http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/ this blog records my life in the U.S. en Copyright 2007 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 17:04:16 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss We are leaving for NYC tmr. So, our interns gonna organize room party for us. Tonight will be another sleepless night. The night before leaving to the big apple is super exhilarating. We will paint the town red! Finally we finished all the lectures and papers, and the most fun part of the trip to the states is waiting for us. New York baby! Ill see ya soon! http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/08/last_nights_before_leaving.html http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/08/last_nights_before_leaving.html Sat, 11 Aug 2007 17:04:16 +0000 I think everybody knows the movie sleepless in Seattle. Today, I had a sleepless night in Richmond. Time flies. Our paper is due this Thursday, but I havent written a single word on it. So, I had no choice but work around the clock. It was really a nightmare for me. I kept writing for all night long. When I finished it, it was already dawn. Fortunately, I could hand in the paper on time with the bags and dark circle under my eyes. RELIEVED! Yay... http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/08/sleepless_in_richmond.html http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/08/sleepless_in_richmond.html Sat, 11 Aug 2007 15:56:50 +0000 Before I came to the states, I totally have no idea of canoe. It was a wholly new words as well as sports to me. After couple weeks of anticipating, I eventually got the chance to canoe on the James River. The canoe boat is quite different from other boats. Its pretty small and light, which means, its very unstable. At first, I was quite uneasy on the boat, cuz I was worrying whether it would flip over. But I quickly got used to it and started enjoy the adventure on the James River. The scenery is really beautiful: bunches of trees stand along the river, the water runs still, and nice houses scatter on the hills. Terrible things also happened. Big spiders invaded our boat, the dragonflies flied around us, which made me screaming all the time. And because of lack of experience, we often crash onto the logs and rocks near the bank. What’s more, padding is a no easy job. We kept padding for almost 2 hours. When we got on the bank, my limbs were almost numb…And my skin so tanned… http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/08/canoe.html http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/08/canoe.html Sat, 11 Aug 2007 13:56:07 +0000 I have to make a confession: I LIKE hamburgers!!!!!! My mum was afraid that I couldn’t get used to the American food. So she let me take lots of Chinese noodles and snacks with me. However, I like the food here so much. I like pizza, sandwich, bagels, salads, hot dogs, taco, fried chicken, French fries, wings, and so on. So, I eat as much as I can. I even mde hamburger by myself. Cuz its really easy to buy the materials for the hamburgers at the supermarket here. I eat hamburger almost every morning. My roomie was like “oh! U eat hamburger AGAIN??” yeah…im the burger queen! http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/08/burger_queen.html http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/08/burger_queen.html Sat, 11 Aug 2007 13:21:17 +0000 Its Monday today, but we don’t need to go to school. Why is that? Because we paid a visit to Monticello— the home of Thomas Jefferson. Monticello is really a nice place. Jefferson’s house is on a hill. There, he designed his own house, and planted the vegetable. It was a two-hundred-year old house. But its still well-preserved. It is a shame that photograph is not allowed inside the house. So I tried so hard to remember every corner and detail of the house. After the visit of Jefferson’s house, we went to the downtown area. It was really a beautiful and delicate street. There were lots of restaurants and shops along two sides. I had a Italian lunch. Though it isn’t a long and big one, I really like there so much. http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/08/monticello.html http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/08/monticello.html Thu, 09 Aug 2007 05:13:21 +0000 Today, lots of my classmates go to the home visit. However, our host can only take us on Sunday—which means we will have no activities on Saturday and we cant go hiking on Sunday. All of us were having a long face the whole Friday. Luckily, Jay helped us out of the plight. 9 a.m., he picked us up at GRC and our trip started! First stop was the peach farm. We met up Erik there and picked the peach together. It was the first time that I went to a farm and pick the peach by myself. The peaches taste so good because it was me who picked it! After that, we headed our way to the university. We had our lunch around the campus. I ate the bagles for the first time in the states, and it was the best bagles ever! In the afternoon, we walked around the campus. It is really a nice campus. The sun was really scorching, but we still kept walking and taking pictures. On our way back, it rained. The rain makes the highway more beautiful, cuz I can see the foggy mountains surrounded by the smoke and fog. It was really beautiful. Thanks to Jay, we had a really great day. As he always says: “I’ll figure them out.” He’s always the man who can help us figure things out. http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/08/saturday_trip_to_charlotsville.html http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/08/saturday_trip_to_charlotsville.html Wed, 08 Aug 2007 05:15:57 +0000 Afterwards, we paid visit to the James River Park, University of Richmond(where his wife works also as a libriarian.) and the neighborhoods in Richmond(both the rich and poor ones.) 5 p.m., we arrived at Dan's place. His wife, son and dog gave us warm welcome. His house is pretty nice, though not impressively big. There are bunches of books in their living room. Maybe because of both of the couple are libriarians, they like reading so much. They have very nice television in their entertaining room, but contrary to my imagination, they spend much more time on reading books and newspapers than watching TV. Their son Paul who is still a high school student is now studying Chinese and he also knows some Chinese stuffs, for example, we found a Chinese toy in his room. He can play it very well, while lots of Chinese childern may dont even know this kinda old game. 6 p.m., Dinner time! Dan's wife, Lucretia prepared a table of typical American dishes for us. Cold fried chicken, salad, corn, bean...I like all of these dishes!(oops! at the thought of these food, my mouth is watering AGAIN>.<) The Dan family also treated us with the special drink from South Carolina -- the CHERRYWINE! We chatted over the dinner. Dan is really a talkative guy. It was quite nice conversations. Dan also played the ice-cream track music for us which made the atmosphere cozy. From the conversations, I knew more about the American people and life. The delicious food, coupled with the warm hospitality of the host, made the home visit night perfect. ]]> http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/07/a_wonderful_night.html http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/07/a_wonderful_night.html Tue, 31 Jul 2007 19:44:49 +0000 ]]> http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/07/the_weekend_outing_part_3colon.html http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/07/the_weekend_outing_part_3colon.html activities Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:16:34 +0000 Party is an indispensible part of the beach trip. We had a room party at 312. We played drinking game. Cassie always drank coz she was doing other stuffs. Hannah slpet like a baby after some drinks. It was the first time that I drank a lot since I have been to the U.S. And it was also the first time that i felt so close to all the interns. Eric taught me a new game named EYGPT RAT SCREW. It is really fun, but unfortunately, I couldnt win Brian everytime=( He's really fast at slapping...Late in the night, most of ppl went to sleep. Me, Annie, Norah, Vivian, Brian and Eric were still awake, sitting on the balcony and waiting for the sunrising. Finally, the dawn was coming. It was really beautiful, though it was a lil bit windy and cloudy. Something bad also happened on the beach. The wave swept my sunglasses away!!!! I learned my lesson from it: Never wear an expensive fashion sunglass on the beach...Anyway, I have to face the reality and say goodbye to my 300USD sunglass./sniff sniff This is the last pic of my sunglass ]]> http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/07/the_weekend_outing_part_2virgi.html http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/07/the_weekend_outing_part_2virgi.html activities Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:25:08 +0000 Besides the rides, strolling around the park is also like an adventure to the European countries. I didn’t have any dull moment in the Busch Garden, because there was bunches of fun stuff waiting for me to explore in the garden. The only thing I have to complain is that, there were long lines almost everywhere because bunches of people flocking to there. Due to the long line, I didn’t have enough time to visit the whole park and take all the rides. 5 p.m., I waved goodbye the beautiful Busch Garden, excitedly and reluctantly.]]> http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/07/the_weekend_outing_part_1busch.html http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/07/the_weekend_outing_part_1busch.html activities Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:18:43 +0000 Eventually, I finished all the lectures this week and going to have and outing! I'm so looking forward to the excursion to the beach. I often watched on TV how Americans hang out on the beach in China. Now, I can experience it in person! How it will be? Sunshine, blue sky, sand and sea. At the thought of these scenes, I cant wait any more. Put away all the notes and books, take out the flip-flop and swimming suits. Im coming Virginia beach!! http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/07/beach_tmr.html http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/07/beach_tmr.html activities Sat, 21 Jul 2007 04:53:28 +0000 Yesterday after the lecture, I went shopping at the Ukrop’s with my roomie. On our way home, we kind of got lost. We walked into a road which is under construction. And a man yelled at us and stopped us. He told us that we couldn’t walk down this road and he was going to show us the road. Don’t know why, we followed him. He took us to a small lane, and kept murmuring all the way. We all thought he’s kind of weird. The more we walked, the more we feel scared. Is he a kidnapper? Is he cold-blooded murder? Do we need to call 828-1234? Do we have to try to run away? Finally, we got back to the main streets. At the sight of the crowds, we were relieved. But things didn’t stop here. This guy asked us for some change. Give or not to give? That’s a problem! We discussed and got our decision: GIVE! Because we think if we refused to give him, he might be got furious and robbed all of our money…So, I took out my purse and gave him some coins…Then he went away satisfied. Both of us felt so relieved that he was just a bagger. A weird bagger. http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/07/robber_bagger.html http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/07/robber_bagger.html people Sat, 21 Jul 2007 04:35:02 +0000 However, at that time, I would be on the air plane back to China. So, I missed the world’s premier. But yesterday, our interns took us to the theater to watch this movie. Although it was not premier, I was still so excited because it was the first time that I went to the IMAX and it was one of my favorite movie!! When I stepped into the IMAX Dome, I was greatly shocked at the sight of the five –story-tall hemisphere screen which I had never seen before. A lot of American people had already seated, chewing pop-corn, drinking cokes. We soon got ourselves seated. The movie was cool. British author, American movie, British Accent, American Actors. I really enjoyed the movie, even though there was no subtitle. 2 hours and a half passed so quickly, and I have to get back to the “muggle’s world”. ]]> http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/07/i_went_to_harry_potter_1.html http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/07/i_went_to_harry_potter_1.html activities Sat, 21 Jul 2007 03:57:51 +0000 The rain stops when I got out of the store. But it’s still so dark outside. The clouds overcast the sky. Suddenly, a light flashed. Yes! It’s the lightening! In Shanghai, there’s not a lot of open area in the downtown, so I don’t have a lot of chances to see the lightening. However, I saw it clearly in the Richmond. It was so nice, though a little bit scary=P. After the rainfall, it was so cool and breezy. I can smell the fresh air and the scent of grass. I like the rainy Richmond, but I also like the sunny Richmond. I can feel the sun is scorching my skin, because it’s close to me. However, it won’t makes me sweating like I always did in Shanghai. So I totally changed my view towards summer. I love summer, esp. the summer in Richmond. The most annoying thing of summer is the insects, like mosquitoes and flies. But I can hardly find any mosquitoes or flies here. Now, I started love wearing the vest and the flip-flop, walking under the sun, stepping on the green grass, and passing the quiet and delicacy neighborhoods. I’m having a good summer time here! I love the summer here. ]]> http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/07/a_sudden_shower_cooled_down_th.html http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/07/a_sudden_shower_cooled_down_th.html weather Sat, 21 Jul 2007 03:50:45 +0000 I've been here, VCU, Richmond for almost 4 days, but it's not until this moment that i made up my mind to stop procrastinating and start working on my blog. The reason why I keep procrastinating on my homework is that I was totally immersed in seeing and to enjoying this city which i have never been before. Everything is new to me. Our interns had arranged lots of fun activities for us, so no homesick, no jetlag, even no time to sit down and write my blog!!!!!! http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/07/no_time_4_blogging.html http://blog.vcu.edu/maj/2007/07/no_time_4_blogging.html activities Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:52:29 +0000