All other matters

University
+late hours of uni mean that nobody will kick you out of laboratories until the post-grad actually want to go home (they work from about midday to 2AM)
+small classes for EE
+good food selection

-floors relative to ground indicate how hilly everything is (Let's go from O to G)
-distance from hall

General
+air conditioning actually works in minibuses, buses and MTR
+public holidays still mean something like the city working at 75% intensity
+can get around late
+can still get home at normal transport prices until 1AM
+convenience in eating
+ 八達通,7-11,Circle-K
-can't buy some things in the morning until the store opens at 11AM
-pockets of hot and cold air feel really disgusting
-stuff is damp
-transport expenses can spiral out of control since it's a charge per ride system


Something about classes...
-domestic servants
-overstaffed places, even cinemas
-autistic and old people as cleaners at café de coral (asia pac catering)
--they say thank you and bye bye really loud, mister (xian sheng) are you done with the meal etc

Trying to write up something more sentence-like:
Hong Kong offers a high-service lifestyle at the expense of personal space and nature. People have created a human-habital space in spite of the environment.
• land reclamation - perhaps one day there will be no need for ferries
• air conditioning
• hillslopes and roads always being ripped up

Hall conveniences

While I had the pleasure of sitting an exam with a few dozen mosquito bites to remind me about the lack of flyscreens in the hall, I felt it was necessary to compile this piece to maintain balance in light of Mr Liu's recent remark.

Hallmates are indeed friendly and they will go out of their way to do stuff when one asks for help/information.
Sometimes the information isn't strictly required:- We had a lightning storm this evening and the power was disrupted. Most importantly, computing was disrupted.
"Diu lei lo mo, mo din ah!"
 Blunt, yet informative.

Of course, there is a certain air of freedom in halls. Especially with the no alcohol, smoking, drugs poster next to the recycle bin overflowing with beer cans.
The halls are about twenty minutes walk to main campus but there are no fewer than three forms of connecting services. A university shuttle bus stops about thirty metres from the front door. A minibus stop is about one-hundred metres walk and a public bus stop is about three-hundred metres walk away. It's nice not feeling drowsy from the journey to and from campus.

Eating is convenient and when the convenience isn't enough, there's a 7-11 ten metres from the front door.

Hall inconveniences

I certainly won't miss that hocking noise that so many people use to clear their throat of phlegm.
Noisy flip flop skipping, hockey in the corridor at 2AM...
Stupid non conversations in hall - just sounds...




The laundry booking system existed on paper only. It's also annoying to have to wait for an elevator just to get out of the building.

shop - 1 (badminton racquets)

Well, if pictures are worth a thousand words, how many words is a motion picture at 15fps with 20 minutes duration?

Anyway, after being greeted by the sight of students studying in the Flora Ho sports centre changerooms before their exam in the recreation hall, I decided to go have a look at badminton racquets. Enjoy it Sam~

HK rain

In some ways I feel that Hong Kong rain is not as real and apparent as the rain I'm used to.
Of course, when I'm at ground level I can feel the impact of the raindrops on my head. However the temperature seems to remain rather warm.
When I'm in my room, the line "it occurred to me that it had been raining" seems to fit. I don't hear much noise from the rain - at most the drippings from one air conditioning unit to another. Granted, I'm nowhere near the roof level so I wouldn't be getting that kind of noise that I'm used to. I see the puddles form on the ground level. I open the windows and see that there is water falling from the sky. But there is an air of unrealness... it just seems to occur in a separate domain.

Superpass

There's some intriguing customs revolving around improving one's chances for good marks.
Apples are distributed on campus catering - apparently the words sound similar to passing.
Red packets are distributed at high table dinner. $1.30 sounds like greater than 3 (for GPA).

There was also lion dancing, where the lions made their way up on a 5m pole after some difficulty.
A guest speaker came for the high table dinner and spoke about some stuff in Cantonese. The students who were meant to be translating snickered instead of explaining a lot of the time. The warden and other hall leaders wrote some Superpass stuff on red sheets of paper.

In addition, we had a village/floor superpass dinner at Ruby Tuesday's. The prices were obscene: $150-300 for meals and $50 drinks. However they have 50% off for members - an interesting strategy since membership costs a few hundred dollars a year.

On the way back a green minibus was hired out. I can now report from my own experience that there is an intermittent beep between 80-90km/h and a solid beep over 90km/h.

Studying for exams is still a good risk reduction technique.
Plus it can be fun - I joined another student named Winfred in Prof Cheung's office. Prof Cheung kept deflecting Winfred's queries by saying he's not the one being quizzed on Friday. He also laughed a lot at some explanations and went about his normal business as best he could - he took a lot of phone calls while we were there. He's quite traditional in that he wants people to read the material as the first point-of-call (none of the interactive stuff). Also, he might equate not knowing something with wagging his lectures...