After 13 hours of movies, books, and questionable airplane food, we are descending to Hong Kong. Never would I think that Kent State would allow me the opportunity to go to Asia and attend the Hong Kong Polytechnic University with hundreds of other exchange students around the world. They come not only from Europe and the US, but Africa, Australia, and South America. Name a country and it’s represented here. Out of the countless lessons I have learned in Hong Kong thus far, being accepting and curious of other cultures and views is one of the greatest. If you can’t accept that things will be very different, you will be confused 24/7 , and you won’t have Chipotle or Target for 4-5 months, this is not the program for you. Once you get past the chaos of not knowing where you are, what is going on, and what you are doing, you see the beauty in what you are experiencing.
Before I came to Hong Kong, I studied in New York City. I loved New York; I had to force myself to leave. Between my internship, the people I met, and the experiences I had, I could never leave easily. The first thing I learned in going to Hong Kong from New York was there are similarities in ever city no matter what country you are in, and for every time you are lost or confused 15 other people in your radius are in the same boat. New York taught me to be lost and find my way without looking like a child searching for their mother in a grocery store, how to hail a taxi, and that public transportation and Google maps is your best friend.
Armed with my small amount of city knowledge and street smarts taught to me by my mother and countless other vacations we have taken together, I got off the plane and set off on my first challenge: making it to my dorm.
My first day was such a blur. I couldn't stop looking around in amazement at everything, and how different it all was. I was so excited to be in such a backwards place from what I have lived in for the past 20 years of my life. From time to time, I find myself missing home, and becoming increasingly frustrated that I can’t understand things, or how different things are from home, but that is why we study abroad. We go with intentions of learning a new culture, and getting outside our comfort zones, and then go into culture shock when we learn how different it really is. Living in Hong Kong was the first experience when I really learned. Up until now in school I have been memorizing and going through the motions. The dots were there; all I had to do was connect them. Hong Kong is the angry parent that shoves you out on the street with the clothes on your back because you’ve been living on their couch for 30+ years and you need to get your life together. Everyone needs an experience like this.
The beauty of Hong Kong is it is ‘China’s world city’, meaning, they have influences from all over world packed into one (massive) metropolitan area. If you are looking for an American resort-like area, Discovery bay is your place to relax and have a sense of home when you're 7,000+ miles away from it. When you're looking for a small beach town vibe similar to Cinque de Terre in Italy, Lamma Island is your go to on the weekends. If you love the cramped and crowded streets of Times Square in Manhattan, Causeway Bay is all you my friend.
While in Hong Kong (when you're not exploring temples, islands, and countless cultural festivals) you have the opportunity to travel Asia, which I HIGHLY recommend. In my first month of being in Hong Kong I traveled to Tokyo, Japan with some girls I met and loved every second of it. Even though Japan and Hong Kong are part of the same country, they are vastly different. Being able to go to so many different countries that I never could’ve imagined visiting is amazing. Sure the classes are cool, and meeting people from all over is fun, but the fact that you have a whole different world to discover within your reach is the best part.
