Goodbye Hong Kong, goodbye UST!

photo: credit laszlo-photo

As of today I am finally done with this semester too. This also means my exchange here at UST has found it’s end and I will leave Hong Kong on Thursday for Vietnam.

The time here was one of the best I had. I don’t want to go.

When I came about four months ago, I was shocked at first, there were no male toilets on my floor, the rooms were small and definitely not clean. I even found myself wondering what I had got me into. A few days passed, my new roommate Wouter moved in and the lectures started. I managed to get me some PG courses and a language course to lean Mandarin.

It did not take long and the first fellow exchange students asked: “Did you know? We are already halfway through…”. And yes we were. Time went by so fast. It does have it’s good sides though. Some of us became unwilling witnesses of birthday-parties the way they kids do them here. It usually involves being undressed by a horde of same sex “friends”. And as if that wasn’t gross enough, Happy Corner is a favorite here. But that is just gross, what is really annoying is that the best time to play Mahjong seems to be from 2am till 6am, and involves shouting, screaming and a sheer unending time to shuffle the stones. Thanks for those sleepless nights fellows… Shouting at them didn’t help it either, thank you Wouter, at least for trying.

To all those, with whom I did share courses, elections, fun or meals. I will miss you and hope we can meet-up sometime somewhere!

For now it’s over and I am ready to go. I’m looking forward to Vietnam and I’ll promise to come back. I simply fell in love with this city.

Side-note:
PG courses start easy but the workload increases exponentially throughout the semester. Therefore be cautious what courses you take if you can choose. I don’t regret taking PG courses, as they were definitely worth it. I’m just not convinced that PG courses and an exchange semester get along so well if the final grades are important to you.