High Table Dinner

Today was another busy day. In the afternoon, met with Heather, a Malaysian who will be doing food and nutritional science. We attended the information session for non-local BSC student for briefing on graduation requirements and course selection advising.

Then, I headed to the dialogue session with alumni and teachers, under the induction programme by CEDARS. There, we sitted within our group and listen to sharing from 3 guest speakers; Dr Fung, Dr Amy and ?? . We were further divided into smaller group and have discussion with 3 of them respectively. Dr Amy shared happily with me that she have many relatives in Malaysia and always used to visit Malaysia. Besides the peers that I already know, the local guy, Wilson joined us today.

At around 6pm, we moved into Loke Yew Hall, seated and wore our green gown again. After a speed briefing by Dr Albert again, we had a photo-taking session with our green robe on. The high table dinner was sort of like the one we see in Harry Potter, also there were 4 rows of table, with the middle table being raised on a platform in front. While the guest speaker gave her speech, we continued to enjoy our meal, (Bread + Russian Soup + Main Course (choice of chiken or salmon with spaghetti), Brownie + Tea). All these are for free, exclusively for induction candidates.

I also managed to meet with 2 new friends, sitting next to me. David from Korea, speak good PuTongHua and he tought me how to write my name in Korean. David and Angel from GuangDong, are both in E & F, another popular course.

My first every high table dinner, I kind of enjoy it as we do know better about each other and taken our first group photo

!
With some of the Malaysian Freshman + one Indonesian girl(RIGHT)
With my group members.

Shopping + Steamboat = HAPPY

11am, I just managed to catch up bus 970X, as soon as I came down. The bus was heading to Mong Kok. As it uses the cross-harbour tunnel, it cost me more than 10 HKD. I get down of the bus after I see Langham Place, or else I wouldn't know I reaached Mong Kok. I just walked around and entered a shopping mall called PDC (Pioneer Digital Centre). Here, I found some shops selling Office 2010 Home and Student for 1204 HKD , so expensive !!! I have it for RM 300 in Malaysia !!
But no choice and I have to have it because I formatted my computer without having awareness that my copy of Office 2010 might have gone just like tat. What a waste of money, as I only used it for a month. However, I din't buy it first, thinking that I might find cheaper one later.

I moved on to Grand Century Plaza, the one under Royal Plaza Hotel which I used to shop in because I have stayed in the hotel as many times as I visited HONG KONG. After walking through some streets and very long distance bridge, I managed to get myself into the shopping mall. Had lunch in the food court, HKD 32, very full and regreted. Seen many maids having gathering, because today is Sunday !

Bought Conan DVD from Popular and Office 2010 (English Version) from JP Bookshop and got a free membership. Then I wanted to walk back to take bus "home". But since I passed by LangHam Place, I just can't control myself. I walked around the shopping complex which have about 13Floors, bought Lam Fung CD and preorder Hebe's new CD in the CD Warehouse.


At night, Kay and Sharon invited me to join their steamboat party in Starr Hall, 19th Floor's pantry. Their floor is so nice and neat, even their floormates are nicer. When I got back to my floor's pantry, I realised that it was flooding, I wonder why too. Met again with Felicia, Josephine, Joshua, Jeff again; while met with some new friends, like Steven(Indonesia), David, Louise, LC, Yeh Cher, Mabel(HK/Australia), Elsa (Indonesia), ?? "dah lupa "(US). We went up to 24th Floor to have a view of HK night scene.

Orientation for Non-Local Students

Early in the morning, woke up for shower to prepare for today's orientation. Met with a Canadian chinese with hearing disabilities, who is on exchange for a semester at her 3rd year. Went to Loke Yew hall together with Kay and Sharon, met with Heather and entered the hall together. Sat beside a Taiwanese girl who is from Starr Hall, 4 th Floor also !!! So happy. Both she and Rosalind just arrived yesterday night thus I guided them by giving some information about our hall, pantry as well as events available for us.

Deputy Vice Chancellor and Dr. Chou from Student Affairs gave interesting and motivating speeches which all of us enjoyed. There is also a session of global highlights quizes whereby we were exposed to some of the facts on global issues. Next, was a sharing session by 5 current students from different region of the world. Generally, I concluded that University Life = Have Fun ! Even the Deputy said:" If there is a need to skip class, just skip. Go out and explore and have fun !"

After 11, there was a parallel session whereby Non-Jupas students go to Global Lounge for briefing. Then me and Simona (Taiwan girl) , went together to LE6 for lunch and ice-breaking games. We were provided with a set of club sandwiches, drinks and an apple. I lost my apple though =( and one half of the sandwich dropped on the floor ....T.T

We were in a group with 3 Koreans and 6 mainlanders. They are all nice, and all of us speaks mandarin in common ! Even those koreans, one of them is Grace that I met her before in "HOT".
We played BINGO, "line construction" and "act and guess". Before we left, we exchanged our contact and make friends with one another. There is 2 girls from Shang Hai Uni, coming here to finish their last 2 years. While the others 4 mainlanders are guys, 2 of them stayed in Starr Hall too.

At night, I went Westwood with Rosalind, we had dinner at Mc Donalds. Meanwhile, I chat along with a 7 year old local boy, who came alone and ordered a Coke, sitting next to us. He was talkactive and even tell jokes to me. Before he left, he said bye to me and the Mc D old woman staff also chat with me about today's kid. Glad that I know cantonese, I enjoy chatting with new people, especially kids. We then went to Wellcome superstore and bought a pail, sweets and apples.

Tonight, back to the room, is very much noisier, the O'camp group must be having lots of fun.
My laptop fails to load my user profile and I can;t get in to the desktop. I made a hard decision to format it, and restored some of the files which I backed up since 1st August. Thus, unevitably, there is still a major loss of my files and documents. Like my HK checklist and expenses record !!! Huh... the one that cost the most is the lost of my Office 2010 Licenses !! I gotto use back Office 2007 with only 25 uses before it became a reduced functionality mode. I got no choice but to purchase another 3 users package, which will cost me about rm 300 !! =( BAD MOOD

Fulfiling Day

After days in HKU, today is my most enjoyable day. The girl is true, everything will just fall in place, don't worry about making friends.

Afternoon, I went to the Global Lounge hoping to look for Lee Ling but my timing was wrong, it was lunch time. So I turned to HSBC bank, hoping that I can open my account then, queued up for about an hour, yet tak dapat. I gotto leave the queue for a Library Orientation. First, is a workshop by a librarian with some quizzes for us to take up, and I successfully be one of the fastest to answer twice, so I got 2 souvenirs from them. Then, was a library tour. The library is just awesome !!! You can find whatever in here !!! Their services are perfectly great, they even help us to get books that are not available in HKU but in other HK's University. There is a small garden in the library, the cool system of compact storage with high tech sensor, the audio-visual library which you may watch any collections in the library itself, in a comfortable air-conditioned room. Chatted awhile with a local student too.

5.30pm, I attended the First Year Seminar: Connecting with the University and Student. It was a seminar with guests from Student Affairs Department, Dr Chou, Dr Li and a senior. They shares what they know about HKU student's identity and how can we connect with the distinguish alumni of the university. Again, I get to know a guy from United States, California who is a postgraduate in Education, he looks like a Malaysian though. His name is Ray if I am not mistaken ( know too many new friends today and mix up). I explained to him about difference between residential hall and non-residential hall. He wishes me all the best in my undergraduate studies and gave me some advises as a "senior".

Then, I walked down to Chong Yuet Ming Amenities Centre's Restaurant. While I wanted to order food, someone just call by my name, Annie. It was Alex, a Malaysian Year 2 Student who had taken my parent for a campus tour months ago. Was so nice meeting him, he asked me to join dinner together with all others, who appeared to be Malaysian freshman. There was about 14 of us, all of us took turn to chat with each other, and taken each other's contact. The gathering turned up to be so well, thank god I was there, or else I will miss all these friends. Among us also was a Taiwanese, Zoe (E & F) staying in Lady Ho Tung Hall. Then, Kay is from Taylor's A-Level, now taking dentistry, while she stay in Starr Hall as me, but she is in 19th Floor. Then we have Bong, a Sarawakians staying in Swire Hall, doing A & F, Jeff (who just got his new name today) an engineering student staying in Simon Hall. Heather is in the same faculty as me, but she will be doing nutritional science, yet our overall selected courses might have some clashes. She is in the far far away Wei Lun Hall, while Joshua, Josephine and Felicia(E & F) are in Sun.... Hall. Then the guy which join in late is Thousand, which is the first malaysian to be admitted into IBGM degree. A future CEO, taken down all our details and contact, wears a very formal attire. We happily chat about taiwan, about secondary school life ( OMG, theirs are so crazy and scary I would say), about the university, about Cantonese, about our halls. Around 10, we left and some of us who stay nearby walk back together. Luckily, or else I got to walk back alone in the middle of the night. Josephine also guided me the way to Westwood, where there are many shops and a shopping mall. They mostly get themselves a fan, to replace the use of air-cond which we will be charge on every usage. I think I shall have one too.

I followed Kay and Zoe to Lady Ho Tung Hall, to visit Kay's friend- Sharon in 4th Floor. She invited us to her room, which I found to be exactly the same as Starr Hall's room. We also set a time to meet tomorrow morning and walk to the campus together for non-local students orientation. Back in my room, I created a facebook page for our group as HKU Malaysian freshman as requested, hope that we can have starting our new friendship that can last for live long here.

Finally, I don;t need to attend functions alone !! Yoohoo !!

First Three Days in HKU alone

Monday, I was alone now in HK. My sister accompanied me back to my hall early in the morning. We met with an Indian-Dhannika who live next next door to me, who is also a Malaysian !! So happy. Then, I went to look for a professor in department of chemistry, Dr Chan to seek his approval for my selected course. He was so nice and helped me lot. Unfortunately, I still not managed to finish my course selection and finalise it before the deadline at 4pm. Nevermind, just wait till the +/drop period. Haiz.. I got most of my courses TN, means not approved to take cuz pre-requisite not met. In the afternoon, met with students from the same peer group with me. Erica, from BeiJing is our SII. While I got to know 3 others, 2 from Mainland China - Gao Wen Yu and Zhao Ya Ni, and one local boy - Tony Chan. Erica stays in the same hall as me, while two others staying in Simon and Swire hall. I also attended a Health Orientation Talk in English session and got to know more about the University's Health Services. I also met and chat along with a Korean girl call Grace. I got myself vaccinated against 'Diphtheria" and Tetanus. Then, I moved on for a free dental check, plus free gits including a big bottle of listerine, toothpaste and toothbrush. Then, I took bus to Hung Hum, then to Tou Gua Wan, just to collect some lost-and-found items and my camera charger which I left in the hotel. It was raining and I got down from the bus at a wrong place, it took me half an hour to walk to my destination and my umbrella was spoiled due to the strong wind ! When I am back in my room, I entered the pantry and saw Sally, who is my Floor's assistant Floor leader. She introduced the floor's facilities to me and rules, also telling me to reserve my nights from Sept 1 onwards for 2 weeks for our floor orientation.

Though I realise my room-mate had already check-in, yet I did not met with her until this morning. Early morning, she got up to go for her O' camp, a really harsh camp then last from 6-2am. We din't get to chat much but I know that she, Isabella also enjoy TVBs drama, that is good enough. Tuesday, I walked around in Bonham Road, went into supermarket and convenient store to buy some snacks and washing detergent. I took away a set of "PHD" spaghetti with soup, costed me only HKD 25, and ate it in my pantry. A group of student from O'camp entered and introduce themselves nicely to me. They were shocked and feel weird because I mentioned that I don;t feel really cold in the "freezing" pantry room. Especially after knowing that I am from Malaysia. Met with the group's mummy-Joyce and daddy-Alan. Also there is an auntie and one girl who live in the same floor as me. Had maggie mee as my dinner.

Wednesday, I attended the Inauguration Ceremony held at HKU's oldest building -Loke Yew Hall. Although reaching half an hour earlier, there is already long queue to enter. Many mainlanders I found, very few are locals. Wearing a formal pant suit with the stupid court shoe, standing and waiting under the hot weather, I really hate it. Saw Professor Chye in the procession with Vice-Chancellor of HKU, Prof. Lap Chee Tsui. I also worn the green robe for the first time in my life - officially marks the identity of me as HKU undergraduate. At night, I just had dinner in Ho Tim Hall, just next to my hall.

Farewell Trip in HK

I was on MAS 2-5-2 alone, sitting next to a KFC man, whom hairs and beard perfectly white. He only sleep or read, and ate an ice-cream. A guilou family next to my seat, had a little baby with them, so chubby and cute. I happily selected all songs in Jay's THE ERA album and S.H.E's SHERO into my jukebox. At the same time, my mum and sister were flying with Air Asia, approaching to the same destination, HK airport.

We took a hotel limousine to my hall, Starr Hall directly from airport. We checked around 4pm and I got Room 410A. Haiz... missing the grand-wide-sea-view, yet I am still able to view part of the sea, but mostly blocked by those skyscrapers. Basically the room is quite ok, the spaces are sufficient enough. We unpacked a little and left for Tsim Tsha Tshui -郎豪坊. OMG you can imagine how crowded it is, although it has many floors, but every places in it were crowded. We hardly find a seat in food court, while most of the restaurants were really a long queue.

We stayed in a new 4-star hotel, at 土瓜湾. Very comfortable place. On Friday morning, we had DIM SUM together with 4 others who came along with us, at Mong Kok. Then I took bus to my HKU to do registration. Bringing along my laptop and heavy bag with files, I walked up and down, getting lost in the huge campus area. Met with a Singaporean, taking Arts while register. Visited Beatrix in global lounge, went to Cedars and say hi to the staff. Then to my faculty, took the registration pack and handbook, to library to activate my portal account.

PART 2-
Then, we met with a Professor, Malaysian who is an associate Dean in HKU, Department of Biological Science. She is my mum's high schoolmates, though they do not know much about each other and never meet for some time. She was friendly and offer her help to me. She drove us to my hall as we were carrying lots of stuff. She brought us to her office before that, which is actually a lab, division of plant molecular biology, whereby 5-6 postgraduate students were under her guidance. I then looked into the course selection using my laptop in my room, the deadline is next Monday, yet I do not manage to read thoroughly the handbook on course selection advises. I just chosen some core courses in chemistry as well as biotechnology, and left for dinner at Causeway Bay. Again, it was so so crowded over there, until you can hardly walk. We moved on to a restaurant called The Modern Toilet. It is a toilet-theme based restaurant, they don't serve you FRESH from their toilet, DON'T WORRY. But they serve the dishes in MINI "toilet bowls", "basin","toilet bowl cover"...... I thought their food will be made all into faeces-like or urine-like look, but I am wrong. We ate the buffet, free flow of cakes, ice-cream and salads, at around 90 HKD per person.

Next Day, on Saturday, we visited Lamma Island together with the other four. We took a ferry from Central to 榕樹灣. We walked and shop in those small local shops, but did not walk to the beaches. After passing by the Tian Hou Temple, we turned back and had lunch in Man Fung Seafood Restaurant, the place where my idol Raymond Lam first main casting show-美味情緣.
Well, with all girls and only 1 guy there, we do not know how to order seafood... a bit hectic. I still prefer Malaysian style seafood, cheap and lots of variety. Then, at night we went for a dinner to meet with my dad's HK friends to ensure that I will be "taken care of" during my stay in HK. We again met with the very old yet still healthy and strong (I hope he will always be) - Zheung Pak Pak(張伯伯). He still working and used to be MRT expert as he always travel on MRT. He is acting president of many societies in HK, including Elderly Welfare Association. Besides, was 潘醫師, she was another superwoman. Though she is old, yet still operating a clinic on her own and teaches Chinese Medicine Classes. Then, were 4 people from a family, Mr. and Mrs. Yip, and their son and daughter, Joe and Joanne. They all treat us well, and we feel bad for troubling them to travel all over from their living places to Mong Kok, just for us.

Sunday morning, me and my sis again went for swimming in our hotel. Only on the next day when is time to pack, only I realise I actually threw my swimming suit together with the lend towel into the laundry bin. Luckily, the housekeeper found it for me. We planned to shop in Citygate, Tung Chung. But when we arrived at the MRT station there, we were attracted by the advertisement to invite us for a TRY with Ngong Ping 360. It is a cable car journey, across the sea and mountain, from Tung Chung island, to Lantau island, the place where the airport and Lantau Big Buddha Statue are located. We upgrade to crystal cabin, whereby the floor of the cabin is transparent and we are able to look down through it and experience the feeling of standing in the middle of the air. If not because we were sharing cabin with other group of 4, I would really like to sleep on the glass floor. We shop for a while in Ngong Ping Village then back to Tung Chung. As included in the package were a 4D movie ticket, free meal/coupon ..etc for use in Terminal 2 , airport, we then took bus to Terminal 2. Watched a 4D Happy Feet, it makes me think of years ago, I watched this movie with yingqin, and other high school gang members.

After that only we shop at Citygate, the only place in HK where branded shop offers all year round discount up to 80%. I get myself a hello kitty croc which is about half price as in Malaysia and a titus watch. Mum got a coach bag for herself too. We moved on to Olympian City to have dinner. The place where most TVB functions were held here.

BYE, MALAYSIA

Woo..... Time flies, 8hours later I will be sitting in Msia airline's plane seat alone, heading to HK airport. Though my mum and sister are following me, but they are on cathay.

I will miss a lot of thing here, especially missing home and family. Besides, I will miss all the cheap yet tasty food here, miss DRIVING, miss Astro on Demand, miss COOKING, miss SEAFOOD, miss Mhiezi and Coke, miss Pavillion, .......... AND miss my friends, my high school gang, my cherries, and many more.

Haiz,... weird feeling I am having now. Maybe I become numb in feeling. Enough of crying, enough of emo, enough of worrying, now I am left with excitation.

Thanks to everyone who had helped me in gaining my admission to HKU, thanks Mr. Siva and Ms Chong from TarCollege whom wrote me reference letters, thanks to Mr. Hoo for making me enjoy physics and able to scored an extra A for a better advantage. Thanks to Mrs. Ng from St. Mary whom lighted me up at the very beginning of my journey in Science. Thanks to wanjing for making an effort to come to my house after work, despite having risk of getting lost, indeed she was lost ( and thanks for the scarf). Thanks to Eden for EMO-ing for me (lol), making a call to me and say bye. Thanks to Szeyin for calling me to chat before I leave. Thanks to Yingqin for attending my last gathering in mamak. Finally and most importantly, thanks to each and everyone of my family members(my parents - for sponsoring my whole education journey in HK ; my sister Alice and Amy for all the love and forgiveness they had given to me. my grandma, aunties and uncles - for sponsoring camera, living expenses for 1st few months and ang pao.
Also, thanks to Lee Ling from HKU, for all her helps during my application to HKU, thanks for helping me to appeal for a higher scholarship !! Thanks to some of my HKU seniors for their advice too !

Lastly,
HK I AM COMING.

But my short-term dream for now is, SEE YOU, JAY ! ON 23rd September, my 20th Birthday !!! =)