I enrolled to Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), also known as Baptist Uni. It is located in Kowloon Tong, it´s really close from Hong Kong island, and the New Territories. Campus is pretty much in the middle of everything.The cars drive on the left side of the road, luckily all the street signs have an English reminding you where and when to look. The first couple of days, where similar to Rollins Orientation. They gave us a little talk on what was allowed, what was not. How and where the classes were going to take place. And just a little bit of expected behavior. It was really convenient that the University handed out the metro forms, which gives you a discount on transport. If you ever visit Hong Kong, you will appreciate the power of the octopus card (metro card). This card is not only your pass for all transportation mediums ( trains, buses, and ferries), it is also the card you use to buy food and even movie tickets. You could basically pay anything in the city with an octopus card. Classes are very different, instead of having 40-60 min lectures spread through the week, my classes are 3-hour lectures that only meet once a week. With no classes on Monday and Tuesday, I will have the opportunity to travel and check out the iconic places of HK. The University encourages exchange students to take schedules like this, so they can travel and explore more Asian continent. Most of my professors where very lenient of class absence, which also helps with the traveling. The grading system basically focuses more on a Final exam (being 70% of the grade), so this could be good or bad. After a week in I´ve had the chance to meet the majority of the exchange students ranging from France, UK, and the US. After researching some of the activities that needed to be done, and feeling confident with the MTR (metro), me and exchange student Johan decide to start organizing some daily adventures with our new friends. The first month we managed to go to the ladies market, which is a long road of merchants that are trying to sell you literally every fake knock off they can get their hands on. The items sold vary from Rubik’s cubes, supreme sweaters, and even a fake Rolex´s. They have everything. Some friends and Iclimbed Lions Rock which is one of the numerous hiking trails in Hong Kong. It was a steep hike, entertaining with a breathtaking view at the top. The university also took us on a tour around The peak and the Stanley area, which was my first time viewing the city from a viewpoint. We started off in a monastery where the guide taught us how to shake some sticks to read our future. Going up the mountain in a bus passing through Ferrari store and trillion dollar homes we finally got the Stanley Market, which was the place where the guide interpreted your future. It was a really fun activity as all the exchange students had the opportunity to share a little bit of their background. The university had two buses for the tour and the one going in front of us had a car accident, as the road was to narrow for both of the busses to pass. Fortunately, nobody got injured, but it was a shame that during Chinese new years 90 people died in a bus crash on the same road.
