L'hors d'œuvre

Sunrise in Oslo- that was on Monday and it was still pretty cold at least for me....

Showdown in the Viegeland sculpture park (Viegeland is a Norwegian artist who married three times 16-year old girls with whom he then was together 20 years or so before dumping them): combined Belgian (Christel)/Tennessee-Team (Mat is actually Australian) against Memorial/Concordia *finally a young coach... Dave on the left*. Team right afterthe first win (Nico, John, MP in the metro which in Oslo is modern and reliably unreliable)....

... and at the end of the week *no comment and I hope it is ok to publish this?*... (= Love you guys!

Ooops, again or A winter week in Oslo

Saturday morning I woke up with this feeling of gnawing forgetfulness inside: something important was supposed to be “scheduled” for today, but what was it? I had only slept four hours since my Canadian roommate Mo and her Team had to leave for the airport at 4:30 am and I was pretty tired. When I got up it turned out I was also pretty hung over and a bit shaky – and I actually thought I had not drunk that much… I could not remember, and to bet safe I decided to go through all my documents. Since I didn’t bring much stuff, it didn’t take me long to figure out that my flight back from Oslo to Hong Kong was on that same day- to be precise in 3.5 hours- and not on Sunday as I had convinced myself all week! And I was still undressed in the hotel in the centre of Oslo!

Before continuing to describe yesterday’s happenings I should maybe fill you in with some backgrounds. But no worries while reading on: the story had a happy end since I am sitting at my laptop in Hong Kong writing this: I made it to the airport on time largely due to the fact that I had expected to move due to room consolidation for the last night (=have to minimize the school’s expenses) and thus had everything packed already.

Anyways, as said, some backgrounds: I spent the last week at the NIBS (Network of Intl. Business Schools) case competition hosted by the BI/Norwegian School of Management (NSM) in Oslo. I left Hong Kong on Saturday and flew to Oslo via Amsterdam: at the end of my 20h-trip I was picked up late the same day by my coach by car. Nice thought but she is sometimes a bit disorganized when it comes to orientation. Made it to the hotel finally and trying to avoid jetlag fell into my bed.
The “rest” of the team -or better said: the major part- John, Nicolas (Nico) and Matti-Pekka (MP), arrived the next day bringing some essential Fazer chocolate, winter clothing and the necessary accessories… (not that I care about fashion, but Oslo was pretty d*** cold!) The competition started on Monday with a case on “Big Pharma” (or with Irish pronunciation: Big Farmer); pharmaceuticals vs. biotech; the first time I had done a case on a whole industry. This was followed by WestJet (Ryanair-type-of airline in Canada) and Apple (iPod/ iTunes/mobile technologies).
For those non-business students (and I believe that there are quite some of you in the readership): a business case study, i.e. a case, is in its basic form a 20-50 page long factual text (with often lame literary aspirations of storytelling) describing the history and current situation of a company/industry, its environment and factors outlining considerations for future developments. A case team, usually consisting of four students, has four hours to identify the key problem described and propose a solution to this inferred problem. What happens in practice is that four tired people are locked in one room with a computer, calculators and a flip chart with the goal of coming up with creative, out-of-the-box-ideas which after the preparation have to be presented in a 20 minute “show” in front of a judge panel. But what it comes down to in the end is organizational and sales skills: an analytical, comprehensive approach of problem solving, clear argumentation, belief in the idea and convincing presentation skills as a team. This of course assumes that you understand what you are reading and do not completely miss the problem- also a problem as such.
At NIBS there are eight teams in two separate pools with each team competing against every other team of that pool in three “duels”; the top two teams of each pool proceed to the semi-finals. Half of the teams are from European universities (Dublin, Oslo, Leuwen, Helsinki), half from North America (Concordia, Memorial, Bishops, Tennessee). Not getting too much into the case solving, we lost two and won one This one can see as invalidating any of my sarcastic comments above- as we did not make it to the semifinals… what a pity, since I would have so liked to do another case or two…(=
Slight critic for the competition as such: all cases were Ivey cases, the majority of the judges were BI faculty members which sometimes seemed to be judging by academic criteria, e.g. usage of academic terms (which is not the major point in a business presentation). And it has to be added that the contrast between the finalist teams was striking, at least to me…

That put aside the week was a nice experience: we had a lot of evening program (and little free time) - the usual dinners/partying but also surprisingly ice-skating and tobogganing as well as a Norwegian evening (with a lot of Aquavit) and a crazy city tour with an elder eloquently dressed lady whose humor was in a dry and sarcastic way socially critical but hilarious. I wish Finns could be as proud and make fun of themselves occasionally! (or wait, didn’t they do that already with Conan meeting the president?) I saw a lot of presentations and met new people although I have to say that after the month here my enthusiasm for the get-to-know-game was slightly suppressed. I shared my room with a Concordia student which was a bit exhausting since we always had different prep times and neither of us could sleep properly. And last but not least it was great to have three friends to spend a week with-knowing them, feeling free to crack jokes (and we generated some really bad ones), having fun without feeling for solid ground, making me feel almost at home! Sweet!

Oslo has not changed much since I last visited it in 2002 –the contrast for me was only sharp in terms of journey origin. Oslo is expensive (we all knew that), but it is also dirty and there are beggars and drug addicts in the streets and the metro stations! Hong Kong is clean and I mean really clean: people are fanatic about cleaning everything all the time, e.g. the side on the children’s playground is polished every morning; but ey, labor is cheap. There are no beggars or drug addicts in HK- or at least you don’t see them (an efficient police state?). And I was pretty sick of all the bread after sometime… rice keeps fit and slim! ( ; Waiting for the true culture clash when coming back to Finland!

Post the morning sensation of having almost missed my flight- which of course would have been completely my fault- how typical!- I threw all outliers into the suitcase, said a rushed ”bye” to “my guys” ( : and left for the airport. I was there at non sharp and had even time for a coffee before boarding at 12:30. Effective scheduling!
Arriving in HK I was dazzled by the warmth and the spring air. When approaching our place it occurred to me that I maybe should have let the guys know that I was to be back a day early- didn’t have time to inform them! Got “home” at around 12:30, the place looked –put extremely- as after a bomb explosion and I scared the hell out of them waking them up (they thought our landlord was coming to show the place to some prospective buyer- that I what happened last week). I felt really bad when they said they would clean everything right away (which they had “planned to do all week”) and actually started cleaning…. And now everything glitters and shines *bling, bling* we can eat off the floor! (Erkki told me to include this) Well, maybe I resemble a horribly strict matron? I hope not!!!

Please add to my “I will never”-list: I will never fly through Amsterdam again! (since I have already once forgot a flight through Amsterdam but never anywhere else, and the second time was close).

Some expressions generated in our “creative sessions” during this past week I’d like to remember:

To be included in future case presentations: In-dubitably (John), indeed, pardon me *all in heavy British, but preferably Irish accent*. Apple iPod: Living the iLife à Nico: the (h)i(gh) life. Concentrate on (h)ardware. GSK (Glaxo) = aahhh…JSG (?) The Bull’s i (MP)à This is the core of the Apple. [This strategy should bring] A couple of bucks (John).

S*** is all over France (only Nico can say this). Pringles should have a hole fo the other side [of the package] ( helo?). She’s a cake. Not my filet. Desesparaite houseb******!


Our tour guide: “ Norwegians get born with skies on their feet… well, not literally luckily for the mothers”; “We sometimes get wolves in the suburbs of Oslo- It seems they are illiterate signs forbidding them to come into the city recreational areas haven’t kept them out”; ” [upon spotting two women in mini-skirts and heavy make-up]and on your left hand side two (Eastern) European representatives of a age old trade- apparently they do their job better than their Norwegian competitors… and now back to Oslo” is this sarcasm or rather tasteless- not if coming from an "aristocrat" lady...)

Shop til you drop (or til you're broke)

To add as explanation for the pictures: 1. This is how you loosse money in Happy Valley 2. Erkki and Jussi going to Vietnam for the weekend-- that's why the crazy hats. the picture is taken on the balcony of our apartment on Thusrsday. 3. Chi Lin Nunnery in Diamond Hill - as said HK is full of contrast even when it comes to temples/monasteries which exist as peaceful oasis among all the high-rise apartment buildings. 4. Quiz: what is this? (hint: one of my afvorite snacks, but in Hk it is not as soft as it should if made the German way).

Wow, I was REALLY upset on Tuesday! It is not worth it- why do I tell this to myself every time and it never works? Maybe I should comfort myself with the fact that being upset is healthy? (or at least better than never being upset… ?) Anyways, someone mentioned that I should maybe not directly write it down- smart?

As a counterweight to the negative “zen” of the last entry: the rest of the week was much nicer! We went to the horseraces on Wednesday- this is the only place you can gamble legally in Hong Kong (they don’t even have the Hedelmäpeli or other such machines here) and there are two racecourses: in Sha Tin and in Happy Valley on HK Island. We went to the latter, which is the smaller one of the two, but still huge- and the atmosphere is very intense (people take it VERY seriously, it is in all the papers etc.).

Thursday was classes and then going out to diverse clubs. The evening started with a Latin/Mexican Party in La Bodega, loud South American music, everybody dancing and singing along. We then went to another club called Hey Hey (and there is also a bar in Lang Kwai Fong called Hei Hei), more locals but fancy with roof terrace etc. Someone told me later that is is supposedly the hang out-place of the triads- this should explain the police raid on the place when we were there. Music off, lights on, police men in adidas training suits and some in uniforms came in, all doors blocked- we got only out by having take our IDs… that was pretty interesting! Decided to go home after that…

Friday was shopping in Causewaybay, Central and TST (Tsim Sha Tsui). I finally found a decent priced bookstore- books, especially in English are pretty expensive here. Comparison: I bought shoes for HKD 99; a book (non-hardcover) costs upwards from HKD 120! And apropos shopping: since HK is best classified as being a huge mall than anything else (vs. culture/history which is not so apparent or visible; most old buildings have just been torn down etc.) what tourists do here is shop! And saying this: since I live here, I have to stop shopping! It is so easy, so cheap, but still, not free… and when you live here, you see all the stores every day. Ok, I came here with the minimum of stuff, maybe 10 kg or so, which is not much for 5 months… But believe me, I have bought a lot! (and it I tempting)

Have to catch my plane now, sorry for the disorganized text!

Confessions of a thoughtful mind

It’s grey, it’s raining, it’s Valentine’s day. What an invention is that anyway? (not an American one; dates back to the year 496 somewhere in Europe, or that is what I at least learned in my management class today). I forgot my glasses when going to uni; I forgot Simon’s birthday and he is not answering his phone- I don’t know which one is worse? Maybe it should not be compared?

On days like today I start turning into worst-case scenario mode and I do not even want to know nor can I realize how unhappy or expressionless, indifferent I must look to other people; until someone makes me smile and I feel the muscles in my face moving. Do you know that feeling? When you are bored the whole day and nobody really wakes you up; when you get upset about MS Word not finding the right words in the “translator”-options when you really need to find them right now and put them into a nice sentence cause it makes you feel so better with every digital spot of ink sucking into itself the exponentially accumulated misery of a grey day…

And you start realizing that life is not so bad after all… but before all anger and frustration have evaporated, I should waste some moments to partially immortalize it in the form of digital ink- and just to let you guys know that it is not all so great even though I make it seem that way. It is not really!

I slept for three hours tonight since bugged by mosquitoes biting so bad that my face had only one eye in the morning- it got better by applying a cold beer can… classes were boring as most of the time- today I learned in Econometrics, how to calculate the mean of a random sample of observations. And this after two full weeks of class! How mind-boggling! To top it I had to switch class from Fixed Income (apparently I do not fulfill the “prerequisites” to take a Bachelor-level course…) to Business Ethics- a management class although management here seems to resemble more IB back at HSE. And to calm all IB majors (I am not degrading the teaching at “our” school): “even” the classes of Prof. Z show substance, structure and quality in comparison! So there you go: rankings are to a great extend complete BS or then absolutely mis-specified in scope of measurement- all business schools essentially preach the same; I guess the difference lies with the teachers but most of all with the students….

… and in that respect I feel often like among children (and the fact that I am taller than average and do not dress in girly hello-kitty/funky clothes aggravates the feeling). People are late, answer their phones in class, send messages with their keys on, eat their whole (warm) lunch (including the burps, which I interpret as a cultural thing), talk, run outside to answer their phones etc. etc. Questions in class concern mostly a decimal point calculated wrong in some example- as if there would have to be some prove of excelling- never general issues or true opinions (what one is supposed to think is generally explicitly given in the question). Students seem disinterested, pack their things and start chatting 5-10 minutes before the end of class (lucky that there is no “gong” every 20 minutes)- as if they were forced to be there- or maybe it is a different way of learning? Professors seem to be most concerned about everyone being present in class and being silent, knowing the deadlines and submitting their weekly home works (yes, they are called and structured as such). I know, there is a lot of the above mentioned in Finland too- but at least people are there voluntarily (presumably) and 3-4 years older on average implying a different “conduct””- it is an issue of general atmosphere which is very difficult to describe and must seem ridiculous. And there is nobody telling you which courses you can(not) take or what you have to do next. Where is academic freedom?

Writing the above I have to explicitly state that I am aware of my not all too often over- spilling arrogance bordering the widely cultivated sarcasm I so enjoy. But where does culture end and narrow-mindedness start and to which extend is a person allowed to hide behind it? What is the difference between disappointment and arrogance? What builds the basis of judgment? Maybe attitude equally determined by and in connection with personal expectations and goals- both of which I have clear definitions… over-expecting (but hey, then I could just go and travel on my own for six months…). Maybe people- their values and principles- but how well can one strip off their “masks” after three weeks? And everyone does wear one in my view -consciously or then subconsciously- and of different “texture” blurring features and character for some or then less for others. And how to create space for one’s own mask to stand out among the mass while finding likeable ones?

I often forget that there are a lot of people outside the exchange-circle- a mistake forgiven by the pace of events and incurred by the natural divide between “re-planted” existences in a place as controversial and de facto as surreally created as this? Looking beyond the here and now is not always easy - but a necessary reality check for damage control.

Dum spiro spero.

Anonymity and other problems of ideology

Although I try t preserve the anonymous identity of myself, it now seems impossible to tell of the other people I meet here- it gets more and more difficult to find pictures without people in my collection and to talk about them without any of the non-HK readers having an image of what they look like...- I hope nobody minds of me publishing these!

Here some of the pics from our houewarming, taken in alcohol-induced euphoria...

Michelle and Jenni (Mainland), Jacqui ( Canada) and Martha and Lat (U.S./Minnesota)

Sverre (Norway) and Phillip (Sweden) after some beer and vodka

Ronny and Linda (Norway)

Mike (U.S./Maryland), Vince(nt) (U.S./Michigan) and Matilda (Sweden). Mike was the first person I met here in HK...

Good cop, bad cop? or A practical bargaining strategy *

*when shopping for fake bags, jeans and other absolutely essetial mass-consumption-dubbed luxurious fashionable items in Shenzhen/China

First of all and before I forget: After a lot of posts and being here almost a month, thank you to everyone looking into my blog once in a while! I have gotten some comments concerning the length of my “short-stories” which seem to be rather time consuming to actually read, but I really appreciate the effort of those who have so far attempted to it. In the future I will try to cut the posts into smaller bids or subdivide for you to make your pick of what might be interesting. And I will try to censor less, since I notice that I am more and more doing that to- naturally, to bridge between different audiences of readers, but still, where is the authenticity *naturel*? And please give some more comments and critique (although I know that everyone is always very busy and I seldom handle it well, I promise to publish all comments though) or questions of what is of any interest… or then just fly over!

I always get into the writing-modus in the middle of the night. It is strange, since I am usually completely tired (which reflects in my writing and slight use of sarcasm). Am sitting in front of my laptop- it is dark and a bit cold- and am drinking soy-based chocolate milk- what a delicacy!
Had a quiet evening today and tested barbecue which we bought last week at Jusco for HKD 75 on our roof-top terrace light with Ikea candles. Team Sweden went for a Vietnamese dinner in town (that is what we call all the groups from one country), so we had a Team Finland BBQ “at home”. Highlight: I made perunamuussi, which was believe me sooo good after one month of rice/ricenoodles! No offence, the food is good although rumors of bird flue in HK have been spreading here the last days – we are bombed with emails from the Uni including all kinds of safety measures etc.

The whole day otherwise today went into cleaning the apartment (I have no classes on Friday, i.e. the weekend starts Thursday at noon) with a slight hangover: we held our official housewarming party yesterday! Since a lot of people went to Singapore for the weekend, we hoped it would be a less crowded party (or at least not 200 people): here it does not matter who is invited; everyone of the exchanges knows everyone and in the end all show up anyway. It turned out to be around 80 of us in our place and on the roof; a lot of beer and vodka and birthday cake (it is always someone’s birthday). The Norwegians brought good red wine, some Brits brought music and speakers- it was fun, but we had to throw people out at midnight (police car with ten cops outside: they only took notes but still..) The party however continued in town until around 4:30 (or that is at least when I went to bed) and later.
In the morning (around noon) I started cleaning, it was not even substantially that bad which tells of the people- I start to get the feeling that there are some really cool people around… In the afternoon went to play tennis and to jog. Now just finished writing some job applications although I must say I do not give a s*** (excusez-moi) right now about whether I should work or even try to find work for the summer. And it is desperate. Wow, I can’t believe I am slowly turning younger and into a disinterested, easy going person that just enjoy hanging out without feeling bad about it (well, maybe not quite yet…) Skipped classes on Wednesday to go shopping in Shenzhen (and bought some nice stuff). Never thought that could happen to me…(ok, it was only one class and the classes are worth more here to be skipped than to be attended- I am so fed up with all the bureaucracy regarding course selection here!!! But will not go into that now.)
But seriously speaking (back to the job situation): The worst case scenario is that I will travel and stay around here until August- I like this scenario very much… Could go to Bali and learn how to surf….Have to think about it.

... (sorry for all the brackets) ...

Sunday, sunday... and other tales

Sunday – the day of writing a new post- came and went without me doing really anything. The sun woke me up– it shines through my balcony door. It was pretty late, but I haven’t felt as rested in days. We went shopping with the guys to Po Lam, which has a huge shopping center (as does every MTR station here, but this is truly huge). Bought some kitchen equipment and a grill for barbecuing on our rooftop terrace- Erkki was completely hung-over having come back from town at 6 a.m. the previous night… and he is a complete shopaholic (krapulapaivashoppaaja) when hung-over…. It was fun!
In the evening I did some homework assignments and tried to catch up with my correspondence- although haven’t gotten far yet. And now it is Monday and another week has started- the weather is great: summer- or so I have decided since I have no dry clothes except skirts (which I now wear regardless of everyone else running around in winter jackets- ridiculous at 20C!) Elections for the university clubs are coming up and the whole atrium looks like a exhibition fair – the organized chaos and space problems of Areena messut but much, much noisier, with cheerleader-type teams dressed in Chinese colorful silk dresses shouting Cantonese slogans. And a lot of people in suits handing out flyers (although not to the Caucasians) and juice bottles. It is hilariously confusing. Wow, I can’t believe they take it so serious! (I’ll try to get a picture tomorrow…)

Below a little summary of the last couple of days, and I do not want to go into listing:

Feb 3 (Thursday)
Had two amazing classes: Derivative securities and Time series modeling and forecasting: I like the professors. It will all be good!
Ran 4km on the track (and this I report only because I promised to).

Feb 4 (Friday)
The Big Buddha (Big B)
HK has over 200 islands and we went to one of them on Friday: Lantau Island in the West of HK, which hosts the HK Disneyland (there were riots last week cause the Chinese love it and more tickets were sold than capacity allowed, so they shut the gates at 10 a.m. which lead to people climbing over the fences…) and the international airport (on an huge landfill, very common in HK). We didn’t see neither but went to the Po Lin monastery and the Big Buddha in the mountains – a bit commercialized for my taste, but well, gotta see it. The island is huge and mountainous – we took a ferry from HK island and then a bus (travel time one-way: 2h+), which was great sightseeing but also exhausting. I got quite annoyed with everyone since the whole thing was so unorganized: if you don’t know where to go just don’t go at all!

Feb 5 (Saturday)
I saw a monkey!
An amazing day that started with mist and rain. We met with Martin (from Sweden) at Uni at 9 a.m. and then took the bus to Sai Kung, which is a fishing village whith great seafood restaurants just in the next bay from the university. We had decided to go hiking “somewhere in the east of HK” on one of the numerous trails- again no plan of where or how, but when I do something with him, we are always lucky. After some searching we found the right bus stop in Sai Kung and saw a group of young people standing around. We started talking to one of them and it turned out that he was an architecture student from Melbourne on holidays at home and now leading is former boys’ scouts group for a hike. We asked if we could join – the kids looked pretty young so we thought the tour might be pretty easy. Lucky us…. I have gone to talking to everyone on bus stops and in shops, but often they refer you to someone else or do not understand (and you meet really crazy people here) - but not this time!
We went with them by bus to a nature park close by- public transport here is really superb and brings you right at the start of the paths which are well marked with distance signs every 500 meters, maps and lookout points. As I have been told, the HKese love hiking and there are a lot of events, e.g. once a year a 100km hike which has to be completed within 48h (and it draws thousands of participants)- people here are crazy!
Anyway, it turned out that we were supposed to hike 25km!!!! 25km!!!! CRAZY! Well, of course I said OK and off we went. The highest point of the trail – the McLehose trail (former British HK governor) - was around 430m: we crossed also several beaches and 7 other mountains. So it was more like 25km up and down and up and down…. We did the trail in 5.5 h which is over 5 km an hour with a huge difference in altitude…. I don’t know how I did it (I am sooo proud!)- I had no proper clothing, was pretty exhausted in the end and my legs still hurt (and it is Monday!) but every step was worth it! We saw the prettiest beaches of HK with fine white sand, met a small colony of U.S. surfers, saw wild monkeys in the forest, abandoned fishing villages and got a lot of useful info from our HK/Oz student. And most of all: it was silent! No noise, no buzz, no people (it is winter now and low-season). How relaxing. I never thought I would have become so Finnish!

Total distance walked this week: 30 km +

Other stuff:
Shopping
Going into supermarkets, you can find everything in terms of food. The music in the background is pretty horrible: it is Chinese (I think) and a bit shrill and VERY loud. The same goes for malls: when you pass a store selling any electronics, be prepared to interrupt all conversation and mentally close your ears, since you won’t be able to hear anything. The music as such is not bad, but combined with a mass of people in shopping carts boxing their way through and you desperately trying to find something it can be pretty annoying. It is really about going through every aisle and searching since the system of store design is quite different depending on the chain. In some stores everything is grouped by origin, i.e. Japanese food, Western food and everything else which means you have to look for dairy in three places since you don’t know which is classified as which. In other stores you have just aisles of different sorts of rice or soy sauce, living fish in aquariums and huge refrigerators full of dim sum. Everything classified as “not needed by anyone non-Cantonese/Mandarin speaking” (don’t know though how this classification is determined) such as washing powder has only Mandarin labels which makes searching a bit more time consuming and difficult. But it is also fun just looking at all the packages and different foods. And the plasma screens in front of the shelves advertising the product stacked behind it.

Transport
The MTR and buses all have plasma TVs, which is really high tech. And they are very, very clean. I know, I said this before, but I just think it is absolutely amazing given the amount of people transported every day. I have gone to using single fare tickets with “concessionary” fares- might be illegal, I don’t know… but it is cheaper!

Our village and the guys
To avoid further misunderstanding: yes, I live with two guys from Finland, not only one. Erkki is the one guy who already appeared in previous posts, a Finance student but kind of funny and makes very good spaghetti Bolognese (given the Chinese ingredients). Jussi, Logistics major, is half Indonesian/Chinese, half Finnish. He was in Indonesia for two weeks but got back last week. Unfortunately he got sick immediately (stomach messed up) - a destiny that I await with agony! He is generally classified as “cute” by all Asian girls I have so far talked to – and he is good in cleaning the floors of our apartment (that is what we did yesterday).

The village we live in is pretty small, but cozy. A lot of the life takes place in the streets with washing machines, laundry, barbecues, pets etc. on the streets. We managed to get our laundry line on the roof, so now everything hopefully dries a bit faster. People often meet at the local store- the infamous crazy guy of the village is Pierre du Bois a.k.a Peter from Britain, a white headed British gentleman always dressed in a suit and completely drunk, who has lived here with his golden retriever for over 30 years. He has some interesting stories, too…

Documented evidence

"Snapshots" of the last days- and believe me it took ages to upload them- this great page has some flaws and it drives me crazy (especially at 2:30 am when trying to get my post done; maybe not a good time for starting to write in general). Anyways from top-down: View from a mountain in Sai Kung on the Pacific; the path we were walking (pretty rocky and steep); View on HK Island from the Kowoon side after the lightshow (better than the first trial); this flower is here on every coin (have to find out what it is called); the Po Lin monastery gate; Big Buddha close up and at sunset; my crazy flatmates, Erkki (left) and Jussi: the point in this picture is (and this addition has been ex post specifically requested by Erkki) that in it we had just gotten back from Shenzhen where he had bought a "China ipod" (=fake but nice) which -surprise- is still working. This was the first test.... And I should add that Spaghetti made by Erkki has so far been the best food I have eaten here... (seriously) Last picture: Tai Po Tsai Village.

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Kung Hei Fat Choy! Happy New Year!
The holidays have ended and life is back to normal, or at least by Hong Kong standards I assume. Classes started today and I came to Uni and was taken completely by surprise by the masses of people walking through the halls and corridors. Of course it is natural- it is a University- but I didn’t have time to think about how it would be with all the students inside. It was like a second sensation of being dropped into Mongkok- finding a place that was empty for the past two weeks suddenly filled with life and people- a complete transformation- and gone was the feeling of security and familiarity in this huge and unknown place amassed piece by piece and not completely effortless during the time here. Squeezing into an elevator and surrounded by Cantonese words, which are a complete mystery still, and conversation (?), laughter, jokes, which I am not part of. Spotting out every non-Asian looking by hair color from the masses. Seeking hold, but lost -again. Have to get used to it. I know.
But it is not easy, especially since I try to confront myself directly, with everything, constantly, which is probably also not the right way to do it all the time. Maybe I see in myself first signs of resignation and rejection of all that is here; just because it gets to be a bit too much to still be manageable. Example: I had dim sum (don’t know if that is the right spelling) today for lunch- it is a Chinese dish eaten as lunch/breakfast and served in round bamboo frames with nets, where the steam when it still sits on the counter can go through to keep it warm/ripen it (anyone who knows better please correct me). The dish can be salty or sweet, usually including some meat or seafood inside a rice dough/ball or cream/bread-like sour cream. And only now, when trying it the second time, I started to wonder what exactly was inside the dough which made the whole thing taste awful. The fact that I asked he student next to me what he was getting; the question answered by “chicken feet” which in turn looked much like my dough-rolls, might have contributed to that feeling of being sick.
And the cultural shock does not end with the food but is only the best way to exemplify it. Concretizise. Another slight disappointment was the clash with further bureaucracy of the school admin. I have so far only undergrad courses registered, since this is what the exchange agreement only extends to. The first and only lecture so far was the intro to “Fixed Income Securities” – a good visiting lecturer, as confused (and jet lagged) as me, from the U.S., and a class consisting of mainly 18-year-olds who could not stop talking. Annoying, de-motivating (but am not sure what annoyed me more, the talk or fact that it was all Cantonese or just the boring content- almost as basic as the question: does anyone know what a swap is?; wow I must sound like an arrogant bitch right now). The girls are dressed like little puppets or then in black business suits – and someone tell me Kauppis has clichés! I thought smart people would not look like idiots. I hope the sarcasm shines through.
Well, no postgrad (that’s what they call the Master’s here) courses for me- don’t want to be in school for class on Saturdays- am not that eager! It would furthermore require our coordinator to ask for a “favor” which here is a big thing. Why can’t I just be classified as a M.Sc.? I know I know, I should be open minded and not too prejudiced- the courses are as much as one should believe rumors- very difficult and grades are given along “curves” meaning –since all Asians study real hard and 24/7- the requirement for a “B” will be around 90% or higher. Crazy (have I written about this already?). I just wanna pass. And I should be humble and not set too high expectations for myself or any other exchange students around me. Avoid the embarrassment factor…
Am now sitting here in front of my laptop eating my favorite Tim Tams introduced to me by an Australian friend and drinking (one of my) favorite (red) wine (s) which I discovered today –even being quite cheap- in a local supermarket. And with local supermarket you might imagine a small kiosk or convenience store –we have these too in Tai Po Tsai where we live along the main road. They sell fishballs grilled on the street, and other small things, smell like smoke and noodles and have benches in front where you can see the same old men (and sometimes one weird guy from Britain) drinking beer every night, eating and chatting. One can meet amazingly weird people here (but in a good sense weird). There is only one road through the village and all the houses are located along this road with small lanes full of pots with vegetables, flowers, with washing machines, barbecues, chairs, toys etc. between these buildings. All canalization or at least some of the drainage pipes are open, which explains the smell and the constant sound of flowing water. There are a lot of pets, mostly dogs and cats. In between the houses there are free lots with abandoned chicken “stables” and some ruins of buildings. Palm and banana trees in between. I discovered this only a couple of days back when I found a shortcut through the village to Uni. Nobody can drive inside, that’s why the reference to the “main” road, which is the only road.
Well, anyway, the big supermarkets are in the malls which can be found along every MTR station. These cater for the HK middle class- they look like Kämp, no context, free of time, and have a bit higher prices, but are still cheap for my feeling of “expensive”. I found some good food there- cheese and milk, which made my day.
The evening went in surfing on the net, writing, enjoying the evening breeze and the wind rattling the leaves of the unidentified tree outside our living room window. Going through my previous posts I realized that it is more becoming a listing of whatever happened that day- I attribute this to tiredness and partly laziness, again due to the exhaustion of my brain.* I hate lists!* But I don’t want it to be that way- only recollecting, but not commenting – or only indirectly, between the lines. Any type of writing should have a more interactive and spontaneous character. But maybe there are things I can’t even change when writing, the way I am. I guess. Becoming again the mother figure? (don’t tell me I was not warned cause I was)
Now I start thinking too much. It’s 2 a.m. Should go to bed. Does this post make any sense? No, had too much red wine.

Lessons learned: Koreans are 1 when born, i.e. you have to deduct one year from their given age to match it with our system of counting (is this a joke? At least this is what the Korean exchange students say). People in Wisconsin speak cow as their second language (Aaron from Madison). The most lucrative job currently is to become a vet for camels in Saudi- Arabia (Antonio from Georgia). Everyone has a shit story (Julie from Montréal). You’re soooo lucky! (Jerry from Hong Kong).