Our episode today features a story of change. Xiaoyu, an Applied Linguistics Master's student from the IOE, shared her views on how she has been taking the initiative and creating her own unique university experience since she came to London this March, in the middle of the lockdown. In addition to some common hurdles faced by international students, including socializing and adapting to living and working in a different culture, remote learning could undermine the unique experience of attending different universities – with everything happens on Zoom. Yet Xiaoyu decided to step out and to grasp opportunities for socialising by participating in the Coffee Connect programme and volunteering at the Confucius Institute. 'The first step is to be brave,' she emphasised, 'don't be afraid of expressing what you want explicitly and don't be ashamed of having such disconnected feelings – people share that feeling, more or less.'

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