Okay, but let’s now forget why we’re here

Of course, I should mention details about the whole reason I’m in Hong Kong, an internship.

At Lingnan University, I am an international student from America taking SLP101: Intro to Service Learning. What is service learning you ask? Well, lucky for you, every class has been spent covering just that.

Service learning is hard to define as everyone has their own way of defining it. My way would be long lasting community service. A lot goes into a service learning project. First, you must identify the needs of the community. Next, you have to think of a project that will have a lasting impact on the community.

I was fortunate enough to be placed at the Yau Oi Tong Senior Center. My group consisted of 3 other local students and at first I will admit that I was a bit nervous working with them, but they quickly proved that I had nothing to fear. Because I don’t speak Cantonese except for a few key phrases here and there (唔該(m̀hgòi) being the one I use most frequently since it means “thank you”, “please”, “excuse me”) my group would help keep me up to date with what was happening with our project and translate whenever necessary.

Our objective was simple, help the center get more elders in the community involved with its activities. We started off by doing home visits where we would also conduct a survey while we spoke to the elders. Although, all of them couldn’t speak English, they seemed to really enjoy having me in their home.

I feel like I have to mention what their homes are like. The elders we visited live in estates or apartment buildings as we know them. These estates are everywhere in Hong Kong, even the dorm I stay in is an apartment building style.

Unfortunately, the living conditions are harsh. I mentioned before that the weather in Hong Kong is extremely humid, but I am actually really lucky that my room has an air conditioner and a fan. These elders only have old and cheap fans that they have to constantly move in order for it to blast air to whoever needs it. The actual apartments are very small, the size of a dorm room with a small kitchen and bathroom.

These apartments aren’t specifically for elders, but it just tends to be where they live since most of the Hong Kong population does. Unfortunately, some of them live alone and I can only imagine how dangerous that could be.

After the home visits, we concluded, using the surveys, that the elders were more willing to attend events at the center if they were visited by someone who invited them. I was not surprised at all by the results considering they were happy to have me present despite my lack on communication with them. We also discovered they hesitated to visit the center because they felt like a bother.

Using our new found information, we conducted an exhibition that would attract more attention to the center as well as the next activity day the center would have.

On the activity day, we presented our findings to the elders and basically told them that they shouldn’t feel like a bother and that the center welcomes them. Well, my group mates told them while I stood there and smiled. I also was the one in charge of taking pictures, which is why I’m not in them.The presentation had to be in Cantonese and as funny as it would be, it was a serious matter.

We did puzzles as team building exercises and also bought the elders cookies and soy milk for them to snack on.

Unfortunately, because we have to focus on the final presentation for class, that was our last time at the elderly center. I very much enjoyed interacting with the elders because they all had interesting stories to tell.

 

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Fun and Transportation

The reason it’s been so difficult updating my blog is because it seems like there is something I’m doing everyday.

We’ve been to Central, Disneyland, Cheong Chau Island, Victoria Harbour, and recently Ocean Park.

Hong Kong is a small place, but there’s so much to do.

Aida and I take the wandering approach and end up finding amazing places like restaurants or even parks. Although we are tired by the end of the day and our feet are swollen.

Getting around is very simple as well. Using our Octopus cards we can get on any form of transportation such as a bus, light rail, or the subway train. Buses are more for exploring Tuen Mun for us since that’s where we’re staying. Occasionally we take the light rail, but we have an easier time finding a seat on the bus.

The subway train is what we use to travel all over Hong Kong. For the most part, it takes us anywhere in at least an hour.We are on a time constraint though since they stop running at about midnight.

We only took a taxi the first night since we arrived at about 3 am, but since it;s so expensive we’re careful about how late we’re out.

Recently we found overnight buses in certain areas though.

Hong Kong Cultural Notes

I’ve learned quite a bit of culture during my stay here in Hong Kong and that’s something I’m extremely proud of.

For example, I learned about the Utensil Washing Tradition. One of the most popular Hong Kong local food culture is that restaurant goers tend to wash the plates and utensils before they eat, especially at the places that serve dim sums. Restaurant staff would give customers a big bowl of hot or bowling water to wash the plates, and together with an empty bowl for the diners to pour away the washed and dirty water.

Although some of the locals tried to teach us during our welcome lunch, they were a bit hesitant and Aida ended up giving us the full tutorial which is the video link above.

Something else I’ve learned s finger tapping. According to Sabrina, one of our buddies assigned by the university, a long time ago there was a king and when he would go out and eat with his people he didn’t want everyone to know he was the king. But when he served them tea, the custom was that they kneeled to him. If they did that, his cover would have been blown. Instead, one of his followers(?) decided to use his fingers and make them “kneel” so no one but them would notice.

Another thing I’ve noticed is the way the locals speak English. Learning a language is difficult. I myself have always struggled with the languages I’ve studied in my life, so I understand that it is difficult to communicate for the students that are in my group for my service learning project. The way they speak is very formal and a lot of the vocabulary used is more british than american (which makes sense since we’re in Hong Kong.)

For example, they say queue while I’m used to saying line. Little things like that.

I definitely enjoy observing the people around me and although I am here for an internship experience, I also feel like I’m experiencing living abroad. Because I grew up spending summers or winter breaks in Mexico, I know that America has a unique culture that to other people may seem strange. I also know that it just seems strange if you haven’t experienced it too.

I was speaking to a woman who is in our group of international students and she has never left her home until now. She doesn’t enjoy living in Hong Kong and called herself close-minded. She was telling me about everything done here that is weird and made her uncomfortable and although I am taken aback when I see or hear something new and different from what I’m used to, I accept it because I know that it is the culture I’m experiencing.

I actually spoke to Aida about Chinese culture and we found quite  a few similarities between Mexican and Chinese culture which I guess explains why it’s easier for me to be here than other people I’ve met that are international students.

Day 1: Orientation

My day started pretty early that morning since I was not able to sleep more than 2 hours. I was exhausted but my body was still used to Chicago time so I laid wide awake on my bed.

I took advantage of that though and called my family to let them know I was fine and that I was excited to begin the day.

When we arrived the night before we had received a bag full of important papers and a booklet that gave us our schedule for orientation.

At 10 AM we met with our student buddies in the lobby of the hostel and they guided us to the building where we would have our registration and a briefing from OMIP as well as a survival cantonese class. (I handled the numbers pretty well.)

After that we were taken to the school’s chinese food restaurant for our welcome lunch. This was our first official meal in Hong Kong so it was time to bring out our chopsticks skills. We struggled, but the people sitting with us were very encouraging and even clapped when we succeeded.

The meal was delicious and I was very sad to hear that the restaurant will be closed for renovation for most of our time here. We were assured that there was a nice restaurant in the nearest shopping mall, however.

The set featuring the delicious tea.

Our food.

The view from the window behind me as we ate. It had started raining and the locals were very nonchalant while us foreigners were very surprised.

The big plate isn’t actually used. The little bowl is used to section of your “bite.” Since you grab from one food item at a time, you get fuller quicker.

I thought it was flan and the texture is similar but it was more like mango gelatin. It reminded me of the gelatins my grandmother used to make for my birthdays when I was younger.

After out meal we got a tour of the university. It’s a small university similar to IWU and the scenery is gorgeous. I was very pleased with what I was seeing and if it wasn’t unbearably humid 24/7 I might have considered planning to study outside.

There’s a superstition that if you go to the top of the stairs you won’t get higher than a 3. I’m not risking that.

TURTLES!

After our campus tour, we were take to Tuen Mun. There were a lot of outside shops that seemed to be family owned. We were also heading to the MTR to get ourselves Octopus cards.The Octopus card is a reusable contactless stored value smart card for making electronic payments in online or offline systems in Hong Kong

Before that we had wandered around the shopping mall and had even bought bubble tea. (I got the Taro because it’s my obsession.)

I filmed most of the shopping mall experience so I’ll just post the video diary I made. It includes everything we did for our orientation.

 

 

 

Flying

Flying has never been my favorite part of traveling so I was not very thrilled about being on a plane for 14-16 hours.

The great news was that I had a TV and a neck pillow. Movie binging and sleeping were going to be my method of getting through the flight.

I think my favorite part was the food though. I’m usually not a huge fan of airline food (what’s up with that?) so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that the menu and actually got the food.

Chicken, black beans, and steamed jasmine rice

They gave me ice cream so I was definitely a happy camper.

Entertainment wise I was also very pleased. I got to watch a few movies that I didn’t get the chance to see in America so at least that was a way of distracting myself.

By the time we arrived to the university from the airport it was around 3am Hong Kong time. We are extremely lucky to have Aida on the trip because without her cantonese skills we definitely would have struggled much more.

Finally I was in bed but I couldn’t sleep. And then we had to be ready by 10 am to start our orientation…