Delayed Introduction

So, this is the sixth day of my trip and I finally have time to write something down.

I suppose I should start with my flight over to Hong Kong. I was pretty happy to leave Cleveland as there was snow on the ground and it was very cold. The flight to Newark was nice because it was very short. I found my flight to Hong Kong after misreading several signs but had plenty of time. While waiting for boarding I over heard two students talking about CUHK and I joined in. It was ironic because the girl's, Francesca, home school was the University of Miami and the guy, Danny, was from Miami, Florida. Later I met another girl, Jennifer, who was also from the University of Miami who is their chapter of AKPsi (not the last person I met in AKPsi from a different school). All of us were seated scattered throughout the plane so there was not much discussion on the flight. The flight itself was just shy of 16 hours long. It went over the North Pole which at this time of year is dark 24/7 so there was nothing to see outside. The movies in the seats kept me entertained for most of the flight (and a prescription of Ambien). One thing to note: while flying over China there was very little lights unlike in the States. We flew over the coastal region and there were as many lights in the water as there were on the shore. Those in the water were cargo ships waiting to dock. Big difference from New York were the dock by Newark was empty.

Upon arriving in Hong Kong we all met up and guess what we had to do through immigration. No real problems, just bored Chinese bureaucrats. We managed to find the CUHK student who was to pick us up from the airport. There we met many more exchange students. The email call what was to pick us up a "limousine" which we found out meant a very small bus. The driver stacked all of our luggage in a big pile by the door so we couldn't see the door or the driver. The drive from the airport to the university was short but the lights from all the buildings were impressive. The first thing we all noticed when we arrived at CUHK was the fact that the campus is literally on a mountain. All the roads were windy and very steep. Their equivalent of an RD met us at the hostel (what they call a dorm), had us fill out paper work and gave us our key. I went up to my room on the 5th floor (of 10) and settled in. I briefly met my room mate, Martin, who is from Denmark and was on his way out. He had been here a couple of days and was a little more adjusted then I was. I unpacked and went to bed.