WONDERLAND

To those who may concerned:

Welcome to Alice's Wonderland!

This summer, I take part in the VCU summer program, which involves lectures by professors from different field, trips to historical spots of the United states and a week's tour around New York and Washington D.C., which will be after the completion of this Blog. Here, I present with you all the happiness, excitement, sorrow, and other emotions I experienced while studying and staying in the U.S.A.

Everyday witnesses a lot of things happening, new and attractive to me. I tried to write them all down on my notebook, but I only pick the most impressive and unforgettable event to put on my blog. Readers will never like a list of everyday event, I want them to feel the most important I felt that day.

It is hard to summarize all my entries of the summer, since finding a similarity seems anything but possible. I can only tell that each and every entry deals with my latest and sincere feeling at each event.

However, no matter what countries you come from, the excitement while in Busch Garden, the pleasant while listing to the beach band, the sensitivity at the middle of the night and many other feelings can approach you easily and coincident with your own experience. I do feel difference here in a exotic country, but what I feel more is unity and harmony.

It most sad for a writer to get few feedbacks form his/her readers, so please just browse down and leave whatever you want to say. If you have been to the United States, share with me your feelings. If you plan to visit that country, ask me questions and I will try my best. If you have spent this precious summer with me, I want to say "Thank you" and "I love you".

Your sincerely,
AliceJing

How time flies!
Suddenly I have to pack all my stuff and leave VCU for New York, which means my staying in VCU comes to an end. I would like to sent my thanks to all the interns, faculties and my fellows right now, since I will probably have no chance when in New York.

*Thanks to Julie for planing all the activities for us and waiting for those who "late for everything" and taking us to your parents' splendid house.
*Thanks to Hernan for driving us to many places and talking to every patiently. I benefit a lot from the talk we had on the way to Monticello.
*Thanks to Gnami and Tee for taking care of us most of the trips to malls or historical spots.
*Thanks to Kath for taking us to Short Pumps and we had a such nice chat and the milkshake at the Wendy's tastes really good.
*Thanks to Cassie and her family for giving such a wonderful treat. I just love roast potatoes and steak! and the dogs and cat too! You have such a nice family with humorous father and mother cooking so well.
*Thanks to Lisa for providing information for my essay. You look so cool at first glance but turned out to be most friendly after chatting.
*Thanks to Danielle for recommending Mexican restaurant although we ran to an Italian one by mistake at the beach. I like the way you dance to the music and eat carrots.
*Thanks to Mitchell for the happy rainy night and the offer to the concert. I really enjoyed talking about Harry Potter with you and I did go to a concert later.
*Thanks to Brian for giving me an A+ on essay although it only deserves an F. You had provided a great many fun trips around Richmond. It was my loss to miss most of them. All of us enjoyed the ride with you to hiking.
*Thanks to Jay for driving us to Cary Town and show us the delicious ice-cream shop opposite the theater.
*Thanks to Mat for putting out all the questions during classes. I am poor at raising questions and I learned a lot from your questions and prospectives.
*Thanks to Hannah for helping us brain-storming at the writing working shop. It's great fun to write down all those ideas on that large sheet of paper,
*Thanks to Chau for a happy chat at Mr. Xue's dorm and offering to derive us to the museum. You always seem ready to help anyone and I appreciate it very much.
*Thanks to Erik for teaching me to swim at the VA Beach. I'm such a bad student that I made very little progress, but I will continue learning back in China.

*Thanks to Mr. Xue and Mrs.Mei for taking care of all the students during the past three weeks. It must be a hard job since every student have his/her own intention and choice.
*Thanks to my roommates, Tracy, Cherry and Sherry for teaching me and helping thought out the time. Being the youngest one of the four, I must have add up a lot of mess for you to put up with.
*Thanks to all my fellows for smiling me at the doorway, holding the door for me, talking to me friendly, etc.

It's a pity that I can not record all the events happened with you guys, but I will find a day a write all that down in my diary. I feel so lucky to meet you all!

The Jazz presentation has just ended, but I can still hear the music in the quite library.

I played a little piano at a very young age. Later, lacking time, effort and enough patient, I drop my musical training early in my middle school. However, I found myself still posses a secret passion for music and musical instrument when entering college and have some spare time.

I felt honored to be the "visible brain" tonight (although a little hesitate whether to volunteer at first). The passionate Jazz director asked me to hold the board with the different names of variation, among which I can recall some "rest", "pitch", "repetition", etc. He used his trombone to perform the variations of the theme just like saying "How are you?" in various tones and emotions. Sometimes he was slow and gentle, sometimes excited and enthusiastic, sometimes just casual and relaxed. All the variations offered the audience diverse feelings.

To enjoy music needs to understand music and its background first, and tonight's presentation has gave me a brief introduction to Jazz, one of the most popular kinds of music in the world. "I am glad to be here, listening to the concert" is truly what I mean on the concert and after it forever.

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By the way, all members of the band were greatly attractive.

The piano player was a little bit shy but you can see that he tried very hard on learning Jazz and playing his dream music. During his turn of solo, his enormous effort can be seen from the expression on his face. He was simply absorbed into Jazz!

The bass player wore a agreeable smile on his face all the time, very gentleman-like. That matches his skill of playing, calm and peaceful but always very well. However, his two sons were even more popular than him! They steal most of the attention.

The drum player must be a music-master in the future. When he was hitting on his drum, you can tell that he forget about everything else, while drum and music were the only left.

And the hero of this concert was an excellent illustrator as well as an adept musician, who succeeded in explaining Jazz to the unprofessional audience.

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How nice it was to be with the good music and good person!

What kind of people can manage to serve as a president, design his own house, master five foreign languages and still maintain interest in the latest technology, astronomy and other fields?

The answer is Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States. He must be a genius! The tour around Monticello provided me with some general idea of Thomas Jefferson, his character, his life, his habit, etc.

I find it hard to imagine how a former president, so busy with his politics and his country, could spare such a lot of time to design the beautiful white house on top of Monticello. Every measurement has been carefully calculated, some of which were so precise that they can not be achieve during the construction. He did not only design the rough building of Monticello, but every detail ranged from the division of the yards to a single door for transporting food and drink.

The guide said that Thomas Jefferson was fond of new technology, that he use a lot ideas gained from his trip around the world to decorate his own house. The huge clock in the living room, the wine transporter (I forgot its name) in his bed room all originated from his trips to Europe.

It is awesome to think about Thomas Jefferson, after he passed away so many years, that he really exited in the world once to have made such great achievements. The trip to Monticello must be a unforgettable one among all that I have done in American.

Home visit has always being one of my longings when coming to America, since it will provide me with the insight into the common life Americans lead. The trip to Cassie's home realized my dream.

We went to Cassie's apartment at first. It is not large, but very pleasant, although a lot mess piled on the floor since her roommate is moving out. We saw a "Bon Appetite" picture on the wall to the kitchen, which fits the kitchen very well.

Then we went to several malls and shops with Cassie and her roommate. We played the latest game from Disney maybe, using remote to control bowling and hit the target. The feeling was a little bit weird. I can never get to unreal or electronic things. We also dropped in a shop called "Dollar Tree", which sells all goods by only one dollar, something very similar to that of Shanghai.

Finally, we arrived in Cassie's home, a large house located in rural area. A great many ceramic-made frogs welcomed us at the front yard. Cassie's parents own a cozy and comfortable house, with two huge dogs and a pure black cat. Each of their rooms has colorfully-painted wall and photos arranged in a large frame. That is new to me cause I never did that back in China. The parents placed four frame on one wall of the kitchen, putting the high school graduating picture in the frame.

We sited in a "hotspot" for a long time, enjoyed the water bubbling and waving. Than all of us got an ice-cream from an ice-cream van, whose owner, a young lady smiled beautifully.

The dinner is the part I enjoyed most of this home visit. We ate roast potatoes, steak, and mushroom, with fruit bowl and cakes for desert. I love the potatoes with cheese, butter and bacon, such a different but wonderful taste! The steak was cooked very by Cassie's father, and the mushroom by her mother. Cassie is a lucky child!

We chatted a lot during the dinner, talking about topics form China and America to boyfriends and dating. The strange things is that we don't feel uncomfortable when talking with somebody elder than us. Cassie said that her parents treat her equally, respect her and they communicate a lot. I believe that is the reason.

The day was exhausting, since we played a lot with the two dogs (They kept on asking for petting with the poorest face) and talked and laughed throughout the dinner. However, I had never felt that happy.

Thanks to Cassie and her parents and her roommates and her pets and all that she provided us with at that wonderful day!

"What kind of music do you guys like?"
A lot of interns would ask this question when we sit on their car, which gave me the impression that American are all fans for music.

I went to the open concert on Byrd Mountain with Ron, Mr. Xue and Fillips. The large crowd of people sitting on the ground with food and drink proved my assumption. They do love music a lot!

Ron told me that the guys on stage were playing a kind of "Blue-Grass" music which I can not recall originated from where. The singer looked very professional since he told jokes during intervals of the music, which make the atmosphere of the concert lively and agreeable. I like one of the song called "The ocean have us all" which was sung in a low and thick voice with a little sad emotion and some affection feelings.

It was also happy to see Ron meeting so many old friend on this public concert. "Ron has always be a sociable person", one of his friends told me. I saw him hugging with his students and neighbors.

"Has he come back from Russia?" An old lady asked me when she returned to her seat next to me and saw, to her surprise, Ron was actually sitting next to me, talking to his student.

When it grew darker and the moon climbed up, some people lit a candle with quivering flame and faint light, which seemed very poetic to me, together with the nice treat from Ron and the joyful moment of reunion.

I felt so content and grateful!