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7:20 this morning. I think I’m over the lag now, if not the cold. And my, it’s pretty out.

Freshmen (but not my roommate, who I guess isn’t one) moved in yesterday, meaning that I was stuck in a screaming freshman dorm for the third year of my college experience. That gets old quick, especially since (unlike last year) I can’t be the jerk and shut them up when it gets too loud. Much less understand what they’re shouting about.

Yesterday was kind of a slow day, and today might be too: I’m trying to shake this cold and not challenge my respiratory system so much. Yesterday’s big event was finding a massive box-o-junk left behind by previous WVU people, including a hot plate, around 30 hangars, and sandbox toys (among many others).

Some time this week I will head out to Big Buddha, since a group’s already been there. I don’t need them to blaze a trail, but I’d like to let my list of places to see overlap with others as much as possible, and since most of them are off in Bangkok or Hanoi today I don’t need to worry about them covering any more Hong Kong for a while. The weather looks too nice (though as always showers are forecast) to stay here today so maybe I’ll try to see something out here in the less-polluted New Territories.

Well, it’s 1:20 in the morning and I’ve not been to bed yet–I made it nearly to 6 o’clock last morning too. Progress. Unfortunately I can’t sleep in tomorrow since I should be getting my roommate in the morning. I’ve been told that many exchange roommates have ulterior motives: those who volunteer to room with exchange students get (as do the exchange students) their air conditioning charges paid for.

Didn’t blog about yesterday, but there wasn’t that much to mention. I took the Light Rail into Tuen Mun Town Centre and looked around the interconnected shopping malls, park, government offices, library, post office, etc. The library thinks I’m too much of a risk until my HKID is issued. The post office, however, was happy to sell me aerogrammes at a ridiculously low HK$2.3 each.

At Fu Tai I bought a bowl (genuine non-knockoff made-in-the-USA Corelle, the better to not melt into my food), fork, spoon, and some ramen, which I’ve been burning through pretty quickly. Ramen is pretty easy to make as the local source of filtered water (meant for tea, I suppose?) is set to about 98 degrees Celsius. Drinking-temperature water is a little harder to make… right now I’m using a Rubbermaid pitcher as a relatively uninsulated but heat-resistant container. Takes a while.

This morning a big group was going to see the Big Buddha on Lantau Island, but I found out that Sunday carries a 50% surcharge on Lantau transportation, so I postponed my trek to see him. I was feeling better today, so (idiot that I am) I made it worse by spending the day in Kowloon and Central. Yes, this means I did make it out to Central. I don’t think they are allowed to build anything under ten stories tall on Hong Kong island—you should look up pictures of the skyline as mine [available at the normal place] don’t do it justice.

On my way out I bought a pair of egg tarts (the Portuguese must have left a few here) in the Mei Foo West Rail/MTR station, and stepped outside to eat them. I was pleasantly surprised to find a small oasis. Hong Kong has done a very good job of stashing little parks in unlikely, soulless New Town development places.

I’m glad I’m not rich and gullible about fashion: those of you who are slaves to designer labels should get a kick from the directory of Pacific Place at Admiralty, into which I stumbled today.

The views from NWF Bus 15 to (and from) Victoria Peak were phenomenal but impossible to capture on camera. Breathtakingly breathtaking, and even better (as I’d been told) after darkness fell. I managed to be on a Star Ferry in the middle of the harbour during the 8 p.m. nightly light show, which was a neat perspective that also went uncaptured.

I probably re-aggravated my stress fracture for six months with my walking today: I got off the MTR at Mong Kok on the way in and walked all the way down Nathan Rd. to the Star pier at the end of Tsim Sha Tsui, and did the reverse on the way back. Instead of getting on the MTR there I hailed a 67X bus, which was just about as fast in the low traffic of a Sunday evening. Unfortunately, I missed out on the reprise of the Lantau Link bridge view (featured in my trip from the airport) because I was nodding off. Maybe that’s why I’m still awake now. I wasn’t back yet by the time I usually fall asleep.

I’ve just spent a bit cleaning up the nest of paper I’d started to accumulate, since the roommate is impending, and some more bits deleting lots of failed pictures, uploading the rest, and writing this. Remember that if you’re reading, it’s nice to comment once in a while so I don’t feel like I’m talking to myself (even though I am, really). IMs, e-mails, using the “comment” function itself, sending snail mail, calling my Skype or mobile… it can all be tremendously helpful. And if you aren’t reading, you’re a horrible person and I can say anything I want about you on here, because you’ll never know.

To the Nyquil again to try to free things up and get me to bed. With any luck the next blog post will not end with Nyquil, as nice as it is.

Today has been a day of watery adventure (rainy, sweaty, and congee). The briefings have come a bit easier, though. Signed our hostel contracts, got our student proof for Octopus, ran through the fitness center course (required, along with a payment for each use, to do anything there), learned about the library system, and that’s about it.

I ventured out to the Siu Hong West Rail / Light Rail station twice, first to deliver my Student Octopus application and then to buy an on-loan adult Octopus to tide me over until the 13 September (!) arrival of my Student one. I also went ahead and booked an appointment for my HKID at the fabulously overbooked Yuen Long office and paid my bill at the campus bank branch, so I’ve been a productive servant of bureaucracy. Today I found out that the canteen takes Octopus (octopi?), which means I may never use cash again. We’ll see.

Speaking of the canteen, I tried my luck with the Chinese breakfast today. Both Garrett and I received something we didn’t order (he went for the Western option), so our ordering was not flawless. I have no idea what my extra item was, but I can describe it: three pieces of something with a kind of gelatinous texture, possibly lightly fried, tasting vaguely of meat but (as far as I can tell) not being meat. Identifiable were the milk iced tea (what I got for just asking for an “iced drink”) and pork congee (jùk). The congee was not as smooth (nor as good) as the one I had on the plane, but still warm and filling. It wasn’t up to the level of the western breakfast (egg and chicken with black pepper sauce) I had yesterday, so I may switch back.

Our breakfasts averaged a mere HK$15.

The number 1 typhoon signal was hoisted today, and we got a little rain from the outer bands, but it’s past us (headed for Guangzhou) and unlikely to raise any higher signals.

One of the exchangers is getting together a meeting in the pool (also charged per-use… I guess it’s nicer than charging everybody the full amount as at WVU, but it creates a disincentive for students to take advantage of the resources) at 6:30 to talk about traveling. I’m not sure what the obsession with taking a huge group of Westerners somewhere is… a pair or a few people together, sure, but a horde is just begging for trouble. I may go if the rain’s off, though.

I’m dragging and my eyes are fuzzy but I need to stay up to have any hope of unlagging, so I’ll blog a bit more.

I arrived at HKG more or less on time, although my luggage did not. The immigration queue was good-sized but moving pretty quickly. I saw Jessalyn and Garrett, the other two WVU exchangers this semester, in the line across from mine and we exchanged hellos. However, my vow to meet them in a few minutes was not kept since I was dealing with the lost luggage process.

The stamp indicating that I’ve entered under a student visa is massive and would make more sense if used to deface the visa instead of thrown across the next page.

Mints at immigration were exceedingly good. I must take a handful next time.

In the arrivals area I was met by some Lingnaners whose names are already forgotten in the haze. A minibus took me, with the other CX 831 students, to campus. We were given a temporary, laminated, non-photo, barcoded student ID. RAs back home might appreciate that the desks are staffed by the university’s security force and that scanning is a self-service affair, with a scanning gun pointed out across the front desk.

The mattresses are concretely harder than I’m used to. The concession made for my height—a tiny little extension piece of mattress—is pretty funny looking, but with the pillow partly on it I fit just fine on the bed, so I can’t complain.

Got a welcome bag with chocolate chip cookies (Dannon-brand ChipsAhoy clone), M&Ms, and a 430ml (?) bottle of “Watson’s Water.”

The room is not as small as people have been trying to convince me, but I am sure it will feel much smaller when my roommate arrives. I think the greatest shortcoming is a near-total lack of space to hang clothes.

Lingnan’s campus is small but not that small. I was able to make sense of it, more or less, today. Garrett was also lagged and up quite early, so I exchanged an ethernet cord with him in exchange for a borrowed shirt and drop of toothpaste. We registered, got our “Liberal Arts Education / engage the world” totes full of orientation materials (including copies of things we were to have brought), and ate a decent but non-special breakfast in the Canteen.

It seems to be impossible to find cold drinking water in Hong Kong restaurants (sample size of 2). The local lemon iced tea is an almost-Southern substitute.

After breakfast we were marched off to a day full of “briefings” by the OMIP (Ofc. of Mainland and Int’l Prog.), ITSC (Info. Tech. Blah Blah), Registry (picture of my unshaven, unshowered face for my student ID), and so on. We also had a brief campus tour taking us to the shopping center at Fu Tai just off campus. Fu Tai is a public housing complex with a population of 20,300 (the closest New Town, Tuen Mun, boasts a population of around 500,000 total). On the bottom couple floors of one of the buildings, a bus terminus shares space with the shopping center, which includes a Park-n-Shop grocery, a Circle K convenience store, and a McDonalds (natch). We had a dim sum lunch there (a restaurant, not McD’s), comprising the conventional (spring rolls, broccoli), the sublime (shrimp dumplings), and the weird (chicken feet. yes, tried them. not impressed.). The tyranny of hot tea continued, which isn’t that surprising since the locals use the Cantonese phrase “drink tea” to mean going for dim sum.

On my way out I bought a US->Britplug adapter for just 10 HKD, thanks to which the laptop is charged and I can type all this junk. A mixed blessing. When I got change I thought I might have been cheated—I’d seen the shopkeeper try (and fail thanks to a quick-eyed exchanger) to change the price of an Ethernet cord from 30 to 50 a moment before—but he’d just given me a couple different types of HK$20 bills. Three different commercial banks issue equally valid versions of the banknotes here.

At lunch I was informed that my luggage would be delivered by 2 p.m. When I got out of orientation around 4:30 I found that was an optimistic prediction, but (just to make a fool of me) a couple minutes after calling to check the courier showed up in the lobby. It’s so good to see my toothpaste, towel, and such again, to say nothing of clothes.

I am told that the proper form of my mailing address is as follows:

Student Hostel B, Room 306A
Lingnan University
Tuen Mun, N.T.
HONG KONG

You know what to do.

I will get to taking and uploading pictures one day, but I don’t think I can stare at a screen any more tonight. I’m going to go take a desperately-needed shower (in the electronic combination lock–protected lavatory… to keep the girls out, I guess?) and then ??. Good morning, America.

…but my luggage didn’t. Details when I have the time (and adapters).