Back to School

October 27th 2016

About eleven thirty-five am

Out of the hostel, a quick breakfast of pastry & juice in the supermarket next door, then on to the metro, passing a few constructions sites with their ubiquitous bamboo scaffolding and the many neon signs of Causeway Bay.
Today we are meeting Vickie — a friend of Jacky from her year abroad (Link, for those who care) and new-fledged student at the Hong Kong City University, who takes us from the metro station into a large backstreet.
Here we find a food stall popular with the students from the nearby secondary school for its low prices — Vickie orders in Chinese and we'll let ourselves be surprised. Lunch turns out to be noodles and... stuff made from rice with deep-fried meat and other stuff made from rice. Ask less, eat more — it's all really good.
Next, we get a tour of her Uni — an incredibly vibrant place with countless students, seemingly all working on different projects for their 'societies' — some sort of student clubs — and eagerly trying to recruit us into joining them with a pen as a bribe. We also get to see Vickie's apartment in one of the student residences near the uni — a (like everything in Honk Kong) tiny though comfy room that she shares with one roommate. The houses the students live in form another set of 'societies', hosting events in their respective houses and ensuring that the place is creatively decorated at all times.


A bit later than expected, we arrive at the secondary school that Vickie (and Jacky) went to — here, we are shown around all the different class- and common rooms and meet various teachers, members of the debating club, some gold fish, and a German exchange student from Berlin learning Chinese in the library.
Following our first day of school in a long time, we explore a night market where all the usual gadgets and knock-off goods are touted.
We cross another market, then Vickie leads us into a small restaurant for dinner — all the seats inside are taken, so we are sent into a back alley where we find a tiny, narrow room with four tables and plastic chairs.
We take a seat and Vickie orders tofu pudding, fried tofu, and chicken wings. Every now and then, our conversation is interrupted when the group of old women behind us loudly shuffle their mahjong tiles, rendering any communication in the roughly 1.5 times 5 meter room virtually impossible.
While we are enjoying our tofu pudding, we find the time for a question from our infamous book: The question of choice is #215 — Do you sometimes act differently from what you really are? Vickie's Answer: Yes, for example when she meets new people at university trying to recruit her for one of the many societies.

At the top — The next day

After two days of non-stop walking, we turn it down a notch today — we take the Peak Tram, which struggles up the mountain at an impressive angle, up to Victoria Peak and towards the viewing platform.
Up here, we enjoy the view of Hong Kong's skyline, I take pictures of some Asians posing for selfies, and Jan uses the opportunity to write a cute little love note.
After we're done, we relax in the shade of some sort of barricade until one of the security guards shoos us away — which takes a little over 30 minutes. For our many readers visiting Hong Kong in the next couple of days: As per the bucket list's demands, I hid a creatively decorated three of hearts up here — maybe you'll find it.
Excluding our Italian lunch menu (Jan and his European food...), the next proper item on our agenda only starts at nightfall.
We explore Portland Street, which my guidebook calls a red light district — but much more noticeable than red-light atmosphere are the huge amounts of neon signage. Afterwards we also check out another neighbourhood with an unpronounceable name that is home to many bars and, consequently, hordes of drunk Brits.