08/12/2022
Day 8: H**e from CUHK
“What’s your main takeaway from GLOBE?”
It must be the necessity of taking off and seeing the world. Traveling is experiencing, and experience is inherently personal. Watching a movie capturing the beauty of Paris may still leave you in awe, but that’s from the perspective of the director, probably with biases. Seeing the city being chaotic, undisciplined, artsy with your own eyes, with you being a part of the unfiltered scene, is something else. Though it has only been a few months, Copenhagen has, to my surprise, become a safe haven to return to. And without that, I would only be a drifter.
Exploring the unknown takes courage. It is with some pride that I did (and survived) a solo trip to Vienna. All the new adventures, culture shocks, conversations with people of different nationalities are for sure thrilling. But be prepared for the flipped sides of the thrills as well — there’ll be times when you feel unsafe in another country. There’ll be times when the pandemic in Hong Kong leaves you unprepared for sudden goodbyes. There’ll be times when you don’t get a joke with a specific cultural reference, feeling a bit out of place. There’ll be times when anxiety kicks in because you used up all your EU roaming data. These happen a lot.
But the frustrations should not and will not dismiss all the joys gained from the journey shared with my dearest batchmates from the States and Denmark. I must say even seeing how other GLOBErs made the most of HK despite the restrictions makes me realize I’ve been oblivious to the gems in HK this whole time. GLOBE has taught me to explore and embrace. My home-city and the rest of the world. The ups and downs. Embrace all of it.