Thursday, 9 September 2010

University life chapter 1: the beginning adjustment period

It's been a great long while since I blogged anything, so let's get up to date on what I've been up to.

I've chosen to go to HKUST, because of its relative seclusion, a rather academic feel, as well as its optimum distance from home (2 hours away, fairly direct transportation), so as to achieve balance between family life, academic life and social life. I felt it was impossible to do so if I studied abroad.

I moved in on the 30th August, soon after the halls were open to local freshmen moving in. It was pretty chaotic then, though everyone was pretty friendly and welcoming. I was told by year 2s and 3s that hall 3 is known for its warm atmosphere... probably because this hall has an interesting location... it is the furthest from the academic buildings and library.
The inhabitants of this hall hate rain. It stops us from going home without getting rather soaked. As I am writing this, rain is pouring from the clouds above and fog has engulfed the place. Thunder booms from left and right with the loud ssshhh of rain.

People here get together in a lot of hall culture. Fast food is the norm, as are a host of other unhealthy habits, such as the development of habits such as sleeping very late and then waking up very late. I feel I am just at another stage of life whenever that happens. Sometimes I think I am too young for that, and sometimes I feel I am too mature for that.

Thankfully, there is a lot of diversity in this hall, so we just live. At least for now. Floor committees are to be formed tomorrow. I guess that would bring us all together too.

My roommate is pretty awesome. He like to sleep very late. He's decided to bring in some coffee to cope with the late-nighters-for-random-reasons. He loves playing music in the room, which seems to help me relax and sleep.
He's pretty thoughtful. He gave me a blanket when he saw I wasn't in my sleeping bag at night. He wanted to share bananas because they go bad pretty fast and it wasn't easy to finish them fast enough.

3 comments:

Samuel Poon said...

It's nice to know that you're getting along well with your hall and roommate.

As for me, I don't even know where I'm going; I called the UCL accommodation office today and they told me they sent the rejection letter by mail 2 days ago (yeah by snail mail in the 21st Century). Now I'm applying to University of London Intercollegiate Halls (Waitlist), hoping that I'll get into a hall somehow.

It'll be really annoying if I can't get into a hall; getting private market accommodation is really going to complicate things. I can only send in the application of the intercollegiate halls during a specific time period, so I have to email and fax my stuff tomorrow.

There's also thunder and lightning over here as I type. Quite spectacular and loud, and fortunately I wasn't in the rain. My sister's guinea pig doesn't seem scared.

Eugene said...

I am trying pretty hard to find activities right now that are truly useful.

Working out with Atsushi and my room-mate is very pleasant.

I thought the games society was pretty nice, except they didn't even organize a counter. Neither did the Bridge club (which I did find out exists, but in maximal seclusion)

I believe that while the games society is very "hea", they are ever curious for more games to play, which is great because that means more random stuff to investigate from an algorithmic perspective.

All in all, fun and games.

Eugene said...

From a psychological perspective, I see the competitive board game atmosphere at Games society can sometimes be a barrier to building mutual understanding, because relationships are carefully held at arms length away.