February 3rd: Reflections and Ramblings

Day 18, 7:30PM: As I stand at my window staring at the fish pond behind my dorm, I can’t help but contemplate life itself. Thoughts swirl in my mind like a whirlpool of thousands of separate thoughts, each of which being pondered in great detail. I can’t help but analyze the lighting patterns of the leaves on the water, the way the light diffuses in the water, picturing the angle of the incoming lift and the resultant vectors of the photons that seem to make the landscape dance before my eyes. Everywhere I look I don’t simply see trees and concrete, but the possibilities that exist before my eyes.

I think to myself “Ah! It’s Sunday! Hmm, what do I do now?” This was my first day with truly nothing on my agenda. So what do I do? Nothing really.

The most interesting thing to happen was when I was talking to Grady (a good friend of mine at USC) and he went off to dinner. I was slightly annoyed at the fact dinner took him two and a half hours and I had to wait for him to get back before we could play Starcraft, but when he returned he asked me an interesting question, “What is it to be human?” On the surface it seems deceptively simple, if you look like a person and are physiologically like us then you’re human. End of story, right? Not really. This question arose when Grady was talking with Henry at dinner and the subject of upgrading humans came up. Now, I’m a huge fan of technology and believe it has the power to transform our lives in ways we can’t even imagine. If someone offered to implant a device in me that would allow me to be stronger or faster, I would probably take them up on it. But at what point does upgrading people no longer make them human? If you change someone’s DNA to make them smarter, are they still human, or something else?

At the beginning of our conversation I thought I knew the answer to this question, but the more we talked the more I realized that it is a very difficult issue, and will only grow more complex as technology advances. For example, we like to think of ourselves as rational beings. Yeah right. Nothing could be farther than the truth – we are certainly not rational. Those pesky things called emotions get in the way of us making rational decisions based on the information available to us. So, if you could tone down a person’s emotions or eliminate them completely, one could argue that it would produce a better human. On the other hand, without emotions, is it still human? I found this idea to be particularly intriguing because I am certainly not an emotional person; I do not like emotions because they interfere with logical and rational thinking. In fact, most of what I do is carefully calculated and I suppress emotions because they are often an annoying hindrance. By doing so I can look at situations clearly and not have my judgment clouded. It’s not a perfect solution by any stretch of the imagination, but I like control. So, although I personally am not a very emotional person, I’m still human.

So is a person without emotion human? I think not. Experiencing and dealing with emotions are part of the human condition. One of my favorite quotes of all time is a quote from none other than Star Trek Nemesis in one of the deleted scenes where Picard is talking to Data about the human condition and says to him “To be human is to aspire to be more than you are.” This is one of my favorite quotes of all time because it speaks to our innate desire to make ourselves better and improve our lives. Anyone who does not aspire to better themselves isn’t living out their life to their fullest potential. This single quote shaped my life a great deal and is one of a small handful that I try to live my life by. No matter what I do or accomplish, I always strive to be better than I currently am and to improve myself.

Later that night I was sitting at my desk when I happened to pull up the ‘my pictures’ document on my computer by accident. I was about to close the window when something inside me decided to look through the folder. I ended up looking at all the pictures I took during one of my last nights at USC where I wondered around campus in the pouring rain at 2AM and took pictures of the campus at night in the rain. As I browsed through the pictures and recalled the experience I had that night taking the pictures I began thinking. This is not an uncommon occurrence and I devote a large portion of my time to thinking because I believe that striving to discover deeper truths and better understand the world in which I live is crucial to making me a better person.

So I looked out the window and allowed my mind to race through whatever thoughts happened to swim through. When I think, I don’t think in words or images, but rather I let my subconscious wonder and do whatever it likes. It’s sort of weird to know that I’m thinking, but is not know what it is I’m thinking about. Anyways, because I don’t entirely know what I think about it’s hard for me to say much else, although I think I thought about the same things I usually think about. Generally that’s looking back on my decisions and trying to consider the alternative ramifications, or pondering what I want to do with my life and what will make me happy. Often it also includes thinking about friends, so if you’re reading this, chances are you’re one of the people I think about. But looking at those pictures of USC at night is something that is more special than most other pictures, partly because of how much I love my school, but largely because the way the light reflects and the shadows and contrasts simply ignite my mind and help the idea flow. If you’re curious, look at this link for those pictures: http://usc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2196575&l=20d84&id=3423216 and http://usc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2196578&l=ddf63&id=3423216

But I’ve rambled on enough for now. Maybe that gives you some sort of insight into who I am as a person, maybe not. I hope it didn’t come across sounding weird or anything because it’s sort of hard to put into words. In fact, kindly disregard this post. Thank you.

February 2nd: MACAU!!!

Day 17, 7AM: I wake up in eager anticipation of my first trip outside HK since I arrived! CS, Wai Zin, Chang Sheng, Ri Huang, Lucas (a friend of Chang Sheng’s from Singapore who is an exchange student at another university in HK), Deborah, two of CS’s colleagues, and I all gathered and took the MTR to the ferry where we caught the 9AM one to Macau. Now, I’m skipping stuff because the details are quite uninteresting until we actually arrive. Actually, I take that back. The ferry is a very nice boat where there are many comfortable seats and it takes about an hour to go from HK to Macau. If you are unaware of Macau and what it is, I suggest looking it up on Wikipedia. Or, I can tell you it’s a former Portuguese colony that is now a special administrative region of China and is known as the Las Vegas of the East, so basically it’s an Asian Las Vegas with an interesting history. But back to the ferry. I have never been on a boat for very long before, because I’m never near large bodies of water that I care to travel on. Historically, I have a weak stomach and get carsick easily, so I was none too happy to try an hour long ferry. The trip begins and I’m doing well because I can see out a window on one side. As the trip progresses I find myself devoting more and more brainpower to thinking about not getting seasick, which of course only tells me that I am indeed getting seasick. That was one of the longest hours of my life. I managed to prevent myself from getting completely sick, but I did hastily depart the boat once it arrived.




I'm not sure why i was so surprised here


I saw this thing when getting off the boat and have no idea what it is, but it looked sort of cool.


Me, Chang Sheng, and Ri Huang

So we get off the boat and go through customs without any problems, only to emerge and find out two things about Macau. First, it’s very cold. Second, it’s very rainy. Oh joy. So we begin by taking a free shuttle bus to a casino not to gamble there, but rather because it’s near our destination: Portuguese Egg Tarts! Now I have never heard of this food before, but everyone else I was with seemed really excited to try them and apparently they’re famous. I guess it’s just more of my cultural education. We ended up walking through our first casino which wasn’t very impressive, but it was out of the cold and rain so I wasn’t complaining much. So after much wondering and being rainy and cold (yes, rainy and cold will be a recurring theme of the trip) we finally found the place and bought our egg tarts.


Egg Tarts!!!


Our group


Me trying the egg tart


lots of these motorbikes around



After our egg tart breakfast we headed to a museum area of sorts called the Ruins of St. Pauls. It’s basically a huge church that was built a long time ago and burned down in a fire, so only the front façade and the crypt remain. There’s a very small museum there that has artifacts in one room and the preserved crypt in the other room. I must admit that it was weird to see crypts stacked on the wall with glass windows so you could actually see the bones inside. I’ve never been that close to actual human remains (that I know of). So we wondered around there for a bit, and then headed to another museum through the cold and rain, but lucky for us it was just next door.



The ruins


Me standing in the center window in the freezing rain!


Lucas and Chang Sheng


The area of the burned church with the museum behind

After paying a small entry fee we wondered around in there for an hour or so and I learned all about the history of Macau and some interesting facts about ship trading in the 1600s. I enjoy learning about history, and so it was quite interesting to see all the artifacts and read about their origins and significance. A lot of the museum was also set up to compare and contrast East and West during the settlement of Macau, which provided an interesting comparison. Admittedly, we stayed in the museum longer than we would have usually, because we were waiting and hoping the weather outside would get better and it was warm inside.






one of those cut out things for your head



After the museum we walked outside and discovered that the weather had indeed changed… for the worse. Now it was even colder and more windy! Despite our hardship we ventured for a somewhat long walk to an authentic Portuguese restaurant for lunch (despite it being almost 3PM). The food was decent; I ate pork chops and garlic bread while most other people tried somewhat more exotic foods. Personally, I didn’t want to try the Ox-tail Spaghetti.

Check out this link and scroll down to see the foods we ate http://simplewords.genexis.net/?p=600

Next we took another long walk over to The Venetian casino. Like I said earlier, Macau is largely a gambling city an very similar to Las Vegas, so many of the casinos in Vegas built or are building casinos in Macau so they don’t get left out of the action. This was my first time in a casino, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. The first thing I noticed was that there were lots of employees. I know that casinos have lots of money and want to be as nice as people, but they had four people outside the entrance we went in just for the sake of holding the doors open. So, the pictures tell a lot of the story here, but they need a bit of explanation.







I was in a contemplative mood


ironically, this picture was just after we had lunch. What i would have given for a nice juicy hamburger right then if i hadn't been stuffed full...

So, would you believe me if I told you that this picture was taken on the second story of the casino? Yup, it’s indoors. They basically have the first floor dedicated to the gambling area, then the second story is expensive shopping in a Venetian atmosphere. There were even gondolas (the boat kind, not the type I went to see the Buddha in) with the gondoliers singing in Latin.



Myself and Ri Huang wondered around for an hour and a half or so before meeting up with the rest of the group. We did eventually wonder down into the main casino area where Ri Huang explained some of the games I hadn’t seen before and so we wondered around there and watched people play. The area was quite large, but I had honestly expected it to be bigger. They don’t allow you to take pictures of the casino area, so I am unable to show it to you.

After we all met up we then headed over to the Sands casino. First though, we had to stand in line in the freezing cold (but we were under a cover so no rain where we were standing) while waiting for the shuttle to arrive. The Sands Casino and The Venetian are owned by the same company, which is why there is a free shuttle between them. Why were we headed to The Sands? That’s where we were going for our dinner buffet! So we arrive at The Sands and decide we still have a lot of time before our dinner reservation, so we walked next door to another museum. It’s called the Macau Handover Museum, which needs some explanation. Macau rejoined China in 1999 and when it happened all the provinces in China gave Macau gifts to celebrate. This museum houses all those gifts and explains what each one means.






I thoroughly enjoyed the museum because I could examine the amazing craftsmanship of each piece and see the intricacy of the design. After that we walked about over to The Sands, but were still early for dinner. I personally liked the design of the Casino better, where the first floor had a non-smoking gambling area, the second floor was a large smoking gambling area, and the third floor was the same as the second floor. Again, Ri Huang and myself walked around the casino area on the second floor watching the games and having fun. I’m still not used to indoor smoking here and it bothers me a great deal. As I could feel my lungs filling up with happy second hand smoke and carcinogens I just kept reminding myself “it’s a new experience, and one I will hopefully not repeat again (the smoking part).” Finally it was time for dinner and the food was decent. I just ate a ton of the watermelon and pretzel bread because the main dishes were mainly seafood or other things that did not look appetizing. Because I was with my Singapore friends who place a high value on quality food they were amazed that I was eating so much break and watermelon when there was all the other food to try. I can understand their point, but I know that I like those foods and they were quite tasty, so the opportunity cost of eating other foods was simply too high (yes, I just brought econ into my dinner).









After dinner we split up again and I went with Chang Sheng, Lucas, and Deborah to the first floor gambling area where Lucas and Chang Sheng played some roulette. I should also explain here that casinos today are largely automated. This means that you place bets on your personal touch screen around the table and the roulette game is automated so that the wheel spins and the ball then shoots out. After it lands the wheel raises up and the ball falls beneath before the process is repeated again. It was interesting to watch and I learned a lot about gambling strategy by watching them play.

After that we split into two groups, with some of us going across the border to China for the night and the rest of us heading back to HK. So, we headed back to the ferry on the free bus (you have to love the free buses) and left to go back to HK. This time I managed to get some sleep on the ferry and avoid getting sea sick. In fact, the ride back was quite enjoyable. I managed to keep myself in that half sleep for most of the time, which for me is where I get my best thinking done. I actually managed to plan out several details of the company I want to eventually found as well as getting some contemplation about life finished. To be honest, I was very sad when we arrived because I enjoyed thinking so much. Anyways, that was my trip, and it was certainly memorable.






The Sands from the Ferry

February 1st: I Can't Think of a Good Title to Put Here

Day 16, 9:30 AM: It started the same way all my morning start: I woke up. Nothing special about that, nor was there anything particularly special about most of the day. That's why I couldn't think of a title. I basically relaxed in my room the whole day and played Starcraft with Grady, as well as having a very good chat with him about various random things. Most of the reason I didn't do anything was that I only have classes on tuesday and thursday so I literally had nothing to do. eventually I made plans to have dinner at Dimond Hill with a bunch of Singapore people so I could pick up my passport and China visa. I forgot to mention that yesterday I attended a presentation by the US consulate in HK, although I got completely lost in the giant building and ended up arriving 10 minutes before the end. There I was speaking to another student from the US who mentioned that her parents were flying out in May to run a marathon. I inquired about it and discovered that there are marathons held in exotic places including the Amazon, the Pyramids, and The Great Wall. Today I actually researched it and found out it's on May 17th. For those of you who do not know, that's my birthday. I admit I had been sad to learn that I would be unable to spend my 21st birthday in the US with my good friends from back home, but after learning about this I honestly didn't care anymore. Anyone can spend their 21st birthday with friends, but how many can say that they ran a marathon on the Great Wall for their 21st? Right there and then I decided I would do whatever it takes to train for and run that marathon. I did discover that i have finals around that time, but I'm speaking to professors and trying to take them other times, so hopefully a final does not interfere with my grandiose plans. We'll have to see. Seriously though, how cool is a marathon on the Great Wall!

January 31st: Class begins

Day 15, 9AM: Day 15, 9:30 AM: So I awaken and check my email as I usually do to see emails pour in with “URGENT” in the subject line. I think about it for a second and decide I should probably see what they have to say. Remember that email I sent to fix the housing problem? Well, the person at the apartment I emailed never got my email, despite the fact that I know she did because the email address was correct and it never bounced back. My guess is that she accidentally deleted it or didn’t see it, but whatever the case my roommates for next year went and were unable to sign the lease, again. I’m slightly ticked off by this. So I hastily type up an email and resist the urge to say how unhappy I am with their unprofessionalism (because I also spoke to them personally before I left to make sure this sort of things wouldn’t happen) and worded it very diplomatically. Now, this is also the morning my classes start. So I run and take a very fast shower before my roommates for next year literally run to the building to sign the lease before the office closes. As for myself, I can’t wait for the stupid housing thing to be done and literally run to my classes as well.

In order to get to the academic building I must take two or three elevators, which get quite crowded in the mornings. The HKUST campus consists of dorms and a single academic building where all of the classes are held. This means the building has to be big enough to fit all the offices, classrooms, research labs, and such that most colleges have in many building throughout their campus. So, it’s an understatement to say that the building is HUGE. It probably has between 1000-2000 rooms over five main stories, although part of it extends to seven stories underground on one side for the library and cafeterias. So, I run into a friend who is also from USC who has the same class as me and we found it without difficulty because it was on the first floor.

We walk in early and sit on the side. The room is just like any normal college classroom, although perhaps a bit newer because the campus itself is less than 15 years old. Oh, and they have whiteboards instead of blackboards (When I walk into a college classroom and see blackboards it always bothers me slightly because I feel like I’m in the 1800s). So, this class is MGTO321 – Corporate Strategy. The professor looks to be in his early thirties and quite physically fit. He explains that he grew up in China and went to Ohio State for his masters, so although he is Chinese he speaks very good English. He also shares that he loves to weight train and watch college sports including football and basketball, going so far to complain that there aren’t enough basketball courts at UST. He then has everyone in the class share a bit about themselves, so I personally said that I’m from USC in California and I’m a business major with a dual concentration in Management of Organizations and Operations Management, with a minor in Astronautical Engineering who runs marathons and teaches physics and chemistry (my job at SI during the schoolyear). I thought that pretty well summed up my more unusual interests because I didn’t want to take too long, but it conveyed the sense that I do everything all at once. So my impressions of the class are very favorable, and while talking to one of the students about weight training he used the word “ripification.” How awesome is that! My professor used the word ripification. I was immensely impressed. So that class is basically about how a corporation develops their strategy to compete in the market and analyzing case studies and such things. It should be good.

My next class is MGTO 332 – Judgment and Decision Making. I take the elevator and manage to find the room after grabbing a quick lunch in the coffee shop, although I think I misunderstood and might have grabbed the wrong sandwich by mistake because it has guacamole in it (and I never order that). My friend Ghoribet and I actually have the first three classes together, so we walked there and discovered that there are 5 USC students in that class alone. My expectations were not that high. I thought it would be boring and full of lectures that will put me to sleep and beforehand I decided I was going to drop the class in favor of switching to one on Entrepreneurship. So my professor was Caucasian, possibly for Britain or the US I guessed and began class by saying he stayed up all night trying to decide how to make an impression on the first day. He then said that the waitlist for the class was 55 people, almost as many students as there are slots. So, he said he would begin by giving us a test. Right now I’m thinking ‘great, a test on the first day, this class is great.’ Then he says something interesting, “I want to make this interesting, so if any of you can get a perfect score on the test I’ll give you an A in the class, you don’t even have to show up anymore.” That certainly got my attention. Now, if you’re interested in hearing what this test was please speak to me on your own, because it’s possible that you may take this test someday and unless you actually do it yourself you cannot understand how your mind plays tricks on you. Anyways, out of 5 questions I got three wrong. But, the test was hard and is obviously designed to trick you. After that I was hooked, this class is going to be amazing and is being taught by an amazing professor. So, I was certainly not dropping this class now.

My next class was very close and I got there early. I had another American professor and this class is IMST 200g, which is a special topic class that the professor has broad discretion in what material we cover. I imagined it to be lectures on interesting topics or something like that, but it turns out that it is basically a simulation class. Essentially, the class revolves around a computer simulation where we form teams and make business decisions to compete with other people in the class to make the most money. This way we can see how our decisions affect the business and how all the different departments of finance, operations, marketing, and another I’m forgetting at the moment effect one another. It looks interesting enough, but I was disappointed after those first two amazing classes.

My fourth class is MGTO 236 – Teamwork and Organizational Effectiveness. Basically, it’s a class on teams and how to use them to make an organization effective. By now I had been in class for 4.5 hours and was a bit tired and the introduction was less than captivating. The professor was nice, but the course didn’t seem to meet my expectations. After the introduction and covering the syllabus he put us into teams and we had to try to make the “best” structure out of playing cards, but each of us could only use one hand. So, I tried the various tricks such as “can we only use playing cards, or can we use objects from around the room?” and “what do you mean by best?” and “do we have to keep the cards strait?” The first one was a definitive ‘no,’ and he refused to answer my second question, but he said we could do anything we wanted to the cards.

Being an engineer at heart, I quickly analyzed several possible structures to build with the 52 cards we were given and decided that “best” probably meant tallest because that is presumably harder to build. So, I quickly showed my idea and everyone else agreed (although they were probably somewhat intimidated by me because I get that way when I’m thinking of an idea). We quickly began building and the professor stopped everyone when he saw how high ours was getting. He seemed quite surprised at how fast we were able to do it. He announced that ours was the best (being around 10 cards high and quite stable due to the redundancies I built into it) and several others got honorable mention. After that I headed back to my room where I relaxed and fell asleep early. All in all, a good day and I can say I’ll wake up on Tuesdays and Thursdays looking forward to class.



The view from my foggy excursion to Victoria Peak on day 3 or so.

January 30th: Time to get Oriented

Day 14, 9AM: Day 14, 9AM: I admit I had been somewhat apprehentous of this moment for several days not because of what was going to happen, but because of what it symbolize: today was the end of my freedom. I have been in Hong Kong for two weeks now getting acclimated to life and I have been having a blast. Today was the orientation day for exchange students where they explained things about the campus and our individual programs. The first half was pretty boring stuff where department heads from places like public safety came and gave speeches. After that was over, we split into the various departments such as Business or Science for a more tailored orientation explaining the various specifics about registration and courses. One of the nice things about being a business major (this is just one out of many, many advantages) is that companies like to donate things that they give out for free. We were able to get a free briefcase, a nice polo shirt, and other such things. After that was done we all went to a welcome lunch buffet that is free for all international students. I found an empty seat next to my Singaporean friends and have a pleasant conversation with the head of the chemistry department.

After that I decided it was time to head back to my room and did various nondescript things when I remembered that I never actually bought The Orange Box. For those of you who do not know what this is, it’s a program from a company called Steam where you can download games directly to your computer and bypass the need for CDs. So I signed up for an account, put in my credit card info, and clicked purchase. It’s supposed to be simple, right? Yes, you’re correct, it is supposed to be simple. Unfortunately, simple is not the same as ‘works.’ So, before I left I called my credit companies to tell them I will be in HK until the end of May. When you purchase a game through Steam the transaction goes through their offices in California, meaning that it comes up as a credit card purchase in the USA. As such, my credit cards were denied. Honestly, I was a bit annoyed. Ok, I was more than a bit annoyed. So, I waited until my parents woke up and asked them to log on as me and use their credit cards to buy it for me. This part worked well and I set it up to download so I could play Portal (my favorite game) in the morning.

This is also supposed to be easy. Sadly, it began downloading at about 2 KBps. For those of you who are not tech geeks like myself, this means that my 4 gigabyte download will take weeks. So much for the super fast college internet connection. Anyways, I decided not to go to a soccer match or a poker game with a bunch of international students and instead opted to watch the new episode of House and catch up on some blogging instead.

My surprise of the evening came when Mr. Prow said hello on my Yahoo account. Mr. Prow is a good family friend who we know from our church and also was my boss last summer for my internship. We had a pleasant chat and it was nice to have someone new decide to say hello.



Yes, Starbucks is everywhere.