My first and long leave from my hometown // 第一次離鄉別井

In 2014, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to participate in a half-year exchange program at the University of Nottingham. It was definitely a challenging yet rewarding experience to me. I would never forget this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

在2014年，我有幸參與了諾丁漢大學的半年交流活動。這次第一次的離鄉別井充滿着挑戰性，也為我帶來一生人一次且極具意義的經歷。

During my half-year stay in the UK, I had to overcome the language barrier and adapt to a completely new environment. Still remember the time when I bought a new SIM card but it was not working as described, so I called the hotline and tried my very best to complain in English... and also the experience of spending a few days opening a bank account there ... as well as getting completely lost in a transit from one city to another...

在這半年間，我盡力去克服語言障礙，並需要適應一個全新的環境。還記得我第一次買了一張新的SIM卡，但那SIM卡卻似乎沒有其聲稱的功能，於是我只好打電話到電訊公司的熱線，用盡全力去用我有限的英語投訴 ... 還有第一次開立銀行帳號卻花上了好幾天... 以及第一次乘火車從一個城市轉到另一個城市時的那種徹底迷失 ...

On 2014 January 14th, I took a flight from Hong Kong to Manchester together with two of my classmates, who had joined the exchange program at the University of Manchester. The reason why I flew to Manchester instead of Nottingham is that my parents have some friends living in Manchester to take care of us, and most importantly having companions would be much better :) I guess the flight took about 15 hours... this was my first time taking such a long flight!

2014年1月14日，我和我的兩位同學一起乘飛機從香港飛往曼徹斯特。他們都是參加了曼徹斯特大學的交流活動。為什麼我要飛往曼徹斯特而不是諾丁漢？原因其一是我的父母有一些生活在曼徹斯特的朋友，他們能為我們提供照顧，最重要的就是人生路不熟，有同伴是很重要的啦 :) 我猜航程大約花上了15個小時 ... 這是我第一次乘坐航程這麼長的航班啊！

^{What a stunning view! 窗外的景色好美麗啊！}

Our rented apartment was so far from the airport and luckily my parents' friends have a car! Otherwise I really don't know how we could get to the apartment.

我們租的房屋距離機場很遠，幸好我父母的朋友有駕駛私家車，否則真的不知道該怎麼前往房屋了。

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^{This is the apartment where we lived in Manchester 這就是我們居住的地方了}

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^{We even have a tiny garden at the backyard! 公寓的後方還有一個小花園呢！}

After settling down, we were so exhausted and hungry, so we just found a random restaurant at a short distance away. Here is my first dinner in the UK!

安頓下來之後，我們都已經疲憊不堪而且很餓，所以就在距離公寓不遠的地方隨機地找到了一間餐廳。這就是我在英國的第一次晚餐了！

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^{Probably some Indian dishes? Forgot already. 大概是印度菜吧？都忘記了。}

This marked the first day of my exchange life in the UK. Frankly, I was really a bad student and skipped quite a lot of lessons and didn't spend much time studying... most of my time was travelling and travelling >< Let me share with you my trips to other European cities later on! :)

這標誌著我在英國的交流生活的第一天。坦白說，我是一個壞學生，翹課是常有的事，而且沒有花上很多時間溫習 ...我的大部分時間都花在旅行上了 >< 讓我之後跟大家分享一下我在其他歐洲城市的遊記吧！:)

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