First day of school

Today is September 15 and the first day was actually September 7. However, I realized that I had not discussed this most important aspect and purpose of my time in Hong Kong.

In case you forgot, I am attending the Chinese University of Hong Kong. CUHK is a relatively new university, but one that enjoys a very good reputation in Hong Kong (more about CUHK's reputation later). Its main campus is located in Sha Tin, a district north of the city in the New Territories. The main campus is one of the most beautiful that I have seen. It is located on a mountain and, although inconvenient to traverse, this feature provides absolutely stunning views of other nearby mountains and water; the view lasts for miles.

From First Days

From First Days

From First Days

I actually don't spend much time there considering it's about an hour away by metro and light rail...maybe 30 minutes and $15-20 by cab. My classes are downtown between the Admiralty and Central metro stops on the Island line which runs across the north side of Hong Kong Island. This part of town is home to maybe one of the greatest concentration of office workers in the world. There is really nothing outside at street level except for entrances into the shops and cafes that populate the ground floors of the office buildings. It's possible to walk uninterrupted between several buildings without ever touching the street.

Sometimes this feels overwhelming but overall it's pretty convenient because the covered walking bridges provide relief from the sun and rain. Also, there are at least ten restaurants where I could be seated at table not even five minutes after class. To name a few, there are chain coffeeshops (Starbucks, Pacific Coffee Co., and Caffe Habitu), western fastfoods (Subway & Burger King), Chinese fastfood (MX and Fairwood**) all the way up to Chiuchow Garden, an upmarket traditional Chinese.

As for the school itself, I still don't have a lot to say about the courses substantively. That is because I am still uncertain about the classes that I will be able to take. The beginning of the week was the end of the first add/drop period but that was interrupted by Typhoon Koppu. Hopefully I will know within one or two days which classes I can actually enroll in.

Dutifully, I have been attending class even still unregistered. Some initial impressions are that the professors are pretty relaxed about attendance, lateness, and coming/going during class but learning expectations seem very high. This is a sharp contrast my experience in the U.S. where many professors invest a lot of effort into regulating those somewhat pedantic aspects of a class.

Reading for class is pretty much the same as in the U.S. except that some Chinese students seem even less willing to talk than the average 1L. Socratic method is not often employed but teachers are very receptive to student opinions. This is especially the case for controversial subjects, which are not scarce in a class about Chinese land expropriation for example in a classroom of people half from Hong Kong, a handful of exchange students, and a lot of LLM students from Mainland China.

Honestly, the bulk of my efforts has gone towards achieving that state of administrative zen one has when one's classes are set, tuition bills paid, and schedule is certain. Meditation has not furthered this but an annoyingly high number of phone calls placed to the academic coordinator for foreign students can sometimes push the process forward.