having orientation hostels for the first few days is not all that good. I kinda felt settled in during the last few days at the orientation hostel, and now that I have moved to another new place, it feels like I pressed the reset button and have to get myself settled down all over again.

Josh and I got assigned to New Asia College, and after going around the whole school, I would say we probably got the better one. Although it's way up high, the view is good. Morever, the school of communications and journalism is also located at the college, and there is a nice gym nearby, so its all good and convenient. Then again of course, with pros, there are cons. My room view is erm ... 'ok', as about half the view from my room window allows me to see the see the sea and some other islands. Josh has got a much better view at the other side of the building, and he's at a much higher level. But oh well, I shall attempt to console myself with the fact that I won't be spending too much time in my room. There's just so many things out here in hong kong I still wanna learn and explore.

With that said, the real concern is far from the view and where my room is, but more of my room mates. I actually got a triple room, and I'm a little worried about that. One of the locals have already moved in, although I haven't got to meet him yet. I really hope they are nice people, as I hope to learn alot about the hong kong culture from them.

Now that I have to re-settle into another new environment, the 'mixed feelings' I got a few days ago is back again. I am also feeling a little overwhelmed by emotions, as I'm missing my gf and home very much. As my friend said, it's the distance factor. Eventhough I spent lots of time away from home even when I was in Singapore, the feeling is so different as I am now in faraway hong kong.

Time to settle my modules, before I get some rest to recharge myself. To everyone at home, take care!

The Real Meaning of Exchange

Before I go on about today, I do have to say that blogger is not all that friendly when it comes to uploading photos. It kinda messed up my alignments, so I will not be adding photos. Maybe I shall turn to facebook or something. Josh has some nice photos at his new hk blog, and you can find the address in his msn nick. Oh, and his camera and shots are way better than mine, so I guess it would probably be better to look at his photos. The awesome view I mentioned about in my previous entry can also be found on his blog.

As for today, it wasn't really about where we went, but who we were with. Almost the entire day was spent at the lecture hall listening to talks and administrative stuff, but I'm glad we got to meet a few other Singaporeans from SMU. And guess what, one of them is actually my closer poly friend's gf. Again, it's a small world after all. She also told me that my friend will be coming to visit her in hk in a couple of weeks time, so I would get to meet him too! It's been a really long time, and I'm looking forward to catching up with him. The good ol' days we had in poly!

Dinner tonight was at some 'cha chan ting' at Tsim Sha Shui, before we headed to Victoria Harbour and the Avenue of Stars. Wonderful night view of the hong kong business district. It was also a little different tonight, as our usual clique kinda expanded. We had a few other exchange students for company, from korea, america, taiwan, and I think a few other countries. It was really nice to just chat with them while we walked along the harbour, getting to know more about them, their cultures and their countries. And yes it's true, the foreigners are really amused and amazed by Singlish.

So all in all, not only did we get to meet up with our counterparts from SMU, but we had a whole lot of interaction with the foreign exchange students from the many different countries. Now thats what exchange should really be about, meeting new people both from home and abroad, and getting to know more about each other. I'm sure more of such opportunities would soon follow, and I'm really looking forward to the rural teaching trips coming up soon. Will explain more about that in time to come.

Oh, it has been 3 days already, but we realised that we hadn't really eaten as much as we thought we would. We haven't really had a single breakfast in HK yet. We ate dim sum yesterday but I'm sure we could have eaten much more. We only ate KFC egg tarts (yes its KFC!) for dinner last night, and today was simply canteen food and a bowl of noodles at the cha chan ting. So far still no krispy kremes, no 'lao po bing', no roadside stalls, or no other snacks, and the closest we came was the dessert we had yesterday. Maybe its because we are still settling in, and are still unsure of where we can really find good food. But oh well, considering that we haven't really started our exercise regimes yet (apart from climbing stairs and slopes), it's probably best that we didn't eat too much.

Last but not least, photo count for today, zero. Reasons being dirty camera lense, not so good camera, laziness and that same old mindset of 'we will come back soon, so sure can take picture one'.

I'm in Hong Kong!

It has been eons since I last blogged, but now that I'm heading into an all new and exciting chapter in my life, I so have to blog about it, both to update the people around me and for memory keepsake. I wouldn't be adding much pictures, or any at all for this entry, one being a little lazy, and two being someone who does not take much pictures anyway. Of course, I will still try to upload whatever I have, maybe some here and there in the many HK entries to come, and maybe the rest in some online photo album.

---

First day, well thanks to all who came down to see me off, especially the arts club gang who stayed over at the airport. It was a really nice gesture, and I really appreciate it. Was feeling really sad at the departure gate, and it was only at that moment that it dawned upon me that I was leaving the country for almost 4-5 months. I was not going to see my gf, my family, my friends, and the all so familiar surroundings for a really long time. It was so unreal, and my emotions were just all so mixed up.

The flight was personally rather bad for me, not because the service or the aircraft was bad or anything, but simply because I started to feel the 'sickness' I had from the previous day. I started feeling my throat going bad again, and started feeling feverishly cold again. I even had to trouble the stewards and stewardesses, as I asked for warm water for about 10 different times throughout the 3 hour plus flight. Thank goodness the Kungfu Panda screening made the trip a little more bearable.

The rest of the day was spent lugging our heavy luggages to CUHK, settling in our orientation hostels, and settling all the administrative stuff. It was a kinda long and hectic process as I spent the entire afternoon settling down. The slopes were horrendous too, and I promise never to complain about NUS slopes or stairs ever again. They are nothing compared to CUHK's. Haha, it's really funny because tien kwan was complaining about slopes at korea not too long ago, and cherie too at australia, and now here I am complaining in HK too.

The rest of the day was spent out with the usual clique, elaine, josh and myself. Thank goodness elaine had this CUHK buddy, Irene, who was super welcoming and super friendly, and she took the entire day off to bring us to CUHK, bring us out for dinner, tell us more about HK, teach us some basic canto and settle all the miscellaneous stuff that we had to settle. She made the settling in much more easier for us, and this despite her having a really bad throat. Hospitality to the highest level!

It was a tiring first day, and it really didn't help that I was feeling sickly for the whole day. The fatigue, sickness, the many many administrative stuff to settle, and mixed emotions I still had at the end of the day, left me feeling a little bit ... lost. Not the best way to start my SEP, but oh well, I believe things will be much better when I recover, and when I continue to settle down.

---

Second day. Had a good night's rest at the comfort of having a double room all to myself, as my room mate hadn't come into HK yet. The good rest made me feel a little better today. We took a self-guided tour round the campus, and I got a good look at where my permanent hostel is. It's right on top of the mountain, and the view is just awesome. For this I'll let the pictures do the talking, when I do upload it of course. Now I am just hoping I get a room with a good view.

We headed to Shatin for dessert, authentic HK dessert! I just had to try the mango sago, the one I always eat in Singapore. The HK one I ordered had some tofu pudding with it, and I thought it was real nice. I wasn't sure if it really tasted good, or because I knew it was authentic HK dessert, or simply because I was feeling much better today, I really enjoyed that bowl of dessert. Irene then brought us to some shopping centre around the Mongkok area to eat dim sum! Our first go at HK dim sum! Haha, sorry gang josh and I didn't bring the huge chopsticks with us this time, but there'll be plenty more chances, and I promise to post pictures of us eating with those chopsticks. Dim sum was good, and cheap too! More to come for sure.

After dim sum, we took a walk round Mongkok. Didn't really do much shopping, as I guess we were more interested in just walking around experiencing the HK streets. Haha we kept telling ourselves to not act like tourist, taking pictures everywhere we go, going into every shop and looking at everything, because we have another 4 months to do so! So in the end, we just dropped by some shops here and there. I must say though that I am really fascinated by the number of shopping centres in HK, and the size of their shopping centres. We have gone to a few already, but the one that really caught my eye was Langham Place. 13 different levels of shops, super long escalators, and very nice ambience and architectural design with a good variety of shops.

Well orientation starts tomorrow, and it's filled mostly with talks and administrative stuff. Sounds a little boring, but oh well, there's the all important module registration, so we can't give it a miss. I am really hoping to get all this module mapping hassles out of the way as soon as possible. Meanwhile, more canto lessons, as I am hoping to have my first canto conversation without giving the 'huh?' look. The culture shock I kinda felt yesterday and at the start of today is slowly starting to fade away, as I'm looking forward to the days at HK!

Just What For?

What was unity in diversity, turned out to be diversed dis-unity. Fingers can be pointed, and to each his own reasons for certain actions and reactions, but seriously, what is all these happening for?

Some good pointers were brought up pertaining to my previous entry. Different situations may call for different responses, and some may feel that my take on the issue was perhaps too simplified, but I still hold by the main point I was trying to bring out. Whatever the situation is, can 'respect' really afford to be totally absent?

And apparently, the haunting has come much earlier than I expected, and in a much greater force than I anticipated. What's worse? It doesn't stop here, and there's just no turning back. And to think I tried to put across the point on the dangers of undermining the importance of the people.

On a side note, the YOG games village will no longer be held at the NUS University Town. The rising cost in construction worldwide was cited as the main reason, and NTU will now be hosting the village. No doubt the reason is a valid one, and the decision may be for the good of the YOG as a whole, but I'm sure that it would be a big blow for NUS. There goes the perfect opportunity to have the whole world's sporting and media spotlight on NUS.

Leader

Very obviously, something sparked me to write such an entry.

So what is a leader? Simply break the word up to lead-er, and the word lead stands out. So of course to be a leader, you need to lead people to accomplish or achieve a certain task or goal.

Noticed how I bolded the word people? What is a general without his men, and what is a leader without his people? Simply nothing. Leadership is never about the leader himself. Its about understanding those under you, and vice versa. So what if you have an idea, but can't translate that idea to your men? So what if you are strong on your stand, but can't get your men to understand, and support you on that stand?

A leader has to earn the respect from his people to be able to lead. If you really think that it doesn't matter whether anyone respects you, or if you think you don't give a damn about what others think of you, I'm telling you straight up you're so wrong. It will come back and haunt you, that I guarantee.

So what if you are the leader of a project, and the project goes well? Did you gain the respect of your people under you? Did you lead them to success, or could they have even done it without you? If so, how much of a 'leader' are you?