Hmm hasn't be writing for quite some time as I was busy with module registration stuff and trying to get used to campus life in HK.

It can be quite lonely over here as there are only 3 Singaporeans in campus - Daniel, Yuin Yee and I. We are of different major and we hardly see one another except for the occasional lunch and dinner (I do have a common module with each of them so it's some form of consolation). Fortunately, we stayed in the same hall and in a way we can look after one another or at least, you'll know that there is a Singaporean friend a few floors away. Mundane things like asking fr directions and ordering food can be quite troublesome (stress at times) as they do not exactly understand English or Mandarin. So most of the time, I have to end up pointing to the menu instead. As mentioned in the earlier entry, I am lucky to know some HK chemistry friends; for Yuin Yee and Daniel, they don't know anyone from their cohort yet and I guess attending lectures can be really lonely for them. Well for me, it's not that rosy after all as my HK friends do have their clique and they are used to speaking to one another in cantonese. It's difficult for me to join in their conversation and appreciate their joke since I can't understand a thing. Thus I am pretty lonely at times too. In addition, they have family and friends in HK and they can't keep me company all the time. Going out alone will be tricky as transportation and eating out in HK can be pretty steep and thus I've decided to stay in campus during weekdays.

I'll give a short account of what I have done for the past few days.

Friday 020905. As mentioned in the earlier post, I had "Biochemistry of Diseases" and the lecture was pretty okay except for the students making a lot of noise during lecture. Yuin Yee and I were very pissed off as we were not able to catch what the lecturer said. For lunch, Frankie brought me to 饮茶 with his Chemistry clique in campus. They were going to celebrate the birthday of a gal in the clique and so he asked me to come along and at the same time, introduce more Chemistry friends to me. At that moment I realized that HK people really know how to enjoy life - imagine that in NUS, will I ever get a chance to 饮茶 with my friends in campus? Also the restaurants and canteen housed mostly round tables - this is important as everyone will be able to communicate with one another unlike in rectangular tables in which we can hardly communicate with the people on the next table.

I went out with Frankie at around 3pm and we headed for 旺角 where he introduced me to a shop which sell laser pointer (I wanted to buy the one with the green light :p). After that we went to the arcade for a while before he met his gf and sent her home. I went to collect my sunglass and dine on my own after that.

Saturday 030905. I spent my night time in campus resting as Yuin Yee, Richard (Daniel's room mate, an exchange student from University of Waterloo) and I will be going to 深圳 the next day. Yuin Yee, Alice and I had lunch together and it was 饮茶 again. Following that, Alice brought me to a beach "below" our campus through a pretty long (and steep!) walk. Yuin Yee didn't come along as she returned home at around 3am the night before. Guess what? There is actually a waterfall below my campus! Shortly after we reached there, it rained cats and dogs and we had to run back to our campus; it took us close to 20 mins and by the time we reachedd campus, we were soaked! Alice went back to her lab and I returned to my hostel to bath. At around 4pm, she brought me to a mall near 太古 (the place where she lives) and we walked to a park beside the sea. It gave a spectacular view of Kowloon and I'll love to visit it again.

Sunday 040905. Yuin Yee, Richard and I went to 深圳 today and it took around 1 hour from campus; a pretty fast trip. We took bus 11 to 彩虹 MTR station and took MTR to 九龙塘. We changed to KCR train and it took us straight to a station at the border of HK and 深圳 call 罗湖. We cleared some immigration points and reached 深圳 at around 9.30am. For the whole day, nothing very exciting happened as we were just walking around shopping. I went on my separate ways from Yuin Yee and Richard initially as I wanted to buy books :p On the whole, I bought a long sleeve t-shirt, a tie, a t-shirt, books and some fruits from this trip.

Monday 050905. I was quite pissed right after lunch as I realized that one of my dream module "CHEM531 Advanced Inorganic Chemistry" will not be offered due to very low enrolment. Worse still, I can't take the Maths module on Differential Equation as well as the lecturer felt that I am over-qualified. What the heck! In the end, I will be taking the Maths module on differential equation that Daniel is doing and hopefully I can be enrolled into it eventually (there are no vacancies left). At 6pm, I had "CHEM511 Advanced Organic Chemistry" and it was really hardcore! Love the module so much, haha. Think my organic will improve after this trip. Anyway it's not easy to get "A" in HK as most of their modules go by the absolute score. A score of 80 may even end you up with a B+ instead. Hmm gotta work hard and not to disappoint my friends and NUS :p. If I screw up in this module, it means that my organic is not that great after all. I guess the students taking this module are really good - 3 from China, 3 postgraduates from this school, Alice and I.

Tuesday 060905. Nothing much happened today. The lessons were the same as those last Thursday except without the Advanced Inorganic since it was cancelled due to poor enrolment. Again the Material Science lecture was really boring o_O

Hmm as for today, I'll be having "Biochemistry of Diseases" in 30mins time. Later on it'll be lunch with the head of Chemistry! What happens is that the head actually invited all exchange-in students for lunch at the restaurant in campus (南北小厨). Hmm wonder what it'll be like. Evening will be having advanced organic chemistry again; that's the lesson that I am looking forward to the most. :)