I was waiting for the bus, on my way home.
When I walked out of the train station I saw some people taking out their umbrellas, and I thought 'what the...it's just one or two drops'. Then I was waiting at the bus stop, and between then and when the bus arrived (5-6 minutes), the drops became pouring rain. I was literally drenched, from head to toe.
You'd think, after 7 years in London and 2 years in Manchester, I'd have an umbrella in my bag...
As soon as I got onto the bus, I phoned my brother and asked him to pick me up from the stop and bring me an umbrella. When I got home (5 minutes later), the rain had stopped.
Monday 31 August 2009
Thursday 20 August 2009
money, money, money
I've been thinking how am I going to make use of the Monbusho scholarship money? It's quite a bit of money, but it's not like I can shop all I want and buy all the Louboutins or Blahniks there are in Osaka.
Okay, after a bit of internet browsing, I realise that there's no point fantasizing about buying my first pair of Louboutins (or Jimmy Choo, or Blahnik) or Vuitton purse, because it's actually cheaper (by more than £100) to buy these luxury brands back in Britain. All thanks to recession and the exchange rate.
Hmm, so how shall I spend the money (wisely)?
1. Live on a diet of 果物、野菜、豆腐、なっとう、and ご飯, to minimize chances of spending money on food or eating out.
2. Walk (a lot).
3. Never take the 新幹線, for it is a rip-off. Will stick to tortoise-speed trains and overnight long-distance buses (also cutting costs on accommodation while travelling across the country during the holidays).
4. Find a バイト. Teach English or Chinese or something (clarinet?).
5. Entertainment shall be in the form of live broadcasts of New York's Metropolitan Opera in the cinema. (And illegal downloads of Grey's Anatomy, Gossip Girl and Ugly Betty. Maybe House and Mad Men as well). Try to avoid 居酒屋, カラオケ or anywhere that sells alcohol.
6. Clothes-shopping-wise (it is universally acknowledged that even women in possession of no fortune, must be in want of clothes. And shoes.), I'll be venturing to Uniqlo (every week, just like going to the church). One thing I don't like about Japan (and I love Japan, generally) is that there are only 2 H&M stores in the entire country, both in Tokyo (Ginza and Harajuku). And it seems that anything Western becomes high class in Japan, so I'll miss my weekly H&M therapy terribly.
So why am I wanting to be frugal, even though I'll be pocketing over £800 every month? At first I was planning to buy my first DSLR (and was deciding between a Nikon D90 or a Canon 50D, and was leaning towards the Nikon because then I can use the same lenses for my film SLR), but then I thought I could just save up (a lot) more money and buy a Leica M8 (I can hear 'O Fortuna' from Carmina Burana in my mind). That won't happen for a while. (For now I shall stick to my lovely compact and loyal Panasonic Lumix LX-2, which takes photos of great quality with a Leica lens, the good old Nikon F50 film SLR, and the funky Holga 120SF - I love cross-processing the Velvia 50 films.) So, I guess I'll be spending some of the money on other stuff, like covering living expenses (transport mainly, it's ridiculously expensive to travel around Japan), since my mother decided to cut me off this year because I've been awarded the scholarship. (I thought she would be really proud of me and decide to give me some sort of prize; instead, she's delighted because she won't have to spend a dime on me this year.)
I really want to do a lot of travelling this year, especially within Japan. I've only been to a handful of places (Tokyo, the rice fields of Gunma prefecture, Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, Himeji, Nara and Hokkaido), so I really want to make use of the weekends and holidays and go to Shikoku, Okinawa, southern and northern Honshu, the coasts, and Hokkaido (once more!). Also, politically and financially permitting, I'd also like to go to North Korea. It really depends on whether the "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-Il is still alive or not (and how the political scene there will change if it happens), and whether I can save up 1500 euros. The organised tours to North Korea are very expensive; Kim Jong-Il's government rips off tourists to fund his luxurious lifestyle whilst his people starve to death. Anyway, it'd be very interesting if I manage to go. My parents are a bit skeptical; my Korean friend Minji said she worries for me, knowing that there are regular tours for foreigners to visit DPRK, because I'm oriental and yet I hold British citizenship. She worries that something like those two US journalists would happen to me. Hmm...
I'm also planning to buy a コタツ and hopefully find a way to log it back to Manchester for the chilly winter months (somehow my mother managed doing that - bring a コタツ to Hong Kong - over 20 years ago). Oooh and a なべ, to do しゃぶしゃぶ or Chinese hotpot in my room!
"legal intern"
Lets see if e-mail posting works...
It's been 2 weeks since I started interning at the firm. This is the Hong Kong office of a US law firm. None of the 5 lawyers are American though: 3 British, 1 Aussie and 1 New Zealand/HK. In addition to the lawyers there are 2 secretaries, so it's a very small office. But I like it this way. Even though the firm is one of the top 40 law firms (by revenue) in the world, it's unlike the "Magic Circle" law firms in the City (in London). The office is generally quite quiet, with the lawyers usually keep to their own rooms. So it's just the 2 secretaries and I in the open plan.
During the first few days there was another intern. He's attending Columbia Law School (studying for a JD - Juris Doctor - as law degrees are postgraduate degrees in the US), and he seems to know his stuff very well. He did a presentation before I came but I heard that the lawyers were really impressed. Matt (the partner, who gave me the (unpaid) internship) has given me a presentation to do as well. I have to prepare for a know-how session on BIT claims (bilateral investment treaties). (BITs remind me of the Extended Essay I wrote in Year 12 - I wrote about foreign direct investments). After hearing how well the other intern did, I started feeling the pressure. I know they don't really expect that much from me, but I want to impress, so I know I've got a lot to do in the coming fortnight.
Obviously since I'm a non-law student, I'm not expected to know much about law and everyone has been very kind and helpful. I'm glad that even though I haven't studied law before, they've given me tasks that involve some kind of responsibility. On my first day Matt took me to a meeting at a client's office. The project is a M&A (merger and acquisition; and this one is a BIG one, involving very large figures), and since then I've been sort of responsible for the verification notes. The v notes is not necessary a very interesting thing to look at, it's just a document which lists all the things written in the offer document (offer to acquire shares of the target company), and the documents that verify the statements. It's not a difficult task to do, but at least it's quite important and I am learning new things about commercial law.
Even though this internship is unpaid, I'm really grateful that I was given the opportunity because it's a great experience and it'll certainly look good on my CV. I wanted to do it because I'm still trying to find out what I want to do after graduation. I think my first choice is still diplomacy (with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office), but that is very competitive. So is law, but it seems slightly less competitive since there are many law firms but just one FCO! But then law means 2 more years of study (which could be entirely paid for if I manage to secure a training contract). I don't know if law is my thing. I know I can handle the workload, I can make use of my multilingual skills, the financial reward is great, and I know law is something I should know about because it pops up in daily life. But I'm just not sure if I can be really enthusiastic about it.
(just checked - e-mail posting works!)
It's been 2 weeks since I started interning at the firm. This is the Hong Kong office of a US law firm. None of the 5 lawyers are American though: 3 British, 1 Aussie and 1 New Zealand/HK. In addition to the lawyers there are 2 secretaries, so it's a very small office. But I like it this way. Even though the firm is one of the top 40 law firms (by revenue) in the world, it's unlike the "Magic Circle" law firms in the City (in London). The office is generally quite quiet, with the lawyers usually keep to their own rooms. So it's just the 2 secretaries and I in the open plan.
During the first few days there was another intern. He's attending Columbia Law School (studying for a JD - Juris Doctor - as law degrees are postgraduate degrees in the US), and he seems to know his stuff very well. He did a presentation before I came but I heard that the lawyers were really impressed. Matt (the partner, who gave me the (unpaid) internship) has given me a presentation to do as well. I have to prepare for a know-how session on BIT claims (bilateral investment treaties). (BITs remind me of the Extended Essay I wrote in Year 12 - I wrote about foreign direct investments). After hearing how well the other intern did, I started feeling the pressure. I know they don't really expect that much from me, but I want to impress, so I know I've got a lot to do in the coming fortnight.
Obviously since I'm a non-law student, I'm not expected to know much about law and everyone has been very kind and helpful. I'm glad that even though I haven't studied law before, they've given me tasks that involve some kind of responsibility. On my first day Matt took me to a meeting at a client's office. The project is a M&A (merger and acquisition; and this one is a BIG one, involving very large figures), and since then I've been sort of responsible for the verification notes. The v notes is not necessary a very interesting thing to look at, it's just a document which lists all the things written in the offer document (offer to acquire shares of the target company), and the documents that verify the statements. It's not a difficult task to do, but at least it's quite important and I am learning new things about commercial law.
Even though this internship is unpaid, I'm really grateful that I was given the opportunity because it's a great experience and it'll certainly look good on my CV. I wanted to do it because I'm still trying to find out what I want to do after graduation. I think my first choice is still diplomacy (with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office), but that is very competitive. So is law, but it seems slightly less competitive since there are many law firms but just one FCO! But then law means 2 more years of study (which could be entirely paid for if I manage to secure a training contract). I don't know if law is my thing. I know I can handle the workload, I can make use of my multilingual skills, the financial reward is great, and I know law is something I should know about because it pops up in daily life. But I'm just not sure if I can be really enthusiastic about it.
(just checked - e-mail posting works!)
Wednesday 19 August 2009
the music man
Today after work I rushed to the cinema and met up with my mother. We watched a made-in-Hong-Kong documentary called "KJ". The Chinese title literally means "Musical Life". "KJ" are the the initials of the protagonist - Ka-Jeng Wong. The filming crew followed him between the ages of 11 and 17.
KJ is a musical prodigy. Started playing piano aged 7 and performed as a soloist with a professional orchestra in the Czech Republic by the time he was 11. However, since then he hasn't gained fame as a piano prodigy like some youngsters in HK have (notably Rachel Cheung, Aristo Sham, and Wai-Yin Wong). It turns out he abandoned the piano for 2 years as a teenager, during which his parents divorced and he couldn't stand the pressure given by his father, who is "all about competition and winning". (Those two years he practiced on his violin instead - KJ is also a very talented violinist; in 2007 he won 2 major categories in a music festival, one as a pianist and the other as a violinist. Watch his performance on Youtube by pressing the links).
Even as a child, KJ questioned about life and its origin. He philosophises and makes the connection between music and life. He is very outspoken with his thoughts; he says what he thinks, which can be very annoying at times. He doesn't get along with many people because of his cockiness. But I gotta say, he's got the courage to say what he thinks. He's not superficial and he doesn't lie about his thoughts. Obviously he has a lot to work on, I think he just needs to meet the right people to guide him.
There's a feeling of sadness and tragedy though. His parents divorced, and he doesn't seem to be close to his brother and sister. He has few close friends who have the patience to put up with his character. Although sometimes I envy such prodigies, who demonstrate extraordinary talent, wishing that I could play an instrument or master a skill like them, I'm glad that I enjoy music the way I want to - I don't play for exams or competitions. It makes me miss playing the piano - I haven't played properly for over a year and I miss how relaxing it can be, when it's just me, the keyboard, the music, and the beautiful melodies.
Saturday 8 August 2009
大阪大学
Before I knew I got the scholarship and would be going to Osaka, I'd been planning my year abroad around Kyoto. Obviously things are now very different.
Since Wednesday night I've been browsing on the internet, trying to find out things about Osaka University.
I'll be studying in the 日本語・日本文化研修留学生プログラム, which is designed for all Monbukagakusho (MEXT) scholars. All the courses will be taught in Japanese, and I'll be required to write a research essay in Japanese before I go back to Manchester. I guess the level of Japanese will be very high, so I'm going to struggle in the first few months, but hopefully that can make me work harder and maybe my Japanese will improve at a higher rate than if I go to Kyoto and study in its KUINEP programme (where all non-language courses are taught in English).
To be honest I don't really like the location of the university. It's not actually in Osaka city (大阪市). Of course it's in Osaka Prefecture (大阪府), but I'll be studying and living at the Minoh campus (箕面市), which is about an hour away from Osaka city centre.
より大きな地図で 大阪大学 を表示
There's nothing much around the university campus, looks like it's just a residential area. And it's at the bottom of a mountain, so I probably won't be able to cycle.
The accommodation, too, is not as good as Kyoto's. It's just a bedroom with no en-suite or kitchen facilites. Kyoto's halls of residence are all studio flats with en-suite bathroom and a small kitchen. The upside is that I'll be closer to Osaka than if I was in Kyoto, which means I'll have easier access to all the fun shopping and entertainment (can spend some of the scholarship money on Christian Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik shoes!). Kyoto is only about an hour away so I can still explore the old and beautiful city in the weekends.
My mum told me about her year in Nagoya University. Actually, she herself was a Monbukagakusho scholar. She said because they were government-sponsored, whenever they went on a study trip they would be greeted and treated well by officials. That probably won't happen to me since that was over 20 years ago...
Since Wednesday night I've been browsing on the internet, trying to find out things about Osaka University.
I'll be studying in the 日本語・日本文化研修留学生プログラム, which is designed for all Monbukagakusho (MEXT) scholars. All the courses will be taught in Japanese, and I'll be required to write a research essay in Japanese before I go back to Manchester. I guess the level of Japanese will be very high, so I'm going to struggle in the first few months, but hopefully that can make me work harder and maybe my Japanese will improve at a higher rate than if I go to Kyoto and study in its KUINEP programme (where all non-language courses are taught in English).
To be honest I don't really like the location of the university. It's not actually in Osaka city (大阪市). Of course it's in Osaka Prefecture (大阪府), but I'll be studying and living at the Minoh campus (箕面市), which is about an hour away from Osaka city centre.
より大きな地図で 大阪大学 を表示
There's nothing much around the university campus, looks like it's just a residential area. And it's at the bottom of a mountain, so I probably won't be able to cycle.
The accommodation, too, is not as good as Kyoto's. It's just a bedroom with no en-suite or kitchen facilites. Kyoto's halls of residence are all studio flats with en-suite bathroom and a small kitchen. The upside is that I'll be closer to Osaka than if I was in Kyoto, which means I'll have easier access to all the fun shopping and entertainment (can spend some of the scholarship money on Christian Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik shoes!). Kyoto is only about an hour away so I can still explore the old and beautiful city in the weekends.
My mum told me about her year in Nagoya University. Actually, she herself was a Monbukagakusho scholar. She said because they were government-sponsored, whenever they went on a study trip they would be greeted and treated well by officials. That probably won't happen to me since that was over 20 years ago...
Friday 7 August 2009
been quite a busy week
after arriving in Hong Kong International Airport on Sunday afternoon, I was waiting by the conveyor belt when a staff approached me and asked if I was still waiting for my luggage. He told me that my bags have been delayed and are on the next flight from Heathrow. At first it crossed my mind 'it better not be a repeat of September '04' (when BA lost one of my checked luggage that contained my geography coursework and souvenirs from Tokyo), but then when the staff assured that they would delivered the bags to my door, I thought 'someone is going to take my 40kg bags for me, score.' So I just walked off with only my hand luggage. And so they did, at around 2100, while I was sipping mango margarita in a bar at Elements (a giant shopping centre in Kowloon), the suitcase and the bag were dropped off in my living room.
Met Dad's american friend (whom he met as a student at CUHK), who is now a college professor in Iowa, and had drinks at Elements. Greg took one of his students, Adam, and his wife with him. It turns out Greg knows Prof. Ian Reader (professor of japanese religion at Manchester). Anyway the next two days (monday and tuesday) Sam and I took Adam around town. It's his second visit so he's already seen the typical touristy sites. Yesterday we took him to TST, then Mongkok where it rained like hell; surprisingly I enjoyed the part where we walked around Apliu Street market and then had dinner at the streetside siu choi wong (小菜王). We ended the day at a pub on Knutsford Terrace.
On Tuesday we were supposed to go to Macau. Then the typhoon came along so we couldn't go. After lunch we went to the exhibition centre and had a look around the comic/anime fair. That was actually quite fun - seeing all these otaku and weird people cosplaying. After that we trekked all the way to Quarry Bay (on the tram - took a zillion years to get there) and went into the film archive, only to be disappointed by the exhibition-under-construction. So we went back to Central and walked around Pottinger Street, had egg tarts and iced yin yeung. Then took the escalators to the mid-levels, where we sort of lost directions and took a bus to take us back to sea level. It was already rush-hour so we couldn't go to Sheung Wan and look at the old buildings and hoi mei shops. Ended the 2-day 'exploration' with a shanghaiese dinner at Elements.
Never realised how boring HK could be - especially when it's raining. I wish Adam was staying in HK a little longer, then we could have taken him to the new territories and the outer islands. We had thought about going to the museums when it was raining, but then come to think of it, we've got some crappy museums here in HK. Wish we had something like the V&A, the british museum, national gallery and the NPG. Seriously, I'm missing London already (it's only my third day back!), and its weather. Yes, the weather. I hate this heat and humidity, and the bloody typhoon.
Wednesday evening, it was around half ten when I checked my inbox and found an e-mail from the Embassy of Japan in London. In the next second I saw the words 'awarded' 'scholarship' 'congratulations'. I couldn't believe my eyes. And then I saw 'Osaka University', a little set back...obviously I'm thrilled to have been awarded the scholarship, but for months I had been imagining my life at Kyodai. Anyway, I love Osaka, too. And it's really close to Kyoto anyway. So - YAY! I'm feeling good this is definitely one of my greatest achievements (okay we'll shush about the fact that there were only 3 applicants for a maximum of 4 scholarships - hey I did beat the other 2 guys from Cambridge though, makes me feel a little better - me being the only student awarded the scholarship from Britain).
The law internship started on Thursday. It's an unpaid work experience and lasts for six weeks. I'm now working at Exchange Square in Central. Considering it's an international law firm based in the US, the HK office is very tiny, with only 5 lawyers (1 partner, 1 counsel and 3 associates), 2 secretaries and 2 interns (incl. me). I haven't been given much work/responsibility yet, since I'm a non-law student and don't know much about law. But I did, on the first day, get to attend a meeting with an important client and listened in to a conference call with lawyers and accountants in London! This project the firm is working on now is quite exciting, but obviously I can't say anymore here 'cause of the confidentiality agreement. Even though I'm only shadowing and all I've done so far is a lot of document reading, the internship is quite challenging (the partner says I'll be given an assignment to do soon - a presentation to the lawyers in the office!) as I have to spend a lot of time reading things that I have never seen before, whereas in my previous work experience, although I was given actual work to do, the work then was repetitive and a bit boring, not challenging at all. I still need to think carefully whether I really want to go into law after graduation, because there are a lot of business/finance aspects to commercial law, which I'm not used to.
It's finally the weekend - the week has been so busy and packed with things that for the first time I didn't feel the jetlag at all! Usually, whenever I fly from London to HK, I would go to bed at night only to wake up 3-4 hours later and find myself wide awake, can't sleep and can only go onto the internet for several hours before watching the sunrise. But this time, I've been so busy I've been having 7-8 hours sleep every night. And now it's Friday night, I can finally stay up a little late and blog. Still, I have many things to do this weekend. For example, have to find out about mobile phone price plans in Japan, write e-mails to my two host families in Osaka and Kobe, go to the local library to take out a book on commercial law (to prep myself), get ingredients to bake cakes...
Can't stay up any longer, Mum and I have plans for tomorrow - shopping at Harvey Nichols (sale up to 90% off!) before a lunch buffet with my aunt at a local hotel.
Met Dad's american friend (whom he met as a student at CUHK), who is now a college professor in Iowa, and had drinks at Elements. Greg took one of his students, Adam, and his wife with him. It turns out Greg knows Prof. Ian Reader (professor of japanese religion at Manchester). Anyway the next two days (monday and tuesday) Sam and I took Adam around town. It's his second visit so he's already seen the typical touristy sites. Yesterday we took him to TST, then Mongkok where it rained like hell; surprisingly I enjoyed the part where we walked around Apliu Street market and then had dinner at the streetside siu choi wong (小菜王). We ended the day at a pub on Knutsford Terrace.
On Tuesday we were supposed to go to Macau. Then the typhoon came along so we couldn't go. After lunch we went to the exhibition centre and had a look around the comic/anime fair. That was actually quite fun - seeing all these otaku and weird people cosplaying. After that we trekked all the way to Quarry Bay (on the tram - took a zillion years to get there) and went into the film archive, only to be disappointed by the exhibition-under-construction. So we went back to Central and walked around Pottinger Street, had egg tarts and iced yin yeung. Then took the escalators to the mid-levels, where we sort of lost directions and took a bus to take us back to sea level. It was already rush-hour so we couldn't go to Sheung Wan and look at the old buildings and hoi mei shops. Ended the 2-day 'exploration' with a shanghaiese dinner at Elements.
Never realised how boring HK could be - especially when it's raining. I wish Adam was staying in HK a little longer, then we could have taken him to the new territories and the outer islands. We had thought about going to the museums when it was raining, but then come to think of it, we've got some crappy museums here in HK. Wish we had something like the V&A, the british museum, national gallery and the NPG. Seriously, I'm missing London already (it's only my third day back!), and its weather. Yes, the weather. I hate this heat and humidity, and the bloody typhoon.
Wednesday evening, it was around half ten when I checked my inbox and found an e-mail from the Embassy of Japan in London. In the next second I saw the words 'awarded' 'scholarship' 'congratulations'. I couldn't believe my eyes. And then I saw 'Osaka University', a little set back...obviously I'm thrilled to have been awarded the scholarship, but for months I had been imagining my life at Kyodai. Anyway, I love Osaka, too. And it's really close to Kyoto anyway. So - YAY! I'm feeling good this is definitely one of my greatest achievements (okay we'll shush about the fact that there were only 3 applicants for a maximum of 4 scholarships - hey I did beat the other 2 guys from Cambridge though, makes me feel a little better - me being the only student awarded the scholarship from Britain).
The law internship started on Thursday. It's an unpaid work experience and lasts for six weeks. I'm now working at Exchange Square in Central. Considering it's an international law firm based in the US, the HK office is very tiny, with only 5 lawyers (1 partner, 1 counsel and 3 associates), 2 secretaries and 2 interns (incl. me). I haven't been given much work/responsibility yet, since I'm a non-law student and don't know much about law. But I did, on the first day, get to attend a meeting with an important client and listened in to a conference call with lawyers and accountants in London! This project the firm is working on now is quite exciting, but obviously I can't say anymore here 'cause of the confidentiality agreement. Even though I'm only shadowing and all I've done so far is a lot of document reading, the internship is quite challenging (the partner says I'll be given an assignment to do soon - a presentation to the lawyers in the office!) as I have to spend a lot of time reading things that I have never seen before, whereas in my previous work experience, although I was given actual work to do, the work then was repetitive and a bit boring, not challenging at all. I still need to think carefully whether I really want to go into law after graduation, because there are a lot of business/finance aspects to commercial law, which I'm not used to.
It's finally the weekend - the week has been so busy and packed with things that for the first time I didn't feel the jetlag at all! Usually, whenever I fly from London to HK, I would go to bed at night only to wake up 3-4 hours later and find myself wide awake, can't sleep and can only go onto the internet for several hours before watching the sunrise. But this time, I've been so busy I've been having 7-8 hours sleep every night. And now it's Friday night, I can finally stay up a little late and blog. Still, I have many things to do this weekend. For example, have to find out about mobile phone price plans in Japan, write e-mails to my two host families in Osaka and Kobe, go to the local library to take out a book on commercial law (to prep myself), get ingredients to bake cakes...
Can't stay up any longer, Mum and I have plans for tomorrow - shopping at Harvey Nichols (sale up to 90% off!) before a lunch buffet with my aunt at a local hotel.
Wednesday 5 August 2009
oops...
it seems that I have almost abandoned this blog. well I shall resume writing here now. but then, probably by tomorrow I'll stop writing again. Tomorrow I'm starting a internship at the Hong Kong office of a US law firm. As a non-law student, I have no idea about what I'll be doing, or anything at all.
anyway, I shall update occasionally with my life as a law intern in HK, and by the end of September I shall be a happy bunny looking forward to a year of study abroad at Kyoto University.
P.S. last night I got really excited when I found out that the Japanese Consulate-General in HK is located just 3 storeys below the law firm! I can now spend half the lunch break in the Japanese library. Plus visa application process is now easier and more convenient.
anyway, I shall update occasionally with my life as a law intern in HK, and by the end of September I shall be a happy bunny looking forward to a year of study abroad at Kyoto University.
P.S. last night I got really excited when I found out that the Japanese Consulate-General in HK is located just 3 storeys below the law firm! I can now spend half the lunch break in the Japanese library. Plus visa application process is now easier and more convenient.
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