When students went to study abroad, the first thing that surprised many of them was that their homes were all equipped with electric stoves and no natural gas (only restaurants use natural gas, and small tanks of natural gas are sold in stores run by Chinese in some cities).

This is really uncomfortable for Chinese students who are used to Chinese food. The electric stir-fry stove is just fine for cooking Western food, but it is really incompetent for cooking Chinese food.

When you go to the supermarket, you will see that things may not be more expensive than you think, but for students who are used to eating Chinese food, the food choices are really limited. If you want to eat Chinese food, you have to go to a Chinese or Southeast Asian restaurant (Vietnamese, Thai, etc.)

In small convenience stores, students will find noodles, frozen dumplings, instant noodles and even hot pot bases. In big cities, such as the Chinese gathering areas in Sydney, there will be large and medium-sized farmers' supermarkets opened by Chinese. Every day, Chinese people come and go.

It feels a bit like going back to the Chinese farmer's market, and I always come back with a full load.

Li Qingxi, a classmate who went to Australia to study, described the three meals a day in the first few days after going abroad like this: In the past three days, I had three meals a day, all of which were instant noodles. In order to save money, I only ate one pack at a time.

Crack an egg (the eggs in Australia are smaller than those in China).

For me, who can only cook two plates of food for one meal at home, how can I carry this little food with me to the next meal? So, even though I didn’t do anything, I got hungry very quickly.

Due to my reluctance to spend money, I could only grit my teeth and resist hunger.

I was really tired of eating instant noodles, so I went to eat at McDonald's on the street.

I had to bother a classmate to buy that McDonald's meal with me in the evening, because I didn't know the way yet.

On the way, I asked some basic words, such as "toilet" must be called "Toilet".

When I asked if I could call it WC, she laughed and said, that was the name a long time ago, and if you say WC, some people will think it is a place like the laundry room.

I still couldn't bear to spend money when eating at McDonald's, so I only ordered a small size big mac meal. To be honest, I wasn't full at all.

In foreign countries, breakfast is usually Toast, Cheese, Bacon, and Milk. After eating for a whole day, if you are not hungry, many students simply skip lunch or bring some homemade food in their lunch boxes.

Bring the meals to school and heat them up in the microwave.

Dinner is called dinner in English, which means "dinner". It is the most formal meal of the day.

Of course, you can’t always eat instant noodles and McDonald’s. To save money and be nutritious, you’d better cook your own food.

Classmate Li Qingxi said: When cooking, I usually start after the landlord has finished cooking.

Because I only cook one dish, I often cook it before the whole family has finished eating.

At this time, the landlord would let me sit at the same table.

Looking at his family's "Manchu-Han banquet", and then looking at my "plate of dregs", I feel really uncomfortable. I'm a little greedy, and I feel a little inferior. I even regret that I shouldn't sit at the same table with him.

From now on, I always avoid the cooking time of the landlord and his family, and listen to them enter the restaurant. I will either read a book in my room for a while, or sit in the living room and watch TV, and I will never eat with them again.

I usually start cooking my own meals only after I hear them clearing away their rice bowls.

Alas! Most young international students live in other people’s homes, so it is inevitable that they will suffer a little.

I cook my own food and buy my own groceries. Only then do I really understand the truth that you don’t know how expensive firewood and rice are if you don’t become a householder.

When I arrived at the supermarket, I couldn’t bear to buy anything.

Buy the coarsest rice and a small piece of meat. Of course, there are also cheap things from abroad, such as potatoes, onions, tomatoes, fresh milk, etc.

Li Qingxi, a classmate, said that only when you go abroad do you know what "fresh milk" is. In comparison, the milk you drink at home is simply boiled water.

There are also many vegetables without chemical fertilizers and no pollution.

The cheapest meat is chicken. Chinese convenience stores sell mutton for shabu-shabu, but I don’t know why it’s not as delicious as in China.

If you go to the streets, there are McDonald's, KFC, and Pizza Hut, and they are not expensive, but they don't seem to be as delicious as those in China.

Fast food restaurants and Chinese restaurants selling fast food are occasional places for international students to improve their lives.

Luxury stores are too expensive and most people don’t dare to buy them.

Of course, if your family is rich and the funds on your bank card are constantly being replenished, you can live in the student dormitory provided by the school, with one room per person. Of course, the cost is not affordable by ordinary families; even if you live in

In other people's homes, you can go to restaurants to enjoy delicious meals every day, and you can also order Chinese food every day. When ordering food abroad, you have to pay tips, which is not cheap.

The first difficulty encountered after going abroad is three meals a day. This is something that many Chinese students did not expect, so it left a deep impression.

Lu Yi, who studied in the UK, said that when he first arrived in the UK, he developed cooking skills faster than English.

It’s very simple. Not speaking English for a day, no problem; not eating for a day, no way! On the first Mid-Autumn Festival after going abroad, several Chinese students spent an hour and a half making a meal. He said: Look at us spending an hour.

Everyone will have different feelings about a table of meals cooked in half an hour. Yes, we have learned to cook by ourselves! Yes, for our generation of students, this may be a more difficult challenge than learning.

Just imagine, in the twelve years of cold life, we don’t need to do laundry, buy groceries, or cook? The only thing we need to do is read and study.