Hong Kong current time: 3:52 PM
I have a lot to talk about, it having been a very eventful few days since my last post-of-substance.
Let's get started.
Finals are finally over, an obvious fact, given that Friday was the last day of finals week and I'm home in Hong Kong already. I'm already blocking them out of my mind and overlooking just how much pain they really caused. Thus I can be considering taking a just-as-heavy, if not heavier, workload next quarter. I swear, I do this to myself. That said, I don't think that any of my friends would let me do such a thing. To paraphrase, friends don't let friends commit academic suicide twice. I know some of my grades are out but I can't seem to access any of them on Axess being that my connection seems to be too slow to make it through the weblogin screen. Oh the joys of a 14Kps modem.
The flight home was interesting. We sat on the plane for almost two hours after boarding while the crew worked on a "computer issue". After a few reboots, (let me tell you, the rebooting of an entire 747 is a really funny thing, all the lights, the cooling and just about everything goes out), numerous wisecracks about Microsoft, and some rather poorly translated apologies in numerous languages, the plane started lurching forward. I promptly fell asleep. Soon, to wake up again to: "Barbeque chicken and rice or Beef and mashed potatos" (Translation: rubbery brown stuff and grainy white stuff or stringy brown stuff and mushy white stuff). I took the former and once I was convinced that it was actually edible, scarfed it down, hunger supressing any gag reflex that might usually have happened. I survive Lag food, I'm sure I can survive this too. (That would be a hit T-shirt: I survived Lag food.)
Hong Kong is amazingly efficient. From the time the plane hit the ground to the time I was sitting at home could have been no more than 40 minutes. From the plane, we were scooted along to a mini-tram-like thing, and rushed over to the main terminal. Immigration was a breeze, a single card swipe and you're in, no passport needed. Hong Kong is coming out with a smart ID card that will store everything and allow access to libraries and various other government services. From there it's a few quick steps to the baggage claim, where there are people who's entire job is to hand you carts from a rack so that you don't have to lug around a heavy suitcase looking for one. The cart can be taken striaght to the door of the train. Another swipe of a card and you've paid for the train ride home. Even at the train station, there are people who are paid simply to hand you a luggage cart to make your life just that much easier.
However, I suppose the first thing I noticed about Hong Kong is that it's still a city gripped by the ghost of the SARS epidemic. As you walk through immigration, they have the infrared temperature checks. About one person out of every ten is still walking around with a mask. Elevator buttons at home are covered with a sheet of plastic and marked "Sanitized every hour". Almost all buildings have a "Sterilization station" where you can get rinse-less hand sanitizer and spray disinfectant. There's a bottle of disinfectant by every piece of gym equiptment and as you enter they hand you a towel that's been sterilized for you. Busses and many rooms also have air purifiers going, filtering out any potentially airborn bacteria. It's pretty frightening. I'm glad I didn't have to live through it.
More blogging to come.
--C.