How I overcome my first year in university:
After few months since my arrival in Bristol, I gradually felt my life was like a spinning gyro. I felt I was falling into this eddy: no new progress, less and less motivation of life. From time to time, I became very emo when going to bed. Coding class was a nightmare for which I didn’t have any passion. I realized there was something that I need to change. Otherwise, I would be doomed. I found a friend from the same major who excelled at CS and let him teach me coding. In return I would teach him aero knowledge. It turned out cooperation was way better than competition from the result. I wished I could have found him earlier so that I wouldn’t have to waste so much time. A side benefit was that I built up more friendship with people.
In addition, I would highly recommend intended students to engineering to study cad software like Fusion360 and coding language such as python before going to the university in case of too much hardship when you enter the uni. Because the university is there for you to complete 65% of the content by self-studying whereas the existence of professor is to help you with some individual questions. You should never rely on the lectures to master the knowledge, in a nutshell. I believe you will be fully equipped with self-studying skills after graduating from SCIE.
Some anecdotes:
When I first saw my accommodation was the cheapest in the whole university-(Manor Hall, Basic), I was very reluctant to accept this offer, thinking that some drug takers and race-discriminator could be living beside me made me feel very uncomfortable. But the truth turned out the opposite: Besides me there were two other Chinese students in the flat and a Portugal black girl Ross. She studied neuroscience and was very talented in running long distances. She danced amazingly as well, which made her stand out in the nightclub or anywhere the music played. Her bio chronometer was very different from anyone else I know. She got up at around 9:30 a.m. Then she took a small breakfast. After that, she would spend a whole day in the library studying without taking any meals. I suspect she survived on chocolate and other sweets during the day. She would use her shower time to entertain herself by watching soap opera. Additionally, I think she is over cautious about anything that could cause fire: once I put my cutlery to the oven to try to kill the bacterium. It turned out she rejected me for doing so because she thought porcelain could melt in it. I then believed there is no difference in stereotype when it comes to different degrees of education.cghdf
Bristol is very close to Wales. Once I was hanging out with some friends and we were skating in an ice rink. I fell so many times that I became very conspicuous in the whole court. Some people were laughing at me including Gus, who walked straightly along to me after we finished the skating. He requested to add my WeChat as he told me he was very interested in Chinese. He is amazing for his art creativity and crafty works like hand-made soaps. I was later invited to his home one day and he designed an aircraft-themed soap for me. He worked in the gas station and he devoted most of his time to create the comics for little kids. From appearances I would say he is no different from my age though his actual age is 28. He is a very faithful Christian and he said it helped him a lot to overcome the years of
depression. Now he is such a man brimful of love and fun.
Oliver is a friend in the badminton club. He always smashed a lot but I am getting better at defending his attack. His major is philosophy and English. Weed is the source of his creativity. Besides he loves exploring nature. From time to time, he will go to the wildness and spent a night in a tent. Several days before I left the UK, he suggested ‘going for a walk’. But I didn’t anticipate it ended up as a ‘life-risking’ adventure: we climbed from the bank or the Avon River to the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Next time I would never go out this crazy with him.
Uncle Gordon is who I met in the local model club. I remembered when I first visited the club, he was very hospitable and lent us his aircraft to fly. Hearing that we had not completed the certificates he generously said we can use whichever aircraft we liked. To helped us get the “A certificate”, he even bought back an aircraft he sold previously. Gordon also devoted a lot of time in volunteering work on the airfield each week to help people fly safely and provided advice. In brief, he treated us so nicely that we never felt like an outsider.
In brief, there are still a lot of kind-hearted warm Brits. Though there are somehow race-discrimination problems existing in the Uk, I believe it not a problem to make friends with people from different black ground if we opened our heart to each other.
