Sandy's diary in Manchester (June, 2001)

Just click on any of the following underlined dates and you can get to know what's going on with me that day.

1st June, 01 (Fri)

The beginning of Summer holiday

Most of the students either have finished their exams or supposedly submitted their essays today. I handed in three, with one to be finished in five days. Some students started to pack their stuff and moved out. One of my friends will be leaving Manchester and going back to Hong Kong soon. We had a gathering this afternoon. Carolyn, enjoy your summer holiday in HK! ^0^

6th June, 01 (Wed)

The differences in the space of two months

Two months ago, I was wondering if I could finish four essays on time, each six thousand words long. Two months later, I made it , regardless of their quality, but started to wonder how I could finish my dissertation.

Two months ago, I was lazy; two months later, I've been much lazier and slept much more.

Two months ago, I just finished my trip to Dublin; two months later, I've been thinking about travelling other places.

Two months ago, it was chilly; two months later, it's still been a bit cold but with much longer daylight hours (from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. - you may wonder when it gets dark and it seems never to get dark!)

Two months ago, people wondered if England could qualify for the 2002 World Cup; two months later, they started to think of whether England could be top of their group, after beating Greece with two goals.

Two months ago, it was Easter holiday; two months later, it is Summer holiday.

Two months ago, you might wonder if Sandy's homepage would never be updated; two months later, you found you were reading her 'secret' diary.

7th June, 01 (Thur)

'Pearl Harbour' or Tony Blair?

The big movie 'Titanic' made a history in the film industry a few years ago. Now 'Pearl Harbour' is trying to follow in its footsteps but it has got a lot of bad comments from the critics. Today I watched it to see if those critics were true. Not as bad as it was in the opinion of some people but don't expect any surprise . As usual, Americans are described as the greatest.

The Labour party in the UK also made history in the election today. They got the majority of the seats and the current Prime Minister Tony Blair continued his reign. As an overseas student I also got a voting right but 'Pearl Harbour' seemed to be much more important... The turnout voting rate was reported to be lower than that of the previous election. Of course, one of the possible reasons is, many students who could also vote either have gone back home or are enjoying their holiday.

15th June, 01 (Fri)

The Chinese Library in Manchester

Today, it was the first time I paid a visit to the Central library, where the Chinese library, my target, was situated. I was like an explorer who tried to look into every corner (excluding the male toilets). I also felt like I was a reporter, or a detective, who went to that small Chinese library in an attempt to get information about its scale, its collections, the environment and the people, without revealing my identity (as a student) for my dissertation.

The Chinese library looked familiar to me as it was like HK's where you won't expect to find any newly published books, but it caters for the needs of everyone with its wide range of entertainment choices ranging from novels, newspapers, magazines, to videos, VCDs and CDs.

In the evening I turned to a little girl neighbour, taking a few photos with my flatmates outside our flat, before one of them would be leaving the following week.

18th June, 01 (Mon)

HKSAR passport

If any one of you is form HK and still has not applied for a new passport (HKSAR) but plan to do it, you had better do it before you leave HK, cos it can cost you double the original fees and time. Besides the basic fees for the passport and the cost of delivery, we needed to pay the Chinese Embassy an administration fee. The price of the passport is not low (if you want to be free of visas to many European countries).

By the way, my friend and I wondered if the man at the counter lives in the Chinese Embassy, which looks like a great mansion until you see the flag... and perhaps we are supposed to learn and speak Mandarin (or Putonghua - literally 'common language') as he switched from English to Mandarin when talking to us....

19th June, 01 (Tue)

What a receptionist!

Never under-estimate the value and ability of a receptionist, and they play a very important role in a government organisation. They're the first person with whom you talk to when you make a phone call to the government or a company. Their negative response keeps you out of reach of the person you want to talk to. Just like today I was told to contact another organisation by a receptionist of a government department. Maybe next time I gotta be more polite and patient.

20th June, 01 (Wed)

Job Fair

There're only three months to go before the deadline of the submission of dissertations and it's now time to do job searching.government. One of effective ways is go to job fairs. A job fair is being held at Manchester today and tomorrow. It's not a large scale one.

IT personnel recruitment is commonly found in the fair when most of the countries in the world try to share the benefits of technological advances. It is difficult to distinguish the recruitment staff from those job hunters with a seemingly executive look who used to wear T-shirts and jeans. The latter obviously aimed to impress the former. If dressing is an important criteria, I definitely failed to give the employers a good impression today with my usual favourite casual wear.

Besides the aim of getting information on job vacancies, my friends and I also targeted those souvenirs of different companies. Pens are the most common and the most popular must-get items among ourselves. They are not worth much (but nine pens cost around one pound, right?), but better than nothing, when we failed to get any useful information from the fair (and we got a nice ice bag as well, hehe...).

Perhaps we were so greedy with those pens that we got punished. We got lost! You don't believe that three girls who have been studying in such a city for nine months would choose the wrong way when going home? Oh, sorry, if we disappoint you. Yes, we did get lost. Or, maybe we just wanted to do some walking sto get rid of the extra calories and fat that we had gained from overeating these days when bored!

21st June, 01 (Thur)

Essay results

If you remember, two weeks ago I just finished my last essay with the greatest efforts (in the last minute). Today the results were released. Passes meant going ahead with my dissertation, which would be another difficult stage of my masters' study. Now, I'm looking forward to three months later....

25th June, 01 (Mon)

I miss Dragon Boat Festival!

It's a normal weekday here. Perhaps many people have got 'Monday Blues', with no motivation to do anything on the first day of the week (for me every day is 'Monday'!!!). However, at the other end of the world it's a public holiday (the Dragon Boat Festival) for people in HK, who might be watching different kinds of boats competing for a prize, or eating festive food, which I miss very much (sorry, I talk about food again, which is the only thing I'm interested in here).

26th June, 01 (Tue)

My legs are getting bigger

If you ask me which part of my body I'm most dissatisfied with, I'd definitely say it's my legs, which have walked thousands of miles, be it on the weekends or weekdays, sunny or rainy days, in Manchester or in other UK cities, since I came here. Walking to and from the city centre or from one place to another has become almost a daily practice for me and I can't imagine what my legs would be like after three months. Today I just spent the whole morning on a visit to a local high school for my dissertation.

While this summer is going to be a hard one for me, it is not for some of the cleaners in our hall of residence. They have come to our flat much less often recently and perhaps they think it's the season to relax and enjoy, not the one to work.

30th June, 01 (Sat)

Horrible news

I just got a nightmare last night after hearing the news about a Chinese family who got killed and whose house was set fire in the middle of the night. Though I don't know the family, I stil shivered over the news and found it scaring since my friends and I used to go to a Chinese restaurant at the China Town, which was owned by the family. Suddenly Manchester appeared to me as dangerous city again, though it is not until now I know some areas within the city are dangerous; I heard about crimes in the first few months since my arrival. Here is also another proof of how capable HK's media is to find out the truth of the murder...

It's a building at the University of Salford, where we visited on one Sunday morning.

How's my dissertation going? What's been going on with my life in Manchester? Click to see my diary for July!!!

This page was last updated on Thursday, 16 October 2003.

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