Livin' It Up In the Big HK

Ok, wow, yet again! Life is hectic. I'm going to have to do four blogs this week to catch up. I'll start with classes, they are AMAZING. I have two philosophy classes, and they constantly remind me of how much I love philosophy (the newest addition to my double major.) It's amazing because the classes are in English, and it's my first and only language. I'm having a hard time grasping all the material, but for all the other students, English is their second, third or fourth language, and they keep up just fine! After a week in Hong Kong experiences like this have taught me that I cannot be a fulfilled human being until I spend time studying in another language. Hey at least I figured out a piece of my future!

Anyway, I have a class on Schopenhauer and Nietzsche and I have to present before the whole class Tuesday. So that’s pretty much what I'll be doing with the rest of my life! I’m also taking a Psychology course for my minor and a Mandarin language course, as well as these really cool classes on Asian culture: Cultural Exchange of China and the West and History of Modern East Asia. The latter is great because I have to read the news from Japan, Korea, China and one western country every week. It is so crazy to hear the news from all these different viewpoints!

For example, the other day I was hanging out with a local student, whose family emigrated from mainland China. We were walking around and passed a CCP (China Communist Party) protest area. There were rows and rows of photos of people who were brutally tortured or murdered.

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I read stories on how China had an unusually high number of organ donors and reports of anti-government citizens’ organs being harvested while they're still alive. In the U.S. you might hear rumors of this kind of thing every once in awhile, but here in Hong Kong it's everywhere, literally in your face. Hong Kong maintains a One Country-Two Systems Policy. They were handed over to China in '97, but from what I understand they still continue most of the governmental system established while they were under British rule. Because of this they have freedom of speech and protests like this happen every day with loudspeakers and banners.

My friend told me how a few years ago Hong Kong held a CCP protest with over 500,000 participants and when her family watched the news in China they heard nothing about it! The government-controlled news went on as normal, with parts like the protest being interrupted by government commercials for the CCP!

Being here has been so stimulating as far as getting me out of my American Box. It's not easy to fake ignorance when information is thrown in your face! I’m forced to see things from a new point of view here, as I am truly a minority (I get stares most places I go.) It is crazy to be in that position, it's a whole new way of looking at life. The past few weeks have made me feel that for 20 years of my life I was still wearing training wheels. I have a new-found respect for these people; their language, customs, and struggles because I am surrounded and integrated into it constantly. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about the religion while I'm here. Lingnan does not have a religion department and the Chinese Philosophy classes are taught in Mandarin, so I’m doing the exploring on my own. I was able to visit a temple with some exchange students.

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It's very close to school and when we arrived they were in the middle of reconstruction. In the center of the monastery there were two monks in traditional robes chanting while facing each other, completely oblivious to the 20 something people ripping down walls around them, not to mention us 10 foreigners! It was a great insight into the Buddhist mind.

Later that week I went with some girlfriends to see the largest seated Buddha in the world. We took a sky lift to get there and the view was incredible.

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