Having a very amazing experience at the University of Birmingham in Birmingham, England. I had never lived alone for so long before, so being away from my family is a big change for me, as I have to take care of everything by myself; at the same time, it gives me independence. Living by myself in the UK for a year makes me feel like an adult, as I experienced the ‘first time’ for many things, including living independently in student accommodation, opening a bank account, studying in an academic system different from that of SFU, having assignments worth larger proportion of a course’s overall grade, and traveling all by myself, which I all navigated well, though they did take me some effort to learn. I felt lonely at times being away from my family and friends back home. To cope with the loneliness, I often contact family and friends back home and join many societies to make new friends. I volunteer regularly for Conservation Volunteers, a UoB society hosting various volunteering sessions with different volunteer work each time, like cutting trees, removing invasive plants, gardening work, etc., enhancing my experience with conservation.