I have read a lot about other people's year in review posts with fascination. I found it nice that they were able to sum up everything they did that year and see the goals they wanted to do the next. Now that I am a certifiable aDuLt, I wanted to try the same. When I first thought about the things I did this year, I thought it would not be a long list. After further introspection, I think I may have too much I can talk about. This may end up being a long post...

Hong Kong

I actually started out the year in Hong Kong! I love HK, and I would go back there without any hesitation. There are so many nights where I think about being there again. I loved the atmosphere, the hype beasts, the food, and the transport. The reason I was in Hong Kong was to do a study abroad at HKU. I am still surprised I ended up going as it was going to be the longest time I would be away from home, and would be half way across the world from my family.

Starting out

I would be lying if I said the first days were easy breezy. I did not know the language or where anything was. I ended up landing on a Thursday, which meant I was vegetarian, but I did not know where to find food, let alone anything vegetarian. I went to a McDonald's and just ended up eating meat. Additionally, Hong Kong can be very hilly, especially since HKU is next to Victoria Peak. Well, since I love walking, I explored everywhere around the area I lived in just by walking around. This quickly led to me having shin splints to start off my trip :(. It hurt to walk for about a week after, but I learned that those slopes are not to mess with. I had to deal with moving in and buying all the necessary items like pillows and blankets. I learned how to pay for stuff, as sometimes my card would work and other times it would not. It was a great experience in independence, and as the days went on, I grew more confident in my abilities and learned that the mistakes I was making/going to make were completely normal. That is when I really started to love the city.

Classes

HKU was known for its exchange program, so luckily there were a large amount of exchange students. It was easy to mingle and meet other people, since a lot of students were new to HK and the university. However, a lot of students were on pass/fail basis. This gave them more freedom to go places, see more events, and spend time in the city without worrying about school. I, on the other hand, was not. I tried to get at least some classes I was taking to be pass/fail, as 3 classes were not technically required by my degree. I was unsuccessful, so all my grades were going to transfer. Therefore, I had to put in the work to do well. Adding on to that, I was used to the standards I had at my own university, but I did not know what they were going to be like at HKU. I can now say that they there was a greater focus on exams, and said exams were much more difficult than I was used to. I have not ever struggled in a math class in college until I was in Hong Kong. The flipside of this is I found myself learning a lot as well. The material was all completely new, so even if it was harder, I did actually enjoy it.

The classes I ended up taking were Chinese (Mandarin), Quantum Information and Computing, System Architecture and Distributed Computing, Intro to Math Analysis (the first half of real analysis), and Network Models in Operational Research. Chinese was my favorite as it was more relaxing than difficult (and I got to learn a bit of a new language). Quantum was really interesting, but the physics side of it can still be confusing to me. System Architecture had us experiment with a lot of new technology like AWS, Hadoop, JMS, and RPC. I really enjoyed the projects of that class, and the teacher was super knowledgeable. Intro the Math analysis was very rigorous and difficult, but I learned a lot and put the most effort into that class (it was the first class I took that I could not completely finish a test in). Networks had a lot of proofs that were interesting and had a very interesting set of problems that I did not know about. I liked the theory in that class.

The things I saw

If I could go back and do it again, I wish I explored just a bit more. I definitely did a decent amount, but after a while, I saw myself going to the same places out of comfort. I think that is generally okay, as I still got to see a lot. One of my favorite trips was to Cheung Chau Island.

It is a pretty small island, as you can walk almost the whole thing in like an hour. They had the best buns (they are famous for that and the bun festival), had a nice beach, and excellent mango mochi. The people were super nice, and it just felt really nice being there. The ferry ride over was also really fun to go through. They also host a bun festival, which was incredibly fun (even if it was really hot).

I also had a small excursion to Tokyo, as my friend lived there. I love Tokyo. It was really nice, the food was excellent (actual ramen is so good), and everyone is extremely polite. There was a lot I did not expect, and it was truly enlightening to be there.

Finally, here is just a bunch of places I saw!

After

I ended up leaving HK at the end of May. Shortly after (I think a week after), the protests started happening so I really just missed them. I honestly do not know anything about politics, especially considering China and HK. I did not know that was going to happen, but it is really sad to see the places I have walked and enjoyed be completely changed now. I thought it was important to mention what is happening there, but I fully support Hong Kong and hope the best for their future. I would love to go back and see it all again, no doubt in my mind. I will leave this here for any readers.

https://github.com/hongkonggong/beyond-lennon-walls

Summer

Summer started with a nice weekend attending Governor's Ball! I saw Tyler, the Creator and Playboi Carti. By principle, I never really take photos at concerts and such as I really hate missing even a single moment of it. I had a great time, and then the next day I went to Montreal with two friends. We saw plenty of murals, ate a lot of great food, and just overall had an enjoyable time.

Spotify

This was a nice break, as I then started my internship at Spotify! I had a great summer working on the Runway/Catapult squad. I am usually used to working on front-end so it was very different being on the other side. I learned a lot, contributed to open source, and am finally going to return there soon! The only thing I did not like was my hour and a half commute in the morning :(. It was tough sledding at first, but I got used to it and getting up at 6am everyday did not turn out to be so bad. That being said, I would never like to do that again. The other interns were fantastic, and I hope to see some of them again very soon.

Last Semester

After that, I entered my last real semester of school. It was definitely weird at first as I found it difficult to try as I already secured a job. However, I really ended up enjoying this one and even had an important addition to my life!

Classes

Since I have been taking mostly just CS and Math classes up until this point, I had to finish my degree and take some required courses. Therefore, I ended up with a schedule of Journalism, Computer Graphics, Software Dev, and Tech and Human Values. I was a bit afraid as humanity classes can end up boring me sometimes. However, journalism turned out to be one of my favorite classes I took here. I did not realize how important the news is and how much I needed to learn about it. I wish I had more time in uni to go back and do some intersection of CS and journalism. There is definitely something there. I also enjoyed Computer Graphics as I learned a lot about WebGL/OpenGL. I have been interested in graphics for some time, as there is a nice combination with math that I could apply. We ended up creating a ray tracer and the final images came out pretty cool!

I think I ended up doing at least okay in every class (I know I definitely passed which is all that matters). I think a part of me will miss school. I love learning, and school is honestly an easy way of doing that. I mean I have been in school since I was 6, so it was an uncomfortable feeling leaving it. However, I know moving forward is the only direction we can go in, and there is so much to look forward to!

White Ferrari

Bad luck to talk... on these rides...

I actually ended up getting a cat this semester. My sister has a dog (from hell), and I was convinced over the summer that I could take care of a cat. I thought about it for a while, and decided that I could handle it. More importantly, that I actually really would want one. I think it was one of the best decisions I have made in a long time. I got Rari, short for White Ferrari, beginning of September as a kitten. She is still very young, but she is super fun to be with and loves everyone. Of course, she is still a baby so she is learning a lot, but she is very affectionate and I really would never want to leave her side.

Since the beginning, she was never a problem and was honestly super easy to take care of. I never thought I would be a cat owner, but now I can't imagine not being one.

Conclusion

There is actually so much I left out. Looking through my pictures, I could have talked about HK so much more. I did not mention my DC and NY trips (second one) at all. Not even mentions of concerts or small things my friends and I did. I did not realize it would be so hard to go through my year. Either way, I think it is much more important to look ahead into the next one. I think I should set goals and such, but part of me does not want to do that. 2020 will be a really different year for me, and I think I am just going to let whatever happens happen. I will try to write more, as I think this is pretty fun to do, but I do not want to pressure myself to do it. I just want to let myself be free (I guess that could be my goal of next year). Let's hope I keep this up to write another one of these again! I loved 2019. It was not always great (these are highlights and there were obvious lowlights), but I think it will be memorable for me. Maybe it is just small minded to think that, as there are many years that I do not remember and probably thought that, but I really hope I can remember this one really well. Goodbye 2019 and to the 2010s in general.