Update on the Basics

I’ve finished the first week of classes and am about to embark on week two. My professors are uniformly serious, professional, and seemingly in great command of the subject material. I expect to learn a lot – I am tackling some new subjects and delving deeper into Chinese law with International Business Transactions, Chinese Company Law (think corporate law), Chinese Property Law (very political!), and Legal Systems and Methods in China. My classmates are diverse in age and origin – Chinese J.D. students, a handful of American exchange J.D. students, and people from many other Asian nations getting Masters of Laws or J.D.’s here in Hong Kong. The Graduate Law Centre – located in the Bank of America Tower in the heart of Central, or downtown Hong Kong – is small but new and state of the art; the worst thing about it is there is no library to speak of and it is not open on Sunday (I can’t believe I’m saying that is a negative, but law school has made me into this person). Luckily I do not expect to have a typical workload this semester and thus will have little need of workspace on Sundays.

Though blurry, here I am at the entrance to the Law Centre, which takes up just one floor of the BOA Tower.


In other news, I continue my post-graduation job search (blergh) and work for my law journal from a distance. Telecommuting.

I am making friends. Last night I had dinner with a friend of a law school friend, a New Yorker working in market research in Hong Kong; she and I hit it off immediately (thanks for the introduction, Elaine!). Between the people I already knew living in Hong Kong, school mates, and friends of friends, it looks like I will have a stable network of people to spend time with and rely upon in the case of emergency. Once again, I am blessed in this regard.

Oh! And I have an apartment and address to call my own at last! I will be sharing a two bedroom flat with an American (another New Yorker) teaching English here. The lease starts on Wednesday, so I will soon be moving. It is a great deal, because the place is recently refurbished, gets plenty of light, is in a convenient and safe neighborhood, has a kitchen AND living room (though each are pint-sized) and is well within my housing budget. I am very excited. I’ll send my address via email to concerned parties within the week, as requested.