Blog for chair

Days in Richmond are always sunny, which makes us consistently worry about being tanned especially when none of us want to be a strange guy to hold an umbrella in the street. Although we knew that the sun on the beach will be no less fierce than the sun in Richmond, we still felt enjoyable and totally forgot being tanned in the sun there, because of the charming blue sky and brilliant waving sea.

PS: On the second night we spent there, Hannah taught us a card game called “RUMY” which was very interesting and easy to learn, and I have decided to spread it to all my friends in China^_^

To visit Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area is just like to step back more than 220 years to the eve of the American Revolution, because everything here seems so unique that they can only exist hundreds of years before. Williamsburg gave me a big surprise even from my first sight of it——buildings were all in ancient style, people were all dressed in an old way and there were even carriages running on the road! So cool! If there had not been so many visitors , I would have just felt like going back to more than 200years ago!
I have later learnt from the directions that from 1699 to 1780, Williamsburg was the political and cultural center of Britain’s largest colony in the New World. Colonial Williamsburg is now the nation’s largest living history museum including some 500 buildings, homes, stores and taverns reconstructed and restored to their 18th-century appearances; tradesmen practicing 30 historic trades and domestic crafts; historical interpreters and character actors; and 90 acres of gardens and greens, and now featuring the live action drama, Revolutionary City™, daily from mid-March to the holiday season.
I bought a bunch of cute postcards here and just post them in the Williamsburg Post Office!

The first week in VCU seems to fly away immediately! Thanks to Julie, Hernan and all the interns, who plan all kinds of interesting activities almost every day after class, everyday we’ve spent here is interesting and full of happiness, and I even have no time to miss my parents! I know there’s kind of culture shock that may cause me to be so excited every day, and I admit that what makes me interested about is the exotic culture here and the challenges of doing different things while speaking different language, of getting used to a new life style while trying to communicate with new friends , and of remembering all the routes from a place toward GRC while learning how to use all the campus facilities every day! There’s always so many things to do! I think I like this kind of life, because it keeps changing and appears to be different every day. And I begin to realize that shopping, which once was the most interesting thing for us , has become the last choice for me to do. What the US land attracts me to come here is not that shopping mall here is much better than China, but that the culture here is unique and the life style is totally different from what I have had for more than 20 years. I just want to have a try the life style of youngsters in my age.

Fortunately, when others were struggling about whether or not to go the Carrytown for shopping this evening, we met Michell and Brian, and finally went with Brian taking a happy walk to the Belle Isle instead! It was such a wonderful place that we were totally inebriated by the beautiful scene there! We walked along the James River, with frogs’ singing and birds’ chorus around us, which reminded me of my hometown…After a not easy walk, we finally got on a big flat stone in the middle of the river and took a picnic there while appreciating the beautiful sunset. After a quick meal, Brian taught us a card game called BS, a game very similar to a Chinese card game called “boasting”. We really had a good time there! Hope I will have another chance to go there!

After a long time of expecting, we finally held a pingpong game in the gym this afternoon and it was really exciting! The interns’ performance gave us a big surprise~~ since we had not expected so many American people like to play pingpong and still with high skills, especially John! And Matt, Brian, Erik also did a good job. As for me, I should say it’s not my day~~ because in the first round, I met Mr.Xue, who is the director of us and finally ranks third or fourth among all of us. How could I win him?? So without any suspension, I lost my game in the first round. But later I found something else to play—the racquetball! This is the first time for me to play racquetball in person. And it was cool! I like it !

As several lectures has referred to the comparison between Chinese media and American media, I find that many American people, at least the professors, are holding some misunderstandings about Chinese media and Chinese public attitude towards press freedom. Many of them may keep the incorrect image that Chinese media are still totally under the control of the government, or by the communist party and the public are living in the feint and with no access to the outside world. But personally, I regard these ideas as the American “pride and prejudice”. As a matter of fact, though it is true that there exists some kind of restricts of Chinese media, these restricts are far from fooling all the Chinese public because the Chinese government got to realize the truth long time ago that “you can fool some people all the time; you can fool all the people some time; but you can never fool all the people all the time.” Besides, there’s no media can completely get rid of restricts and attain the “pure freedom”, anyway.
In addition, it is true that there is some news we can find on the medias of other countries while remain blank on Chinese mainstream medias, it does not mean that people staying in China will surely miss the information that people in the US can easily get. Since everyone in China know the truth that the majority of our medias are controlled by our government, we actually turn to the internet for complement, if not the first choice.
What’s more, there’s one thing I should raise up that what the medias in the US say are not always the truth. Since almost all the medias in the US are run in as kind of business, it can easily conclude that the main purpose of the media is to catch your eye and make as much money as possible. Chances are that in order to make the news more attractive, they have to make the stories sound more shocking. That’s why when I turn on the TV in my room in GRC, there’re so many bad news flood. Still, some medias maybe hold a prejudice on China and when they choose the materials, they often tend to use only some sides of the truth they are familiar or identified with.
So how can we simply claim that we should trust the US medias more than the Chinese ones? Actually, there’s still a lot remain for us to discuss.

This afternoon, Terrence and John took four of my friends and I to Maymont (I cannot remember how to spell it) the biggest park in Richmond. And it’s hot today. Even it was 5 o’clock then, we still felt the sunlight was extremely fierce. And our topic was going on even more hot than the weather! We talked everything, even about T’s wedding ceremony! That sounds interesting for us since the wedding in China is totally in a different way! Besides, the scene in the park was so beautiful, and we had a good time there.
After dinner, we went to John’s new apartment and got to know his best friend George—who is a very nice and handsome guy, tall and in good shape, and was born to be a talent basketball player! We all easily got to know each other and became good friends. We played WUNO and 21 Points plus Truth and Dare, which added a lot of fun in the card game. Since I promised to keep secret for what we did that night, the only thing I could say is that that night was one of the most unforgettable memory of me! You know…
It’s really a fun day for me though my poor English~~ Sometimes we can just communicate with eye contact and that’s enough. As a famous Chinese saying goes that the eyes are the windows of one’s heart. I believe it. Sometimes, language turns to be pale and hard to express the feelings in my heart. But latter, I found that actually, there’s no need to be perfect on your language at all! Friendship depends on your heart and soul, personality, how genuine you are and what kind of people you are. I did not speak a lot with George, but I think he must have already me well.

Before I got to the US, I had never expected there are so many American families that have adopted Chinese children and still a large number of families are on the waiting list at present. Thanks to the VCU program this summer, I got an opportunity to visit an American family which has adopted a 4-month Chinese girl, Lily, about one year ago and the visit to Lily’s adoptive parents left a deep impression on me. I can feel their great love to little Lily every second from the very first sight of Lily’s adoptive mother to farewell, which deeply moved me. What touch me most was that they are now striving to learn Chinese culture and language, and they told me that they had intended to find someone to teach her Chinese and send her to an after-class Chinese school when she grew older, and they are because they hope they can give Lily all that common Chinese children already have and cannot have, and don’t want her to lose her original Chinese character. All that they have done and plan to do for Lily drive me to think about a very crucial but extremely complicated problem——the education for Chinese children as well as oversea adopted children in the U.S. Maybe it is a good topic for my final paper! Why not?

PS:
Lisa and Dave(Lily's parents)are so kind and nice people that they gave us a fantastic American day! And they treated us just like their own kids! I was great moved by their love and couldn't wait to show my gratitude to their hospital treat~So as soon as I had got to my dormitory, I wrote down a postcard for them and sent it the next day morning~I hope they can get my card as soon as possible!

This afternoon, Lara and I got a NY map and booked tickets for the famous Broadway show called Chicago on Aug 5th on the internet. We are happy to get some discount and finally only paid 72.25$ each. We know that there is a ticket office in the Times Quare, but we just don't want to waste time on the queue since our time there are so limited.

How time flies! Three weeks seems to passed away quickly! But I still feel there’s a lot of things that I want to do but no time to do; still a lot of friends I want to stay with but no time to do; still a lot of places want to go but no time to do and still a lot of things to buy but no time to do…But still, I feel glad that I have listened to every lecture carefully; I have spent every day colorfully; I have deal with others friendly; I have communicated with all my new friends here in VCU sincerely…But still, it’s time to say goodbye….I ‘ll miss you all, my friends here! I’ll miss you all, all the places I’ve been to! I’ll miss you , the summer in 2007, the summer in VCU !