Wing's Blog

One Year Ago

Exactly one year, I got on a 8 hour plane ride to Manchester. First of all, I can’t believe it’s almost been a year. So much as happened and so much as changed. Even though it’s almost been a year, I honestly still feel like it all happened last week. I can still recall everything that happened this time last year. My flight was at 5:30 at Chicago O’Hare. I remember it still hadn’t hit me yet that I was leaving. At the airport, I was with my two friends who are also from U of I. I was nice to see them at the terminal because familiar faces were a comforting sight. Who knew that one year later, I would see them still in Champagin and that we have this connection from Manchester. At the same time, I also met other American students. It was the funniest thing. There was 6 people sitting together, who obviously looked like students. One of us finally asked “So what are you going to Manchester far?” and we all answered “To study abroad!”. One of those people actually ended up becoming a close friend whom I saw a lot in Manchester and traveled Europe with.

When we arrived in Fallowfield, the campus that we lived at, the three of us from U of I were lost. We didn’t know how to get inside the locked gates. After walking around with our luggage for about an hour in the rain, we finally got in and found the reception desk where we picked up our keys. We lived in different buildings so we went our separate ways and decided on a time to meet up again later. That was the first time I really felt alone. When I opened the door to my flat for the first time, I walked inside a very quiet and old looking building. I carried all my stuff upstairs and sat on my bed. That was a pretty significant memory for me because that was the first time it hit me that I was alone in England. It was also the first time I actually felt scared.

I started to unpack, bought a bedding pack from the reception room, and eventually met up with my friends again to explore the campus and Manchester. We went to Sainsbury’s (the grocery store) and bought our first lunch. They came back with me to my flat. That’s when I met my first British friend. We were in my room when we heard the door knock. That was a complete surprise because I thought the flat was empty. I met my first flatmate. She was about to take a shower, but she heard noises in my room so she knocked! I left again to explore Manchester and to buy a few things in town. By the time I came back, the rest of my flat had woken up already and I began to meet more and more people again. I was still pretty scared. First of all, I felt really tired and really self conscious because I feel like I looked like a mess from the plane ride! I also felt overwhelmed with names! If you ask me, I can honestly tell you the story of how I met each of my 7 flatmates! (In the midst of meeting several people at once, my one friend said “Hi, I live in your flat!”) Once I met them, they eventually introduced me to their group of friends from the next door flats. That night, I went to the comedy club that happened every other Sunday in the bar in our dorm, essentially. It was funny because there were other Americans there as well, and of course, the comedian made fun of Americans. Looking back on it now, that was the first of many days I got picked on! haha (Not to give the impression that I always got American jokes, but it was all friendly banter!)

Reminiscing about this makes me miss my friends even more! I’m genuinely grateful that I made so many friends. That is without a doubt, the factor that shaped my study abroad experience. That is also why I’m still so attached to study abroad. I feel that while everyone has an amazing experience studying abroad wherever they go, my time was unique. I was really integrated in my experience. That’s why I always encourage people to not live in an international dorm and not to stick with Americans or other international students!

ah I can’t believe it’s been a year already!

Tips for Studying Abroad

1. Keep in touch.  Talk to  your friends and family back home! I think back on my semester and realized I’m a bad friend/daughter/sister. I barely kept in touch with people. What made it hard was that my semester was amazing and new and I didn’t want to explain everything multiple times. The time difference didn’t help either. Plus, coming back home, I found it hard to summarize  a whole semester into an answer to the question “So, how was study abroad?” Keeping in touch regularly would have made it easier for me to tell people about my experiences in Manchester. One of my biggest fears was feeling left out after coming back, and it was kind of true. I mean, people move on without you and build new memories. That makes it even more important to keep in touch.
2. Don’t travel every weekend. I barely left Manchester after my spring break in Manchester, especially compared to before break, where I took a day trip almost every weekend. Don’t get me wrong. It was amazing to see other parts of England, but the time I spent with my friends in Manchester were a lot more memorable. I thought about why I felt closer to my friends after spring break and I think it was because I actually spent time with them since I wasn’t travelling so much anymore. Think of it this way. Every weekend you spend travelling is just less time to get to know and bond with your new friends.
3. Take pictures! Don’t just take pictures of sights, take pictures with your friends! I always felt weird to take pictures with my friends, but now I regret I didn’t take more. When I look back on my albums, they’re mainly of places I’ve been too (and food I’ve eaten!), but rarely of me with my friends!
4. Go shopping! There’ll be different fashion that you’re not used to seeing! Prices will be different. Some things will be cheaper than what you would find here in the US. It’s a great way to get more untraditional souvenirs too. Plus, now I love it when people ask “Where  did you get that from?” and my response is “England”!
5. Buy souvenirs for yourself, friends, and family! I should’ve bought more things. I didn’t really buy lots of stuff other than postcards and magnets. I definitely could’ve bought more things for friends and family too. (I feel pretty selfish…)
6. Realize that studying abroad isn’t going to fun all the time. You’re just gonna be living life, but just at a different place. You’ll get bored. You’ll feel lonely. Sometimes I looked around my huge lecture rooms and think about the fact that I knew no on in the room. There’s still school. You’ll have to study, read, and write essays.
7. You will be homesick no matter what. No matter how independent you are, you are going to another country on your own. The first time I got to my flat, I put my stuff down in my room, and realized that I didn’t know anyone.
8. Be outgoing. I always tell people that one of the benefits of studying abroad is that it makes you more comfortable with meeting new people. I believe in that wholeheartedly. I was really scared to meet people in the beginning. When I first met my flat, they introduced me to all of their friends next door. I did feel overwhelmed with new faces and new names, but we eventually all became good friends.
9. Exchange cultures. Of course, you’ll learn about other cultures, but share stuff about your culture. I loved talking to my friends about Chicago and the US. They loved to hear that I make wishes at 11:11 (even though the British go by the 24 hour clock and I actually made wishes at 23:11)
10. Keep track of your expenses. I wrote down how much money I spent every day in my planner, and added up the totals weekly and monthly. It’ll help you see how much money you are spending and on what.

Advice for Manchester, Part 1

Talking to other students about study abroad makes me realize that I have a bunch of random advice.  These are specifically for the University of Manchester. I will write a post on more general advice later. This post is most likely just part one of my advice posts because I always think of more random things!

1. Make sure you know exactly where you are going when you arrive in Manchester. When we got there, we weren’t sure where to pick up our keys for our accommodation.
2. Get a weekly bus pass for the Magic Bus, which is the blue bus you will be taking to get to class (if you live in Fallowfield) or just to get into town (which is the city centre, similar to a downtown). I think it only costs about £6.50, which will save you money if you take the end a lot (which you will for sure if you live in Fallowfield!)
3. Go to the International Society events! It’s the club that is for international students. They organize social events and trips. It’s a great way to meet other students from other countries! They have pretty good food at their cafe too!
4. Out of all the museums, I liked the Manchester Art Gallery! Plus, like all the other museums, it’s free! Having said, check out the other museums too!
5. Another cool place to see is Cheetham’s Library in the city centre! It’s so pretty! Also go to the John Rylands library in Deansgate! Oh and make sure to visit Manchester Town Hall! It was used to film the Houses of Parliament scenes in the movie Sherlock Holmes.
6. Walk around! That’s the best way to explore the city centre. Walk to the tourist center and pick up a free map! You can really walk everywhere!
7. Eat at Curry Mile! It’s a street with Indian, Pakistani, and Middle Eastern food. There are so many restaurants to try!
8. Try cheesy chips and gravy. I really miss it! My friends told me it’s a northern food. Make sure you also eat other British foods like Sunday roast (with yorkshire pudding!) and an English breakfast (complete with beans!)
9. I never did this, but I always wanted to go to a sports event from the university. When I was there, there was a big rowing event versus another university that was close to Manchester. It seemed like a big annual event. I wish I went!
10. Sign up on www.studentbeans.com to get really good deals like buy-1-get-1-free cinema tickets!

New Reflections

Hellooo!

So now that even more time has passed, I’m able to reflect on my study abroad experience even more. First of all, as weird as this sounds, last week was the first time I actually felt like I left. Maybe I just didn’t wanna accept it? The point of realization was when I read my flatmates’ responses to a message I sent everyone on Facebook. I basically asked them if I could visit them during winter break. A lot of people said that they would be free after New Year’s, but that’s when the plane tickets are more expensive. There’s literally about a $200 difference for flights going out Dec. 27 versus Jan. 3. I doubt I’ll be going back. I never felt like I left because even when I said bye to all my friends I said bye thinking “Oh it’s okay, I’ll see you over break again!”. Even over the summer, I worked literally with the intention of saving money to go back. But now reality has set in. I’m probably not gonna go back during winter break. Even if I go back, it won’t be the same. I’ll go there for 2 weeks, then what? I’ll have to leave again. It’ll never be the same experience. I’ll never be a student at the University of Manchester anymore. Maybe I’ll visit England again in the future, but it’l be as a tourist and it won’t be as unique as studying abroad.

As sad as this realization is, I’m still very very thankful everything that’s study abroad has taught me. I do a lot of promotion for study abroad because I work at the Study Abroad Office. So, I go to classrooms and talk to students about all the benefits of going abroad. I honestly believe it. One huge benefit is that study abroad opens you to the world. Yeah, this sounds super cheesy, but it’s so true. There’s so much more to this world than America.  Sometimes I think about it like this. Somewhere across the Atlantic Ocean, it’s 6AM right now, and my flatmates are living their lives. It makes me realize that there’s so many people around the world with different things going on. It makes me feel small! It also makes me really want to explore the world! (It’s true even though it sounds very cliche!)

Last week, I did several class visits for LAS 101. I just talked to freshman about study abroad. One thing I talked about was what it means to be a world citizen. Being a world citizen doesn’t necessary mean you have to travel around the world. It’s just about perception. The first thing is to reflect on your own background and identity. Then, think about how that changes how you see things. During my semester in Manchester, I saw so many instances where students only looked at things from American lenses. For example, one friend drank a Coke and proclaimed “Why does this taste so weird?”. It just tasted different because we weren’t in America anymore (and the UK doesn’t use high fructose corn syrup haha). Or when we went to Zurich, Switzerland, someone said “Why is everything so expensive?”and I replied “Because they have a higher standard of living?” “What, how can anyone have a higher standard of living than America?” That’s looking at the situation from the view that America is superior. Realizing how your background affects the way you think allows you to change your perception on the world. Instead of comparing and contrasting the way “they” do things versus “us”, look at it from a neutral way. Accept the fact that “their” Coke is different from “our” Coke simply because different ingredients are used. It doesn’t mean our Coke is any better, but just accept that it’s different.

One thing that increases your ability to see things from a different perspective is being informed about the world that is around us and the world that is far away. I know, students are busy, but you can definitely take a few minutes just to browse current international news. It may not seem like it affects  you, but it does.  For example you could think, “Why would I care about China’s currency? How would that affect my life?”. Well it does. China’s currency is undervalued which means that we are importing much more Chinese goods than we are exporting American goods. That affects the economy a lot. That’s just one example I can think of right now of why world news actually matters even though these countries are far away. It may be an area that I’m interested in, economics, but it’s just an example. There are so many things that are relevant to us. I really can’t stress how important it is to know about the world. It’s definitely a stereotype that Americans are ignorant, don’t care about other countries, and don’t know geography. I definitely saw this stereotype when I was abroad. My friends definitely picked on me for this. When I went to the comedy club at our flat, the comedians would always make fun of Americans. Although I know that this stereotype may not apply to everyone, but I’ve definitely come across a lot of students who fit this image. Don’t live up to this stereotype.

I’ve learned about identity from spending time in Manchester. This may sound weird and may not apply to many, but as an Asian American, I always considered myself “Asian” before anything else. I think that applies for most minorities. When people ask for others’ ethnicity, they tend to ask “What’s your nationality?” Even at the Study Abroad Office, I saw someone put “Hispanic” as their “nationality”. But that’s not what nationality is about. It’s about what passport you hold. We are all American. Even though we’re a nation of hypens (Asian-American, African-American, etc), we’re still American. That’s why it was so weird to answer people when they ask “Where are you from?” In Champaign, I would reply “Chicago”, but in Manchester, I always answered “America”. It felt weird to be looked at as simply an American rather than Asian. It makes me more aware of my cultural identity. I always found it interesting that immigrants grow up caught between two different identities. At home, some people may speak a different language and are raised under certain cultural values. However, at school, while with friends, we are encompassed by American values, standards, and culture. Being abroad and identifying myself as only an American definitely made me reflective on what it means to be an Asian-American and just an American.

I honestly feel like study abroad has really changed me. One significant change I see in myself is that I view things more internationally oriented. I’m more aware of how I perceive things.  I want to be ensure that I know what’s currently happening in the world by keeping up with both American and world news. More importantly, I want to spread what I have gained from my experience in the UK. I hope that everyone will take advantage of the amazing opportunity to study abroad. I promise, it’ll change your life, even if you don’t realize until after you return home. I’m still learning that even now.

Still Adjusting?

Hello! Even though I’m not making weekly posts anymore since I’m back in Chicago, make sure you still check out the pages on the right side! I’m gonna be making pages full of advice on the whole process of studying abroad!

So it’s been almost two months since I’ve been back. I really can’t believe it’s still feels hard to be back. It’s definitely better than that first week I was back. That week was so bad. I was so homesick for Manchester. I still feel that way sometimes. I underestimated how much I would miss my friends and how much I would miss life in England. Some days are harder because I see things that remind me of people or just Manchester. I’ve been working at DSW. Even at work, I helped on man who was actually from Manchester! I also talked to this one woman who is American but has been living in London for the past year. She was telling me it’s still hard to adjust. The funny thing was that she told me that people make fun of her. I miss that.

I went the World Market and I saw lots of British foods that I didn’t think I could find in the US! I saw lots of Cadbury and McVities biscuits! I even saw a can of Heinz beans which is part of the English breakfast! I guess it’s the little things that I miss a lot! I still find it hard to explain to people why seeing stuff like that means a lot to me.

One of the harder things to deal with is keeping in touch with my friends. It’s different for me, because I’m missing like 20 friends, but to them, I’m only one person. I’ve been trying to talk to people on Facebook, but I don’t think it’s working that well. The time difference makes it difficult as well. In the beginning, I used to wake up really early, and when I was on Faecbook chat, I would see lots of people online. Now, I wake up at around 11, and its already 5  in the UK. I never see people on Skype anymore.

I still can’t accept the fact that I left and things will never be the same. Hopefully, I’ll feel better once school starts. I’m going back to Champaign in exactly one week. As much as I don’t want to feel this way anymore, it makes me sad to think about the fact that I’m eventually gonna move on and not miss my friends as much anymore. But until then, this really sucks sometimes.

Adjustment

So its almost been 3 weeks since I’ve been back now! I feel better, but that weird, sad feeling remains when I think about my whole study abroad experience! I do think I’m dealing with it better now! I unpacked my clothes from my luggage earlier last week, but now I’m completely done packing because I just unpacked my bookbag. It makes it more real now that I left Manchester. My bookbag basically only had my textbook, schoolwork, and souvenirs. I saved a lot of ticket stubs, museum maps, and flyers. It was nice to look through everything. I found all my postcards too. I bought postcards from all the cities I visited. Looking at the postcards made me realize how many amazing places I got to travel. So now my mood has changed more to appreciation for this amazing experience and all the friends I made over there. I wonder how much we’ll be able to keep in touch. I genuinely wish that we can keep talking online and that one day we’ll see each other again.

Now that my semester abroad is really over, I’m gonna shift the focus of this blog to advice regarding study abroad. It really was the best time of my life, and I hope that more people will study abroad and be able to experience it too.

Home

It’s been a little more than a week since I’ve been back to Chicago. It was a lot harder to leave Manchester than I imagined. That Friday, which was my last day in Manchester, was a lot of fun. A bunch of us went to a Chinese buffet. Then, we all went back to our kitchen to just hang out. They gave me a Manchester United jersey and a scrapbook. The scrapbook was really nice. Everyone decorated a page with our favorite memories and really sweet messages. I thought I would cry a lot when I said good-bye’s but I didn’t. I didn’t even know what to say really. I felt like I was just saying good-bye for the night and then I would see people the next morning. I don’t think it was until after everyone left and I went back to my room that I realized that that was the last time I would see everyone. The next morning, I got to see only my flatmates because I woke them up to say a quick good-bye before I left for the airport. It was even harder at the airport. Waiting in line to get my boarding pass, I realized that that was it. I was about to leave Manchester.

I really can’t describe how weird I felt all last week after coming home. Of course, it’s nice to be home but I really miss Manchester. I didn’t feel this way leaving Chicago because I knew that I would come back to Chicago with everything remaining the same. However, I left England, and I know that it will never be the same again. I guess I’m just trying to cope with that. I spent all last week trying to keep everything the same. I tried to talk to all my friends over there. Seriously, I spent so much time on facebook, just chatting with everyone, looking at pictures, just some facebook creeping haha but now I realize that I just need deal with the fact that I’m in a different country. I’ll just have to try my best to keep in touch, but realize that it’s not possible to talk as much as before. That is still kinda hard to accept though. Even though we didn’t each other for that long, we did spend a lot time together. I can’t think of a day where I didn’t see certain people.

As sad as it makes me to think about it, I know that once school starts again, it’ll be even harder to keep in touch. Now, I have lots of time to just go online. Once I go back to Champaign, I’m gonna have 18 hours of class, a job, homework, midterms, etc. Plus, the time difference makes it hard to. When I go online at night, its really early morning in England since we are 6 hours behind. I feel a little bit better now about leaving, but I still really miss everyone. I really wanna visit next year, but we’ll see how that goes.

I think I did have culture shock coming back to Chicago. Driving back from the airport, all I thought was “Wow that looks so American”. At one point, I even saw a family wearing khakis and baseball caps! So American! haha Even at the park, it’s weird to see people playing catch with a baseball or (American) football instead of people playing football (soccer) in Manchester. I also forgot about a lot of American foods. At target, I saw Bagel Bites, chocolate covered pretzels, Italian sausages, pulled pork, and tons of other very American foods.

Another thing that I find really weird is that I feel like I’m just went back to the real world. Being in England already felt surreal, but it really did feel like a dream now. I feel like I came back to Chicago and everything’s exactly the same. I’m even working at DSW again. I feel like I’m going back to the routine that I’m so used to. So basically, I feel like I never left. Even though, I definitely feel better now about leaving Manchester, I still miss it so much.

Goodbye Manchester

I’m about to fly back to Chicago tomorrow. I’m leaving really early tomorrow morning. My flight’s at 9:55 AM, so I have to leave about 6:45 AM. Today’s basically my last day with all my friends here. I’m gonna miss my flatmates so much. I really didn’t know it was gonna be this hard to leave. The worst part is that I don’t know when the next time I’ll see everyone again. This has been the most amazing experience of my life. I got to do so much. I met some amazing people that I really hope I keep in touch with. I got to do so much traveling. I went to Paris, Versailles, Venice, Florence, Rome, Sienna, San Gimignano, Pisa, Milan, and Zurich. That’s not even including the UK. I went to London, York, Leeds, Oxford, Liverpool, Stratford Upon Avon, Lake District, Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Swansea.

Despite all the wonderful places I’ve experienced, my favorite moments are still the ones with my friends. One time one of my flatmates was in my room and he noticed my American lock. He said “It’s like those locks from the lockers on TV!” Then he tried to open it and he couldn’t. I took the lock to the kitchen another night and other people tried to open it, but also struggled. Then they told me to tell my American friends that the English cannot open our locks.

I’m gonna miss all my friends making fun of my accent. It’s gonna be weird to be back in Chicago and everyone else sounds like me. I’m gonna miss double decker buses because it’s so fun to sit on the top in the front. Taking the bus on nights out is also totally different. Everyone’s chanting and pounding on the bus upstairs. It’s so much fun. I’m gonna miss being called “love” because I think that’s the most adorable things in the world. Most of all, I’m gonna miss Manchester, because it has been my home for the past 5 months.

I’m free!

I finished my exams last Friday! It was so nice to be finished! I felt so good to be free! I’m flying back to Chicago on June 12th! So now I have a 11 days left to enjoy Manchester. It’s been really good so far. Over the weekend, I visited my friends Lauren and Jackie, also from U of I, in Swansea (which is in Wales). It was kind of a long trip. It took about 4 1/2 hours. It was really nice to see them though! It was also cool to see another UK university. Lauren was nice enough to left me stay in her room. Swansea was really beautiful! On Sunday we went to Rhossili Bay. We saw amazing views of the ocean from a cliff. On Monday, we took the train to the capital, Cardiff, which is only about 45 minutes away from Swansea. It was a Bank Holiday in the UK, so most things closed pretty early, so we didn’t do that much. We went to a castle. It was really pretty, and I felt like I was in a fairytale haha Afterwards we did a little bit of shopping before the shops closed. Then we ate dinner at a Latin restaurant. I had really yummy sweet potato fishcakes!

Yesterday was a really good day too! I made an apple pie with my friends! It turned out pretty good. We made it from scratch too! We went to a bar called Trof, where there was an open mic night. Two Americans I met here played, but we didn’t get to see them because they played later. We left after a little bit because the bar was really packed and there were no more seats. The people that we did see perform were really good though. Afterwards we just hung out at our flat. I seriously love times like these. This is the perfect way to end this surreal semester in Manchester.

22 days!

I’m flying back to Chicago on June 12th, which is 22 days from now! Because its the exam period right now, time’s going by pretty slowly. I have so much time to study. It makes me wanna go home sometimes. There’s a lot of random things I miss. I definitely miss a lot of food. For some reason, I’m really craving Cajun food even though it’s not something I eat all the time… I would also like a Frostie from Wendy’s hehe

As much as I do miss home, it’ll also be really hard to leave here. If you think about it, I have been here for a long time. I came January 23rd. So it’s almost been four months. I’m definitely used to living here now. I’m gonna miss a lot of things here. First, I’m gonna miss all the friends I’ve made here. I’ve met some really amazing people. It will definitely be hard to keep in touch. Plus, I feel like there’s only so much you can say on Facebook. But at least there’s Skype. That’ll make it a little easier to keep in touch. But then I feel like things will be different because I won’t be living here anymore. Their lives will move on and they’ll experience new things that I won’t know about. The same goes with me. I’ll go back to Champaign in August and they’ll be things that they can’t relate to.

I think they’ll be a lot of random things I’ll miss. It’ll probably be a lot of things that I’m so used to know that I won’t know until they’re gone. For example, it just hit me that there are no double decker buses. I’m gonna take CTA buses or even MTD buses in Champaign and they’re gonna be so different. I’m gonna miss pub food. I’m gonna miss my flat. I remember after I was gone for a month for Easter break, I was so happy to be back in my room. I wonder what it’ll be like to see my room at home. I’ve never been away from home for this long! I really do miss Chicago.