Confessions of a Cat-holic (106)

I had to admit that the summer school was a bit pricey and I felt that I was just wasting my parents' money to have an easier time abroad. The academic pressure at the summer school was noticeably more relaxing. Nevertheless, I had a great time making friends with the teenagers from other countries.

Among all the students in the summer school, I hang out the most with an Israeli girl called Mika and she had her own cohort of Jews, one of them was Mark and another guy who looked like J from the pop band, 5ive. She re-wrote the lyrics for the song Basket Case from Green Day and I still remembered some parts of her re-written works. Talking to her and her friends was like meeting up my old friends from alma mater, as we both liked to rewrite lyrics of pop songs, sometimes into dirty versions too.

And then I discovered a problem about studying abroad in the UK. I was completely fine with the British staff and the setting but I was not too comfortable being in the same school with too many nationalities. I felt that one second I was having a good time with the Jews and then another second there would be a German girl nearby. And when I talked to a German girl, the French would come in next. All in all, it was just like a mini united nations in the summer school and I did not like that.

I could talk to each of them individually but I kind of disliked the idea that I would be in the same room with all of them. Sometimes saying the wrong things about certain countries could ignite nationalistic hatred and I was careful about that. Hong Kong was already chaotic enough and I knew so very well how easy it could be to start a fight and possibly another world war. Sure enough, I did not want to get into trouble for being ignorant about foreign affairs. I only learned about Europe through my history class but I knew for a fact that the European history was much longer than the world wars and sometimes their division across borders was way more than a vendetta. I just did not want to be involved in all this.

Nevertheless, I found the Italian guys particularly attractive. One of them was Giovanni. And there was a Portugese boy whose name I could not recall. But they never talked to me for some reasons. I was very bitter about that at the time so I said they were racist against Asians on their note pad on the last day of summer school, when we were supposed to write heartfelt notes for each other to show our love and memories of each other. Obviously, they were not really racists. I didn't think Italians were racists but it was just that I was upset they seemed to ignore me the entire time in the summer school and they only seemed to hang out with the Europeans.

I was still a virgin at the time and I was completely happy about that. But the Europeans seemed a bit premature for their age and I saw them kissing outside the dormitory. Some of them were smoking too, at such a young age. I was not sure if they slept with each other because I was not close with them enough to find out. Mika and her friends were not dating so I was sure I was hanging out with the right group.

Nevertheless, I came back safe and sound without any emotional damage after an uneventful summer school. No drama, no cat fights, no summer love stories. And I was quite relieved.

And then I was almost sure to eliminate the UK as my first choice of college destination. First, I wanted a liberal arts degree, knowing that my strengths had always been humanities despite all the pre-learning in science at SPCC. I once thought that the training at SPCC was harder than neccessary, and it might actually be so. I would very likely choose biochemistry for my chosen major at university, but the education in England seemed a bit too pre-professional for me, so I thought.

I wanted to study in a country where there would be Jews, after learning that I clicked particularly well with Mika and her friends in the summer school, so United States seemed like a sensible choice. At that time, I didn't know the Jews were concentrated in the New York area, so I was thinking about study options in California, an expected choice for Asians like me.