Japan , is a land I love very much. For the first semester of my second year of university life, I had a change to become an exchange student at International Christian University (ICU) in Mikata, about 30 minutes outside of Tokyo by the monorail train. Although it would be better to have a full year exchange period, I was only able to take one semester, still I really enjoyed my semester there in Japan. (By the way, according to the exchange officer, I was the first HKBU student to staying Japan during the past few years.)

It was not an easy task to study specific subjects in a second-foreign language — Japanese. Japanese is actually a difficult language. For instance, the same word in kanji “Chinese word” would have different pronunciations according to its context and usage. Although I have studied Japanese in secondary school, it was initially hard for me to use Japanese to learn about religious issues. However, this forced me to use Japanese all the time, so that now I am quite impressed with my improvement in spoken Japanese. Before the exchange period, I still did not dare to speak Japanese with any Japanese person, but now, I feel free to do so.

ICU is really an international university; I could see foreigner everywhere on the campus. On the other hand, I could also experience traditional Japanese culture at ICU. There was a historical tea house called “Taizanso”, which was built from the Edo period about 400 years ago. I visited that place when my school term ended, and liked it very much. The traditional Japanese architecture was so beautiful; I could not help but fall in love with it. If I had a chance, I would like to visit Taizanso again.

During the midterm, I joined in the most important event at ICU: the “ICU Festival”. This is a traditional Japanese school event, very much like an open day in Hong Kong schools. The event was held on 30-31 October 2004, and what I took part in was an event called “International Square”, where people could enjoy foods from all over the world. I had a chance to cook Hong Kong style curry fish balls, and I was so happy when almost everyone told me that the fish balls were delicious! Finally, although I could not make a profit from this event (the school allowed us to make use of this chance to make money, but sadly we were not so successful!), I gained the chance to cooperate with many Japanese students in holding that event, and so made a lot of friends too!

I really enjoyed the trip. During that trip, not only did my Japanese improve, I also learned during more than four months how to live in Japan. It was particularly special to make many Japanese friends. I will never forget those days when I stayed in Japan. If I have a chance again, I would like to do my postgraduate studies at ICU!

Yau Oi Ting (Year 3 Student)

Were you there when I was alone in New Zealand?

It was the most memorable episode in my life so far.

On July 1, 2004, while 530,000 people marched through Central for democracy, I flew to a country in the southern hemisphere to continue my studies. After the long long flight, the plane landed in New Zealand : a quiet piece of land where 4 million sheep and 12 million people live. From that time on, I was one of the 12 million.

The four and a half month battle started from that moment. The chilly wind I felt when I got off the plane was like thousands of sharp knives stabbing me. I was placed in a single room of the school dormitory in Waikato University, which is situated on North Island, for the rest of my days. It was an empty, old, big room with no decorations. Like the settings of that room, I felt hollow and lonely. The sky darkened at 4 pm every day, when everyone returned home from work and all shops closed. I could hardly see anything when I looked out of the windows, it was so dark! This dead city was so quiet that it terrified me; I found myself trembling like a leaf. All of a sudden an influx of memories about my friends and family emerged. I treasured the times I had in Hong Kong. Tears like fountains were rolling down, sliding along my face. They tasted bitter.

During the following days, I was woken each morning by the nice fresh smell of clean air as well as the birds' musical concerts. I lingered on the campus exploring it, with the school map in my hands. It was exactly like a huge country park, covered with luxurious tress, flowers and different kinds of grass. Though at times I sobbed with tears, I became more and more willing to become immersed into this brand new environment.

School started soon after I arrived. I had selected three subjects. Sitting in a lecture theatre there, I felt so uneasy when I realized I was the only Chinese person in the whole room! Lecturers with their funny accents spoke like machine guns. They had special pronunciations for the ‘e' vowel, replacing it with a strong ‘i' vowel. They tended to pronounce ‘in the coming semester' rather than ‘in the coming semester' and ‘does it make sins' instead of ‘does it make sense'. Frankly speaking, at first I had a hard time catching what they were saying during the lectures. As time went by, however I got used to the quiet environment and their funny accents. I had opportunities to make friends with other exchange students from all over the world. They were eager to learn Cantonese and Chinese writing from me. It was great fun to have so many people belonging to different nationalities in the school dormitories.

Traveling around North Island in New Zealand with them was a totally different experience for me, because they liked being embraced by nature more than going shopping. I had a taste of different cultures clustered together. Time flew a lot more smoothly once I ha become engulfed by that country. Though I still had numerous hard times, I was easily cheered up by greetings from classmates around me and warm words from lecturers. Most of all, cards and parcels sent by my good friends from Hong Kong motivated me to enjoy myself. By the way, the ice-cream of the kiosk ‘New Zealand Natural' in New Zealand was so creamy that I could not help but have some every other day. That is why I have gained quiet a bit of weight.

The battle was over when the flight from New Zealand to Hong Kong landed at the Chek Lap Kok International Airport. Tears of joy flowed down on the plane wheels bumped heavily against the track. The journey had been completely done!

何嘉茵 (三年級)

我敢說我的三年大學生涯並沒有枉過，只因我擁有一段奇妙且難忘的挪威交換經歷。

一切如在做夢般，挪威從未列入我的交流生報名表格上，紐西蘭才是我當初報選的地方。想不到兩處天南地北的國家，上天已為我作了往北闖的微妙安排。

但四個半月的交流生生活，瞬間便告尾聲。未能忘懷卑爾根無雲的蔚藍晴空、仍回味著那價值兩毫半的麵包。時空無情地流轉著，但我仍堅持保留在挪威的生活心境，一種恬靜，豁然的心境。

同樣熱愛冰島的比利時同學

我的地理課教授

容誌謙 (二年級)

無瑕之行

東海大學文理大道

台灣東海大學約5個月的交流生活給了我3大得著。其一、我得到了珍貴的友情：我幸運地遇上了數個志同道合的當地學生和一個日本的交流生，並與他們成為好朋友。他們無私的關顧和把我當作好朋友的真誠之心，令我深受感動。能夠與他們成為好朋友是我這次交流最為引以自豪的事。我絕對不會忘記他們對我的恩。其二、我的乒乓球技術水平和比賽心態都提升不少：我加入了水準相當不俗的東海大學桌球(乒乓球)隊，隨隊比賽和練習使我見識了不同的打法、學會了正確的技巧和訓練方法之外，更令我在往後的比賽不會怯場。其三、我的國語大有進步：赴台之前，我的國語期期艾艾；回港之後，我可以自如地與操國語的人士溝通。原來，我是有一點語言天分的。因為國語大大進步，我變得更自信了。

我不時想起在台交流時遇過的人事。當我想起我曾獨自遙望夜空，我知道什麼是思鄉之情；當我想起初春時在草木扶疏的廣大校園漫步，我知道什麼是無拘無束的悠閒；當我想起考試前夕還與好友不斷胡扯人生的目標之時，我知道什麼是青春的自負；當我想起好友們平日載我到夜市夜宵，假日載我四處遊玩時，我知道什麼是樂得逍遙；當我想起曾與好友們一同練球和四出比賽時對我的接納、支持、信任和真切的關懷，我知道什麼是友情的可貴；當我想起好友們為我預備的道別晚餐，和在機場通關口前向我揮手的一刻，我清楚知道什麼是依依不捨的心酸。

南投清境農場

全國大專院校運動會

Lam Sin Yee Calista (Year 2 Student)

Originally Amsterdam was not my first choice for an exchange programme. But the wheel of destiny eventually put me in the right place.It proved to be the most fruitful year in my undergraduate education.

Near the end of August 2004, I departed for that city well-known for its flowers, (legal-) drugs, red-light district and a number of things which were far beyond my understanding and expectations at that time.

How surprised I was to discover that when I took a total of four courses during the Fall Semester, it was already an over-load! In fact, I took a course on Biblical Criticism, one on literature and two others in Philosophy. Most problematic for me, I was so brave as to venture into subject areas for which I had no substantial background knowledge. This was particularly troublesome in the cases of studying, natural language semantics and contemporary issues in the Philosophy of Language. I learned sooner than I expected that study life in Amsterdam was far less comfortable than I had ever imagined. Because I was completely unprepared to study concepts in pure mathematics, I found that my way was already very hard after the third lesson in the Natural Language semantics course. Unhappily, I was judged insufficient to pass the course after I failed the first take-home exam! Nevertheless, I told the professor that I did not want to give up, and so he finally decided that I would be treated as an exceptional case and would be assigned another set of tests. If I did sufficiently well, then I would pass under another course title. As a consequence, I really learned a lot from this course, it made me realize just how little I understood when studying the world of logical analysis in Natural Languages. I am truly grateful to that Professor’s patience and encouragement (even after finding out that I could not tell the difference between Propositional calculus and Predicate Logic!)

Things were no easier in the Philosophy of Language course. Before we could embark on the final paper, we had to finish three sets of exercises. I found them all to be quite hard, and so spent much more time than my peers in finishing the exercises. But gradually I realized the specific purpose of those assignments. This experience helped me to think ‘through’ a problem in a persistent way.

During the following days, I was woken each morning by the nice fresh smell of clean air as well as the birds' musical concerts. I lingered on the campus exploring it, with the school map in my hands. It was exactly like a huge country park, covered with luxurious tress, flowers and different kinds of grass. Though at times I sobbed with tears, I became more and more willing to become immersed into this brand new environment.

I am glad to say that things did get better as time went by. I gradually got used to the fast ‘pace’ of a life of study in Amsterdam. Step by step, I cleared up the ‘unfinished’ work of the Fall Semester and began to appreciate the Dutch-style of education, which is totally different from what we experience in Hong Kong. Dutch education leaves the initiative and responsibility for learning to students. Students have to be very self-motivated. Also, teachers do not like model-answers. They are always keen on urging students to discover their own approach to the subject-matter. Furthermore, quite a large proportion of the grading is determined by the course’s final-paper. All this requires a persistent and disciplined habit way of learning. That was exactly what I lacked in the study methods I had learned in Hong Kong.

Inside Department's Library

Notice Board

Now I have returned back home. Yet what I miss very much is the simple but substantial life I discovered in Amsterdam.