still trekking!

I still don't have internet at Auntie's and it may be difficult for me to get a subscription since I'm only here for four months (most require a yearly contract). Crossing my fingers.

I think I walked about three miles today while carrying a ton of stuff in my backpack, including laptop.

Let's just say that opening a bank account in Hong Kong can be difficult, especially since they want proof of residence and you just moved in um, yesterday. But I now have a Hong Kong bank account (good!) but it'll take a week for me to get my ATM and credit card (not so great).

In other news, I'm going to be a lot happier when:

1. All the paperwork I need to do (which is... quite a bit) gets done.

2. I start recognizing how to get back to Auntie's apartment building and know my (general) way around the city. I'm starting to recognize random landmarks, but most of them are rather unhelpful. ("Oh, that parking garage! I've walked past that before on the way to Yi-poh's apartment! ... I don't know if I'm supposed to turn right or left. Oh, damn.")

3. I stop feeling so anxious about everything. I'm excited and Hong Kong is exhilarating, no doubt about it, but it's also very overwhelming.

Chinese characters on signs that I can barely read! Not knowing how to get back to Auntie's apartment alone (see item above) from my yi-poh's apartment! Being paranoid that people are out to get me! Not knowing anyone else in the city aside from relatives! I'm going to blame part of this on jet-lag but yeah.

I swear I'm not usually this crazy anxious but the entire fiasco with HKU housing has changed me from a Type B to a Type A. Let's hope this change is temporary because I am not equipped to deal with this much stress and I don't want to think that I'm making the biggest mistake of my life by deciding to study abroad in a foreign city (that I've dreamed of visiting since I was three) on the opposite of the globe far away. Apparently one way to stress me out is to drop me off in a foreign country where I can barely speak one of the co-official languages (although the said language is spoken by the vast majority of the population), who knew?

4. My Cantonese and Mandarin improve. I keep speaking terrible, terrible Chinglish because I'll know certain words in Canto but not in Mandarin, and then there are just some words we've never covered in Chinese class so I end up using English with accompanying hand gestures that are probably Italian or something, because they're definitely not American. Oy.

5. When my sleep schedule goes back to normal. I am so, so tired at the most random hours and awake and alert when most people are in stage three or four of their REM cycle. 

6. When classes start and I start getting into a routine. Not having a routine stresses me out since I feel like I'm inconveniencing my relatives and my landlord (see item two again) and bothering them by having them accompany me to the open a bank account, etc. Part of this is also influenced by number three.

7. When (and boy, I hope this is a 'when' and not a 'if') I make friends. While I lucked out in terms of living arrangements despite HKU not having housing for me, living off-campus is going to be somewhat isolating and I would be miserable if I don't make any friends for the next four months. I'm friendly! I'm nice! I tell jokes and sometimes they're actually funny.  I'm going to be wandering around with what is equivalent to a neon 'PLEASE BE MY FRIEND' sign floating above my head during foreign students orientation and the first couple weeks of classes.