Reflecting upon new perspectives
I can't believe I left home almost one month ago! I've been having so much fun exploring, eating, meeting new people, and gaining new perspectives. Already, by talking to people from different countries and hearing the perspectives of my global professors, I feel that I'm beginning to develop a new understanding of where I come from. For the first time, I've been able to look at the United States and Hawaii from an outside perspective and be able to make comparisons. I've recently had a lot of complaints about the United States and I'm starting to realize that I should be a little more thankful to be a US citizen. There are many reasons I am envious of Hong Kong life, but I'm learning so much of how lucky I am to have my life back home.

Eating lots of cheap, delicious Cantonese cuisine
The cheapest meals in the area are usually Cantonese cuisine -- which I love! Usually goes for 30-50 HKD ($3.90-$6.50 USD). Foreign cuisine is also very delicious and there are many AMAZING restaurants, but it get's a little more expensive. I've tried a few and will try more, but I'm getting spoiled to the cheap prices and usually go for Canto cuisine.

*Interesting Discovery: In these restaurants, they don't give iced water or napkins. Some places will give you hot water or tea, and lukewarm water if you ask for iced water. Many will just say no if you ask for iced water. They also won't refill your glasses unless you call for them and ask. When I asked a local, he told me hot water is preferred for most and it's normal for people to bring their own tissues or napkins. I carry my own now :)

Here are some of the meals I've had and loved in this price range: (Side note: There's no tipping culture here, so eating out is great ;))

Exploring Hong Kong's Nightlife
The city doesn't sleep here. Ladies Night happens on Wednesdays and Thursdays which allows the ladies completely free drinks (usually vodka or sparkling wine) all night long. The most popular areas are Lan Kwai Fong (LKF for short) and Wan Chai on these nights. 

LKF is also most popular on the weekends and everything seems to be open into the early hours of the morning. My favorite thing about this area is there are so many hidden places! Getting to know a few local people to introduce the spots is very helpful. Each time I go, we discover new hidden places that I never would even think exist. We have met lots of people from all over the world here too.

Oh, and studying of course!

***This post has been edited as of 9/18/2017 due to course changes. Here's what my schedule will be this semester:

CHIN 9402: Chinese as a Foreign Language II (Mandarin)
STRA 3706: China's Business Environment
BUSI 3810: Legal and Ethical Environment of Global Business
GCIN 2020: New Media and Social Media

The registration process here at HKU is nothing like what I'm used to back home. I listed my course preferences on my application for admission and found out about 2 weeks before class started that I was only approved for 2 out of 4 of those preferences, both of which I'm no longer taking. Upon receiving this notification, we weren't able to make any schedule changes until the week before classes started. I enrolled in courses that I wanted and had the prerequisites for but for some unknown reason, many of them got disapproved -- a total of ten (!) to be exact. Many of my friends also got strange disapprovals for unidentified reasons. 

Anyway, I'm really happy and excited with the courses I stumbled upon! I'm mostly excited that most of these courses are not available at my home university and will help me learn about Hong Kong, China, and the globe!