Chapter 94

While I was grateful that my friends from UW Optom took time out of their day to warn me about the train situation, I had only received these messages on the actual train back. I replied back thanking them for the information but also told them that I was already on the bullet train back. 

It was then that I received another piece of information. As of Sunday (the current date), the clinic was on a temporary closure until further notice. As it turns out, all that running around to get on a train ASAP could’ve been avoided. I could’ve stayed in China way longer. 

With google maps working again, I turned my attention to how I would get back to the student residence of Hung Hom from the bullet train’s destination station of West Kowloon Station. With tensions so high in the city and already one incident regarding protests happening on train tracks earlier that day, I really needed to optimize a route home that touched upon the least amount of police vs protester conflicts. 

I got a little worried. The news outlets I’ve been seeing on instagram and facebook would have me believe that the police are pretty much arresting anybody who looked like they belonged to a university. It was kind of weird to think that a keychain or lanyard associated with higher education can now be a symbol that may cause a reaction in the police. It seemed weird but out of precaution, I did double check my bag and sweater for any undesired logos.

When the train finally arrived. The passengers were all welcomed into a completely empty West Kowloon station. The station itself was enormous. There were multiple floors filled with multiple shops. All of which had closed for the day and have been deserted with not even a light in some of the corridors. Straight from the exit of customs, you can see the main space. Which had all the tell tale signs of a vibrant and lively area that was very recently abandoned.

Seeing immediate threats in sight, I followed the crowd of the other bullet train passengers and headed towards the exits. Unfortunately, as it turns out, the exits were all closed off. Worse still, it was closed off and policemen stood on the other side of the doors. Although it seemed pretty obvious that they were there to ensure no one entered, probably to preserve the last method of train transportation going to and from the city, on the inside, it was the same as if they had locked us in.

While this seemed bad, it wasn’t a hopeless situation. If you simply roamed around the station a bit, you’d very quickly find that was a method of exodus. It was kind of hard to miss in fact. Just past the main area of the station was an extraordinarily long line to taxi services. Which, although running at a very low capacity, was still working. 

While I’m sure it was going to be a little bit more costly to use the taxis over public transportation, the fact that they were so accessible and offered a way out of the station had everyone lining up. It looked like the best chance at a way out. But I wanted to try my luck a bit more before settling down on this decision. To that end, I decided to roam a bit more on the off chance there was an exit that wasn’t closed off yet. 

I think it’s important to note that I wasn’t roaming mindlessly. I had noticed a group of somewhat loud teenagers being silenced once they made their way to an exit that was facing the harbor. The fact that there was no sound after a while kind of pointed to the fact that they made it out. Sure enough, when I decided to check it out, I saw the exit. 

There was a small shop that had their door open. From my best guess, I would say someone picked the lock and that the situation was not an intentional one. Regardless of how it came to be, I made my way to the door and from there, I saw that it had an exit to the outside. Good enough for me. I didn’t want to stick around to find out if this train station would become a location of international intrigue today. I very casually walked through the door and then out the other end. 

It was easy to pass through as the store, which I believe sold beauty products, was not trashed. After I had made it to the outside of the station, I walked around a bit until I came upon a street sign to get my bearings. I quickly came to realize that I was at the Dolphin Sunset street. 

The Dolphin Sunset street area was easily recognizable on a map as it was the area that was a short walk from the ferries. Even better, I knew this area in my mental map and can take the route to my student residence from here by memory. With that, I started my very long trek along the famous harbor of Hong Kong back to Hung Hom. 

I remember that walk. It was the first time I got a glimpse of the effects of the protests firsthand. It felt kind of weird to think about just how normal it seems. It was around 4-5pm in the afternoon now and the sun was shining still. Despite all the ongoings I just left behind, the harbor still glowed with the fervor of a million lights sparkling on the water. It was peaceful. 

When I made it back to campus, I messaged my classmates. Then, we met up. I told them about my scary but quite uneventful brush with the train station and a quick chat about how things went, we moved on to the main agenda. 

There was only one thing we had to discuss. What do we do now? 

Apart from our clinical supervisor (the Caucasian American), our Canadian group of four also had a residence supervisor. She was like a don of sorts and spoke English quite well. This was helpful because she was our liaison as well as for most of the other international students. We contacted her first. But she couldn’t really help out much. Then what followed was a slew of very similar conversations all leading nowhere. 

I know I’ve mentioned that there was discontent with the Waterloo Clerkship Coordinators a few chapters ago but the thing is, I didn’t know about any of that until around this time. This journal is written from the future (obviously) so I felt it made sense to mention the discontent stuff when it was relevant in the story. In the actual timeline though? It was around this period where I really dug into the schism between the Clerkship Coordinators and their logic. This is because I was about to witness their irrational behavior first hand. 

To put it plainly, the coordinators had literally nothing to contribute. If I’m really honest about it, I felt like they were just wasting our time.

During our chats back and forth, I specifically only wanted to know the answer to two questions. 

1. Should our group of Canadians leave Hong Kong? It was getting fairly heated outside with the protests. It seemed like a good time to pull out.
   • The response we got? They’re not sure. From what they gather, which I would assume is not a lot, there wasn’t a clear cut case of the school shutting down for good. They said they were thinking about our education and how pulling out would mean we would definitely be missing out on our experience. 

• So that begs the question, if our education and experiences are important…

2. Would there be a place for us at another clinic where we can complete our necessary clinical hours to graduate should we decide to leave HK?
   • The response? Again. They’re not sure. To which I said, “What does that mean?”

I emailed and called the coordinators explicitly again and again asking specifically about this topic. If we leave, will there be a place for us that can be arranged. Again and again though, there was never any answer to this. I got more and more annoyed with every interaction. I wasn’t asking about Hong Kong stuff to our coordinators back in Canada, I was asking about clerkship information back in Canada. But again. They just dodged the question.

From my point of view, it seemed like they were saying: “We aren’t even going to look to see if there are clinics that can take you until your school officially closes.”

This not only seemed like they were just lazy but also seemed like they really didn’t care about us at all. In fact, as the days turned into a week. The emails felt less and less like it was because the school was worried for our safety and more like the school was trying to gauge how much of a digital papertrail they should establish so that if something happened, they can say they “at least tried.”

At some point nearing the end of the week, I decided to dig around a bit to see what may be the outcome should I need to return to Canada. This was important. We all needed to complete our clinical hours. I mean, you can’t just write off 2 months of clinical time. 

The obvious answer to that is to go back to the clinics we were previously at. I mean, we were on a split rotation where we were in a clinic for 2 months then in Hong Kong for 2 months. In this situation, when we left our first clinics, it should have remained vacant. Meaning we can go right back to finish things there. It was simple. Or at least it should have been. When I brought this up to the coordinators, they first tried to ignore me. Then, after I told them I would just ask the other clinic to see if they can host me again, the coordinators told me that I can’t just do this. As for the reason? The clinic I was previously at now hosted another student. 

Finally, I got some information that I didn’t know about from the Clerkship Coordinators. Sure it was horrible news but hey, now at least I know that should I make it back to Toronto. I definitely won’t have a spot anywhere. The conclusion to that was easy to come to. If the coordinators were replacing me at the clinic for half a term, they must have had to pull another student out of another rotation. The fact that this was so far into a term already means that the issue has not worked out easily and that my leaving of the Toronto clinic was the last method the school could use to help fulfill a classmate’s required clinical hours. Simply put, the school was running low on options for scheduling flexibility. 

It was around this stage that I would reach out and ask my fellow classmates about their experiences with the Waterloo clerkship coordinators. Specifically I wanted to know how likely it is that they would have room for me somewhere if I left my rotation now. The answer was not encouraging. By all accounts. It seemed that there was no way I could make up my missing clinical requirement for half a term of missing hours. It was simply too big an ask to be placed at some place when we were 2 months into a term already. I mean, sure they did do this change with the classmate that replaced me but apparently that’s where they drew the line. No more compromises after that…(yeah, I know…SMH).

As a last ditch effort, I asked if I could share the hours with my fellow classmates at the clinic. The coordinator’s response? 

“If it gets that dangerous in HK. Leave first then talk to us. We’ll figure it out then.”

Fine, if they weren’t going to even ask the supervisor at the clinic about this, I’ll do it. I mean, I was on good terms with the supervisor so I didn’t think anything of it. 

When I explained the situation to my old supervisor,  they told me that they would contact Waterloo on my behalf to see if they could take both myself and my classmate who filled my shoes as interns. They were understanding. A kindness that led unfortunately to nowhere because this idea was shut down by the coordinators right away. 

I wasn’t around for the next bit but from what I heard from my friends who were staff at the Toronto clinic, my old supervisor had a very heated discussion with my Waterloo Clerkship Coordinators. I’m not sure how the conversation started but by the end, the clinic supervisor questioned why Waterloo Clerkship Coordinators were going out of their way to be unhelpful to their student who was in Hong Kong and already dealing with trying to escape the dangers of an international incident. 

There was no answer that made sense. The Waterloo Clerkship Coordinators seemed to have no answer outside of that they were adamant on doing everything “by the book”. It felt like a ridiculous notion. My supervisor was on my side and unfortunately, they escalated it with the Waterloo higher-ups. It didn’t really go anywhere though it did kind of sour relations between my then-supervisor’s clinic and the Waterloo Clerkship Coordinators. 

Speaking of which, between all of that back and forth, a good week has now gone by. During that entire time, all the students were stuck in limbo. The international students, myself and the group included, weren’t sure what to do. 

For me…I looked at all the options available. All two of them…or so it would seem at first…

Stay in HK. Leave for Canada. 

Or?