Exchange Diary (CityU Students)

Monday – 21 Sept 2009

Anyone who happens to come to Aberdeen would agree that the university and the city were beautiful and magnificent. I didn’t quite get what a “granite city” meant until I finally had the chance to experience it first-handedly, and I was amazed. The whole city, especially the university itself, had a middle age odour that was attributable to its many ancient chapels, churches, bridges, and houses that were so consistently structured with grey granites. On a sunny afternoon (and there are many those days, surprisingly), one would feel every moment he/she was in a scenery painting. No matter what the background was: King’s Street, Seaton Park, King’s College or the breathtaking 2 miles of endless coastline and sweeping navy horizon of the North Sea, one would at once feel lucky to be able to study here.

Apart from admiring the surroundings, I spent the day with students from Bulgaria, France and Germany. They were my housemates. We would usually sit and chat while lying on the lawn. With the waving shadows of the trees and the cool refreshing breezes, life is in every breath at its best.

Tuesday – 22 Sept 2009

After the drilling Fresher Week parties yesterday night, it was time to meet with the study advisor for course selection and administration formalities. Generally, things were well organized and people or staffs were always ready to assist you if you got any problem. However, sometimes even though people were kind and easily accessible that didn’t guarantee they were helpful. I got lost in the Union Street somehow today. While I was puzzling on the map, couples of locals approached me. They were so passionate that they would walk and guide me all the way until I reach the destination. The down side of the story? We all got lost at a point and another bunch of locals approached us. Eventually we found the right bus station to travel back to the residence. While I was waiting for the bus, we engaged into half an hour talk of Scotch culture, Scotch weather and Scotch music. It was so tempting to raise the question-“whether Scotches know they are Scotches before knowing they are people?” Though I didn’t raise it, an old gent mentioned it quite without knowingly nevertheless.



Wednesday – 23 Sept 2009

“Never walk the Seaton Park in the night!” said Ms Prather, “there are creepy people wandering there.” I was in the “survival guide in Aberdeen for international student” talk today in the Hub. The Seaton Park (Photo) was the fast track linking the Campus and Hillheads where most of the student halls locate.

But in a fine sunny morning, like this morning, the Seaton Park was the most excellent place for sports and stalking. Together with couples of my newly met friends, football we played on a vast grass land. It was as fun as challenging, for English was the only common language among our international team consisting of people from all the continents. As we kept on kicking the ball, people joined in. What was supposed to be a 7-to-7 match came out to be a 13-to-13 bull fight. Lucky, the field was large enough to accommodate all of us and more.


Thursday – 24 Sept 2009

This afternoon the Student Association (AUSA), Celtic Society and the Scottish Dancing Society organized a “Scottish Culture Day.” Wherein we were treated with the treasures of Scotland – whisky, tunes of the bag-pipe, Gaelic poems, and traditional Scottish food stuffs.

It was my very first time to taste whisky. Some of the cups were really smoky so much that it was as if the alcohol was burning in my throat. Nevertheless, after some endeavour now I knew what single malt meant. (There was a Whisky Society inside the tent just to treat everyone whisky whiling giving everyone a little education of the liquid.)

We also met with the Rector of the University. The Rector was a very senior person who had deep connections with the University, the students and alumni. Only the ancient universities in the UK had rectors. The Rector taught us to say “how are you” in Gaelic, the ancient Scottish tongue.

After which and several rounds of demonstration of Scottish dancing, all of the audience including myself went to the floor and learnt the steps. Fortunately the steps were not too difficult to apprehend and we had a lot of fun dancing with the pipes.


Friday – 25 Sept 2009

Coping with an unfamiliar course registration system created enough troubles, but when these formalities were settled, as they did, lessons began. Since my exchange was on the institutional level, I had full liberty in choosing what courses to take. Some of the courses held welcome lecture today. I signed up for the Greek and Latin classes. I was so surprise and was too happy to find out that I would be having lectures and tutorials in the King’s College. (Photo was taken at the Elphinstone Hall, right next to the King’s College.)

One thing that must be mentioned was the way the Aberdeen City Council deal with the conflict of development. The Marichal College, one of the two amalgamations of the University of 400 years plus history, was under a preservation project. While on the other side of the city, where the world famous Donald Trump was buying off massive pieces of land for his golf course, the Council and the people in the whole Aberdeenshire decided by voting. These reminded me of how things were and were still going to be done in Hong Kong. Yes, the situations were different but sometimes we should not compromise to a “balance.”

Labels: 2009/2010 Semester A