The last week has been an extremely intense experience. Now I think I have already told you about crazy my hallmates are. They chant, run around like idiots and never sleep (at night anyway) all without any alcohol in sight. Anyway now that university has started I thorght that this place might settle down a little. I was very wrong. Now that hall orientation has finished its time for floor orientation! This is just a smaller form of orientation where me (the poor little Australian) and the other internationals (ther are two Americans living in the room next to me) are require to take part in.
Now the idea of the floor orientation is to allow you to get to know the 16 or so 'freshmen' (first time residents of the hall) living at my end of the floor (its the 8th floor by the way) and the 20 or so 'currents' who live down the other end. Sounds all warm and sweet doesn't it. Wrong. Instead it is an excuse to for the currents to inflict extreme amounts of physical and pyschological damage on the freshmen as they can in five nights.
The first night was an introduction session. Basically this involved all the currents standing together in one line and telling us their names (English and Chinese), major, year and room number...all in Cantonese. To begin with this didn't really bother me as I wasn't really interested in knowing all their names anyway (I am only here for one semester after all) and I barely ever talk to some of them. That was until we got told to leave the room and come back one by one and demonstrate that we knew all of their name and details. Of course the Americans and I had no chance and they eventually gave up on us after three or four attempts. They were not no nice on the local freshmen though with some taking over two hours to finally remember everyone. After this we were summoned back to learn the floor creed and the floor song which we proceded to sing and chant until we had learned it off by heart. (I will post them up another day) The whole experience was quite scary actually, probably the closest I have ever been to being part of a cult or a fraternity. Anyway we were finally dismissed at about 2.30am which was difficult as I had to be at university at 9.30 the next day.
The second night was not so bad. This was our 'sport night' so we walked down the road to the nearby public garden and played soccer for about three hours on a concrete half-size field. It was good fun as it was really hard to score since the goals were so small. Therefore the only way to get the ball through was to kick it as hard as you could at the goalkeeper himself and hope that he moved out of the way. We finished at around 9.00 leading me to hope that it would be an early night. Of course there another task to be done. The freshmen were to cook the currents dinner and they wanted hotpot! We were given $1000 and told to borrow any additional utentials we might need from other floors. Having hotpot was actually good fun. What is basically involves is getting a bunch of 40L pots of boiling water filled with either curry powder or some other spice and cooking yourself peices of vegetables, strips of beef (very expensive) and fish balls. It was very hard to get a look in for the first few minutes as the guys pounced on this table of food like a bunch of gorillas having a feeding frenzy. The food was delicious but perhaps not very hygenic. Jason, one of the Americans on my floor came down with food poisoning the next day.
We got a a little reprieve on the third night as it was our hall high table dinner. This is a monthly event where everyine dresses up and has a formal dinner together complete with boring speeches (even more so since it was in Cantonese) and dignitory procession etc. At least I got to bed at a reasonable hour.
The following night we had a joint floor event with the girls from the fifth floor. This involved us breaking into groups beforehand and cooking up a dish for everone to share later on. Unfortunantely no-one here can cook anything that involves more then boiling water so all we got was a bunch of dishes that was a variation of either fish balls or noodles. Somebody had
even made a fruit salad (from a can I bet!) for dessert with cut up sausages in it! A dessert with meat in it! Now I have seen everything. The night finished however with a massive water fight which was definitely the highlight of the week.
The next night was 'fitness' or might I say torture. First of all we divided up into groups of about six or seven (at the least the currents had to take part as well) where between us we had to do 700 push-ups, 700 sit-ups and 400 "crazy jacks" (where you do a push up, leep to your feet and jump as high as you can and repeat). After this we were made to run from the hall to Ocean Park which is a theme park about 10-15km away. Needless to say this was the biggest distance I had ever run continuously in my life. After we got there (at about midnight), each of us (the freshmen) was given $1 (about 17c), made to hand in the our room keys and additional cash and told to find our own way home. I think the idea was that we should walk (which would have taken two hours) or hitchhike. The others however decided to catch a taxi and borrow money of other people in the hall when they got back. When the currents found out about this however thay became extrmemly angry and started yelling at us (which meant nothing to me since I couldn't understand what they were saying). Apparently what we did wasn't in the 'sprit of the activity' and as punishment they made us run to Kennedy Town and back (about 4-5km down the hill and then back up it). I have never felt so sore in my life.
On the final night is internationals got a reprieve. It was MO night or 'mass orientation' which ran from 7pm that night to almost 6am the next morning. Basically each freshmen was required to stand up for an hour and be interrorgated by the others on things ranging from dietary habits to their relationship with their roommate etc. As the entire session was conducted in Cantonese there was no point in us attending so we basically kept a low profile that night out of sympathy for your fellow floormates.
Some of you may be asking why I put up with all of this, especially some of the harder activities such as the running. As an international student I was actually not obliged to take part in any hall activity if I didn't want to. I have been told however that the whole hall culture thing is something unique to Hong Kong. Therefore I am glad that I experienced it even though it hasn't always been pleasant. Going on exchange is all about new experiences and this is what this was.
Stay safe everyone!
even made a fruit salad (from a can I bet!) for dessert with cut up sausages in it! A dessert with meat in it! Now I have seen everything. The night finished however with a massive water fight which was definitely the highlight of the week.
I'm sorry I have been a little lazy with this blog over the last few days. I have been very busy. A lot has happended not the least being the fact that university has finally returned!! It's been a very nice few months but it is time I got the brain into gear and stop acting like I am on holidays.
Anyway Macau is currently in the process of becoming the gaming capital of the Orient and the entire territory is a construction site. It is also filled with reminents of its colonial past with lovely Portuguese buildings, tiled streets and beautiful churches. However the people as a whole are generally less wealthy then their Hong Kong neighbours and barely anyone speaks English (all the street signs are still in Portuguese). The weather was wonderful and it was nowhere as 
polluted as HK. We couldn't get into any of the casinos however as we were to underdressed. Probably the best cost-saving decision I made!
we rented a few bikes for the day and explored temples, beaches and a beachside cave which was supposedly where pirates who once operated from the island hid their treasure.
Pollution in Hong Kong is becoming a very big problem. At least it's not as bad at night. Believe it or not, during the day when this picture was taken, you could barely see across the harbour through the smog.
I don't think I have mentioned the most bizarre aspect of hall life. At the moment each hall is undertaking something called a O-Camp which I guess has something to do with orientation. Basically all it involves is the local students running around the city like crazy doing certain tasks and spending the rest of the day doing warcries and chants. They only sleep for around two hours a day. Hell of a way to get to know each other better.
