My life is centered around food. I just love eating so, so much. What I probably like most about going somewhere new is trying all the local food. Luckily, there is a lot of food in Hong Kong. The second day here I had street food and I think it was the best thing I've eaten here so far.

Even things as universal as McDonald's are at least slightly different. Yes, they have burgers and fries, but did you know that corn is an option at some Asian McDonalds? When I was in Shanghai, the McCafe part of the restaurant was a big thing -- very fancy. They sold macarons (strawberry, green tea, lemon, and chocolate flavors). As for their ice cream... Honestly, I can't remember if they had vanilla and/or chocolate because those flavors were so normal -- I was more interested in the things that I couldn't find in the US. Chinese McDonald's had new ice cream flavors like cherry blossom, which was pretty interesting. The ice cream was a really pretty shade of pink. After I left Shanghai, I found out that they introduced even more ice cream flavors: black sesame and pudding. (Separately, of course.) I was so envious of my friends who got to try the ice cream -- they said it was really good. Here in Hong Kong, as of right now, the featured flavor of ice cream is green tea (or matcha). My friends and I shared a green tea McFlurry with light, crisp Oreo wafers on top. So, so good. I plan on trying every single green tea-flavored thing on the list.

I encourage people to try something new when they go to another country! This doesn't just apply to desserts, but to food as well. For example, lots of people are intimidated by organ meats, so they avoid them. My way of thinking is "it's not very often that you get this, so why not try it?" It could possibly be your one-in-a-lifetime chance. You may not like the taste or the texture, but at least you have an interesting story to tell -- and if you do end up liking it, then that's still a story to tell!
A unique thing that Hong Kong diners do at restaurants is use hot water to rinse their plates, bowls, cup, and utensils. Of course everything is already washed, but, according to my Hong Kong friend, having the customer (or diner) rinse their own dinnerware gives them peace of mind. A pitcher of hot (usually steaming) water is put on the Lazy Susan and people take turns with the pitcher. Rinsing your dishes is pretty simple -- you pour the hot water into the bowl and swirl the water around the bowl (be sure to not spill any water). Dump the hot water into the empty bowl on the Lazy Susan, provided especially to hold the (presumably) now-dirty water. Repeat with other dinnerware. Simple enough, right? My mistake the one of the first times I ate out was that I poured tea for everyone, then used the hot water (for rinsing) to refill the teapot... Oops.

I'm writing this first blog post in my dorm room, with a mug of tea by my side and a jar of peanut butter between me and my laptop. I'm currently stress eating peanut butter directly from the jar (try it, it helps) because I have yet to finish two Drexel classes.

Today is Tuesday, September 1st, 2015. I arrived here in Hong Kong last Monday, August 24th. The 24th was the first day of orientation week at the City University of Hong Kong, which would have been great if I could have finished all of my Drexel classes by then. I actually had to leave Drexel's summer term early -- the 24th was the first day of week 10. Right now is finals week at Drexel. I actually finished three out of my five classes (one was accelerated, so it only lasted weeks 1-5, and I took two finals early). One of my remaining classes is online, and I finished the major part of the final project this morning. However, for my other class... I don't even know when the final is because the professor doesn't even know. Ugh. (Thus, stress-eating.)

Anyway, I've spent a lot of time stress-not-studying this week. I just want to get the final over with so I can focus on things here in Hong Kong. Classes just started -- I've heard generally good reviews from the other exchange students I'm friends with -- but I actually haven't had a single class yet! My first class of the week is tomorrow (Wednesday) at 5 PM. Something that makes the week even better is that we have this Thursday off. According to a sign posted on the Student Residence Office, the 3rd of September is the 70th anniversary day of the "victory of the Chinese people's war of resistance against Japanese aggression," so that's why we have a holiday.

Because I just got here, I'm still getting used to the campus (the academic buildings are ridiculously confusing). The dorms are pretty nice, though, compared to Chinese dorms. My last co-op I was in Shanghai, China, and I got to get a peek at the dorms (luckily, I did not stay in the student dorms), which were less than ideal. There were 6 people crammed into one room which was approximately the size of my room here. Showering facilities were in another building, which meant, yes, in the winter, you had to run to another building to bathe. I was initially nervous to find out living conditions were here in Hong Kong.

There are 11 residential halls here at CityU. I'm living in hall 5. The rooms are essentially suites; you have two people to a room and one full bathroom between two rooms (literally -- you can access the adjacent bedroom via the connecting bathroom). There is a common area on each floor which is a living room and a kitchen mixed together.

What is different about the dorm is that people do not get wifi in their rooms, which was devastating to find out. You have to bring your own ethernet cable, which is crazy. Luckily, there is wifi like basically everywhere else on campus.

Another thing that is different is the fact that people have to pay for air conditioning in their dorm room. The other day it was 86 degrees with 70% humidity. According to my weather app, it was supposed to feel like 95 degrees (it certainly did). So yes, it is very hot here in Hong Kong. This was done in an effort to heighten awareness of our impact on the environment, I think. It certainly has for me, at least. At night I would consider leaving the windows open to let some of the (possibly cool) night air in rather than turn the AC on... Though honestly, I'm a really frugal person. The AC actually isn't that expensive (10 HKD [not even $2 USD] could probably last you two days if you only turned it on when you absolutely needed to), but since I have a higher tolerance for heat, I was fine keeping it off most of the time. Right now we're entering the fall season, which I've read was probably one of the nicer times of the year to be in Hong Kong due to the low humidity and cooler weather.