A Day in My Life at HKUST

7:00 My alarm jars me awake, and I slowly climb down from my lofted bed. My two roommates are still asleep, so I try not to make too much noise as I clumsily assemble the ingredients for coffee. My French press is perhaps the most valuable thing I own here, as coffee options on campus are pretty bleak.

This is my bed/desk! 

There's not a whole lot of room, but it's enough for me.

8:30 After I drain two cups of coffee, read through my emails, and catch up on what everyone on the other side of the world has been up to (thank you Facebook and Twitter!), I pack my bag and head out to school.

 Watching the sun rise over the bay is never disappointing!

8:45 The entire campus is set on a mountainside, meaning everything is arranged vertically. In theory, you could walk along the sidewalk to get to the main academic building, but no one actually does this. There is a series of walkways and elevators that runs up the center of campus that everyone uses instead. They are convenient, but crowded during passing times.  At 9:00 they usually aren’t too bad, and you can generally get into an elevator pretty quickly.

One of two sections of the bridge linking the dorms to the academic building.

9:00 I sit down to enjoy some breakfast… er, dim sum.  HKUST is pretty isolated, so there are no real off-campus food options. On campus there are a few major food options, and unfortunately they are mostly less than ideal. For western (ish) food there is Einstein’s café, Milano Fresh, Ebenezer’s, or McDonalds. They are building a Starbucks on campus, but that won’t be finished until next year. For Chinese food there is Seafront Cafe, Asia Pacific Catering, Golden Rice bowl, the fancy Chinese restaurant on the ground floor, or the cafeteria on LG1. The LG1 cafeteria is widely considered the best on campus, so that’s where I eat most of the time. The baos are usually served around 8:30 or 9:00, and they sell out quickly, so hurry in.

I missed the baos today, but did manage to snag some fried noodles... Don't forget the chili sauce!

9:30 First lecture of the day; Plant Biotechnology.  This is a pretty large class, with roughly 70 students, and the professors move through material very quickly.  Attendance isn’t recorded, but the lecture slides are mostly composed of excerpts from actual research paper and require some serious interpretation. There are no breakout discussion sessions, and the weekly tutorial session usually ends up being another lecture.  Raising your hand to ask question during lecture is not actively discouraged, but the professor will get frustrated if lecture is frequently interrupted, and most of the local students never speak up during class. Instead, office hours and meetings outside of class are the best way to get your questions answered.

10:30 After lecture, I head to the library’s study space in LG4. I have ninety minutes before my next class, which I mainly used to study for the Foreign Service Officer Test, catches up on lecture notes, or looking up cat videos.

LG4 is quiet, has comfy chairs, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the bay,  and plenty of outlets... what more could you ask for

12:00 Chinese for Non-Chinese Background Students level 7 begins.  HKUST’s Language Department is working on adapting the Chinese language classes for non-local students. It’s a bit of a work in progress, because students from the US generally have very different experience from Indonesian or Korean students. At times, this class is incredibly frustrating; lectures are only twice a week, there is very little opportunity to speak in class, we are responsible for learning roughly one hundred vocabulary words a week, and I often feel like I’m in over my head. However, my classmates are absolutely wonderful and friendly, our professor is a sweetheart and funny, and I am slowly growing my Chinese vocabulary. Hong Kong isn’t the ideal place to study Chinese for a number of reasons, but I keep sticking with it because language classes are a fantastic ways to connect to a culture and make new friends!

2:00 Depending on what day of the week it is, I generally have several hours off in the afternoon. In addition to a quick workout and/or nap, this is the main period I use to work on some of my class projects. In addition to the midterm and final exams (which are slightly terrifying and nearly always graded on a bell-curve), most classes assign a long-term group project or a paper, or sometimes both. In my Personalized Medicine course, student groups are responsible for diagnosing patients in weekly case studies and presenting the genetic origins of the disease.  Additionally, we were individually assigned a genetic disease that we needed to characterize and identify a series of five SNPs that could be used as a genetic test for the disease. Similarly to Madison, professors emphasize using primary research, interpreting technical data, and presenting your findings in a clear and informative way. Ooh! And lunch! I tend to spring for a nice lunch, because by this point I'm ravenous. I recommend Ebenezer's falafel gyro or Milano's create your own salad.

I'm usually also knitting during class. As long as you are in lecture and paying attention, the professors don't seem to mind. Also, I've heard rumors that there isn't really central heating in Hong Kong... so I need to prepare. 

5:00 I head out to evening lecture. On Wednesdays, this is my Community & Cultural Identity class, which is by far my favorite class I’ve taken so far. The professor is knowledgeable, funny, and really tries to engage the class. Using different perspectives from each of the social sciences, the course analyzes what how community and culture have evolved over time, and in particular how it impacts minorities in Hong Kong. It’s been interesting to get the Hong Kong perspective on migration, race relations, US immigration policy, and the recent protests. As one of two American students in the class, it’s been especially challenging. Trying to condense hundreds of years of racism down to three sentences is tough, as is explaining the background to anti-Chinese laws in the 20^th century, and the limitations of the current US political system, but it has definitely been rewarding.  If you want a deeper look at Hong Kong history, culture, and identity definitely take this course!

We were also required to complete some volunteer work for this class. I worked with Caritas, a Catholic charity that works with underprivileged locals and Pakistani immigrants to increase access to resources and education. Above is a picture of the apartment complex that many Pakistani families lived in, but are now being forced out of. We helped with an education campaign to help these families find new housing.

6:30-7:00 Dinner time! Or, if it is Wednesday, I run to catch a bus to get to the subway to head to the IFC in Central to grab some coffee and chat with other knitters. Every other weeknight I usually head back down towards the dorms and stop by Seafront for a bowl of noodles. I'm not a fan of their rice-based foods, but the noodles are pretty good, especially with a liberal dose of chili sauce. 

8:00 Back in the room, for some more FSOT studying. I'm a big fan of the Hong Kong Public Library, and usually have a stack of books on various topics to choose from. Also, the Dane County Public Library System has an e-book lending program, which has been a fantastic resource for me while I'm abroad. I really enjoyed reading Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, and found it pretty helpful on the exam. 

I'm also trying to catch up on some classics... college really cuts into your reading time.

9:30 Depending on how my week has been going (and how hungry I am) I may go on a half-price sushi run. In the Hang Hau mall, there is a sushi restaurant/ vendor that marks down all of their products after 9pm. Given that Hong Kong is a former fishing village, that the shop is only a fifteen minute bus ride away, and that I can get a full platter of good sushi for less than $10, its a pretty good deal.

11:00 Get ready to go to sleep... this usually involves more cat videos. 

1:00 AM Some group of students outside our dorm begins yelling/singing/chanting. This happens nearly every night without fail. I'm not really sure why... some times its obviously exchange students coming back from a night out, but other times it is student organizations calling out slogans in Cantonese. At any rate, once this dies down, it is quiet for the rest of the night, and I can rest up for the next day's adventures.

Group cheers are strangely popular on campus. In this video, three business student associations battle in a clap off. 

Not every day is a huge adventure or pilgrimage to some far-flung island, but I'm really enjoying my little routine here in Hong Kong. Some things are familiar and remind me of home, but everything is just different enough to remind me how far I've come, and how little time I have. It feels like midterms just finished, and now I'm rushing to finish a variety of final projects. Truly, time flies when you are having fun!