Winter is the season of leaving for the students. On 26 January 2007 the University of Leicester celebrated the graduate commencement at De Montfort Hall. For the international students, it is time for them to say goodbye to UK, where they have lived for at least one year. They have a lot of memory in Leicester, either sweet or bitter - an important journey in life. Studying in UK is a good experience for most of international students. Mei's story Mei comes from China. She is my good friend. She graduated in the winter degree congregations. She has lived here for about four years, and successfully got her BA and MA degree. She thought the experience studying in UK is very rare for her. She spent the best time in her life here. | "They have a lot of memory in Leicester, either sweet or bitter - an important journey in life. Studying in UK is a good experience for most." | | Ting Wu |
Although she faced a lot of difficulty as she went along, the experience made her stronger. Fortunately, she found her boyfriend here. They are classmates. They help each other in study and life. They leave over much nice memory together here. They travel a lot of places in Europe, such as Switzerland, Turkey and Greece. They tasted the European culture through travelling. Moreover, they were very impressed by the natural sights and historic sites. After the graduate commencement, Mei will leave UK to China. Different to most of international students who want to find job in big city, she wants to work in her hometown Yunan, because she thought there might be more advantages to working there, while living in the big city is overrated. Fiona's story Fiona comes from Hong Kong. She got her master degree in the UK. Although she is studying here for just one year, she thinks it is a very good experience. She said one year is too short for her to get more professional knowledge. However, she thinks it is very helpful for her to know about a different culture and custom, which made her more open-minded. She will stay here for some days and travel in Europe. Then, she will go back to Hong Kong to work.
I met a girl who comes from Thailand in the graduate commencement. She is a long distance student in University of Leicester. Although she did not have a lot of classes in Leicester, she had a deep emotional attachment to the city. She thought the experience studying abroad was very helpful for her. She'll never forgot the first time she did presentation in the class. Because she was using her second language, she felt very nervous. Her tutor gave her great help and told her that as a girl who was using a second language to do a presentation, she was very good. Now she has more confidence and courage when she faces the problem in study. Moreover, it is also a helpful experience for her future. She said she will go back to Thailand and work for family business. However, some international students do not recognize the potential of studying in the听 UK. Wang's story Wang is a student of finance, who comes from China. He said before he came to the UK, he had a lot of ideas and dreams. Whereas, one year later, he felt very disappointed. There is a great gap between ideal and reality. He thought that what he got is not good value for the amount of money that he paid to study here. The life here is dreary and boring which made him feel very lonely. Moreover, he said he dropped the idea of finding a job in the UK, because it is quite difficult to find a good job for the international students. He wants to find job in Shanghai, but he did not have good plan. He felt perplexed for the future. The future Through talking with these students, I thought deeply. Every year, a great number of international students come to UK to study with great hope. They hope to get good experience and preparation for the future. Some get it, while some are disappointed. However, the future is colourful and hopeful. Getting the degree abroad is just a jumping-off point. The experience never is lost. | 
