13/1/18 – Rest and Reflection

The end of our first full week, much like the week itself, was thoroughly satisfying. Although much of today’s economic lecture went over my head, I still found it engaging, and was happy to have the review and reiteration of yesterday’s. Lunch was the always delicious dim sum at Lingnan’s Chinese restaurant, made possible through Professor Yu’s generosity, and after that I had my first day of real relaxation. I futzed with my laundry, took a short walk in the neighborhood around campus, and found a quiet park bench to sit and read. Although the constant activity of the last week has been exciting, it felt good to have a little time to unwind. Although I wouldn’t say I discovered anything particularly awe-inspiring, I saw a lot of the mundane, which, in my effort to see and do as much as I possibly can, I feel like I haven’t gotten much of. While I certainly enjoy seeking out the interesting and exciting here, I think it’s good to have the occasional reminder that the city is really just made up of ordinary people, going about their lives in the pretty normal way we’d expect them to. This took on an especially new tone this evening, when we joined Professor Chan’s husband on a night hike up Castle Peak. The view from the top of the entirety of Hong Kong, from the flashing lights of Central to the quiet coasts of Tuen Mun and Sai Kung to the distant glow of Shenzhen and Macau, really brought the sheer size of the city into perspective. I had trouble wrapping my head around the idea that every little pinprick of light represented a different storefront, or traffic light, or apartment window, much like the ones I had walked by earlier in the afternoon. The sheer awe of trying to comprehend that many people, and that many individual lives, left me with as much vertigo as the steep drop from the summit.