Exchange Diary (CityU Students)

In western calendar, Sunday should be the start of a week. But in my world, Monday is the real beginning of all my actions to be done weekly. This morning I woke up at seven and decided to take a visit around the neighborhood, because I don’t have lessons on Monday. Lucky boy, am I not?

I had walked for some time until I reached a huge football field in which there were many youngsters playing football, with some of their parents watching their game. One of those parents told me that his son is a football player of the Copenhagen Primary Football League and there would always be matches against teams from outside CPH. He was from Iraq and had been living in Denmark for more than 20 years. During the conversation, he told me something about the Chinese people in Denmark, especially Copenhagen and he felt surprised for those Chinese about their knowledge in setting up businesses around the world, which made me kind of proud. After that I took a photo of them to memorize this interesting stroll round my place.

In the rest of my life I will never forget today, when I almost ruined my fingers! It’s doomed to be an unforgettable day since I took my first exam outside my motherland. I was always dreaming about today but in reality, things could always go the other way, like this one.

It’s an 4-hour open-book exam where guys were supposed to bring their own laptops and printers. We could either do the exam in the laptop and print out 2 copies or use hand-writing with the help of carbon papers.

We guys as international students would definitely meet trouble then, so I experienced the painful 4 hours afterwards. There was only one case study with few questions, but we were expected to answer for 10 pages. Eventually, most of us did answer in around 9 pages, including myself, but it was still less than the expected.

When I finally put those answers into two separate folders, I could hardly feel my fingers, especially those being too friendly with the pen during the exam. There are still 4 similar ones left, and I just want to say: God, help... I miss you so much, Hong Kong!!!

‘Jungle bell jungle bell jungle all the way…’. When it’s December, the theme could only be the enjoyable Christmas. When I was a child, I loved Christmas because I wanted to receive gifts from my parents. But this year, it means much more than that. What I want for this year is the feeling of Christmas… It snowed today. Amazing!

When I woke up, I was so excited to find a fairy tales world decorated with pure white snow. Through the window, I saw my neighbor, an old man from Germany, who was taking his retriever for a walk again, so I ran fast to take out the camera and quickly shot a photo of them to memorize this moment. They looked so cute in the photo and I couldn’t help to play with the retriever in the evening.

Oh, God, it’s really enthusiastic and cutie. Celebration of Christmas in a snow world is the way I love and the dream come true… I love Denmark.

One benefit of living in a local private house is that you can always learn the traditional food from the typically local persons. David and Heidi are both my housemates. David is now working in a local firm but Heidi is just a freshman of the Copenhagen University. They are both fairly kind, though actually Danes are all very friendly.

Today I joined David and Heidi to cook, though actually I was just standing beside during the whole process. They made pancakes, salad and desserts which are all tasty. After having been eating Chinese traditional food for a long while, I finally found a chance to try something really traditional of Denmark. I know I was always lucky. What a meaningful day.

Last night I received a message from a friend inviting me to her birthday party tonight. I was so happy since it’s my first time to join a birthday party in Denmark and it could be really cool when celebrating with local friends.

The place is just two stops away from where I live but it’s not easy to go there because of the everlasting rain of Denmark. When I arrived, I found a lot of different desserts and snacks. Surprisingly, those were all made by her friends! Foreign girls are always so good at making food or desserts by themselves. So cool.

During the party, we played Uno Cards, ate and chatted. At around 12 o’clock I came back home and turned to my revision for the remaining 3 exams again. Play hard and study harder. Exchange exam is not just a piece of cake when you are supposed to read the whole textbook to understand the questions. I mean, no PPT materials for most of the courses and what you can count on are those solid books only. Don’t be lazy, man.