Studying Abroad - Again
Fleur, a UW international student from China, shares her story about studying abroad in Bristol, England.
Guest Post by FIUTS Facilitator Fleur Li
Fleur at Trinity College
My name is Fleur, and now I am in my third year studying Psychology at UW. I grew up in China, and move to the U.S. two years ago. I started getting involved in FIUTS mainly from my sophomore year. Now I am doing my semester abroad in Bristol, a harbor city in the southwest of England.
I met a lot of international friends through FIUTS who are actually studying abroad from another country. They studied different things, came here for different reasons, but they all agree on the experience of studying abroad is the best period of their college life. I was not sure why, but the idea of finding it on my own is so tempting -so here I am, doing my semester abroad in University of Bristol. For different people at different period of time, living abroad have various meaning to them. For me, it is more about a reflection of what I have done during the past two years of college and where I want to go- it becomes clear when you see yourself from a different scope and under different circumstances.
Bristol is a lovely city to live in. A great combination of old middle age architectures and modern civilization makes it a diverse city - the longer you stay, the more you like it. You can study in a grand British-gothic style library room or go explore some nature just few miles from the city center. It’s easy to get to different places from here, 45 minutes train away from Cardiff, less than 2 hours to go to London, which makes travelling very easy.
Academic system here is quite different. It focuses on how much you don’t know instead of how much you do know. For example, even though you did super good in an exam you may probably just get 70%, whereas in America you may get a 4.0. It’s good in a way to always encourage higher academic achievement. The down side is students can get pretty discouraged at times. Moreover, there is not a lot of hand-in-hand guidance you can get. You are expected to be responsible for your own work. Planning your time and finish school work is more or less a project you need to figure out independently. They are definitely great skills that I gained here.
I am trying to experience British culture as much as I can. I have seen a few Shakespeare plays directed by my theatre-major friend; I have been to formal dinner when everyone up and sit along the long table (like in Harry Potter); I went to classical Christmas concert, hearing those old hymns normally sung in the church. History plays a huge part in British culture, so the traditions and manners are not pushed far away from everyday life.
Broadly speaking, the experience of living abroad can be inspiring, meaningful and challenging at the same time. Hanging out with people from different social backgrounds, with different ages, and speaking different languages is a great eye-opening experience. You may gain some surprise along the way, maybe find a favorite place you want to live, find a subject that totally fascinates you, meet the best friend of your life, or find out something you believed for a long time is totally wrong…If you have an idea of studying abroad, try your best to make it real. Even though you are an international student already, it is never too crazy to study abroad again.