不列顛計畫－35歲老男人的遊學紀錄

For the purpose traveling to Europe during the Christmas vacation during my two diploma courses, I applied for an organized trip and the Schengen visa. I’ve never traveled to Europe, so this trip means a lot to me.

In the first week in school, the officer of student service centre made an appointment with France Embassy for me, so I could go to interview with the consultant of France Embassy on 10/22, and I had three weeks to prepare all the documents before interview.

I had to arrive France Embassy before 10 AM, since that would be my first time to London, Fi suggested me to take the train which arrived London Victoria Station before 9 AM. It means I have to get up at 6:30 AM, one hour earlier than usual. The price of rail ticket is quite different in one day, depending on the departure time before 9:30 AM or not. Unfortunately, I had to departure before 9:30 AM, so I had to buy peak-time ticket, the most expensive ticket in one day. It cost me almost 40 pounds.

On the day 10/22, after joining the queue for one hour in the cold morning, the guard of France Embassy told me that I’m not on the list. It really shocked me. I asked him to check again, and asked why it happened to me. He said France Embassy have the right to reject the appointment from visa agency. If they find someone who booked more than 3 appointments at the same time, they will cancel these appointments without notice. Six students from our school couldn’t enter France Embassy on the day. Since I was in London and I don’t want to waste the day ticket including rail and tube, I visited Big Ben, London Eye, British Museum and Tower Bridge on the day.

So the second time, I book the appointment by myself. I even didn’t want to make the appointment in the computer room in my school to prevent France Embassy’s reject again. At that time, I had moved to Will’s house and be able to connect to internet. I found that I can get rail ticket with a cheaper price from the National Rail website with my 16-25 rail card; so this time I bought the same ticket but only spent about 32 pounds.

But I still didn’t get Schengen Visa at this time. I didn’t ask school to give me a official letter to prove I’m studying in this school right now, even I showed my student card to the consultant. So soon I failed again, I had to make another appointment to complete my application. Fortunately, it was 11 AM when I left France Embassy. I still have quite a long time to visit London. This time I went to National Nature History Museum, Harrod’s and Greenwich Park.

Finally, I got the visa at the third time, and I only spent 15.5 pounds for rail and underground because I bought off-peak day ticket for the appointment at 11:30 AM. But this time I’ve wait for 4 hours in France Embassy. I left France Embassy at 4:30 PM and no time to visit London again.

It’s an expensive visa, I totally spent almost 90 pounds travel to London for three times and I spend another 47.65 pounds for the visa fee. Life in UK, for me, usually is “Spending money and buy some experience”. At least, I’ve visited many landmarks in London and took a lot pictures. I have to apply Schengen visa on Jan. 2009 again for the trip to Spain after my course in UK. I hope I need not go to London for another three times.

I moved to Will's house yesterday, the house was located in Kemp Town, in the above of Sussex County Hospital. The sight of my room is great; I can see the sea front and port through the window. The rent is £390 per month, and I think it is worth of my money for the great view and the experience living with a British Artist, my land lord Will. Yes, Will is a freelancer who creates some art objects and sculptures for shows or plays. I saw many interesting things in this house; I will post on here later.

This is my room:

This is the view of my room:

Will is a nice guy. After I settled down yesterday, he told me that if sometimes I can’t understand what he said, he can explain or say that again for me. He thought that will help me to improve my English. He is really friendly. I’m lucky!

Since I left my host family, I have to prepare food by myself. I bought a lot of food in the LIDL superstore near Sussex square, including milk, oats, toast, rice, noodles, fresh fruits and vegetables, ready-for-cook pizza. I also found there are some cans about ready meat, so next time I can buy some for mix with rice or noodles. Will said they usually go to supermarket every two weeks by car; it will be easier to carry food home with a car, and I’m welcome to go with them. Will also empties a cabinet for me to storage foods.

This is what I bought yesterday, total 21.57 pounds:

I’m not good at cooking, but treat myself is very interesting, I can do some experiment in the kitchen!

This is what I ate in my ex-hostfamily, two chicken winds with rice, nothing more:

This is what I treat myself for yesterday dinner; the cost of food is about 1.6 pounds, including fruits and soup:

This is my lunch today. The cost is also less than 2 pounds:

My classmate told me that there are some Chinese supermarkets in Brighton, so maybe I will find some food interesting there. If I found, I will tell you. : )

Actually, it’s not everything unlucky in my UK life. For example, I found a room, and I will move out my host family on this Saturday. From next week, I will live with a British Artist in a great-view room of a wonderful house above the hill near Kemp Town. Because the house is located on the top of the hill, I can see the sea front through the window! I will experience the really British Life Style, and the most important, I will have internet connection after school. The only hard time is I have to ‘climb the mountain’ everyday from next week on the way home. Will, the artist and my landlord, said ‘it’s excise, good for health’. I think this is the trade-off of the great view of my room.

This is the fourth week of my first diploma; I made more friends from Europe and South America. At first, in my elective course ‘Business’, classmates from Europe or South America usually speak English very fluently, and students come from Asia including me always can’t join their discussion, as there is an invisible wall between these two group. As time goes by, and thanks for Armani giving Asian students many opportunities to study and discuss together with them, we are closing.

One more lucky-thing is the good weather of the day I went to Bath. That was the second time I traveled in UK, and it was a shiny day without cloud on the sky! Different with the Rainy-Oxford-Trip, I took a lot of pictures in Bath and printed out, they looked good!

For more travel experience, I joined a travel program named ’Europe Wonder’; I will visit France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium during the Christmas Vacation. It will help me establish the first impression of Europe.

I am excepting the new life in UK from next week.

Last Sat. I received the first chequebook in my life, because I never applied a chequebook from bank in Taiwan, but they just gave me the chequebook after I opened account in Britain. But it was very strange that I hadn't received my debit card and pin number of the card which should be sent to me before last Fri. So my host mother said I need to ask the bank what's the problem with my card.

After school today, I went to the bank and described my problem. The kindly officer listened to me with patience, and made sure anything wrong with it. After he made a phone call to other department of the bank, he was sure my debit card had sent last week, and I should receive it before last Fri. They will cancel the card they'd sent, and send me a new card before this Fri. He looked at his computer quickly, and told me my money still stay in my account.

I still worried about the safety of my account; I never lost any card in my life. I asked the copy statement for my account, and found something wrong. I've never gotten my debit card, but someone withdraw led 300 pounds from a cash point near my host house on last Fri.

I told the officer what I found from the copy statement, and he also feels something wrong in this case soon. He filled another form for me, a claim about unauthorized cash point withdrawals--card lost or stolen. He explained what the form is, and told me this was a crime; I have to go to the police office for a crime number. He guaranteed that my 300 pounds will refund to me after some process.

When I went home, I felt really tired. Such a long day it is. I will go to the police office with my host mother tomorrow morning, and hope my 300 pounds will come back soon.

I've been Britain almost 2 weeks, let's talk about the story between my host monther and me.

When I arrived my host family, the room I will stay for 6 months just shocked me. How terrible it is! The carpet is really dirty, and the color of th wall is pink with scribble.

Nice to meet you!

I'm Joseph, who comes from Taiwan and is 34 years old. I had been worked for almost 10 years before coming here. I was working in an internet company which is the most famous website of recruiting service in Taiwan. I was charging in Marketing and Project Managment. It is a large but local company in Taiwan, and I'd worked for it for more than 7 years. If I want to make my career better, I must move to some other internet company which provide more than recruiting service, such as a portal site or an E-commerce company. Usually, they are also international company in Taiwan. That means I must have the ability to work with foreigners, including how to make friends with them, how to negotiate with them. Also, I have to write down a perfect C.V. in English before.

I gave me a break from working day and night, and applied Diploma of Business English in Embassy. I have been British just for 10 days, and hope I can achieve the goals after 6 months.

yours sincerely,

Joseph

It's a pity that I only have few free time in recent days before I go to England. It is 8 AM on 9/27, I'm in HK waitting for transfer. I am trying to record my emotion before arriving UK.

My luggage, it is very heavy and overweight(33.2 kgw, not including backpack). The limit weight of the flight to Europe is 20 kgw, but finally I passed in 26.5 kgw by leaving two books, a tripod, a pair of slippers and some clothes in Taiwan (thanks for the madam of Cathay Pacific in Taiwan).

This is what I look like before leaving Taiwan.

I'm in the plane flying to UK for 14 hours. It's very boring and tired during such a long flight.

Hello, UK. I've seen you~

過了今天，我在這間待了七年多的數字公司，就只剩下最後一週的上班日。

賽老問我，人生有幾個七年，我笑了笑，不知道該怎麼回答，只好窮哈拉的說，這七年自己對公司沒啥貢獻...

而賽老聽完我的課程安排，他說我只要上課上兩週就會後悔，覺得自己幹嘛要跑到英國受洋罪。

今天和Victoria討論了遊學學校的選擇。

在討論之前，我的舉棋不定在於，我希望這趟得來不易的旅程，可以在結束的時候留下一些蛛絲馬跡，為我自己的未來加分，但我又貪婪的想要藉由異國的生活體驗多交些外國朋友，並與世界接軌。

於是，我在這三間學校之間掙扎

事情是從EMBA畢業後開始的。

幾年前曾夢想要留學，上班之餘花了好多時間在補習TOEFL及GMAT，但終究沒辦法在兼顧工作的情況下將TOEFL考到許多學校最低要求的213分，我掙扎著要不要辭職。後來，我放不下工作，選擇在國內在職進修研究所課程。兩年的EMBA課程結束後，我又因為工作，而選擇將論文往後延一年才完成。算一算，為了出國留學補習半年多，準備國內研究所也花了半年時間，2年制的碩士學位我念了3年。這一趟路，因為捨不得放下工作，我走了4年才完成。

一個「工作為重」的念頭，讓許多人生中的重大事件一再被取消或延遲。而埋首工作多年，35歲的我，卻甚至連帳戶金額也沒有增加太多。我一直知道這個世界不是只有台灣，但我的視野，卻好像一直跨不出台灣。看著這紙薄薄的畢業證書，我心想「然後呢？」。我突然好想把一切歸零重新出發。

有些事情，現在不做，以後可能永遠都不會去做。幾年前想要留學，我懷疑自己那個年紀出發會不會太老；更多年前我決定矯正牙齒時，也曾懷疑自己當時才矯正會不會太晚。但，現在回想起來，只要當時有下定決心做那件事情，就不嫌晚。每趟旅程都有一個起點，而「現在」就是啟程出發的最佳時刻。

於是我向老闆預告了自己的計畫，為了讓公司好安排，我提前兩個多月就提了辭呈，那時我連要去哪裡都還沒確定，而圓夢的資金也還沒到位。我只知道我一定要想盡辦法成行。