Escape to Peace and Quiet

Though I’ve been in places and cities with many more people concentrated in areas much smaller, Hong Kong seems dense enough for me to miss the relative lack of people back home—in Thousand Oaks or on campus in La Jolla.

There’s always constant noise just going on. I don’t know if this means that the city is just getting to me or if I just need a break and more time to adjust, honestly. I don’t even live in the center of the city, but out my window, I see all the cargo ships coming in and out, frequently honking their horns at each other.

In the depths of the night, local students yell across the halls to each other in Cantonese about stuff they couldn’t possibility save until the morning—an occurrence whose impact I’ve mitigated through the use of earplugs. They also go talking in class as the professor tries to lecture, which has prompted me to sit closer to the front but to no avail.

I don’t know what it is about here that makes it so loud, but I’m ready to get back to a place where the whisper is valued and everyone was taught indoor voices versus outdoor voices at a critical age.

Though I still very much enjoy living here, the noise and constant commotion has gotten to the point where the rush for food at lunch annoys me. Despite the fact that there are a handful of seats in the canteen at such times, the crowds themselves and the fact that everyone has to talk louder just to be heard over everyone else make me order my food to go.

It’s all very trivial, I know, but it’s been bugging me.

So to escape (partially) from the crowds, which on a small campus are nearly everywhere, I’ve found solace in a couple of places. In front of Main Building there is hardly a soul. Sometimes I’d see a faculty member and more often I would see a janitor keeping up the grounds by sweeping leaves.

The other is the courtyard in front of the Journalism building (I believe it’s officially named May Hall). In the morning there, I’ve seen people practicing taichi, but during lunch hour, there is hardly anyone occupying the many benches and several tables. Instead of the often crowded and more often noisy Global Lounge, I sit out in that courtyard to work and study and write blog posts as my battery permits.

And so I escape in part—escape from noise and commotion; escape from those oppressing crowds as I ready myself for chit-chatty lectures and yelling in the halls.

Copyright © 2009 James Philip Jee
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