Lam Yung

'Make yourself at home!' That was the first sentence that I'd received from my host mom Peggy. Then, by the next minute, we started to communicate in Cantonese throughout my 3-week homestay, which 'really' gave me a feel of home. To our surprise, I was stunned to find out that my expected 'local' host family used to be Hong Kong immigrants and Peggy was glad to know the very first Asian student she had to deal with was a girl from her motherland (that means she can speak in her mother tongue).

Soon I accepted the fact that having a Hong-Kong-style host mom wasn't a bad idea at all since she was a typical Hong Kong mama who was able to take duly care and tell me the differences between the Hong Kong and England lifestyles from her living.

The best thing was, Peggy has great diet requirements which means she can cook extremely well. And she can make good use of her garden to plant her own organic ingredients like tomatoes and apples (picking apples from the apple trees was a remarkable experience). She even made homemade jam for my breakfast too!

It wasn't going to be easy for a clumsy girl like me to be alone in a foreign country even when my basic living needs had been well-prepared.

'What? Did I go to the wrong school?' I was so nervous on the first bus ride to school that I just got off the bus when I saw the 'St. Andrew's College' sign, where I was told that I should be in the junior school instead. 'Girl you should make sure which station you get off.' I tried, but I failed for many times and till the last ride home, I even got on the wrong bus and was driven to the opposite route from home... What's more, standing in school alone when everybody had set off for punting and rushing into the male toilet accidentally were 'unforgettable' experience.

However, my experience is nothing compared to Kevin's 'breathtaking' experience. It was the last time for us to punt along the River Cam. Kevin decided to take this last turn to punt. The boat glided across the river smoothly at first and we enjoyed the journey so much with the company of the fluffy ducks and swans, feeding and screaming frantically when the little creatures got so close. 

'Splashed!' Things happened in a sec but it seemed like a thousand years. Kevin dropped into the river, we bated breath, someone screamed, the punting stick dropped, the boat floated out of control, Kevin swam back. Then, just like the clip played at normal speed again, we all suddenly woke and did our best to clean up the mess. For the blessing of God, Kevin was alright (though his phone was all wet and damaged) and the remaining of the trip.

I'd rather call the 3-week England trip an adventure, full of challenging and unpredictable situations. Thank God, we all got back safe in one piece. After all we've been through the 'adventures', I learnt that the ones helped you in need are the 'friends' indeed, and the 'memories' we shared, are the things that we couldn't just pack in the luggage and bring them back, but would be something that you'd never ever forget.

Speaking of friends, I'd met not only Chloe, Yankie and Kitty from another school sponsored by the Wan Chai Rotary Club, but also dozens of foreign friends: Lovely Swiss girl Eva, cool Russian girl Maria, Funny German guy Dominic ... and many others.

The summer school was a great platform for us to learn while making friends from all over the world. Unlike Hong Kong, small class policy is adopted in England schools. There were only around 10 students in my class, so that the teacher was able to take care of all of us and also make more interaction with the students. We have to attend school between 8:00a.m.- 9:00p.m. Moreover, we had lunch at school as well. We usually had normal English classes in the morning. Then there would be a variety of activities for us in the afternoon and the evening, such as Sports on grass, parties in the school garden, disco night, casino games organized by the teachers, etc. What I must mention is that the teachers were super passionate and nice to students.

The students there were from all over the world aged 13-16 like us to come to learn English as well. Thus, everyone was open-minded to make friends. Studying, travelling and or even living in the same homestay or residence together made everybody got so close and shared the same wonderful memories in England. When it came to the time to say goodbye, everybody cried so hard and hugged goodbye in the farewell party as we didn't know whether we would have a chance to meet each other again in our life.

But we know we've gained not only the great memory and knowledge from the summer school, but also long-term friends from all over the world! We can still keep in touch on Facebook or Whatsapp.

Nevertheless, I would never have this valuable chance to see the world, to feel it with heart and to enjoy without the patronage of the Wan Chai Rotarians and our school board members. Hence, I must say a big 'thank you' to the kind and generous Rotarians and those who put so much effort to make the trip comes true.

Thank you!