CW Chu College The Chinese University of Hong Kong eNewsletter

Academic Exchange at the Erasmus University College, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands in Term 1, 2019–20 (Mr LEE Marcus Sherray, Year 3, History)

Mr LEE Marcus Sherray, took part in a College exchange programme at the Erasmus University College, Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands during Term 1, 2019–20.

Please refer to the Chinese version of this page for his sharing.

Academic Exchange at the University of Pennsylvania, the United States in Term 1, 2019–20 (Ms YANG Siyuan Isabel, Year 3, Translation)

It was eight pm, late August in Philadelphia. A flock of freshmen were heading to the Penn Museum for a party. They were dressed in bed sheets, or to put it in a more respectable way, togas. Amid the crowd was me, having turned my only bed sheet into a ‘toga’ 20 minutes ago before rushing to the Toga Party. It was part of the New Student Orientation, another ‘O' Camp’ I joined with freshmen of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), my host university in an exchange programme. And this was when I realised that participation in the programme did not simply mean studying in another place for several months. It turned me back into a freshman having to learn everything about the school from zero.

The first change that took place was in my academic life. Without a particular major assigned, I decided to try ‘everything’ in this new term. Taking courses in Spanish, Linguistics, Philosophy, Economics and Business at the same time, I stretched myself to engage in discussions with people from all backgrounds, which pushed me to approach the same issues from a variety of angles. Out of the classroom, I joined the Penn Latin and Ballroom Dance Team where I learned to be a dancer from scratch and in that process got to know so many interesting people who shared the same passion as me.

The campus life was wonderful enough. Yet as many students at UPenn said, the school was a big bubble keeping us from the other parts of the community. To explore the world outside this ‘bubble’, I volunteered at two local NGOs in Philadelphia. One is called Books Through Bars, a reading project sending books to the incarcerated people; I read letters from prisoners and selected the books they wanted. The other one is Moder Patshala, where I tutored primary students with an American–Bangladeshi background. I cherished every second spent with them, through which I saw the very different sides of this big community.

I especially enjoyed the cultural exchange with my new friends. At Mid-autumn Festival, I baked some moon cakes, shared them with local students and told them about the beautiful ancient myth related to the festival. In return, an Indian friend brought me Indian snacks on the day of Dussehra (a festival in India) while a German friend shared with me her handmade cookies.

Along with all those lovely moments, I also experienced helplessness and anxiety when loneliness, academic pressure and uncertainty about the new place almost freaked me out. But that is exactly the beautiful part of an exchange programme. Having nowhere to retreat, it pushed me to confront all the challenges and taught me how rewarding it could be to become a brave and independent person.