Everything new, everything good
Wow, the days have really blown by here in Hong Kong. I feel like I just started this trip yesterday, but I’m already at the halfway point. With five straight days of intense classes, this laid back weekend has been much appreciated.
The daily routine
While every day has been different here in Hong Kong, there are some commonalities to each day of the previous week. We start in a classroom at 9:00 a.m. with a few PowerPoint lectures from various people. My personal favorite was one last week when we heard about the history of Hong Kong from Mr. Jason Wordie.
After the daily lectures in the morning, we typically take a field trip or two in the afternoon. We’ve visited a power generating station, an ecopark, a huge landfill, museums and a marine lab. Two of these trips stuck out to me in particular.
First of all, our trip to the Swire Institute for Marine Science on the south coast of Hong Kong Island was a fascinating trip where we learned about undergraduates and graduates who work solely on experiments that test the resilience and vulnerability of small marine organisms to changing environmental conditions such as ocean acidification and rising temperature.
Another fascinating trip was our visit to the West New Territories (WENT) landfill. It wasn’t nearly as scenic as the marine lab, but it had some power images. Landfills are expected to completely fill up by 2020 if the city of Hong Kong doesn’t extend them, so the issue is very urgent.
Group work
Our most important assignment is a poster session that we’ll be giving to numerous state officials and academics. In fact, the chief executive of Hong Kong (basically the governor of Hong Kong) will be in attendance. Our task is to create two posters, one with an explanation of a problem and one with a detailed, implementable solution, to an energy problem in Hong Kong. While we’re far from ready for our eventual presentation, we have defined our problem statement as, “Hong Kong’s high energy demand threatens its energy security.” With a good amount of research this weekend, I’m confident that we’ll be ready for our presentation on Friday.
Learning to love a new city
For the most part, we’ve explored the area around Central, the main business district, which has numerous restaurants, markets and overall nightlife. After classes, which go until 6:00 p.m., most of us are pretty exhausted so we usually stay in and either study or go to sleep. However, the adventurous students go into town on the MTR and visit local restaurants. I’ve fallen in love with barbecue pork buns and the bamboo rice dumplings that are common cuisine in eastern Asia. I’m going to miss the food when I leave.
With a couple of intense days ahead, I’m excited to embrace the challenge and get the most out of this experience. I’ll be sure to check back during the craziness that will be this next week.
