Leeds And Lion Dancing...

Chun Yu Lai, Hong Kong

The time has gone so quickly, in a flash, in fact. I have already been in Sheffield for a good seven months now. The weather here is not the greatest, I must admit. The routine of the day is rain, rain, rain and yet more rain. Having said that, there have been times where the sun was doing its job and I was enjoying every moment of it. I come from somewhere closer to the equator, Hong Kong, which is slightly warmer than Sheffield. Back home we do have four seasons, but to me, Sheffield only has one: Winter. When I first arrived in Sheffield, to me it was the beginning of Winter. After Christmas up till Easter was Midwinter and while I thought Spring was on our doorway earlier this month, the bitter cold came back again in the past week and does not seem to be leaving anytime soon!

Having said that, Sheffield is one of the best places to study in the UK. I have been to London, but it is far too busy: cars speeding through roads, people rubbing each other's shoulders as they rush past each other and the underground is always jam-packed. But anything on your shopping list will be there. Manchester is decent, because Old Trafford is there, and if you are lucky, you might run into top footballers like Giggs, Beckham or Scholes. Bath is a beautiful place with a great atmosphere, but too many tourists. Scotland has fantastic scenery, the greatest I have ever seen and could ever imagine. It is really a paradise, but a freezing one. Sheffield has two football teams, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday both in Division One. Meadowhall is a very well-equipped shopping mall. People are very friendly here in Sheffield and having such a big student population makes the town student-friendly as well.

When I first arrived in Sheffield, I was unsettled for a while because everything was new to me and I didn't know the place. As phone numbers in my phonebook began to pile up after a few weeks, it was another story. I got to know everyone in my flat on the day of arrival and they were very helpful! Cheers lads!!! And on just the third day, I found out that one of my course-mates lived in one of the downstairs flats. We both love football, and it just so happened that both of us had joined the University's football team as well. I am glad to say that life has not gone downhill since then! I joined the Chinese Society in September and managed to get a seat on the committee. And I am enjoying every minute of it. It not only gives me the opportunity to see more people, I also learned to work with others, taking responsibility.

Our committee consists of people from different countries: China, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Britain. It is noticeable that we approach things in a slightly different way and it has helped me to develop as a person learning from them. Our committee has worked on lots of events together, but the highlights were the Leeds trip and the Food Evening with the International Student Committee (where each national society prepared their traditional food and we prepared traditional Chinese food for more than 300 participants). It was tiring but fun! At the end of the night we had enjoyed it just as much as everyone else did. Then there was the Christmas Ball which was the first time I had been to a Ball. It was a joint event with Sheffield Hallam University which took place at the Cutlers Hall. Everyone was dressed smartly and the MC did a very good job to get everyone to enjoy the night. It was definitely somewhere worth going. Then came the Cultural Evening, which out of all the events, I enjoyed it the most. Why? Because we performed the traditional Lion Dance that night. Before the night, we had been practising every single day for a whole month. All the effort paid off and we put on a great performance.

I feel that I have grown up a lot since secondary school and Sheffield has played a big part in it. I do have a different point of view of the world and life now. I still have a lot to learn and I have confidence that by the time I leave Sheffield, I will be ready for the challenges lying out there for me to tackle. This year so far has been very good. (Having said that, I did manage to fail one of my exams!

Luckily it was not a core module, so I might be let off if I do well in all my coming exams!) Well, you can't always live on top of the world! When things are going against you, you have just got to work at it. Don't give up, keep the fighting spirit up! I do believe nothing is important, as long as you work at it, you will achieve it at the end of the day!

Chun Yu Lai, Hong Kong