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| http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClhNPb3mmpI
Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go So make the best of this test, and don't ask why It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right. I hope you had the time of your life. So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial For what it's worth it was worth all the while It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right. I hope you had the time of your life. It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right. I hope you had the time of your life. It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right. I hope you had the time of your life. | | |
| One of the things that was memorable during the Orientation Programme was Ceilidh (keylee) -- Scottish social dance involving everybody dancing in a circle. It was just F-U-N, even for a used-to-be-shy guy like me. It is definitely one of the things I haven't done for years that I totally miss. If you throw some Ceilidh music and the ugliest girl in the world in front of me, chances are, I won't hesistate to invite her to dance with me. I just won't look her in the face.
I'd noticed that whenever people were new to a place, they were unusually sociable because they were insecure about the lack of friends. I didn't have this problem for the first week in Manchester, because I was spending most of my time with Hong Kong people like Kathy, Stephanie (whom I knew before Manchester), Kenix and Cathleen (born in UK, but grew up in HK). In fact, I had no idea why I only mentioned girl names in the last sentence. Maybe after spending 15 years in St. Joseph's I found other guys quite different. It was weird because I couldn't speak in the same cocky and sarcastic way we Josephians spoke to each other. Regardless, Patrick and Edward were 2 guys that I hung out with a lot in the first few weeks.
It was saddening because the Orientation Programme was notorious for giving you short-term friends that you wouldn't speak to for the rest of your life. It was either that or I was bad at maintaining friendships, you could say. I am lucky to be still in touch with some of the aforementioned people. But what about Sam(uel), the Malaysian guy, or Rosanna, the dark-skinned girl, or Ernest? Because of great variations in country of origin, culture, course of study, halls of residence or even a lack of mobile phone numbers, these people were never seen again. Maybe everyone was hit by culture shock and wasn't capable to adjust to that yet, and decided the best way was to forget.
When everyone parted after the Orientation Programme, insecurity started to hit me. In Hulme Hall, there weren't many Hong Kong people, or Asians, for that matter. I took every chance to talk to every human being in the most random ways possible. In the queue in the dinning hall, in the laundry room, in the loo you name it. The worst part was, I had never been good at memorizing faces or names, leading to some who-the-hell-are-you moments. As if that wasn't bad enough, I asked everyone for their MSN just like what we did in Hong Kong. I think if there was ever any vote on who the most awkward guy was, I would probably top the list with around 56 votes (60 residents in my block).
At the beginning, I would go to the dinning hall with my British hallmates, but I hadn't been in the UK long enough to hang out with them. (Not to mention that most of the stuff I was interested in was American, not British.) I felt that I was trying to be something I wasn't. Gradually, I turned to my fellow Asian friends like JJ, Anita and Le Suen, Esther and Edward (whom I met at Orientation). While I was sad I couldn't make many British friends, I was more comfortable with Asian people. At least, they wouldn't refuse to have Dim Sum with you.
At my course, it was pretty much the same. With a self-given mission of trying to learn about foreign culture, I tried talking to every foreigner. Similarly, since I was always talking about American stuff, the British people were probably not too impressed. Perhaps they thought I was being racist. Anyway, I also turned to my Asian coursemates like Jasley, Sebastian (whose name confused me at the beginning, asked him to spell it about 3 times), Alvin, Vincent and Leanne. We had lunch together almost daily. Cooked food was still much better than a mere sandwich or baguette. Tai Pan was our weekly gathering point.
My British-less life came to a halt in the 2nd semester when next-door hallmate Helen realised I was Christian and invited me to her church, Sale Salvation Army. With homemade British meals weekly and just one Chinese person among 100+ people, I abruptly learnt a lot about British culture and perhaps more surprisingly, food. There was actually British food! I mean, British food was rarely found anywhere but Britain. It was weird considering the British Empire covered one-fourth of the world.
Since then, I started joining the Christian Union at Hulme Hall, and met more British people. I found out that Christian people were more likely to talk to you if you were a Christian. This is probably one of the things I disliked, because non-Christians weren't bad people. Thinking about how I wouldn't know those people if I weren't a Christian, sudden disappointment clouded my mind - it's just like falling out of love.
Not quite sure whether I'm talking about the past or the present now.
(to be continued)
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| So, here I am in 2009. New residents for the next academic year are starting to fill Oak House. It spells ending for expired students like me. Due to a mistake, the housekeeping at Oak House has twice broken into my room, thinking that I've moved out. Well, I guess expiry is inevitable. Ten days later my student status will be gone.
When the end comes, one usually thinks about how it all began.
"Look at that smile on your face." My mom said at the departure hall in the airport. "Excited to finally leave us?"
While I wasn't sure how to respond to the above question, I guess it was more because of a dream come true than anything else. I have no idea why I started having this dream of studying abroad in primary school. It might be because I never found studying fun I wanted a change of atmosphere.
So me and my sister flew to Manchester safely, where we parted and I joined a gang of people in the Mancheter purple top. We were taken to a place called Owens Park where all the international freshers stayed.
I still remember one of the first surprises in Manchester. It was when Stephanie Law told me not to speak Chinese when foreigners are around because "it's rude".
I was also surprised when there was a talk about the "toilets in Britain". They were telling people how to flush and how to use toilet paper to wipe, since obviously, only Britain was civilised enough to use toilet paper and all other countries were in stone age. Maybe it was a comedy, but I must've missed the part where it was funny.
There was a lot of talk about the free lunch that we were going to get at the Orientation programme. To our disappointment it was a sandwich, a fruit, a juice, a bag of crisps, and a bar of chocolate. It took us (or just me) a while to get used to not having cooked food for lunch. You know, BBQ pork rice, sweet corn and fish rice, fried noodles, steak in black pepper with rice, minestrone and the like. Nope, not sweet and sour chicken.
On one of our first days, we got bored with the official programme so we walked to town and back, which took us one hour and fifty minutes. Walking through the Curry Mile, our feeling was "Is this Britain? What's going on?". Like a bunch of tourists, we took pictures of everything.
There was also a coach tour which took us to Salford. It was just amazing because otherwise you wouldn't go there. Unless you're a medic who needs to go to Hope Hospital or something.
Despite the lack of hugely exciting activities, the feeling of being new in a city was incomparable to anything. Surely, I felt a little nervous and insecure because of the uncertainties, but the discovery process was mind blowing - just like falling in love.
Not quite sure whether I'm talking about 4 years ago or the present now.
(to be continued)
P.S. The author is embarrassed by the level of immaturity of the entries he wrote 4 years ago.
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| My time in Manchester started in Owen Park, and loosely speaking, is going to end right there (as Oak House is literally in touching distance). It's a strange feeling. Every time I walk past the Owens Park reception scenes of the Orientation happened exactly 4 years ago flashes into my mind. It was then 2005 but, in the blink of an eye, here I am in 2009.
(to be continued)
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| http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHGmRcNlT9g
(Green Day)
I text a postcard, sent to you
Did it go through?
Sending all my love to you.
You are the moonlight of my life every night
Giving all my love to you
My beating heart belongs to you
I walked for miles 'til I found you
I'm here to honor you
If I lose everything in the fire
I'm sending all my love to you.
With every breath that I am worth
Here on Earth
I'm sending all my love to you.
So if you dare to second guess
You can rest assured
That all my love's for you
My beating heart belongs to you
I walked for miles 'til I found you
I'm here to honor you
If I lose everything in the fire
I'm sending all my love to you.
My beating heart belongs to you
I walked for miles 'til I found you
I'm here to honor you
If I lose everything in the fire
Did I ever make it through?
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