the many small facts

Starting with this article, it says that the median wage is HK$10500 per month. So that's something like $126 000 a year. Yesterday I exchanged some money at AUD1=HKD7.16, but I think it's a trap to convert everything into home currency. Printing is $18 per 100 sides.

It costs somewhere around $5.5 each way to get to university from the halls of residence (otherwise it's a 30 minute walk). Though people say it's cheap to get around, I think that it can easily add up to be much more expensive than Melbourne's zone system.

Monash's my.monash portal and allocate+ are awesome when compared to the HKU system. The classes don't seem as large - my lecture only has 18 enrolment and 10 showed up. They don't seem to have so many set lecture theatres with tiered seating. Most rooms have plastic bucket chairs and fit 30-60 people.

I found that notebooks aren't all that cheap, especially when compared to the back-to-school sales. Two A5 spiral-bound notebooks seemed to be the cheapest at $11 a pack (at the Japanese centre store). But I think I saw an even cheaper one at the student union store - with the HKU logo in gold on the front.

Eating can be really cheap. Downstairs from the halls of residence, a simple sausage, fried egg, cabbage and rice meal can be had for $12. The food on campus is quite ordinary though. It was confusing for me to have to go in all these different queues and at other times to have to wait for the ticket number. The sheer volume of food/customers is quite staggering. Also, their coffee and tea drinks are all far too strong.

I also had the misfortune of lending my phone to another exchange student just to have them drop my phone on the footpath. They didn't offer to pay for the call either. harumph~