‘Dinga-ling-a-ling…’ my alarm clock rings, waking me. Actually, I’d been half-awake the whole night, listening intently for those ringing dings, because I was jet-lagged, unaccustomed to the time difference and afraid I’d oversleep and miss my first lecture at TU Delft.
Delen
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‘Hey, what a beautiful sun!’ I thought, looking out the window as I got dressed. So much for that pessimistic Internet guy who had warned me of the awful weather in the Netherlands! ‘Enjoy the sunshine. It shall be a nice first day!’ I said to myself. Alas, I had spoken too soon! Ten minutes later, while walking to the TU, it started to rain! Luckily, I wasn’t far from my apartment, so, in order to save my make-up and the good first impression I hoped to make on my new classmates, I decided to return home to fetch my raincoat. Five minutes later, with my raincoat on, I was back on my way to school when…the sun jumped out again! Faint!
Fortunately I wasn’t late and still had time to meet my new classmates. This girl came from Germany, that guy spoke French, another was from Belgium….Perfect! Being international was why I’d come here! At once I recovered from the depressed mood caused by the weather and happily chatted with them all, feeling proud of my fluent English. Then our lecturer came in with a fatherly smile.
“Today, we’re going to talk about mumbllamumm, how advanced blphmmerph mrrbllurb, but we shall mumphlll on mathematically plumhphhh!”
What? Was he speaking English!?
“Don’t worry, you’ll soon get used to his accent,” a classmate said, trying to comfort me. Faint!
The next lecture was wonderful, however. I could follow at least 80% of it, though I thought I’d do better if I had the teaching materials. “For course documents, you can check on the blackboard,” the teacher said. Blackboard? ‘There’s nothing on the blackboard’ I mumbled to myself. ‘Ok, maybe some place around the blackboard.’ Frankly, I was a little shy to ask. As I was frantically scanning the walls around the blackboard for documents, my classmate returned.
“What are you doing?” she asked
‘Looking for the course documents…the lecturer just said they’re on the blackboard, but I can’t see them.’
“God, don’t you know that the blackboard is a computer system where you can find all the course details…you only need to get on the Internet and….” Faint!
Thankfully, it was now lunchtime, because . having been awake for more than 24 hours – if had to sit still any longer I probably would’ve fallen asleep! However, I decided to call my parents first, so that they wouldn’t keep worrying about me.
‘Hi Daddy…I’m fine. The flight was fine, my apartment’s fine…the lectures are fine. Yes, I can understand them all, don’t worry! Someone picked me up at the airport, yes, yes…there were people waiting at the Aula to enroll us….No, I can’t remember clearly, I just signed many contracts….’ Until I had said the word ‘contract’, it had been a warmhearted family talk
“Contracts! Did you check every item clearly?” my father the cautious businessman asked.
‘I’m afraid not. I was too tired then….’
“What? Why!? Didn’t I tell you a hundred…a thousand times that you can never be too careful when signing contracts!? And you signed them even without reading all the details? Do you know how dangerous that could be…?” Faint!
In the afternoon, I made up my mind to do some sports. Sports could always cheer me up, no matter how blue I was. And the sun had kept shining since I returned to fetch my raincoat. So why not do some sports? But this time I did almost faint at the door of the Sports Center, because everything, every word was in Dutch!
Lingering on the way back home, I finally felt like crying when I realized I had lost the way. Sitting forlornly beside the road, I began to doubt if I’d ever survive the first day and the following days, when I suddenly heard a silvery voice say, “Hi, what’s wrong? Are you lost? Don’t worry, I’ll show you the way back. You know, things aren’t easy in the beginning, but you’re going to survive!” It was a beautiful lady, smiling tenderly.
Yes…then I knew, I really knew I would survive! I stood up, smiling, as the sun shone lovely in the sky.
Shu Yi, China, MSc Offshore Engineering
‘Dinga-ling-a-ling…‘ my alarm clock rings, waking me. Actually, I’d been half-awake the whole night, listening intently for those ringing dings, because I was jet-lagged, unaccustomed to the time difference and afraid I’d oversleep and miss my first lecture at TU Delft.
‘Hey, what a beautiful sun!’ I thought, looking out the window as I got dressed. So much for that pessimistic Internet guy who had warned me of the awful weather in the Netherlands! ‘Enjoy the sunshine. It shall be a nice first day!’ I said to myself. Alas, I had spoken too soon! Ten minutes later, while walking to the TU, it started to rain! Luckily, I wasn’t far from my apartment, so, in order to save my make-up and the good first impression I hoped to make on my new classmates, I decided to return home to fetch my raincoat. Five minutes later, with my raincoat on, I was back on my way to school when…the sun jumped out again! Faint!
Fortunately I wasn’t late and still had time to meet my new classmates. This girl came from Germany, that guy spoke French, another was from Belgium….Perfect! Being international was why I’d come here! At once I recovered from the depressed mood caused by the weather and happily chatted with them all, feeling proud of my fluent English. Then our lecturer came in with a fatherly smile.
“Today, we’re going to talk about mumbllamumm, how advanced blphmmerph mrrbllurb, but we shall mumphlll on mathematically plumhphhh!”
What? Was he speaking English!?
“Don’t worry, you’ll soon get used to his accent,” a classmate said, trying to comfort me. Faint!
The next lecture was wonderful, however. I could follow at least 80% of it, though I thought I’d do better if I had the teaching materials. “For course documents, you can check on the blackboard,” the teacher said. Blackboard? ‘There’s nothing on the blackboard’ I mumbled to myself. ‘Ok, maybe some place around the blackboard.’ Frankly, I was a little shy to ask. As I was frantically scanning the walls around the blackboard for documents, my classmate returned.
“What are you doing?” she asked
‘Looking for the course documents…the lecturer just said they’re on the blackboard, but I can’t see them.’
“God, don’t you know that the blackboard is a computer system where you can find all the course details…you only need to get on the Internet and….” Faint!
Thankfully, it was now lunchtime, because . having been awake for more than 24 hours – if had to sit still any longer I probably would’ve fallen asleep! However, I decided to call my parents first, so that they wouldn’t keep worrying about me.
‘Hi Daddy…I’m fine. The flight was fine, my apartment’s fine…the lectures are fine. Yes, I can understand them all, don’t worry! Someone picked me up at the airport, yes, yes…there were people waiting at the Aula to enroll us….No, I can’t remember clearly, I just signed many contracts….’ Until I had said the word ‘contract’, it had been a warmhearted family talk
“Contracts! Did you check every item clearly?” my father the cautious businessman asked.
‘I’m afraid not. I was too tired then….’
“What? Why!? Didn’t I tell you a hundred…a thousand times that you can never be too careful when signing contracts!? And you signed them even without reading all the details? Do you know how dangerous that could be…?” Faint!
In the afternoon, I made up my mind to do some sports. Sports could always cheer me up, no matter how blue I was. And the sun had kept shining since I returned to fetch my raincoat. So why not do some sports? But this time I did almost faint at the door of the Sports Center, because everything, every word was in Dutch!
Lingering on the way back home, I finally felt like crying when I realized I had lost the way. Sitting forlornly beside the road, I began to doubt if I’d ever survive the first day and the following days, when I suddenly heard a silvery voice say, “Hi, what’s wrong? Are you lost? Don’t worry, I’ll show you the way back. You know, things aren’t easy in the beginning, but you’re going to survive!” It was a beautiful lady, smiling tenderly.
Yes…then I knew, I really knew I would survive! I stood up, smiling, as the sun shone lovely in the sky.
Shu Yi, China, MSc Offshore Engineering
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