It's that time of the semester again - final exams! I got lucky and only had two finals this semester, with short papers due in my other classes. Finals are different here in that rather than one or two study days we get a study week before finals, and the period for final exams lasts for 2 weeks instead of one. You can also technically have an exam during your study week, which is what happened for me, making the exam period more like 3 weeks. I've found this to be both good and bad: good because you have way more time to study, but bad because it drags out arguably every student's least favorite time of year. My final exams were spaced 10 days apart, so I've basically been studying for nearly 17 days straight (!!). It's a huge difference from our finals week at home. Another difference is that we won't find out our grades until the middle of January, versus the week after finals like at UH. I found out that this is the norm in most other countries, which I had no idea about!
You don't find out when your final exam is for most classes until reading week, so unlike at UH, you can't plan your classes around when finals are. I would recommend waiting until November to make any travel arrangements, or to make travel plans for after all finals are completed, because the finals schedule that is posted during reading week can be altered. This isn't very common, and it didn't happen for anyone that I know, but it's always better to be safe than sorry. If you find out that all of your classes are towards the end of the final exam period, or that you have finals that are very spaced out (like mines), then you can definitely fit in a weekend trip. This is something that I wish I did, especially because it can be nice to take a break from studying. If you are considering a weekend trip, plan it at least a few weeks in advance! Some of my friends planned a last minute trip and the airfare ended up being twice as much as it was just a week before. You can also consider traveling to Guangzhou or Shenzhen, since they're so close to Hong Kong. My friends who went to Guangzhou really enjoyed it, and they said it was easier to get around and do things than it had been in Shenzhen since it was more tourist friendly. While I didn't take any trips, I did take a fairly long bus ride to the other side of the island! At home I always go to craft fairs during Christmas time, and I wanted to continue that here. I decided to check out the Stanley Christmas Market, because I heard that it's really popular. It was also Finnish themed, with lots of Finnish food (like reindeer meatballs!). While I didn't buy much, I enjoyed the atmosphere. Stanley itself is such a cute seaside town, I would totally recommend visiting any time of year! The mall at Stanley is also dog friendly, so you're bound to see lots of adorable pups.
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Emily BallBorn and raised in Aiea, HI, traveling to Hong Kong to study Human Resource Administration. Archives
January 2019
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