House One Boat Party!

Living in the halls on campus, help local and exchange students to get to know each other and enjoy the HKUST housing experience. In my hall, the floors are separated by girls and guys and it is the closest dorm to the academic buildings, which is a plus for me! The rooms aren’t as big as the dorms at Drexel, but they are nice. We get an air conditioner and a mini fridge, so that we can buy groceries and cook food in the hall. Just like Drexel and many universities in the United States, the RA or Floor Tutor has to plan activities for the hall residents on their floor. Since being here in Hong Kong, there have been so many Hall activities that the residents in the different halls participate in to mingle and have fun.

Each Hall on campus has their own student society, which allows the students to be part of more than a housing arrangement, but a large social community. Even though the Hall Tutors set up events for us, the hall society executive board also has events for members of the society and residents of the hall. Each week in October there are student society festivals and some of them include the Hall societies. Next week, my Hall is having a Festival, which included some performances from students, special dinners and events, and an end of week festival party. During the festivals, anyone on campus is invited to participate and it is a great way to meet other students from other halls. The festivals are prompted throughout campus and the bridge links are all decorated by each society each week.

Each hall has unique events, but the most famous one is the squid fishing boat party for the residents in the hosting hall. My hall recently just had the boating party and we got to go out onto Clear Water Bay from HKUST pier and practice fishing for squid and other fish that live in the bay. On the boat we were provided a very nice dinner and sang karaoke. The food was really good, even though we weren’t able to eat any seafood on the boat. Most of the songs were in Cantonese, but they did have a few songs in English, such as Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, and Michael Jackson songs. Since Jess and I live on the same floor, we both went to the party together and met other exchange and local students that live in our Hall. It was a really fun night because we were able to meet new people and get a nice view of the nighttime sky. Even though it was dark out, the view of HKUST and the distant apartments was spectacular. The lights from the building light up the mountains that surrounded them. It was the most beautiful view I have ever seen since being here in Hong Kong. UST is a huge campus and has to be the most beautiful in all of Hong Kong.

The boat party was a nice way to relax from a stressful week of classes and homework. I was able to unwind and just relax, while getting fresh air. It was a great experience because I have a midterm coming up on October 20th for Probability; so next week will be packed with studying and preparing for that. Next week will be a wild one, but at least I got to relax beforehand.