Silver Linings

Study abroad is the best time of your life. This is when you make memories you will cherish for the rest of your life. Your friends and family are cheering you on from back home. Every day presents new opportunities for adventure, friendship, and self-exploration.

Except, not every day is magical and wonderful. Don't get me wrong. I'm having a fantastic time here in Hong Kong, but it is impossible to have the best day of your life for 365 straight days. And so, I'm going to present a list of five things I shouldn't really complain about, and five things that keep me going on the rough days. Interspersed are pictures from a recent hike I took near the Clearwater Bay Park down to Po Tai fishing village.

1. It takes twice as long to get anything done. Administratively, study abroad is complicated. Registering for classes is a multi-week process as I try to build a solid class schedule, get approval to enroll, and register the credits to transfer back to UW Madison. None of this is difficult, but it is time-consuming. Similarly, I've spent three days paying for housing, and two weeks trying (unsuccessfully) to get my taxes done. Things get complicated, and its not like I can walk into someone's office in Madison and ask for help.

On the bright side, people have by and large been very helpful and considerate. Random people on the street help me as I struggle to bag up my groceries, redirect me when I get lost, and professors respond to emails within 24 hours. It is easy to overlook the countless little moments where people go out of their way to help me find my way, but their help is priceless.

2. Air pollution. The air has been particularly foggy/smoggy in the past week, which makes it really difficult to take clear pictures... or you know, breathe.

Still, we've had some pretty excellent sunrises and sunsets.

3. Losing important documents. A couple of days ago I lost my wallet in the MTR. Back home, this is bothersome, but not the end of the world. However, my wallet contains my passport, student id(s), room card, octopus card, debit card, cash, and my health insurance card. The process for replacing any single item takes days or weeks. Replacing all of them? I shudder at the thought. Lucky someone had turned my wallet into the MTR authorities, and after two hours of absolute panic, I was on my way back home.

People always warned me about pick pockets and muggers, but I've (thankfully) never had anything stolen from me. I can be pretty absent minded, and I can't tell you the number of times I have had complete strangers run up to me to return a book or some change I had forgotten about. And really, I cannot thank the stranger who turned in my wallet enough. Thank you.

4. I'm cold.  I know it is like -20 degrees in Madison right now, but hear me out. I live in a concrete box of a dorm room with leaky windows and no central heating. None of the buildings on campus are heated. Even finding a soft chair to curl up in is difficult. Admittedly, during the afternoon, this isn't really a problem; throw on a light sweater and you are good to go for a day of adventures. But at night, the wind whips off of the ocean and slices right through the cracks in the windows and chills the entire campus. There is no relief until the sun comes up the next morning.

Fortunately, Hong Kong has excellent tea and snacks to help warm you up on a chilly day. Few things are better than a mug of milk tea and a freshly made waffle dripping with peanut butter and condensed milk.

5. I get sick frequently. Different side of the world, different microbes. Also, in generally having millions of crammed into such a small area is a recipe for disease. While I've been lucky and haven't had any serious injuries or illnesses, I have had dozens of flus, colds, migraines, and mysterious illnesses that have laid me low for a few days. Nothing feels worse than being sick abroad.

I've learned to rebound much more quickly. I've only got a few months left! I can't waste time sitting around nursing a mild cold! There are exhibits to see, parks to visit, hikes to complete, pictures to take, and memories to make! Study abroad teaches you dozens of ways to become mentally and physically resilient. Like everything else in life, there are highs and lows. Take time to cherish the highlights, but recall the troubles too. It is not the struggles that define us, but how we react to trials that shape who we are.

Study Abroad New Year's Resolutions

The last couple of months have absolutely flown by. The holiday season has always been my favorite time of year. This is my first time abroad for Thanksgiving, my birthday, and Christmas, and it was a little bittersweet. I missed out on the classic turkey dinner for Thanksgiving, but a group of American exchange students organized a brunch, which may not be traditional... but was delicious. 

For my birthday, instead of the traditional Babcock Dairy ice cream (which I miss desperately!) and cheese curds, I got a group of friends from my Chinese class to try out Sichuan-style hot pot. After stuffing ourselves with meat and veggies, we visited WanChai for some bubble tea and egg waffles!

Note to self... don't take large bite of waffle before having your picture taken!

Spending Christmas away from home was definitely the most challenging for me. Here, Christmas is a holiday spent out with friends, shopping, looking at the lights, and exchanging gifts. However, for me Christmas is always about family. It is the one time of year most of my extended family gets together to just spend a day cooking, eating, exchanging meaningful gifts, and catching up on the family news. Given all the time I've spent abroad or away from my family in Madison, this year was especially tough. I had a some solace from my boyfriend visiting over Christmas and New Year's (thank you Jon, and happy one year anniversary!) and the knowledge that my immediate family was visiting soon, but it is not quite the same. 

Gotta love obligatory MTR selfies!

So... with all that said, New Year's has passed (at least, the western one... Chinese New Year is in February) and it is time for me to lay out my study abroad resolutions. I'm over halfway through my Hong Kong experience (though I may be able to go to Beijing next, more on that later), and its time for me to evaluate my progress thus far.

1) Eat more weird food. I've gotten pretty lazy with my meals lately, and have been eating western food more often than I care to admit. Hong Kong is known for crazy Cantonese dishes, and its now or never!

2) Climb more mountains. Some of my favorite memories from the past semester were on group or solo hikes in Hong Kong's amazing parks, but I avoided taking more of those treks because they often take up a significant amount of time or energy. I absolutely need to do the Lion's Rock hike, Dragon's Back hike, and climb up Lantau Island.

3) Take more photographs. No, I don't mean selfies. I've kinda been going back and forth about when and where I want to take my camera to get really nice pictures. I hate looking (more) like a tourist, but I really enjoy having quality pictures to show what life in Hong Kong is really like. I want to show more pictures of local life, housing projects, and the wet markets!

4) Spend at least 30 minutes each day preparing for the Foreign Service Officer Test. I recently learned that I was not invited to move onto the oral exams for the Department of State hiring process. While this wasn't a complete surprise, I'm still a little disappointed. Rather than moping, I'm working to make sure I have an even stronger application next year. 

5) Create memories through multiple medias. I blog, I dump pictures onto my Facebook page, and I Instagram weird moments of my day, but other than that... I don't do a lot to record everything that is going on around me. I want to take more videos, re-start my personal journal, collect more tickets and postcards, fill out the Google+ page I'm sharing with the Oregon High School class I working with for the Classroom Connections project (hi everyone!), and I want to start making a couple of Shutterfly books filled with memories and thoughts from my time in Sichuan and Hong Kong. 

6) Explore more. I've fallen into the trap where I know the districts where I am most comfortable: Sheung Wan has fantastic food, Tin Hau has the fabulous library, Kowloon Tong and Kwun Tong have good malls, and Lantau Island is a nice getaway. But I really want to make more of an effort to visit ALL of the MTR stops, and places not on the stops! More outlying islands, more local areas, and avoid getting stuck in a rut. Along with this, I really really want to visit Taiwan and Vietnam this semester. Financially, it didn't work out last semester, but with a little more careful planning, I should be able to continue exploring abroad!

So welcome to 2015, the year of the ram! I hope it is another amazing year filled with adventure, exploration,  and opportunity like 2014 was!