Tasty Hong Kong

An HK favorite: macaroni and beef in cream of tomato soup with toast and eggs

One VERY important thing about Hong Kong (or at least to me) is the abundance of tasty food. No matter where you go in Hong Kong, there will always be a place near by (or in most cases right next to you) where you’ll be able to get a bite to eat. Due to Hong Kong being the  economic hub of Asia, many people of many different ethnicity come to Hong Kong and bring with them their cuisine. Whether you’re a Malay, Singaporean, or even a Nigerian, there’s a restaurant making food from home. Heck, there were even Halal restaurants, and quite a few of them. (and I must say the kebab was pretty good). My top pick has to be the Japanese ramen restaurant Ichiban, which would consistently have a line outside longer than ten people. If you’re homesick, there’ll always be a McDonald’s right around the corner, but most local food is actually cheaper and tastier. Speaking of tasty, dessert in Hong Kong is pretty darn good. A lot of the desserts are fruit-based and primarily consist of fruit in some form, so you don’t have to feel guilty when eating a lot. I know I sure didn’t! Now: some food photos!

Mango with black rice and sago at Satay King. This is a dessert!

Ice cream/pudding/sago/jelly ball dessert at Chung Kee Dessert

More ice cream at Chung Kee Dessert

Some dim sum

Surprisingly good discount sushi

Ultra cool and tasty Ichiban ramen

I don’t remember the name of the food or place, but this halal dish tasted good with some mint sauce!

Pork roast, mint beef, and octopus. Tasty restaurant trip a few days before I left Hong Kong

A Little Dose of Culture

Culture in Hong Kong is very unique in that it is a product of colonization, creating a hybrid of Chinese and English culture. Also, due to having economic wealth earlier, it tends to be a lot more “civilized” in the Western sense of the word. It tends to be cleaner than the other large cities in mainland China and less polluted. Well, that and a lot less people using the restroom in public, which I had only seen twice in Hong Kong and both were little boys (nothing like the split pants for toddlers in mainland China). Although most toilets are normal Western-style toilets (albeit a bit smaller) there are squat toilets (which I had the misfortune of running into a few times). One piece of culture that people seem to be confused about are people wearing the health masks. People in Hong Kong wear them when they’re sick so they don’t get others sick. This is also practiced in Mainland China as well as other Asian countries like Japan.

Like other Asian countries, people in Hong Kong are more group-oriented rather than individualistic, and the thoughts and ideas of their peers play a more important role in how they think in comparison to western society. Rarely does anyone speak up when someone is being noisy during a lecture, but when I’ve told someone to quiet down, they did, but took it more harshly than someone in the West would. Dressing up is a big thing in Hong Kong. No matter where you go (regardless of it it’s finals week or not), everyone dresses up. The only time you really see someone in shorts and a shirt or a hoodie is either in the dorm or at the gym, something I rather preferred to the average American college student’s style of dress. Another important thing is that filial piety (respecting your elders) is extremely important and one is expected to give up a seat on the train or bus for an elderly person or go out of their way to help the elderly. This mindset is prevalent in the majority of Asia, not just in HK.

Tips for Visting London

Last week is what is known as “Revision Week” here at St Andrews.  It’s basically Dead Week at Purdue, minus that whole having class thing.  Which means I had a whole week free dedicated to studying for my three finals that are coming up.  Instead of cracking open all my notes on British History and Ancient Israel, I cracked open my wallet and bought an overnight bus ticket to London.  I spent 5 days roaming around London getting to experience it at my own pace.  It was one of the best decisions I’ve made studying abroad.  Not only did I get to take a nice break from academics, but I got to do it in a city I’ve dreamed of visiting since I was a little kid.

Now that I’m back in St Andrews, still not studying, I wanted to share my tips on visiting London with y’all.

• Buy an Oyster Card
  • If you plan on using the Tube at all, you will have to purchase an Oyster card from inside any of the stations.  It is a thin plastic card that you load money onto for your subway fares. The card is way faster than trying to pay for each individual journey separately and it gets you a cheaper rate. You “top up” the card in three ways.  You can add more money to it with your credit card via a machine in the station, pay cash to a teller, or with a card online.  It cost about £2.10 for a single journey in central London.  If you go outside what they call Zone 1, it will be a bit more.

• Ask for Student Price
  • A student price is sometimes called the Concession price. I thought they were talking about snacks for the longest time, but its actually just the cheaper enter rates.  At all things that aren’t free to do in London, ask if they have a student price.  8/10 times they will (The Globe Theater does. The London Eye doesn’t).  You’ll just have to flash your student ID and you will save a couple £££.   It doesn’t hurt to ask at retailers too.  Some shops will have a 10%  student discount.

• Go places early!
  • “Go Ugly Early” isn’t just for Harry’s.  After a late night out about in the city, you might want to sleep in past 9am, but don’t do it.  To save time, get to big tourist spots early in the day so  you won’t waste time in the long queues (lines).  My guidebook said the average wait time for the London Eye was one hour.  By going early I spent an hour total at the London Eye.  That included a short wait to buy my ticket too.   On the other hand, I decided to go to the Natural History Museum  in the mid afternoon and had to queue for a half hour just to get inside and another 30 minutes to see the dinosaur exhibit.

• Get to know the people in your hostel
  • Because I went solo I figured the only time I would get to speak to someone was when I was buying something.  Not true at all.  The girls that I met in the hostel where great! There was Rachel and Ragen from Ireland, a super sweet Brazilian girl whose name I never caught, Amber also from Ireland, two German girls, and the two Maria’s from Greece.  Not all of these girls where at the hostel at the same time, but they all were some of the nicest people I’ve met here in the UK. We would share advice about what was interesting to see in the city, how to get some place, where the best shopping was, ect ect ect.  Amber and I even teamed up one day and walked around the city.  She took me to the British Library and I took her to Kings Cross.  Because of the girls I met in the hostel, my London experience was that much better.

I hope these can help you out if you ever plan on visiting London or anywhere you travel. Sadly, I’ve actually got to study now for my finals.

BOUNS TIP: Don’t be afraid to travel alone! I was, but seriously being on my own in London was an amazing experience. You can read what I wrote about traveling alone over on my own blog.

Macau Excursion

Like the last post, this post is gonna be a little more in the vein of entertainment. Just recently, I went to Macau for a day trip. It’s about an hour ferry ride away from Hong Kong and in many ways is quite similar. Like Hong Kong, it had been a colony of a European state (Portugal) and had been returned to China in 1999 (2 years after Hong Kong was returned) . Macau is now known for casinos. Big ones. Quite a bit of Macanese land is covered in casino property and is the main draw for tourists.

At a shopping area inside The Venetian. Yes, there were gondola rides

The cars lined up at the end of the exhibition

Upon arrival, I noticed that many of the signs had Portuguese on them, an outward sign of being a former colony. Riding a bus into the city I noticed it was very clean and everything was glitzy and elegant. Most of the cars were luxury cars and many people were dressed well. Seeing these initial images really shows why so many people come here.  Well that and because it’s the “Las Vegas of the East” (despite actually being bigger) and having a lot of hype can boost the people coming. Other than casinos, there really isn’t much to do other than shop, eat, and see its old colonial period architecture ( which isn’t too much due to Macau being so small). Macau is also know for hosting automotive events and concerts and I was here for the former. I’d come to see the first exhibition of Japanese D1 drifting and I wasn’t let down. Seeing tuned Japanese cars going sideways at high speeds and I even caught a shirt on of the drivers threw into the audience. All in all I had a good time, although I did not gamble due to being underage (and not really wanting to) despite being able to walk into and through casinos (like The Venetian)  without being carded simply because I “looked” 21 or older. Anyway, it was an interesting place, but if you don’t gamble or party, you’ll only need a couple of days to see the whole place.

Mew + Wild Nothing concert

The guys from Mew signing stuff after the show (although the lead singer Jonas was still in another room relaxing after the show at the time. Still got him to sign my poster, though!)

There are definitely perks to living in one of the biggest cities in the world.  Trying new food, meeting new people, going cool places. The list goes on, but what I’d like to highlight is the opportunity to go to so many concerts in one place. A few weeks ago Bieber was (sadly) in the area, The Killers and Matchbox Twenty were here a few months ago, Best Coast was here a week ago, and there will be a huge music festival where Franz Ferdinand and Metric will be performing. I got the opportunity to see the Danish band Mew (who I’ve really liked for the past 3 or 4 years) and the up-and-coming American band Wild Nothing.  I honestly had never thought I’d get to see Mew in concert and I’d actually found out only a day before that it was even happening (thank God for the City U of HK International/Exchange student Facebook group!)  The concert was great, with the opening band Wild Nothing doing pretty well, reminding me a bit of both The Killers and The Smiths. When Mew came on, though, it got awesome. They’re a normally chill-sounding band when you listen to their studio albums, but they were something else live. They played some of my favorite songs, people were singing along, and surprisingly there were quite a few big Mew fans in Hong Kong, with many locals bringing their CDs to be signed, as well as the free posters many got. I must say, it was an awesome experience and I’m pumped to see Franz Ferdinand at the end of the month as well.

Just a cool free poster from the gig. Signed too

Scottish Weather Woes

As most of us native Hoosiers know (and anyone who has been at Purdue long enough to witness all four seasons), Mother Nature answers to no one.  This I’ve discovered  hasn’t changed with me switching continents.  Here in Scotland, she is as ever indecisive as she is in Indiana.  It is almost impossible to predict what weather gear you are going to need on any giving day.  Watching the forecast is a good place to start, but be careful the weather man lies.  Even if there is a 0% chance of rain that day and you see a grey cloud in the sky, be prepared to get wet.  My phone app, I’ve just realized, only gives me the actual temperature and not what it feels like with the wind chill. I have walked outside one too many times  thinking I’ll be fine in a warm sweater just to have to run back into my room for my coat. Thankfully, I have it on good authority that it doesn’t get as cold here as it does in Indiana (a lady in the study abroad office used to work at that crimson and creme school in Indiana), but it is still pretty cold on the days it does hit below the freezing point. Anyway I wanted to share  a short list of weather supplies you can’t survive in St Andrews without:

• Rainboots/Waterproof shoes
  • Some people might tell you that you can get by without a good pair of rain boots,  but I’m here to say they are wrong. I tried to survive Scotland without rainboots, but its impossible. You will need a pair of rain shoes.  Male or female, if you don’t want to be constantly shoving newspaper into your shoes trying to dry them out.  You don’t necessarily need to pack them because you can find a good pair in stores pretty cheap. I think I got mine for 20 quid when I was in Glasgow a few weeks ago. They have made my life considerably happier.  Wet socks are the worst.
• Sweaters
  • Unless you want to be chilly in lectures, bring or plan on picking up some warm sweaters.  I suggest wool if you aren’t allergic.  A lot of the classrooms and lecture halls here in St Andrews can be pretty drafty.  I have a tutorial in a professor’s office and even sitting beside his space heater I freeze without a sweater!  Even my own room can get chilly because the heating is only one during certain hours of the day to save energy. 
• Fleece Jacket and Heavy Coat
  • This one seems the most obvious of this list, but I actually came to Scotland without either of these things.  I accidentally left my fleece at home and I didn’t want to have to deal with packing a heavy coat.   Fleece jackets don’t seem to be quite as popular here. I don’t see them in stores much,  but bring one to help fight the chill off!  A winter coat is also a no brainer.  If you are like me and don’t want to worry about dragging on all the way here there are some great stores that carry nice, warm winter coats. I bought one for about 70 pounds from a local store and I couldn’t be happier with it.  It is the warmest coat I think I’ve ever owned.
• Accessories
  • You should always have in your bag a hat, a pair of gloves, and an umbrella.  I’ve had it start raining on me when there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The temperature is in flux all day so you never know when a big wind will kick up with a cold bite to it.  And if the sun does decided to stick its head out from behind the clouds, you can always put your accessories back into your bag.  Better safe than sorry.
• Socks
  • Socks have been the plight of my existence here in Scotland! I don’t know what it is, but every time I leave St Andrews I’ve had to buy more socks.  You can ask my traveling buddies and they will let you know that cold feet are my biggest complaint. My feet freeze here!  Make sure to bring nice thick socks, not just thin athletic ones.  I promise your toes will thank you (and your wallet).

While it does seem pretty basic and obvious to bring these things with you on a Scottish Adventure, I didn’t. I’ve had to buy at least one of everything on this list since I got here. Albeit I only picked up another hat because it was on sale for a pound in the grocery store.  Leave your shorts and tank tops at home.  Even on the off days in September when it did hit the mid 60s, it wasn’t warm enough for them.  In all  just make sure you are prepared for what ever the weather decides to throw your way, because after all you don’t want your study abroad experience to be defined by freezing feet and soggy clothing (which mine some days has unfortunately been).

My Scottish sock collection (and slippers too).

Cheung Chau trip

A few weeks ago I had traveled the the the island of Cheung Chau, a few  miles south of Hong Kong. It took a 45 minute ferry ride to get there and the ride itself was pretty calm and provided a nice view of the other islands south of Hong Kong. I’d been convinced by my friends we were going for a simple day at the beach, so I’d worn flip-flops and trunks. I’d been sadly mistaken. What we ended up doing was more akin to hiking, if anything, and would have been fine if I wouldn’t have worn flip-flops. Despite that mistake, it was a nice, quaint island with good food, beautiful scenery, and plenty of little shops and restaurants to visit.

Kinda a tight fit…

The island was very hill, but had beautiful coast line and some old cannons left behind by pirates. There was even a small hideout cave you could crawl through to get from one side to the other (although it was nearly too small for me and very dark).

The beautiful place where I had cut my feet.

There was swimming involved, but only for about 5 minutes and I cut my feet pretty badly on some underwater rocks. Overall, I was glad to get back to my bed that night.  Beautiful sights, but a rough day.

More travel than school

Thanks to Singapore’s paranoia of a pandemic, I spent twice as many days in September traveling than I did in class. NUS has an annual e-learning week to practice watching lectures online and having tutorials on a discussion forum in case of something happening like a disease outbreak that would keep us from coming  to campus. Without having to be physically present, most of the exchange students took that as an opportunity to travel! I spent the week (plus the weekends around it) in Bali with four friends I traveled with to Tioman Island in Malaysia two weeks earlier.

Bali was beautiful, filled with terraced rice fields, volcanoes, forests, and Hindu temples. Ubud is the cultural capital and from there we discovered gorgeous rice paddies, saw dozens of the ubiquitous temples, and had some fantastic Indonesian food. Two temples we visited were water temples, which contain pools people can cleanse themselves in. We also stopped by a small small plantation where they produce kopi luwak, or civet coffee, which is made from coffee beans eaten, digested, and excreted by a civet cat. The cup I tried was delicious, and much cheaper than abroad, though I’m not versed enough in coffee to really tell a difference. In Amed on Bali’s northeast coast, two of us took the exciting opportunity to learn how to scuba dive. We did five dives over two days and also did readings and watched videos. After focusing on skills the first day, the second day we dove at the shipwreck of the USAT Liberty. It was very exciting to swim around the remains of a WWII ship now covered in coral. I saw clownfish in anemones, trumpetfish, a garden of eels sticking out of the sand, a stingray, an enormous pufferfish, and countless other fish and reeflife. Our last couple days were spent in Kuta; it’s the awful developed part of Bali overrun by Australian vacationers and touts, but the beach was nice and I got to try out surfing. It was tough at first and I swallowed a bunch of seawater, but I was able to get up a few times and ride the waves.

After getting back early Monday morning I had to face the reality that I was behind in a couple classes, with readings and a paper due for my Middle East Politics class, homework problems for chemical engineering, and some practice for Chinese, plus I had to prepare for my next trip!

For that I was going with two friends from Denmark to Borneo, the world’s third largest island. On the way out Changi proved once again that it’s the best airport in the world as I used one of the free leg and foot massagers throughout the terminal. When we arrived in Brunei, a small wealthy country ruled by a hereditary sultan, the first thing I noticed was the flags everywhere. They are very patriotic, though a lot of it also seemed to be government-encouraged nationalism. The capital city Bandar Seri Begawan is quite small, but its two main mosques are stunning, and there’s a fascinating water village on stilts with over 20,000 residents. The Royal Regalia Museum shows the cult of personality around the sultan, as well as his incredible wealth, exhibiting his early life and education, coronation, silver jubilee, and gifts given by foreign leaders.

Sunday we took a ferry to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, and along the way I saw Pulau Tiga, the site of the first season of Survivor. KK is a small city that mostly serves as the gateway to the rest of the state, but we enjoyed our three days there. We made friends with some of the other backpackers in the hostel and went with them to Mount Kinabalu Park around Southeast Asia’s tallest mountain to hike in the surrounding forest. One of my highlights of the trip was scuba diving at the marine park near the city. I was so excited to see two cuttlefish on the second and third dives. Despite never having seen one in person before cuttlefish have been my favorite animal for several years, and these two did not let me down. They were about two feet long, a bigger species than I expected, and had amazing coloration. When I came near one of them, he immediately changed from camouflaged white to black before changing back again. I loved how they just floated there in the water watching me with their arms raised. During the dive and snorkeling later I also saw pufferfish, triggerfish, barracuda, a small blacktip reef shark, a sting ray, and plenty of other fish.

In Kuching, Sarawak,

Now I need to get back to the study part of study abroad

Academic Lingo

At least the lecture halls looks familiar.

So I’ve been at St Andrews now for a little more than 5 weeks and I’m finally getting the hang of the academic vocabulary here! While it’s not too different from how we talk about school and classes at Purdue, it can be quite confusing until you understand what you are talking about! So I present to you my quick guide to Academic Lingo at St Andrews.

First things first, University equals College.  It has been hard for me to make this switch, but it is getting easier to say things like “I go to university in the States.”  This one also gets shortened to “uni” a lot.  You just have to accept it.  Now on to more important words.

Whenever you meet someone new they will probably ask you this, “What subjects are you taking?”  They are asking essential what your major is.  A proper answer would be something like, “Oh I’m in Maths and Divinity.”

If you happen to meet someone in same subjects as you they are very likely to ask what modules you are in.  Modules are best described as a course. It includes both the lecture, the tutorial/seminar, and the labs.  Lectures are just like the are at Purdue. For the 1st and 2nd year modules they are normally a pretty decent size so you don’t have to worry about getting called on.  A tutorial or a seminar (names used interchangeable) is pretty equivalent to our recitation classes.   These tend to be pretty small from 7-15 people. They are lead by your tutor. Tutors can either be a grad student or a professor.  These are the classes  where you are going to get called on to answer questions even if your hand isn’t up. Labs of course are just what you think they are–labs.

Sub-honors and honors are two terms I’ve had the most trouble with.  They can be equivalent to our terms of Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior; but they are also related to upperclassmen and underclassmen.  Sub-honors consist of your first two years at university.  They are the 1000 and 2000 level modules.  Honors then is the 3000 and 4000 level modules.  To make it into your honors modules you have to pass the sub-honors modules, you just can’t take the higher level classes like you can at Purdue.  To be super clear the terms sub-honors and honors do not in any way relate to things like the Honors College at Purdue.

One final term that you run into a lot is JSA or JYA.  These are acronyms that mean you are a Junior studying abroad (or year abroad).  This is probably my least favorite term I’ve learned here just because I get called a JSA a lot, but I’m not a J.  It blows peoples minds that I’m a senior studying abroad.  Studying abroad isn’t just for juniors.  It is for freshman, sophomores, seniors, and super seniors too.  We shouldn’t pigeon hole the study abroad experience.  It can offer you amazing life discoveries no matter what point you are at in your academic career.

I hope this guide can help you if you ever decided to study abroad! I know that I would have loved something like this to help me as I was prepping to come to St Andrews.  As always you can read more about my adventures studying abroad over on my main blog Mly Mllr’s Travels.

Until next time,

Emily

Raghadan Palace

It is said that Arabs love the color green because it represents vitality and growth. If this is so, then the lush greenery throughout the Royal Court compound was no mistake. Palm trees and evergreens line the streets leading to the Royal Palace, which is just one of many in the compound.   The palace is, not surprisingly, made of Jordanian limestone and built in the traditional Islamic style. We were greeted on the steps by friendly staff who gave us a tour. Each room was decorated with the complex, geometrical designs typical of Islamic art, the largest being the Throne Hall. It’s ceiling was incredibly high and ornately decorated, it’s floor made of beautiful white marble, and the lone piece of furniture, the king’s throne, sat impressively at the front of the room. Finally, we were shown the royal cemetery where King Hussein, King Abdullah, King Talal and his wife rest. In true Arab style, our hosts gifted us each with a biography of King Hussein before we departed. Though no one resides at Raghadan Palace anymore, it truly lives up to the meaning of its name,  “the very best life”.