Possible disappointment

I'm afraid this site will not live up to its billing if I write posts like this one. Actually, most things have been going quite smoothly in Hong Kong.

I moved into my single room at Graduate House a week ago today. The room itself is on the 7th floor and has a sea view. I share my bathroom with my neighbour, a Canadian-born Chinese guy from Calgary who's doing a Masters degree in Journalism. So far, he seems okay. I was very worried about whether or not I'd get a neighbour who can aim for the bowl, and since he moved in two days ago, the bowl is still clean. It doesn't really matter anyway, since our rooms and the bathrooms are cleaned weekly.



Of course, I do have complaints about my dorm. First of all, it's at the very top of the HKU campus, which means that I have to climb about 150 steps from either gate of the main campus, IN ADDITION TO two elevator rides of four-storeys each. It goes without saying that I drip with sweat every time I come back up here. My other complaint about this dorm is that they have a "no visitors after 11pm" policy. We're grown adults, for Chrissakes! Fortunately, this policy isn't exactly strictly enforced. What boils my blood is that this is supposedly the only postgraduate dorm that has nightshift security guards. While I CAN have overnight guests, I can't let these guards see them. My third complaint is about some of my fellow residents: the majority of the 180 residents here are from China, and a lot of them are quite shy. Actually, I've always said that after people turn a certain age, there's no such thing as "shy"; it's called "rudeness". So far, about half of the Mainland Chinese residents I bump into the elevator and in the hallways totally ignore me. I know it's not because of B.O., at least not MY B.O., since I brought industrial-strength deodorant from Vancouver. Oh, one last complaint: there's a smoker on my floor, and I'm determined to find him/her and rat him/her out.

I've also been assigned an office at my department, the Centre of Asian Studies, which is located in one of the older buildings on campus. I share my office with a Masters student, a nice guy from Hong Kong. We each have a medium-sized desk; mine is a nice wooden one. My department even splurged and bought me a new desktop computer! I'm told that few other departments have such money. Oh, I met my supervisor for the first time today. What a sweet sweet guy.

The administrative staff at HKU have very professional attitudes and usually get things done in a very timely manner. My housing, student visa, student ID, library, and other issues were all resolved with minimal hassle and even rather friendly service. Sadly, I hear this standard of service is becoming increasingly rare in Hong Kong. Pay a visit to any bank, to the Immigration Department, and virtually any restaurant and you will see what I mean.

Okay, I guess I'll have to save my many complaints and criticisms for future posts. Maybe I shouldn't have put the words "krazy" or "kranky" in my post. Sigh...


Ken