Kevin's Blog

Pepperdine students arrive!

The Pepperdine students arrived tonight. Christina, Jay, and I met them at the airport. Jay was a student from last year who specifically asked for a Pepperdine student as a roommate this year, because he had such a good experience in the past. He was excited to meet the Pepperdine students this year. Jay is a physics major from Xi'an, and would one day like to study in the United States.

We met them as they arrived out of customs at about 8 p.m. (their flight came in at about 7 p.m.). Well, we met most of them. Priscilla Tan came in from Singapore, but Christina's list didn't have that information, so I guess we missed her. Lewis, another student at HKBU, met us at the airport.

HKBU had rented a bus, which was pretty useful given how much luggage the students brought. We got to the dorms, and it was dicey trying to stop at the dorms because half the street was under construction. The bus had to circle around and pull into a parking lot.

9 p.m.: The students checked in. Jay found out that his roommate is Andrew Fay, and both are pretty excited about that.

10 p.m.: We meet and Lewis and Jay take us to Lok Fu, a nearby area that will hopefully have somewhere to buy sheets and pillows (the students mostly didn't choose to buy them from the dorm) and someplace to eat.

10:20 p.m.: We get to Lok Fu and find a store that sells linens that closes at 10:30. There's a bit of confusion about exactly what the dimensions of the beds are. By the time we're leaving, the store is closing.

Here's a picture of us going through a deserted shopping mall at Lok Fu, walking to get food. It's blurry because people are walking.



The person to the very right is Lewis, the HKBU student who's leading us to the food. I won't try to name everyone else because I don't know most of their names yet, and if I say some of them and don't say some of them, that would seem unfair. I'll just blame it on the blurry photo.

We had two options at 11 p.m.: McDonalds, and a Chinese restaurant. Lewis was unsure about the Chinese restaurant because it's a dive, and he's not sure everyone's stomachs would be ready for it and the lack of hygiene quite yet. I suggested that everyone's stomachs will have to get used to it sooner or later anyway. I also noted that McDonalds would be a better group meal several months in, when everyone is sick of Chinese food and want a taste of home.

We ate at the Chinese restaurant. We were clearly the only non-locals there. This was not merely a local place--it was a working-class local place. The food, of course, was excellent. Jay and Lewis regaled us with HKBU tips and thoughts about China. More about those some other time.

It's now 3 am and we agreed to meet tomorrow at 10 am. So I'm signing off.

posted by Kevin Iga @ 11:47 AM