Leung Ho Yi (Cally)

Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong
Exchange to Flinders University, Australia

It was a great honour for me to be one of the awardees of the Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Awards programme. Although it was not my first time visiting Australia, it was my first time in Adelaide, the charming capital city of South Australia. The one semester exchange study at Flinders University was one of the most memorable and incredible experiences of my life.

I stayed in Flinders University housing during the semester. Living on campus gave me easy access to all the university facilities and a great opportunity to make new friends and to socialize with fellow students. I shared my accommodation with three Asian girls and one Indian girl. I was overwhelmed by their kindness and support. They shared most of their cooking utensils with me and always made me delicious desserts. We spent time together cooking meals for the family dinners and going out to different places during the weekends and semester break. Everyone had a unique personality and different living habits, yet we could stay together happily and have a lot of fun. It was so nice to have them as my lovely housemates. Besides this, the International Student Services Unit of the university organized various local tours for international students. I met lots of amazing people and made new friends with German, Korean, Japanese and Swedish students. We had wonderful conversations by introducing our hometowns and sharing our local cultures with each other. It was sad to say goodbye to all of them at the end of the semester, but we will keep in touch and hopefully we can meet sometime later.

Studying at Flinders University has been a great academic experience. The Flinders University Central Library has a large collection of resources on various fields and subjects. It also has an extensive and comprehensive database system for electronic articles and journals. There is a student learning centre in the library, which provides assistance and guidelines for students on writing academic papers and using proper referencing. Additionally, the tutors of the subjects I took were always very helpful, patient, and willing to answer the questions that I had. They gave me excellent and useful advice and feedback on the outlines of my papers, so that I could know if I was on the right track and what I could do to improve my papers. Furthermore, it was great to work with some local students as a group for a presentation. I worked with three local students and it was a surprise to find out that all of us were doing an education major. Apart from discussing our presentation topic, we also had the chance to talk about our future teaching pursuits. They shared some inspirational thoughts about teaching with me and I think these will definitely help me to prepare for my future career.

Leaving my parents and friends back in Hong Kong for five months allowed me to gain a better understanding of myself. When I was in Adelaide, I had to do everything by myself, including opening and managing my bank account, booking with travel agencies, paying for deliveries and postage and so on. All these experiences made me realize that I am capable of being an independent person, and I really can take good care of myself, both in terms of studying and living. On the other hand, I learnt to appreciate and treasure the things I have all the time, like the care and love I’ve received from my parents and friends. We may take these things for granted and expect them to do everything for us. Staying away from them for five months meant that the only way that I could contact them was to either to call or chat with them online. Sometimes, when I felt a bit homesick or was frustrated with my studies here, they would listen to me and give me enormous support. I am so thankful to have my family and friends at my side all the time.

I will always cherish and remember the exchange experience I had in Adelaide for the rest of my life.

I would like to thank my parents, Flinders University, HKIEd and the Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Awards programme for giving me such an opportunity.

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