I arrived the night before the first available move-in date option, which I highly recommend so that you can be well-rested the next day. I stayed at a hotel near the airport; however, no amount of rest could have prepared me for the following week. I was lucky enough to get a dorm room in the lottery this semester so this is how it was for me — your mileage may vary if you are off campus. On Monday I was picked up at the airport by a CityU shuttle and taken to the University. The bus ride wasn’t too long and honestly, it was great to talk to the other exchange students. Looking back on it, the students I met on the shuttle were many of the people I hung out with that first week.
Once arriving at the University, we were checked in, and we went to our dorms where we quickly realized we had no idea what to do next. Given our “completely lost” status and the fact we were the only students on campus, we met up to try to figure out what to do. I believe it was the first or second day when there was a welcome session in the Yeung Kin Man Academic Building. At this session, we met the exchange student helpers and received the paperwork to get our student ID’s. Later that day with that same group of helpers, we went on a trek to IKEA to get things we needed for our dorms. This was good as another night without a pillow was going to wreck my neck! Personally, I felt IKEA was a pain and I probably could have found things cheaper elsewhere, but hey, they gave me free travel to and from the store.
For the rest of the week, I followed the schedule sent to me by Jasmine Wong which gave me time slots and places I needed to be that week. This schedule was significantly more structured than the first day’s schedule. One key point is that once you get your student ID you can apply for a student Octopus Card. The student card gives you half off most MTR (Metro) rides. The Octopus Card is used for payment for the metro, food, and a bunch of other places. You will need a 50mm by 40mm picture so if you can bring that from home it makes life easier than trying to find a print shop in Hong Kong. In addition, in the early days, it’s easiest if you have Hong Kong currency. I ordered some from my bank before I went which I highly recommend.
How did I spend my free time you might ask? I spent a good chunk of time running around completing this form or getting this stamp, but I did get to explore and handle some personal stuff too. Make note, the dorm rooms DO NOT HAVE WIFI. You must buy a router, I recommend going to the Sham Shui Po Markets, but if that is not possible go to Fortress in Festival Walk. Routers are not technically supported, but all students have them and they run about $200 HK. My technical how-to advice:
Worst case try to find someone who is in the residence hall already who has it set up to help you, or get your Floor Tutor (their version of an RA) to help you. The method stated was how I got mine to work.
When I wasn’t dealing with technology issues, I was hanging out with other exchange students. Everyone uses Whatsapp here so make sure to download that and get your family and friends to as well (although if you have an unlocked phone and plan to get a sim card like I did, you may want to wait to set it up until you have that card so you can do a phone verification in case you have to restart your phone for whatever reason.) I met students from all over and it was really interesting to see how others dealt with the situation of being slightly lost. One thing we made sure to do was to travel with someone so that if you get lost, you’re at least lost together. Groups of us would go to the markets or to get food and that made things less lonely and you felt like you had a better idea about everything. Basically, the first week everyone went out every night. One place called Mr. Wong’s was very popular due to the cheap unlimited food. Many of the other exchange students had a great time there; it wasn’t my kind of place, but I could see how it would be a fun bonding experience.
My advise for now is to bring cash and and try to befriend the exchange students! Those are the best things I did this first week. See you next week!
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Junior Kyle Phillpott is spending the spring 2019 term in Hong Kong through our U of A Exchange program at City University of Hong Kong.
Read more from Kyle at https://americaninhongkong.home.blog/
Don't miss your opportunity to study or intern abroad! Start your search at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/
How did I spend my free time you might ask? I spent a good chunk of time running around completing this form or getting this stamp, but I did get to explore and handle some personal stuff too. Make note, the dorm rooms DO NOT HAVE WIFI. You must buy a router, I recommend going to the Sham Shui Po Markets, but if that is not possible go to Fortress in Festival Walk. Routers are not technically supported, but all students have them and they run about $200 HK. My technical how-to advice:
You set routers up by doing the router “quick set-up”, and then on the router set-up web page, you need to find the tab that allows you to clone the MAC address of your computer to the router. Then in Google type CityU Hong Kong Internet on your phone or go to the WIFI room (common room) and fill out the “Connection in Residence” form after logging in with your EID and password. You fill it out with that cloned MAC address and chose the side of the room (when you face the window) that the router is plugged in via ethernet. For the type and OS pick “other.” Give it 1-6 hours and in theory, it should work… it’s not an exact science.
When I wasn’t dealing with technology issues, I was hanging out with other exchange students. Everyone uses Whatsapp here so make sure to download that and get your family and friends to as well (although if you have an unlocked phone and plan to get a sim card like I did, you may want to wait to set it up until you have that card so you can do a phone verification in case you have to restart your phone for whatever reason.) I met students from all over and it was really interesting to see how others dealt with the situation of being slightly lost. One thing we made sure to do was to travel with someone so that if you get lost, you’re at least lost together. Groups of us would go to the markets or to get food and that made things less lonely and you felt like you had a better idea about everything. Basically, the first week everyone went out every night. One place called Mr. Wong’s was very popular due to the cheap unlimited food. Many of the other exchange students had a great time there; it wasn’t my kind of place, but I could see how it would be a fun bonding experience.
My advise for now is to bring cash and and try to befriend the exchange students! Those are the best things I did this first week. See you next week!
--
Junior Kyle Phillpott is spending the spring 2019 term in Hong Kong through our U of A Exchange program at City University of Hong Kong.
Read more from Kyle at https://americaninhongkong.home.blog/
Don't miss your opportunity to study or intern abroad! Start your search at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/
