University Health Service
I opted not to purchase medical insurance whilst in Hong Kong for three reasons. As a UNSW student, I get travel insurance covering serious incidents (albeit with a $50 AUD excess). As a Hong Kong student, hospitalisation in public hospitals...
Course evaluations
So what is class like at CUHK? I think around 80% of exchange students took 4 courses (12 units), with the rest taking 5 courses (15 units). The impression I got was that local students took around 16-18 units. Most...
Hong Kong (volume 3)
Things are getting really busy with just one week of class left. I have so many assignments due, group presentations to prepare for and two final exams which are run outside of the exam period during the final week’s class...
The application timeline
Hope this helps anyone anxious about the application process. UNSW Late October, 2014: UNSW exchange application due Submit it early, because the Endeavour system goes down due to high demand when the deadline looms You can’t take mandatory...
Hangzhou and Suzhou
Museums aren’t my thing. I prefer natural beauty over immersing myself in culture. And I’m completely amazed by water. So after visiting Beijing, I decided against visiting Shanghai. Instead, I went to Hangzhou and Suzhou a month ago, which are...
Hong Kong (volume 2)
I recently passed the half-way mark for exchange. Wow. It’s hard balancing studying with travelling in my limited time, because even though the latter is hard to come by, what I’ve come to realise is that the former, experiencing student...
Chongyi Church
While I was in Hangzhou last weekend, I thought I’d go somewhere a little off the beaten path for tourists. I went to one of the largest Christian churches in China: Chongyi Church (崇一教堂), which...
5 lessons (volume 1)
1. I like having a roommate. This surprised me, since as an only child, I’m used to privacy, and expected to despise sharing a room. But even if I could choose a single room now, I wouldn’t, because I value...
Culture shock
A thought occurred to me recently: I haven’t experienced the highs and lows of culture shock as I was warned to expect in Hong Kong. That’s because I forgot about the month I spent with family in Zhangzhou, China just...
Pollution
My ‘social issues in China’ class today was about the environment. I got to re-watch clips of Under the Dome, a stellar documentary about pollution in China, also known as China’s version of An Inconvenient Truth, which I highly recommend...