Saturday, September 28, 2013
Alvin, Wong Lung Yong, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Wednesday
After a long-haul
flight from Hong Kong for nearly 20 hours, I have finally stepped on Scotland,
which is the northernmost
place I have ever travelled to! Though it’s exciting, I can foresee that
settling down in an unfamiliar city is by no means easy. I have to finish
course registration which has yet to be confirmed, to make friends with my new people,
to get used to the new environment here and to buy a lot of stuff, say, kitchen
utensils, cutlery, bedding, stationery and many others.
Thursday
Today is my first
day having lessons at University of Strathclyde. For this semester, I can only
register 4 courses due to the university’s restriction but I’m supposed to take
more under our course structure. Nevertheless, I have successfully chosen the
classes I love the most. It helps comfort me a bit.
As a responsible student, I have
read the course outlines for each class and printed them out. I have also
borrowed the required textbooks from the library. Hope I’ll be able to enjoy them
and handle them at ease, since understanding the Scottish accent is just one
and only one of the many concerns I am facing to.
Friday
After a week of
intensive studying, this Saturday was a big day for many international students
as the university’s international society organized a field trip for us. They arranged
a coach and their senior members acted as our tour guides.
It’s a great chance to meet other
exchange students from around the globe. In the coach, we chatted and played
games together. They’re from Germany, France, Iceland, Spain and etc. We first
had a stop over in a cottage to take a break after a two-hour drive. Then we
walked uphill to the castle, at the same time, tasting the wonderful
countryside and the panoramic view at the sea from the coastline. Then we headed
back to the coach via a big garden and a farm full of lovely animals. It’s just
an amazing and unforgettable day that we not only took away photos but also the
treasurable friendship!
Saturday
If we talk about
supermarkets in the UK, “Sainsbury’s” and “Tesco ” are the first two names most
likely to pop up in our mind simply because they are having the largest number
of branches. Today I discovered another supermarket, which is definitely
unmissable for students, called ‘Al-di’, a discounter selling a wide variety of
food at a price about one-third lower than the other popular supermarkets. It
best fits the tight budget we have as a student and it largely cuts our money
spent on ingredients we buy for cooking. Indeed, sometimes it could be very
expensive.
Labels: 2012/2013 Semester B
Daisy, Li Sze Ting, Warsaw School of Economics (SGH), Poland
Monday
This day
I went on a city tour organized by SGH with around 200 exchange students. With
the introduction of history of every spot, such as the old town and the
National Park, I could feel the gap between this city and me became closer. It
was like a first event for all exchange students to get to know each other. We
made friends, took photos, had a nice Polish dinner in the old town and went
drinking Polish vodka at the end. My first vodka shot in Warsaw was fantastic!
Tuesday
It was
not a delightful day as we shared the pain of Polish people who had suffered
deaths and pains during the WWII. On a weekend, SGH was bringing us to Kraków which is a historical city in
the north of Poland. We first went to the Płaszów concentration camp, then we explored an underground salt mine and enjoyed Pierogi, the Polish
dumplings, as our lunch. At night, we had a tram party. It was much fun that we
kept greeting pedestrians and dancing in the moving tram until midnight.
Wednesday
Thursday
The best
way to understand Polish culture is to talk to local people. I was really lucky
to have a Polish roommate in Sabinki. Kasia and I always had different
perspectives on almost everything and we were both amazed by that. We were both
open-minded people so we could communicate well. It was so nice of her bringing
me to her hometown, Kłobuck, which takes few hours from Warsaw by bus. Despite meeting Kasia’s
family members for the first time as well as language barriers, they just
treated me perfectly. I was quite touched by them and felt fortunate that I
could build a strong bond with a foreign family. In this relationship, I could
totally feel it’s our hearts that matter, but not our languages or abilities.
Friday
Labels: 2012/2013 Semester B
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Vikki, Kan Wai Yi, Jönköping University, Sweden
18/2/2013 Monday
This is the first time I saw snow in my
life! The excitement of seeing snow was hard to suppress, my friends and I rushed out from our house once it was snowing. We took many photos with the
background of snow, made snowballs and started snow fight. Unfortunately, my
passions for snow were erased after half of the snowy day. Since it was tiring to walk in the snow and I fell down for several times.
19/2/2013 Tuesday
After two and a half hours walk, we arrived
the area of the castle in Visingso where it is an island of Jönköping. We searched
around this area in order to locate the castle shown on the map. We were initially confused since we saw nothing but a wall. After asking the local residents, it
was confirmed that the wall is the “castle” we were searching for. We all
laughed at that moment since the “castle” was so unexpected.
20/2/2013 Wednesday
The
couples who are Vietnamese lived in Sweden for thirty years. We met each other
in a supermarket coincidentally and then became friends. We always had
gatherings at their home and made Asian food together. Our noise of laugh and
talk made a big contrast to the clam of Sweden. They brought the sunshine into
my exchange life.
21/2/2013 Thursday
The graduation ceremony for graduating
student in Sweden is totally different from that in Hong Kong. Each pair of
students comes with a convertible. They wear sumptuous gowns and parade the
street. I could feel the joyful from them since they were entering a new stage
in their life. By parading in front of crowds, they showed the public that they
are ready to contribute to the society.
22/2/2013 Friday
It is difficult for me to see sunrise in Hong
Kong since the time of sunrise is around 6 to 7 a.m. While in Sweden’s summer
time, the time of sunrise is around 2 a.m., watching sunrise became easy to me,
as normally I still awake at 2a.m. Jönköping is famous for its huge and clear
lake. It is a stunning and unforgettable scenery that the sun rises from this
vast lake.
Labels: 2012/2013 Semester B
Kathy, Yu Hanbing, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
26/03/2013 Tuesday
It
was a fantastic evening to watch friendly football match between Brazil and
Russia at Stamford Bridge with my friends. For the first time to watch live
match, I was fully impressed by the crazy and enthusiastic football fans.
Brazil was given more attention at the beginning; however, it spent much of the
first half-hour looking like a team of gorgeously silky individuals without any
real sense of collective libido. Fortunately, Fred scored a last-gasp equalizer
for Brazil and made it 1-1 at last. It was an unforgettable experience and I
really enjoyed the atmosphere there with my friends.
27/03/2013 Wednesday
I
had planned to visit prehistoric Stonehenge on that day. Unfortunately, I
missed the earliest train to Bath and delayed all the schedules. But this
mistake left me with the opportunity to visit the historical and beautiful
city-Bath. There were such exceptional choices of things to do and see,
including visiting Roman Baths, Thermae Bath Spa and kinds of museums and
galleries. The most enjoyable thing is to walk along the river, look at the
beautiful scenery around and experience local historical culture.
28/03/2013 Thursday
It
was snowy and quite cold those days in London even if it was already in late
March. We visited the Sherlock Holmes Museum located at 221b Baker Street in
the morning. Though it took us around half an hour to queue up outside the
museum in the rain mixed with snow, we were amazed by the design and layouts
inside for the reduction of the stories under Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. One of my
friends was a crazy fan of Sherlock Holmes, and she could clearly remember
almost every scenario of the story. We hurried to visit the grand British
Museum afterwards, which allowed me to experience the intelligent works of man
from prehistoric to modern times.
29/03/2013 Friday
With great excitement, I met my high school friend in London and visited
Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, London Eye and London Bridge together with her.
There were so many tourist attractions to explore and see in London and soak up British culture whether you prefer historical or modern style. We watched Les
Miserable in Queen’s theatre in the evening, which was considered as the
world’s longest running musical and seen by over 65 million people. Fully impressed by the stage effects and their performance, we kept humming even
after the end of the opera.
30/03/2013 Saturday
We
spent a week in London and visited circumjacent cities including Cambridge,
Oxford and Windsor as well. I really fell in love with this traditional but
diverse and energetic city, though I still could not bear the terrible food
there except for the delicate afternoon tea set. This one-week journey allowed
me to experience many fresh things in my life like watching live football match
and musical show and also soak up traditional British culture. It would be one
of the most memorable and meaningful journeys in my life.
Labels: 2012/2013 Semester B
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