Orientation & Monks

Some important things to note:

#1 - Orientation
Orientation was on Thursday morning, so all 342 of us new IASP students (there are about 500 IASP students total) packed in to Lee Shau Kee Building, BUT, it was really really really BORING. A nice lady from the Health Centre (we have a doctor's surgery on campus - just behind my college in fact) spent about 20 minutes telling us about washing our hands regularly and to be aware of the new strain of flu each year. We also had a man from Campus Security telling us to always lock our dormroom door, and not to leave one's laptop unattended. He then went on to show us pictures of different coloured pills of ecstacy, some crystal meth, and other assorted drugs, reminding us that we should not buy them.
Thank you Captain Obvious.
BUT, if you are a new IASP student, you must go, otherwise you could miss some important information - and they do give you a lot of information. Things like signing up for the University Sports Centre gym, various login systems for the computers around the campus (you have a different password for the campus wifi, Library computers, and for the lab/college computers >_<) how to get a China entry visa, etc etc.

#2 - Something for Nothing? Hahahahahahaha!
Nothing in HK is free. On Thursday night Chloe, her fellow countryman Dylan, and I went out to Lan Kwai Fook - the party area near both Central & Hong Kong Stations on HK Island. Not exactly cultural, as 90% of the people in the clubs and bars were foreigners, but we had a good time dancing at Dragon-I and Zinc, regardless. At one point when we were walking between clubs, I saw a monk just looking at a nice view of the city from a little side-street. He then noticed me, and raced up, put a bracelet on me and kissed my hand. It was so lovely. He did the same thing to Chloe and Dylan. THEN... he brought out a little cup with a few notes in it, started shaking it. He expected money, and when I gave him a note (a rather large one, thinking I was 'paying' for all of us) he grabbed on to Chloe and Dylan and expected them to cough up the same!
There's really no such thing a free lunch.