So this is coming a bit later than I intended...

So, I wrote this piece on an especially long train from Bristol to London. The route had been diverted, so instead of the usual hour and forty-five minutes, it was almost two hours. Here goes:
---
And so it ends. As they say, all good things must come an end, and in my life being an international student, I’ve seen more endings than I’d have liked to. But, without the ending, you can never appreciate what you had. This is just another one of those times.

Roughly four months ago, on this same track in the opposite direction, I was a jet-lagged, sleep-deprived student from Vassar heading to the University of Bristol on a cold January morning. I’ve passed this scene loads of times, going to and from London, Salisbury and Oxford. This time, though, the grass is greener, the sun is brighter, and the water of the Avon doesn’t seem so brown. Not it’s a little green-brownish. This time around, I am a student of the University of Bristol going on another adventure that will land me safely in the loving arms of Poughkeepsie.

It’s been one of the best four months of my life: figuring out what I wanted to cook for dinner every night (which, without fail, was different), helping a model from Singapore test baking recipes late at night, high times at the Coritap, hot chocolate in Clifton, a pitcher of Pimms on a pleasant spring day with a great view of the suspension bridge, and of course, the banter that would go down at Saltford.

I’m really going to miss Bristol and all it has to offer. Most people, when they think of studying abroad in the UK think immediately of London, Oxbridge or St. Andrews, but Bristol is really one of the best kept secrets. There’s a reason Skins is set there, people! If you’re reading this and thinking of studying abroad, Bristol is definitely it. Cheaper than London, with the western countryside at your fingertips. Last weekend, while I should have been studying for my exams, I had Sunday lunch with one of my dad’s lecturers who retired two years ago. My dad studied at Bristol in the mid-70’s, right when the Concord was being designed and built at Bristol. We had lunch in a small village outside Bristol and went for a drive around some of the other villages nestled in the Meldip Hills, The Wells Cathedral, established in 909, and completed in the thirteenth century, and the breathtaking Cheddar Valley, the home of cheddar cheese (no, not Vermont) all in one afternoon. It was amazing and one of the best day trips I’ve ever done.

What’s next for Kyle, you may ask yourself. It’s London for the night and Heathrow tomorrow morning to Hong Kong via Dubai. I really hope the shops in the Dubai airport are open, since I’ll be getting in at midnight and I’ve got three hours to chill there. Then off to my favourite airport. The next morning I head into the mainland to visit my relatives in Toi Seng, or Taishan City. From there, I’ll go see the village where my grandfather was born, and learn some more family history. Then it’s back to Hong Kong, where, two days later, I fly to Beijing to begin my internship, which I still have heard nothing about. For example, I’m assigned a host family, who I have absolutely no idea about, or what I’ll be done exactly at my job.

Then, from there, I’m back to Hong Kong and then back to New York to celebrate my mother’s birthday and move my sister into whatever dorm ResLife slots her into.

I’m quite excited about the prospects that the next year holds. As much as I love Bristol, it’s no Vassar. That’s the fun part about studying abroad: it makes you realize how much you take for granted. In my case, it was the sometimes forty-five minute walk (if there was rain or snow) from my flat into uni, where the library and the gym were, when sometimes I used think the fifteen minute walk to Walker was a big deal, or lugging all your stuff all of five minutes to the library from Jewett.

But then you need these experiences to teach you that sometimes it’s alright to have chickens at your boathouse, just chilling. Or that swans are actually pretty violent when they’re mad, and can be very scary. Or that crossing the Downs alone at night can be alright, if you’re always alert. I wouldn’t advise you to find these out on your own, just take my word for it.

We’ve just passed the white horse of Westbury, which is a massive horse carved by Neolithic people into the side of a hill in Westbury, which is where my train has been diverted through. I just made a mad dash for my camera, cuz on these First Great Western trains, you fly. I don’t know if I’ll ever feel like I’m going anywhere on the Hudson line back up to Po-town. But that’s ok I guess.

My last word of advice before I wrap up this long-winded plea for self pity: study abroad. Get out from where you are, go somewhere crazy. Bristol’s pretty crazy. Watch the Inbetweeners sometime, get a little Mighty Boosh action going on. I won’t say I feel like a Bristolian through and through, but I do feel like a Bristol student. I have prejudices against UWE, because we’re obviously better. I love cider. I think the Union building is ugly and horribly placed. But it’s all these things that come together and make you realize that we do need to go, in the wise words of Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, “on beyond Zebra.” It’s the only way we’ll ever get anywhere, and hey, it makes for some sweet stories. Til next time, in Asia.
---
And whaddya know, I am in Asia. I've been busy this past week soaking up the greatness that is my favourite city of Hong Kong all over again. I studied here last summer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and it was a load of fun galavanting around with some great friends. In the last two days, I've been to HK Disney and got together with some Vassar pre-frosh who are in the middle of graduation, and my own flesh-and-blood frosh, baby sister Christie. Crystal Tung '11 came along as well, as one of my sweet group of internationals who I hang with here.

One of my flatmates from Bristol, who I also met up with here for coffee, hails from Singapore and just sent me this crazy video of a parody of the Wondergirls' song "Nobody" by a Singaporean personality, Mr. Brown. I've just spent the last 2 hours listening to his crazy webcasts and getting a sweet ab workout. But yeah. I'm Beijing bound tomorrow, and then radio silence until August. The mainland's kind of strict about blogging and what not, so I may or may not have access to you guys. In any case, I'll have people working for me, so to my faithful readers, keep posted and don't forget about me. Peace out.