over the rainbow

This is my third day in the VCU. In these days, we have a tour of the VCU and Richmond. I have had a general idea of the school and this lovely city. There are a lot of word full in my mind that I want to put down here. But, to be honest, I am not sure where I can begin with...

It's a quite amazing experiece for me to get another side of the earth. When I got off the plan and stood on the land of America, I even couldn't believe that I had already do it. At the time that the plan took off from the Chicago O'Hare Airport, I was deeply impressed by the nocturne of Chicago. It's like a golden city when I look out upon from the plan.

America is simiar as I images. Clean road and beautiful buildings which I have imaged in the fairy tale. Richmond is the capital of the Virginia, while because of its spacial historical background, so it shows a collison of tradition and modernization and in the end, it becomes to be harmonious.During the bus tour in the Richmond, we can feel that this city is full of the historic value. Though maybe it is not as famous as the Jamestown and Petersburg, Richmond has its own cham to attract people to love her.

In the beginning of the study and life here, I can imagine how the experience of programme will be. I am looking forward it...

During the class of Dr. Thurber today, we have obtained a general idea of the America during the 20th century. The 1950s, a quite complicated era in the history of America, is an era of optimism and worry. It is not menifested in the economic growth and rising living standards, also we can see the influence which the prosperity of economy and productivity brought to the America parties figuration, especially the tendencies in party voting.

In the 1950s, about one of every two voters identified themselves as Democrats; another three of every ten identified themselves as Republican, and the remainder—twenty percent—claimed they were Independents, with no regular party identification. Those who identified with the Democrats tended to vote Democratic in national elections, whereas those who identified with the Republicans tended to vote Republican. Independents, as you might expect, were a kind of free-floating electorate that would vary in their choice of candidates from one election to another.

This pattern of party identification and voting remained more or less descriptive of the American electorate for about fifteen years, until the late 1960. Then the pattern began to crumble and important new shifts began to appear. In particular, there was a growing number of Independents to be found among the party identifiers, and a smaller number of people who identified themselves as Democratic partisans. The changes began to appear just after the election of Richard Nixon, a Republican president, in 1968. And, when he was re-elected in 1972, the shift to Independents became somewhat more marked.

For years, the Democrats had been the majority party in America, but now the Republicans were challenging their dominance. And in that period of time, the Democratic voter was apt to come from a rural agrarian background whereas the Republican voter tended to come from an affluent urban setting. While since the election of 1932, the Democrats became the party of the city, the Republicans the party of rural America. But no such shift seems to have taken place during the past couple of decades, instead, what observers find is a growing number of people who identify themselves as Independents, thus neither Democrats nor Republicans. In part, this new era may be a product of two different demographic trends among citizens. One is the growth in the education of the electorate, signaling that voters are bringing more of their knowledge to bear on their electoral choices. The other is that many of the new Independents are younger voters, hence they share few of the entrenched political loyalties of their parents.

This is the phenomenon which wen can define the Partisan re-alignment. The partisan re-alignment in the electorates was a product of generational shifts in the sympathies of voters and in appeal of candidates. Once their loyalties were formed, voters tended to remain attached to a particular party over the course of their voting lifetime. As they aged, and as world events changed, something of a seismic shift began to occur that resulted in a new majority party and a new configuration of social groups behind both the majority party and a new configuration of social groups behind both the majority and the minority parties.

The election of today is, we may assume, an elite election. Americans even don't care who win the election or who live in the White House. So it's hard to say that there is a kind of political loyalties in all the American people today. Of course political loyalties are existing still that we cannot deny. But how much it works and effects on the result of the election? It's the question I am still doubting for.

Today, we go to the IMAX to see the movie, Harry Potter and the order of the pheonix, which is one of the movie I like best.

I'm so surprised to see this semisphere movie screen which is almost the half of the hall. We feel that we're wraped by it. It's so good.

In Shanghai, there is also a IMAX movie theatre which I go to see the movie frequently. But the screen of that theatre is quite different from the IMAX in Virginia in shape and size. It seems a little bit smaller than the IMAX we go today.

Harry Potter and the order of the pheonix, the fifth cinematic outing of the Harry Potter series, gives me a amazing experience with the IMAX in the United States. Maybe it is not easy for us to understand every words of the movie without subtitles, as sometimes we were not laughing when all the audience were doing this around us. However, luckily, I have read the books of the order of the pheonix and also seen all the Harry Potter series which have been released before. So I am familiar with the plot. haha~~

With its fifth cinematic outing, the Harry Potter film series has ascended to another level. In addition to providing a self-contained, well-paced adventure, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix also begins to coalesce the epic together that has been building over the past four films (especially the last two). With this movie, we sense that we're on the brink of something big, dark, and ominous. "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes? For a franchise that began under the lightweight guardianship of director Chris Columbus, these pictures have gotten progressively darker. The Order of the Phoenix is easily the gloomiest yet. The movie is not suitable for young children (although, considering that Harry's core audience has aged considerably since the release of the first book in 1997, that shouldn't be a big problem).

This may be the first Harry Potter movie that cannot stand on its own. There are too many references to past events and too many characters from the earlier films for a neophyte not to get at least a little lost. This is a welcome development, since it signals that the series has passed the setup point and is getting into the meat of the good-versus-evil battle. Although The Order of the Phoenix does not end in cliffhanger style, there's more than a passing sense that the undercurrent is beginning to bubble and churn. We can be thankful that there's only an 18 month wait for the next installment (or, for those who can't stand the suspense, the book isn't hard to find).

The book and the movie are different itself. It's common that audience compare these two edition, however, movie is destined to cut off some plot which will be simpler than the book described. In my view, it's not necessary to compare them. I always enjoy the movie of Harry potter very much, of course, this time is also.

To be honest, I'm surprised to hear that china ranks 163 out of 168 on the list that where is the press most free in the lecture of Dr. June Nicholson and Dr. Debora Wenger this morning. I really know that it is not quite free that journalist in China couldn't report a lot about what they want people to know indeed. However we can find the change in Chinese media after the Reform and Open policy was carried out. So what is the image of China in the American press? As the student of the Sociology major, maybe I can try to analyse it.

In the lecture of Dr. Ernest this afternoon, he mentioned that USA and China will become the world's two largest economies. It seems to affirm the acheivement that China has gained in the economy development. Yet along with this rapid growth and development come many problems as well. While China has effectively become the manufacturing hub for much of the world, it has done so at the expense of industrial and manufacturing job growth in other countries. The new phenomenon of “outsourcing,” or the location of service and manufacturing jobs from the home country of a business to another country, is seen by many as threat to the health and well-being of workers in industrial nations, like the United States. And many human rights activists also worry about the way that China is treating its low-cost labor as well as its own political dissidents. Envy not only breeds a good deal of jealousy, in other words, but it breeds resentment and open criticism as well.

The issues that the American press always focus on and interested to write about China is the human rights, the rural poor and the growing income gap in the country, the threat of China's rapid development and something like this.These concerns appear almost daily in the press. Newsweek International, in its issue of 11 April 2007, for example, devoted its lead story to the way China’s leaders are trying to deal with the problem of the rural poor.

While this article was balanced and sympathetic, many such articles are not so sympathetic, and do not treat China and its ambitions as well. The lead editorial, “Challenging China,” in the International Herald Tribune of the same date spoke about the growing rift between the Bush Administration and China over trade issues. It noted that the Administration filed two cases against China with the World Trade Organization, one over China’s failure to crack down on pirated movies and books, and the other over Chinese restrictions on the distribution of foreign films and music.

There is also a lot of examples I can put here to describe the image, but I don't want to do it more. Because these examples above is typical. China is in the process to totally open the door to the whole worle. As the ideology and culture is different, the understand of the bottom line of freedom, the definition of human rights and something else are also different between China and America. Where is the compromise? I'm not sure, but maybe there will be in the future. I'm looking forward to it...

This is the first weekend since I came to the VCU and it's also an amazing weekend, I think.

The first station, Busch Garden Europe which is located in the Williamsburg, VA and about one hour drive from VCU. Before we enter the parking of the Busch Garden, a purple roller coaster attracted us and everybody on the bus couldn't help exclaiming at same time. Because Busch Garden is famouse of the roller coaster, we, almost everyone decided to have a try.

Frankly, when I saw the roller coaster, I was just scared. Because at my age of 14, in Shanghai, we went to a theme park and played some items, though it was not like the roller coaster but similar, I felt sick after I got off the them. Since that time, I never dare to try it.

I am afraid of dropping down directly from the top of the roller coaster and I don't like the feeling that my heart is suspended in the air. So at first, I was hesitated that whether I would go to play it.

But it is so famous and a lot of people recommended it to me and persuade me into playing it. So I made myself to be calm and went to the first roller coast, which is the nearest to the entry, the yellow one. In our mind, it was the warm-up. However, after we play another two, we thought, in fact, this was the most terrible one.

I just felt my heart was jumping quickly and at first time I couldn't open my eyes to see the process. What only I could do was screaming all the time. But after I played the yellow one, I thought I fell in love with the roller coaster. Then I went ahead to the white one. It was twisted from the beginning to the end and nothing special.

The last one, which is the tallest roller coast in the world ,setted amid a French village. Its name is Griffon. It carries riders up 205 feet, then hurtles them 90 degrees straight down at 70 mph. And that’s just the beginning.

Griffon evokes the power and speed of a mythical bird that is part eagle and part lion. It plunges, twists and turns – giving riders an adrenaline-pumping adventure that’s unlike any coaster experience in the world.

When I went off it, I still couldn't believe that I had been on it and attempted what an exciting experience.

I was really satisfied my performance in the Busch Garden. I thought I was so brave, haha~

Now, I am still pondering over it and dreaming that I can play it again one day.

This title of the blog is just a parable, because this time I wanna say something about the tour in the Colonial Williamsburg of the US. Walking around the street of Williamsburg, it's like that we were back to about more than 200 years ago. The buildings and the actors standing in front of some buildings, if there were no visitors here, perheps everyone would had believed that it was a British town of the 1700s. Due to Erik, we had a really happy time in the Williamsburg.

From some reference information, during the 18th century, half of Williamsburg's population was black. The lives of the enslaved and free people in this Virginia capital are presented in reenactments and programs by Colonial Williamsburg's Department of African American Interpretation and Presentations, founded in 1988.

We spent most of the time on touring the capitol of the Colonial Williamsburg, which was also the capitol of the United States. It's a beautiful building and there was a kind uncle standing in front of the gate.

The first colony to speak for American independence, Virginia spoke with the unanimous voices of the gentlemen who gathered May 15, 1776, in the tall brick building that dominated the east end of Williamsburg. From what had been England's original New World possession, Virginia instructed its delegation at Philadelphia's Continental Congress to move the question of freedom. Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence records the Continental Congress's answer. So it's really a historical building in the American history.

In the title of this blog, I said it's like a special patriotism education for me. Though I am not an American, I believe in American people's mind, they really love this state. They don't want to forget this period of history. They maintained everything well which is related to it. Williamsburg is a park, like a book, which offer the American people a chance to remember the process of establishing the United States.

I know it seems to be a little bit late to write the blog in this topic, but this is an extremely amazing experience for in the beach.

I love the sea. Though Shanghai is the littoral city, I am still rare to see the sea and beach. Because I can't swim, the beach always seems to be far away from me. This time I, eventurally, get a chance to touch the sea and the blue sky closely.

I just played with the water on the side of the beach. However I can feel that the people who put themselves totally in the water were really happy and enjoy it. I scared that the water would take me away because I can't swim. I wanna say that maybe this is the only pity of the trip in the Virginia Beach. So I decide that I wanna learn swimming after I'm back to Shanghai.

I wish one day I have the chance to go to the beach again.

The Poe Museum is located on the corner of the East Main Street in Richmond. Edgar Allan Poe was called "America's Shakespeare" and created or mastered the short story, detective fiction, sciecnce fiction, lyric poetry and the horror story. His dark genius has invited children and adults to read and love literature for over 150 years.

Frankly, I'm not familiar with him before today. The information I writen above is learned from the introduction of the museum. Through this tour of the Poe Museum, maybe we get something about this famouse writer in America.

However, sincerely, we don't care about who is this museum to memorize. Because what attracts us more is the party held in the garden of the museum. I like the music played during the party. I think this is the real American style party in which people can take their children to play together and the parents chat with each other, taking a wine or beer. They just have to pay a little money and then, enjoy their social life.

A little boys about 3 years old who let almost every Chinese students of us force on him. He is so cute and we can't help taking photes for him or with him. We guess maybe he was very exciting to see so many foreign people around him. Suddenly, he grabed his younger sister's biscuits and make her cry, so his father came to criticise him seriously and left him on the floor alone. The boy was so grieved and cried instantly.

In China, the measure that parents used to educated their children is quite different from Chinese. Though this is just a simple example for the American family education, I can sum up some character of the relation between the parents and children in America. We "sympathized" the boy so much, but we knew everything parents do and say to the children is right with reason.

A party alluded a style of life and phenomenon. An amazing tour today I think.

Walking around the Maymont, we can find a lot of Chinese elementry in the garden. Maybe it is because the party is designed by a Chinese architect.

I enjoy the time in this beatiful garden but the sunshine...

The home stay in the Glass's is another quite deeply impressed experience for me during the time in Richmond. Mr and Mrs Glass are so kind and friendly. They picked up us in front of the GRC on time at 3 p.m this afternoon. We took 40 minutes drive to their house in Chesterfield which is on the west to Richmond.

Their house is located on a hill which is in a big neighbourhood. The natural environment attracted me a lot and we walked in the forest in the neighbourhood, breathing the fresh air.

This kind of neighbourhood is not common in Shanghai. We just can own the apartment, but not house, because it is so expensive and far away from the downtown area, which is too unconvenient for us to work and go to school. In addition, the parks in Shanghai are artificial and we are rare to see the hill in Shanghai. So today we get a special chance to touch the nature to which we have looked forwards for a long time.

I like the decoration inside the house, the colour, the ornaments and the furnishings. We were told that the house is designed by the hostess, Mrs Glass and decorated by the Mr Glass. So they can make the house as their dream house and complement something they want anytime. I hope that maybe oneday I can also have my dream house in a natural surburb with a beautiful garden.

Mrs Glass prepared a ample dinner for us and their family considered us as the important guests to treat. We ate a lot and the food was so delicious that we thought maybe this was the biggest meal we have eaten since we went to US.

During the dinner, which impressed me deepest is what Mrs Glass talked to us. We chated topics of something different between China an America which is related to the culture and society. She also shared the experience of herself about deal with the relationship between the husband and wife, which is very useful for us to make the true attitude to our future life.

Moreover, because their family are the loyal Christian, she think the church in their community is the hugh family for them, though they are far away from their relative. She believe that people living in the world should put their family as the most important thing and also we should take the society to our heart. When we are successful in our career, making a lot of money, we should donate some to the society to help the people who need the help.

I am quite agree with her. Their family in our eye are blessed and happy. We played card games with them. Then I have learned about 4 American cards game, hehe~

I like all the Glass's family!

The image in the American five cents coins. Thomas Jefferson was not only a successful president of USA, but also a talent architect I think.

In the cellar of Jefferson, it's interesting, but I scared...hehe~

We gave some souvenir to the Charlottesville, a charming town.