Diary of studying in Britain: I am on my way alone.

Zhu Jie, an undergraduate student of international relations at London School of Economics and Political Science

Alone, with a backpack, she is looking for spiritual independence and personal significance in the freezing cold.

Now is an era when post-9s students are all over the world. Zhu Jie, a freshman who loves to rush and write, traveled across the ocean to Britain and became a member of this study abroad corps to tell you about the new life that is gradually unfolding. -editor

? Either travel or study, body and soul must have one on the road. ? This sentence has been talked about by college students in China. More and more aspiring young people will spend their holidays through travel. Work hard, play hard? The second half of the sentence is well implemented, and international students are no exception.

British college students have quite a long vacation and many choices of travel destinations. So this winter holiday, many of my companions who didn't go home traveled around, or visited all the lakes and mountains in Great Britain, or visited museums in continental Europe, or went skiing in Scandinavia to see the aurora, and came back to talk about their experiences, which opened my eyes to people who stayed in London.

I especially want to talk about traveling alone. In the west, the long-distance self-help travel of single backpackers is an experience that is particularly valued and extremely capable. It exercises and reflects the planning and exploration spirit of young people, and can even be written as a highlight on the resume of job hunting.

The trend of single travel seems to be particularly popular among female students studying abroad. This is an era when young women in China are becoming more and more independent and self-reliant. Britain and Europe are also relatively safe places to travel. With a little lonely romance, a space for self-thinking and some beautiful fantasies about meeting, they embarked on the road of foreign travel alone.

The single journey of a financial woman

At the beginning of the holiday, I had dinner with a new friend. She is a junior, studying in an American girls' school, coming to LSE for a year, taking some courses in economics and accounting, and she is very likely to work on Wall Street in the future. She told me about the prospects of the financial industry, internship opportunities, etc., and the conversation was full of strong WTO atmosphere.

suddenly she changed the subject: I'm going to travel alone in two days. ? A particularly cheerful smile brushed aside the usual caution and jumped on my face.

I listened curiously to her travel plans. A 2-year-old girl who has just been in Britain for two or three months is immersed in academics and applying for internships all day. Suddenly, it takes a lot of determination and precise planning to put aside all this complexity and spend seven days traveling around six or seven towns in Britain alone. So I asked her what her specific plans were. She smiled, went to the computer and clicked on an Excel document.

I was stupefied. I just wanted to say that I didn't want to see her homework when I saw a detailed travel plan in a form I had never seen before. The Excel table lists the train numbers, hotels, places of interest, opening hours, fares and other information of each destination in detail, and all kinds of complicated situations can be seen at a glance. The specific plan for each day is placed in the schedule of Excel. Finally, there are electronic maps of cities and regions, lying neatly in a new table.

I asked her about the estimated expenses of this trip, and when she pressed a few shortcut keys, the amount jumped out of the Excel grid obediently.

It really is a talent in the future financial field, and a travel plan also looks so professional. What reason does such a bold and cautious girl have to doubt that she can't walk the Jianghu alone?

during the time when she left London, I pictured her journey alone in my mind. In the cold and bleak winter, a person, a backpack, went from the south of the island of Great Britain to the north, to the lake area and the highlands, and gradually drifted away from the bustling London until he reached the northernmost coastal line in Scotland. Alone, with agile thinking, manipulating efficient computer software to open the way, walking fast and steadily. It's a long way to go. This must be a different winter vacation experience, getting rid of those financial terms and stock market transactions, and looking for spiritual independence and personal significance in the freezing cold. When you walk down this circle and return to the bustling city, you must be a more self-possessed person.

New Year's Eve on the European train

There is also a beautiful girl studying in Oxford, who is just a freshman. I don't know her, but I was lucky enough to see her detailed online diary of her solo trip to Europe and learn about this continent I haven't set foot in through her eyes.

Traveling to Europe is obviously more difficult than traveling in Britain, and it faces various problems. To sum up, it is physical fatigue, wallet fatigue and passport fatigue. Taking care of yourself, trying to save money and applying for a visa early are all energy-consuming things. In addition, although English is widely used in Europe, it is not the mother tongue for tourists and locals, and there are always one or two countries that treat tourists who can't speak their own language coldly.

But this friend I have never met spent almost the whole holiday traveling around Europe, and had all kinds of magical experiences in many difficulties. For example, you get lost in the suburbs of Paris, but you stop at a small shop on the side of the road to eat authentic French dishes. For example, I was elegantly accosted by a handsome guy with blond hair and blue eyes at Munich railway station. Of course, there is also the New Year's Eve on the train that travels through the European continent. Think about that scene-the train passed by a small town without any trouble, and the spire of the chapel was exposed among the scattered shadows, giving a slight yellow light. Twelve New Year's Eve bells rang and reached the ears of single passengers through frosted window glass.

at the beginning of the new year, we have already started. A fleeting moment, captured in the bumpy movement. All over the world, who is not my friend. On the road of life, let me be a passer-by more often while I am young.

My dream country tour

I'm a lazy guy who is afraid of fatigue and cold, and I always feel that Europe, a rich and carefree country (although temporarily in the financial turmoil), can play closer to its true colors when it has a little more money and less pressure. Therefore, my plan to visit Europe has been put on hold for the time being, and I am looking forward to playing Britain well first.

Time is the early summer when the weather warms up and it rains occasionally. The location is the countryside of England. The residence is a quaint country house. Companions are their own shadows and the moon. Wake up from the dream of taking a nap at noon, and the wet air is fresh after the rain. So I went out with my camera and shorthand book.

Don't be afraid of getting lost and missing the bus and the scene, just like traveling in the city. When you are lost in the country, you just have to follow the flowers and the sheep. Every step is a scene, and when you look up, it is a painting. Look for the hare that Miss Porter is looking for, and take a walk along the path where Jane Austen and Mr Lefroy pass side by side. Oh, once upon a time, when I was watching English movies and novels, did I realize the true meaning when I arrived here? In a comfortable and pure atmosphere, looking at the complex human feelings in the bustling city from a distance, can the women who write here find the poetry in their hearts? There is no city machine in London, only warm sunshine, old brick walls, green pastures and the fragrance of straw piles.

why don't you go home?

I was going to stop writing here, but a message from my hometown broke my dream bubble about future travel and made me fall into deep thought again. An amiable and respectable relative passed away. When the bad news crosses the time difference and floats from the other side of the ocean, the distance between time and space makes the meaning of parting and never seeing each other more ethereal, making young me feel at a loss and at a loss, and it will be a long time before I feel heavy sadness.

the beginning of 212 seems to be a tough winter. On the Internet, I found many international students like me, praying for their elderly and frail relatives across Qian Shan. And sighed: I knew I would go back to China this holiday … why didn't I think of it earlier? !

We left our native land to study abroad, and we were on the road alone. When we embarked on the road of studying abroad, what we were most looking forward to was also a little lonely romance, a space for self-thinking and some beautiful fantasies about meeting. The hard-working children's independence and self-improvement are always commendable. However, have young loners ever thought about their aging relatives who are left behind and struggling to catch up with them? How many years ago, our family members, who are nearly 5 years old or even older, made us learn to use all kinds of complicated video software and registered Renren, Weibo and even Facebook accounts! Despite this, I am still not around, and I still habitually report good news instead of worrying.

In the dream of my youth, I always want to bid farewell to the support of my family and make a world by myself. But when I look back and find myself really alone, will loneliness suddenly break out?

Perhaps, after the overseas students have gone through the road of independent exploration, they must also remember to go home, accompany the familiar people, and have a look at those once familiar but now slightly unfamiliar hometowns.

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