Dominy Betts

So it was just before 5pm local time when I arrived at Hong Kong International Airport so after eventually finding the right passport counter to go through as I was confused what sort of citizen I counted as under this Student Visa I had.

But I eventually got through and then waited what felt like an eternity to collect my suitcase, but once I got it I went into the main part of arrivals to be greeted by the Student Ambassadors of the Hong Kong Baptist University and the other Exchange students who had previously arrived.

Thankfully (for me) I was the last to arrive in my group, so we set off to the car park to get on a University organised shuttle bus and I sat next to Jonathan, a local Geography student and he spoke very good English so we had a discussion talking about the flight etc etc and then going onto talking about our studies and our cultures briefly until we arrived at campus where we went straight to the G4 counter where we would be given our room keys and student cards.

We then said we’d drop our luggage in our room and meet downstairs after to go to IKEA to get some bedding as obviously no-one packed any, with some not even bringing any bed sheets or pillow cases.

So we met again downstairs and I met a Matthias, a student from Norway, in the lift on the way downstairs. So we waited for everyone to be ready and we set off for the nearest MTR (tube) station, Kowloon Tong.

Once we got there we took the East Coast Line to Sha Tin where the nearest IKEA was. Once in IKEA, as you can imagine, it took us a while to find the bedding section but once we did we were surrounded by many different Scandinavian brands of pillows and duvets so being me I just bought the cheapest ones.

After purchasing them we got the MTR back to Kowloon Tong and went inside the shopping centre “Festival Walk” to buy some necessities such as food and drink to last us until at least tomorrow as well as toiletries because all I wanted to do to be honest was have a shower and go to bed as I was beyond knackered.

So we walked back from Festival Walk to realise I still had no roommate, maybe he was going to be arriving tomorrow?

So had my shower and got tucked up into bed watching some great British television in The Catherine Tate Show. Then half way into the show, the door opens and it’s my roommate for the next 6 months, Seb, with the Hall Tutor, Samson (basically the guy in charge of looking after every one on the floor).

So Seb went downstairs to bring all his stuff in and we both had a small conversation we got to know each other a bit better, so Seb’s a Film student from UWE who’s originally from Leeds.

But it was good night from me as I had a busy day planned tomorrow!