Monday, February 23, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
week of culture
This past week, I engaged in many cultural activities...I feel so refined saying that! Last Sunday, my roommate and I went to see a performance by the Hong Kong Ballet. It was an "All Bach" performance, consisting of 4 pieces danced to, obviously, the music of Bach. Some of the pieces had live orchestra too, which added to the experience. The 1st half of the performance was refined and more "classical" ballet style. The 1st piece, called Concerto Barocco (danced to one of Bach's concerto for 2 violins) interestingly combined traditional ballet movements with modern shapes and ideas. There was a group of dancers plus 3 lead dancers (2 women and a man). The dance went very well with the music; I was impressed how the dance followed the counterpoint of the music by staggering the motions. The next piece was a little more modern (Clear), and showcased 7 men and 1 woman dancing to some other Bach Concertos. One thing that really out in my head was that with the when there was a little turn or flourish in the music, the dancers would also do a small movement such as wobble their heads side to side or clap their hands. Here's a clip of the dance on youtube, so you can get an idea.
The second half of the performance, while still ballet, was a lot more abstract. In the description of the first dance (Steptext), the program mentioned that it makes your expectations of the dance part of the dance itself, with the house lights coming on and off throughout the performance, short bursts of music and periods of no movement at all. The dance definitely met its description! A few minutes before intermission was over, the curtain came up and a bright light was seen on only part stage. The house lights remained on and eventually a male dancer walked out from the darkness and began to dance without music. Occasionally there was a loud interuption from on of Bach's violin partitas, but only for a few seconds. Later, 2 other men and a woman dressed in red came and did little solos without music. They danced together sometimes, the music would go on and off, and the houselights and stage lights would flash on and off as well. It was a little off putting at first, but at the end of the dance I actually really liked it.
The last dance (Mein Bach) was definitely the strangest. There were a lot of dancers on stage at a time and the dance was broken up into 11 different parts. The music consisted of some Bach music, and then some weird, dissonant electronic music. At one point, a long tube of about 5 or 6 florescent lights came down to the middle of the stage and the dancers flocked around it. The whole dance seemed almost extraterrestrial.
This past thursday, I went to the Hong Kong History Museum and saw the exhibit, The Hong Kong Story. The tickets to this museum (and most others) are extremely cheap..only 10 HKD and there is a 50% off student ticket. So I payed less than $1 for this museum. This exhibit followed hong kong history for 1000s of years. It was interesting to learn about the development of Hong Kong, especially the different people who came here throughout time, Hong Kongs position in the Opium Wars, the British Rule, Japanese Occupation and ultimately the handover back to China in 1997. This museum will definitely help me appreciate Hong Kong a little more.
My week of culture was capped of by a performance of Chinese Opera (Beijing style, I think Cantonese Opera is different) at the HK Cultural Center (or shall I say, Centre?) This performance was a compilation of scenes from different operas and had subtitles. This was my first live performance of any opera, let alone a Chinese one! The singing is not western at all. The singing is very high pitched, almost nasal, for both men and women. The audience audience always applauds after the actor finishes singing one word for a very long time (in one breath presumably), while changing the tone of the note. It was pretty impressive usually. The actors were accompanied by an orchestra of traditional chinese instruments, which had a really unique sound.
Chinese opera seems much more intricate and dependent on the singers themselves to tell the story, since there is very little props and scenerey. Every movement means something, as do the colors and parts of the very elaborate costumes. All the stories performed were very historical or had some moral, and I really liked most of them. Here is a picture I got from the bows. Unfortunately, the event was almost sold out, so my seat was in the absolute last row of the huge concert hall, so I wasn't able to really see the details of the costumes, masks and facial paint. I illegally used my camera to try and zoom in on the stage when the security guard wasn't sitting right behind me! Ultimately, there is so much more I need to know about Chinese opera to really appreciate it!
So that concludes my week of culture! It really isn't over yet, since this week I am going to a concert of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. There are so many concerts and performances going on because Feb-March is the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Maybe I'll go to some other performances before festival is over!
The second half of the performance, while still ballet, was a lot more abstract. In the description of the first dance (Steptext), the program mentioned that it makes your expectations of the dance part of the dance itself, with the house lights coming on and off throughout the performance, short bursts of music and periods of no movement at all. The dance definitely met its description! A few minutes before intermission was over, the curtain came up and a bright light was seen on only part stage. The house lights remained on and eventually a male dancer walked out from the darkness and began to dance without music. Occasionally there was a loud interuption from on of Bach's violin partitas, but only for a few seconds. Later, 2 other men and a woman dressed in red came and did little solos without music. They danced together sometimes, the music would go on and off, and the houselights and stage lights would flash on and off as well. It was a little off putting at first, but at the end of the dance I actually really liked it.
The last dance (Mein Bach) was definitely the strangest. There were a lot of dancers on stage at a time and the dance was broken up into 11 different parts. The music consisted of some Bach music, and then some weird, dissonant electronic music. At one point, a long tube of about 5 or 6 florescent lights came down to the middle of the stage and the dancers flocked around it. The whole dance seemed almost extraterrestrial.
This past thursday, I went to the Hong Kong History Museum and saw the exhibit, The Hong Kong Story. The tickets to this museum (and most others) are extremely cheap..only 10 HKD and there is a 50% off student ticket. So I payed less than $1 for this museum. This exhibit followed hong kong history for 1000s of years. It was interesting to learn about the development of Hong Kong, especially the different people who came here throughout time, Hong Kongs position in the Opium Wars, the British Rule, Japanese Occupation and ultimately the handover back to China in 1997. This museum will definitely help me appreciate Hong Kong a little more.
My week of culture was capped of by a performance of Chinese Opera (Beijing style, I think Cantonese Opera is different) at the HK Cultural Center (or shall I say, Centre?) This performance was a compilation of scenes from different operas and had subtitles. This was my first live performance of any opera, let alone a Chinese one! The singing is not western at all. The singing is very high pitched, almost nasal, for both men and women. The audience audience always applauds after the actor finishes singing one word for a very long time (in one breath presumably), while changing the tone of the note. It was pretty impressive usually. The actors were accompanied by an orchestra of traditional chinese instruments, which had a really unique sound.
Chinese opera seems much more intricate and dependent on the singers themselves to tell the story, since there is very little props and scenerey. Every movement means something, as do the colors and parts of the very elaborate costumes. All the stories performed were very historical or had some moral, and I really liked most of them. Here is a picture I got from the bows. Unfortunately, the event was almost sold out, so my seat was in the absolute last row of the huge concert hall, so I wasn't able to really see the details of the costumes, masks and facial paint. I illegally used my camera to try and zoom in on the stage when the security guard wasn't sitting right behind me! Ultimately, there is so much more I need to know about Chinese opera to really appreciate it!
So that concludes my week of culture! It really isn't over yet, since this week I am going to a concert of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. There are so many concerts and performances going on because Feb-March is the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Maybe I'll go to some other performances before festival is over!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Horse Racing
So I went to my first horse race the other night. Don't worry, I'm not becoming a gambler...although you might be led to believe that after my escapades in Macau last weekend. But like Macau, I was somewhat successful in my betting. I bet on two races. I basically picked the horses by their names. The first race I bet on the 5 horse, Cool Cat. But during the race, I was sure I actually bet on horse 4, which placed. So when I went to collect on what I thought was a winning ticket, I was told I had a losing ticket. So sad.
The next race I bet on was race 6. This time I actually bet on the 4 horse to place, Super Goal Master, because I thought that was a ghetto fabulous name. This horse definitely was not a favorite to win, but it ended up getting second! So I won $26 hkd! So overall, between placing the two $10 bets, losing one and winning another, I came back up 6 whole dollars! WOW.
Horse racing was nearly as confusing as the slot machines where. There are 4 different kinds of bets that come on a little bit bigger than business card sized sheets of paper and look like scantrons. Then you check in various numbers on the card based on what race, which horse and what place, and how much you want to bet.
Everyone takes their horse racing so seriously here. They all have their newspapers and follow the odds on the TV very closely. There are off-track betting places all over the city that are always full on race days and saturdays. The race track is kind of like a little oasis in the city. All sorts of people are there; its very international. For the last races we watched, we were situated right near the start line and the finish, so we got to see the most exciting parts of the race! I definitely want to go back some time. They have all sorts of promotions--we tried to get our nails painted and fortunes told, but signed up too late since. We took the time to go to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner....we all needed some american food!
A little collage I threw together in photoshop (its a little small here, double click to see it bigger). I got some really cool pictures of the race. The one at the top is probably my favorite.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
adventure to macau
This weekend a large group went to Macau. To give you some background, like Hong Kong, Macau is part of China but has relative autonomy in government (a special administrative region or SAR). It was previously a Portuguese colony and was handed back to the Chinese in 1999. This Portuguese influence is definitely noticeable in the architecture and cuisine. But the most famous (or infamous) part of Macau is its casinos, as it was (and maybe still is, I'm not sure) the only place to legally gamble in China. Basically, it is the Las Vages of the East. Our group visited the Venetian: it is complete with Las Vegas style oppulance with marble everywhere, muraled walls and ceilings, a huge, maze-like high end shopping mall, canals with gondolas, people in costume, and even a curving escalator! I also had my first gambling experience there. Thankfully I can say my first gambling experience was successful, as I won 10 HKD on a slot machine! (a little more than a dollar). Then again, I only bet 20 HKD. Another person on the trip won 6000 HKD (about $775)! Macau also hosts the highest bungee jump off a building. So I guess this is a place for real risk takers.To get to Macau, you take a 45 minute, high speed jet-foil ferry.
The ferry is huge, goes really fast, seems to float on the water. Parts of Macau seem almost European on the surface, but still very Chinese. But signs are sometimes written in Chinese, English, and Portuguese. Walking through the streets, there were lots of shops all different types of beef jerky. To get your attention, they would snap their tongs or hit scissors on them. I tried a sample and it was actually pretty good (and I'm still alive, so that's a good sign). The sights in Macau mostly included remnants of Portuguese culture, the most interesting of which was the ruins of an old church. Culinari-ly, we went around the world! We had lunch at this great portuguese restaurant, getting things like chorizo, Macau fried rice, charcoal grilled chicken, and great salad and bread. For dinner, we were thinking italian, but ended up eating at a Nepalese place back in Hong Kong. A lot of curries and naan, but maybe more subdued and with subtler flavors than indian food.Overall, it was a decent trip. It was hard going with such a large group. We started off with 16, and then I ended up in a group of 8. But when the 16 of us were trying to find the right bus to get on (and then getting on it!) I was slightly embarrassed by the situation, wondering what the people around us thought of this group of obvious tourists. It was a little frustrating at times (mostly because I was the only one who came prepared with a guidebook), but was still fun. Next time I go somewhere, I need to either go by myself of with a much smaller group.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
adventure in central
So after my one and only class on Thursday morning, my roommate and I headed to Central (downtown Hong Kong) to get our student train passes. She had to head back to campus, but I stuck around and did a little exploring. After getting my bearings, I headed up to the Hong Kong Park, a very nice, relatively new man made park. There is a little lake with fish and koi swimming around and turtles that were sitting on rocks sunbathing. There also is an aviary, one with caged birds and one where you go inside and walk around. Lots of colorful birds flying around! I'll have to go back with my better camera an take more pictures. I also climbed to the top of a lookout tower and got cool views of the city. The park also had a greenhouse, sculpture walk, amphitheater, and playground. It was a peaceful break from the bustling city right below.
After the park, I followed a short walk that was in a guide book. Probably the highlights of the walk were seeing the government house--this is where the head of Hong Kong lives, and the cutting edge architecture of the skyscrapers.
Here are a few pictures. More to come.
Old Government House vs. New Skyscrapers
Lake in the park
After the park, I followed a short walk that was in a guide book. Probably the highlights of the walk were seeing the government house--this is where the head of Hong Kong lives, and the cutting edge architecture of the skyscrapers.
Here are a few pictures. More to come.
Old Government House vs. New Skyscrapers
Lake in the park
Saturday, February 7, 2009
first week of classes
Monday:
It seems that there is a lot less time spent in the classroom. Maybe this means more must be spent outside of class, but I will have to wait and see if that is the case. But taking 5 courses at Cornell, I would often have 2 to 4 commitments to classes each day. Here, even with 5 courses I usually only have 2 classes a day only having 3 classes once. I'm not a fan of the 6 hour breaks in between, or the classes going until nearly 6:00.
The culture of the classes also much different than at Cornell. In some classes students speak up more, but often students are talking in the background. But from what local students tell me, the students from Mainland china are in the library all the time and always mess up the curve. While the classes seem easier, it seems harder to do well in them. At least my grades don't count in my GPA! Regardless, should be a fun and interesting semester.
- 1:30-2:50 IELM 225 Operations Research II (Stochastic Processes): The professor (obviously) noticed I was an exchange student and took the time to come over and introduce herself to me. I found out later that she did her Phd at Northwestern and taught at Cornell for a few years! But right now, the class is a basic review of probability. Since I took a probability class last semester, its pretty boring right now...and just brings back bad memories of my previous statistics classes.
- 4:30-5:50 Math 201 tutorial which I didn't have this week.
- 9:00-10:20 ISOM 366 Logistics Management: Seems like it will be an interesting class. The class was smaller and the students were much more respectful. But maybe this was at 9am. There seems to be a lot of group work, which will be a good way to get to know local students, but I'm worried that I will have to play proofreader and head writer on the 10-25 single space case study we have to produce by the end of the semester.
- 4:30-5:20 IELM 225 tutorial which i didn't have either
- 1:30-2:50 Math 201 Intro to Analysis: Well, definately not the most stellar class I have had. We get lecture notes at the beginning of class and the professor basically copies them verbatum onto the white board...although he uses many different colors! This is definitely the most hardcore math class I have had in a while. It is a lot of mathematical proofs, something I have done little of in the past. Although the topics we will cover I have seen before in other classes, usually multiple times, it seems like we will be proving them rigorously. Lots of crazy symbols!
- 3:00-4:20 Lang 113 Introduction to Mandarin: This class is almost all exchange students. Today we were learning the alphabet, different vowels, basic sounds and tones. It was pretty hilarious as the teacher would say a letter and we would all repeat after her, often quite badly. There were points where I could hardly keep myself from laughing. It is hard to keep all the minute differences apart and is kind of all over the place. But I'll do my best!
- 4:30-5:50 Fina 111 Finance: I am sitting in on this class since I wanted to get an understanding in finance for my internship this summer. It is my largest class by far, there are about 600 students enrolled in 3 different lectures. The seats in these lecture halls are so comfortable. If this class were any other time than 4:30-5:50, I might fall asleep. But so far the lectures are interesting and engaging.
- 9:00-10:20 ISOM 366 again
- 1:30-4:20 Sosc 178: Economic and population growth in china. I'm not sure if I want to take this class or not. I want to try relax this semester and be able to take the time to travel and explore.
- 7-9 Orchestra rehearsal! What an experience. The orchestra is VERY small. Only about 20 people. There is barely a full string section (no bass), there are 2 clarinets, 3 flutes, a trumpet and 3 trombones (somehow!), and a percussion player. Still they are playing reputable music, parts of both carmen suites, another Bizet suite, an arranged version of Jupiter Symphony (same version I played in my first orchestra experience back in 8th grade!) and we sight read Tchaikowsky's Cappricio Italienne. Thankfully, I had my A clarinet, but my other clarinet friend did not. They conductor made a joke that for $20,000 HKD you can change the key signature from B major (5 sharps) to C major (no sharps!). The rehearsal was was quite chaotic: playing when stopped, talking, cell phones, coming in late...nothing like that would ever pass for any rehearsal I have been in in the US! Plus, everything was in cantonese...I was barely able to figure out where we were starting. But everybody obviously was just there because they loved playing music, which is why I am there too! We are playing 2 concerts jointly with Hong Kong Polytechnic university in March.
- 9:00-10:20 IELM 225 again. A lot fewer people here today than monday. Probably because it was 9 am!
- 1:30-2:50 Math 201
- 3:00-4:20 Chinese
- 4:30-5:50 Finance
It seems that there is a lot less time spent in the classroom. Maybe this means more must be spent outside of class, but I will have to wait and see if that is the case. But taking 5 courses at Cornell, I would often have 2 to 4 commitments to classes each day. Here, even with 5 courses I usually only have 2 classes a day only having 3 classes once. I'm not a fan of the 6 hour breaks in between, or the classes going until nearly 6:00.
The culture of the classes also much different than at Cornell. In some classes students speak up more, but often students are talking in the background. But from what local students tell me, the students from Mainland china are in the library all the time and always mess up the curve. While the classes seem easier, it seems harder to do well in them. At least my grades don't count in my GPA! Regardless, should be a fun and interesting semester.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Cultural Exchange!
After my last class today, I started talking with a local student who was sitting behind me. I ended up having dinner with her and her friends, all local first year students. Other students kept joining us and ultimately there were about 9 local students and me sitting at a large round table. It was really fun to talk and interact with the students. The one girl whom invited me to dinner went to high school in Scotland, so she had an interesting combination of chinese and Scottish accents in her English. I suppose I will sit with them again in the next class! I feel like the new girl in school who just made her first friends. Although I am friends with other students, they are mostly exchange students as well, these are my first real Hong Kong friends!
Monday, February 2, 2009
Campus Life
Now that I've been here about a week, I've kind of settled into campus life and culture. Monday was the first day of the semester, so the campus really came to life as all the local students moved back in or came to campus for class. It was a little overwhelming walking into the main atrium and seeing it bustling with students; I felt pretty out of place. Until then, the only other people I saw on campus were other exchange students, but now it was filled with actual students. I kind of stuck out like a sore thumb. In addition to all the people, various student groups had set up booths. If you have seen Ho Plaza, this his Ho Plaza on drugs. Students build vary intricate booths and props, 15 to 20 of them are there, all dressed in uniform and they swarm you like nothing you have seen at Cornell offering fliers, canned coffee and fishballs.
One group was the new Cabinet for the dorm I live in. They had built an army tank (I had seen them working on it the past week but had no idea what was going on) and had about 20 students dressed up in green army uniforms (complete with helmets, green rain boots and plastic machine guns) marching around the atrium in formation and handing out fliers and paper with the cabinet's name on it. It was a little scary and at first I thought it was some sort of anti-US demonstration. Eventually I got up the courage to ask one of the students what was going on and he explained that there is a strong house affiliation and culture at HKUST and they were trying get recognized by the student body...or something like that, I couldn't exactly understand him. But anyway, it is easy to tell the students are very into the houses they live in and was quite a sight!
I had noticed changes in the dorm though, kind of a changing of the guard from the old cabinet to the new one. On each door, they have a sign with the name of the cabinet. But sometime sunday night, it changed from "Visitory" to "Fourster". They also changed signs around the dorm, including this funny one in each bathroom stall. I'm not sure if the translation is literal, or just meant to be off.
Here are some pictures of my dorm. It is actually a decent size for a double (maybe since the bed is slightly narrower than a real twin bed), but the furniture doesn't move which limits feng shui creativity! There is a triple across the hall which seems awful, as it is exactly the same size as my room, but with 3 people in it in bunk beds. I think they may even have a 4th person living in the room too. My roommate is another exchange student, which is nice and we get along great, but then I'm kind of missing part of the cultural immersion I was looking for. But talking to our neighbor as she moved back in for the semester, students seem to have the same room all three years they are here, so they really accumulate a lot of stuff! My room is so bare...its kind of depressing compared to the regular students' rooms.
From what I've tried so far, the dining halls aren't awful. There are basically 3 canteens, as they call them here. They are kind of confusing to use at first and each has its own system and because of the limited english, I am wary of trying to venture into new ones because I know how to "work" the one I keep going too. Some have western style food (I actually had a good turkey sandwich at one) but I have mostly been eating Chinese food so far. I've gotten really good at using chopsticks, especially with rice (a very important skill to have)!
One group was the new Cabinet for the dorm I live in. They had built an army tank (I had seen them working on it the past week but had no idea what was going on) and had about 20 students dressed up in green army uniforms (complete with helmets, green rain boots and plastic machine guns) marching around the atrium in formation and handing out fliers and paper with the cabinet's name on it. It was a little scary and at first I thought it was some sort of anti-US demonstration. Eventually I got up the courage to ask one of the students what was going on and he explained that there is a strong house affiliation and culture at HKUST and they were trying get recognized by the student body...or something like that, I couldn't exactly understand him. But anyway, it is easy to tell the students are very into the houses they live in and was quite a sight!
I had noticed changes in the dorm though, kind of a changing of the guard from the old cabinet to the new one. On each door, they have a sign with the name of the cabinet. But sometime sunday night, it changed from "Visitory" to "Fourster". They also changed signs around the dorm, including this funny one in each bathroom stall. I'm not sure if the translation is literal, or just meant to be off.
Here are some pictures of my dorm. It is actually a decent size for a double (maybe since the bed is slightly narrower than a real twin bed), but the furniture doesn't move which limits feng shui creativity! There is a triple across the hall which seems awful, as it is exactly the same size as my room, but with 3 people in it in bunk beds. I think they may even have a 4th person living in the room too. My roommate is another exchange student, which is nice and we get along great, but then I'm kind of missing part of the cultural immersion I was looking for. But talking to our neighbor as she moved back in for the semester, students seem to have the same room all three years they are here, so they really accumulate a lot of stuff! My room is so bare...its kind of depressing compared to the regular students' rooms.
From what I've tried so far, the dining halls aren't awful. There are basically 3 canteens, as they call them here. They are kind of confusing to use at first and each has its own system and because of the limited english, I am wary of trying to venture into new ones because I know how to "work" the one I keep going too. Some have western style food (I actually had a good turkey sandwich at one) but I have mostly been eating Chinese food so far. I've gotten really good at using chopsticks, especially with rice (a very important skill to have)!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)