I woke up the morning of the 16th of August knowing the day had finally arrived when I would depart for Hong Kong, all nerves. All the preparations made: airplane flights, quarantine hotel arrangements, visa, PCR test result back negative…
My first flight was out of Portland on Air Canada, to Vancouver. I sat one row back from the front of the plane, with no one sitting next to me, enjoying the view out the window and picking up on a few words in French every so often as the flight attendants made announcements in English and French, and amazed by the numerous small islands that passed beneath us.
My second flight required me to check all my documents again at the gate—a three-day quarantine hotel reservation, visa, negative PCR test result (the sample taken within 48 hours of the time my flight flying into Hong Kong departed), vaccination record. And then to boarding. When I got on the plane, a calming music was playing over the speakers, which made the moment feel all the more bittersweet. In a rush, I was seized by a quote from Sam in The Fellowship of the Ring, Sam stopping behind Frodo in the wheat field at the beginning of their journey, telling him that if he took one more step, he would be farther from home than he had ever been before. Once my plane arrived at its destination, that would be the case for me. The wheat waved before my eyes as I stepped forward to the next cabin.
11 hours later, I arrived in Korea, and around 5 hours after that, at midnight, I arrived in Hong Kong. The airport was emptier than I had ever seen one, and the path they had constructed for us to get our required PCR and RAT (rapid antigen test) reminded me of the line to get on a ride at an amusement park, but after everyone has left for the day. We presented our QR codes (we had to fill out a Health Declaration form before arrival, with information on vaccination status, quarantine hotel booking, plans after arriving in Hong Kong, etc., and the QR codes held the information from the Declaration) and got a test kit and a lanyard with a code on it, got the tests, left them in a bin (they used the numbers/code on the side to connect each of us with our test results), got on a tram to somewhere else in the airport, through more checkpoints for documents, to the baggage claim, and then into a line for a bus to send us to our designated quarantine hotels.
I was dropped off at my hotel around 2 am, after nearly 24 full hours of travel. I checked in at the desk, signed agreements, received a stack of papers, then got handed a bag of my dinner, got put in an elevator, and sent to my floor with my luggage.
Over the following days, I had to take a RAT every day, submit a picture and the result to an online program and leave the test outside my room, and take my temperature once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and record if I was feeling any Covid symptoms.
And then, on the 20th of August, I checked out and boarded an Uber for campus. I had to check in with a provisionary ID card and have my temperature checked (temperatures are checked at every entrance to campus, as well as to the residence halls and cafeterias). This was my first real exposure to the heat (around 90 degrees Fahrenheit and humid), as the hotel had been at an unchangeable 68 degrees AC temperature, and I was hauling around two suitcases and a backpack. I got my student ID card, room key, key to the unit box, some disposable masks, and a package of 7 RAT tests (I was required to take a RAT test for every day until the 10th day after arrival).
The way dorms are set up at HKBU is entirely different than at Linfield: there are two towers, each 20 floors tall, and my dorm is on the 17th floor. The dorm itself looks like a typical dorm room, albeit arranged somewhat differently than the other dorm rooms I’ve lived in before. There’s a closet with some drawers and a rod for hanging clothes, drawers under the bed, a desk with two book shelves above it, and several drawers underneath it, as well as a fridge and freezer.
Rather than a whole floor sharing a bathroom, in the arrangement here, two dorm rooms (both doubles) share a bathroom—two sinks, one toilet, and one shower. There’s also a rod for hanging clothes to dry spanning the ceiling of the dorm room, and a station for hot and chilled water in the lounge on my floor, which is extremely convenient.
Students pay for AC and laundry with what’s called an Octopus card, which holds money. There’s a machine connected to the AC unit, and a separate one for the washers and dryers, by which to pay with the Octopus.
On this first day, I started by walking the 15 minutes to Lok Fu, a mall nearby, with someone else on my floor, sweat pouring down my face (not an exaggeration) because of the humidity. And for an awakening to the different weather patterns in Hong Kong, just before reaching the mall, it went from clear skies to pouring, though the rain was welcome in the heat.
Class doesn’t start until the 5th of September, so I have the next 16 days to explore Hong Kong and get used to living on campus, but those are stories for another day.
Until next time!
Kelsi