Blog for qiaoz

It is such a long trip for us, fourteen guys, to arrive here. When arrived, I just feel exhausted, exhausted and exhausted. Such a long trip, TWO days flight.

Everything began with the forecast that typhoon would reach Japan on July 14th. It did affect our trip.

On July 14th, when we were on board, I felt happy for the flight, although it was already an hour late. And with the distance shortened and time flied, the leader of us, Zhu Yifei, asked the air hostess several times to make sure whether we could arrived at the Tokoyo International Airport on time. The answer was always "I am not sure, but i think it will be OK." or "We are trying to contact AA." or "We'll inform you as soon as possible." The result was that we missed the flight to Chicago. As we were not allowed to enter Japan and the typhoon would arrive, the only choice left for us was to fly back. Someone said that it was a bad dream. Yup, it was a dream. We took off in the morning and were still in the Shanghai International Airport at night.

Finally, with the help of the Eastern Airline, all of us flied to USA the next day. Four of us, including me, transferred the flight in HK and the others flied to Chicago directly. And we were all safe to arrive in Richmond.

When we arrived, I just thought that "Here we are"!

On the way to VCU from the airport, I suddenly felt a bit disappointed with the view I saw, as it was a bit familiar to me. Typical American roads, typical American cars and typical American shops, just looked like what I had seen from the films or magzines or something else. I doubted whether I would really felt excited in this trip.

But, when we drove along an avenue which was not far from the GRC, I was amazed to see many statues, marvellous and magnificent. And, on the both sides of the avenue are many houses which must had a long history and many stories. These buildings were so attractive to me that I forgot my tiredness. At that time, USA was different which was an unfamiliar country to me.

It is true that there are still many places and many stories waiting for me to discover. It is my aim to attend this summer school.

Walmart is the biggest supermarket in the world which I have heard. And some branches have been opened in Shanghai, one of which is located in Wujiaochang(五角场), quite near Fudan main campus, maybe 5 or 6 minutes' ride. One day, I took the advantage to have a look at it. Aftering wandering, I had no idea about it, just an ordinary market in Shanghai, like Lotus.

However, in USA, Walmart is such a huge market that it gives you more choices than in China. The shelves are all stuffed with different kinds of goods with different brands, which brings you another problem "what to choose". And sometimes you may lose your way in it, especially for a newcomer, I guess:) Luckily, what I needed was easy to find and easy to choose. otherwise It were a bit difficult for me to find them.

Last evening, some of us went to IMAX to see the newest Harry Potter, the Order of the Phoenix. I have no comments about it, as the story was not attractive to me. During the film, what i feel, except cold, was still cold. To get warm, I walked outside and around. It seemed that, in US, air conditions exist everywhere. All of us will never forget the first night in US, for the powerful air condition and thin blanket. I chilled all the night.

Well, that's the typical American life way. Just enjoy it.

It's really hard work for me to write my blog in English. "What you have written is just like what a pupil gives" a girl once gave this comments. Maybe, I think. As I always do not organize my blog or essay, just writing what I am thinking directly. I think this way is the most natural way to express one's thoughts and ideas.

I do not hate to write blogs, and i also have had my space for beyond a year. I just put what i want to share with friends on it without any hesitate and consideration. That's the blog in my view. However, as we came to VCU to learn American culture, I thought it was good for us to go out to have a look instead of sitting in the front of the computer.

Quite tired now, Sleep la, One day, I will add something more:)

A nice weekend in Virginia Beach.

A lot of shows on the sides of the road. quite interesting and attractive. I also enjoyed seafood buffet:) But what I like is the ice tea the restaurant served.

enjoy wandering along the beach. enjoy the beautiful sunset and sunrise. enjoy this typical American life. enjoy the Virginia beach.

in these days, meal is the biggest problem.

Pizza, hamburger or subs are the typical American food. But, compared with these food made in China, I thought they were just so so. However, today's afternoon, I suddenly was keen to have a hamburger in FIVE GUYS. Miss it:)

Sometimes we'd like to eat Chinese food and the closest Chinese food restaurant from Hibbs is 福聚楼. With our coming, theirs business apparently is much better than before. Today, after we had the lunch and was leaving, a guy suddenly asked,"When will you leave?" I guessed that he hoped that we would never leave here,hahah.

I am interested in collecting coins. Since 1995, it has been 12 years.

When I arrived in US, I just began to collect Quarters. As there are 50 kinds of quarters with the difference in their back sides. To memorize the 50 states, several years ago, the American government began to make this set of coins. Till now, there have been 45 "states" published. The rest 5 will be made in 2008.

Now I have collected 42 coins,hahah. close to the aim:)

This is the introduction about the American coins:
http://gollum.easycp.de/gollum/gollum.php?a=core&l=zh-cn&wl=zh&q=#.E5.BD.93.E5.89.8D.E5.8F.91.E8.A1.8C.E7.9A.84.E7.A1.AC.E5.B8.81

tonight (maybe yesterday evening is correct) , with some guys, we went to see a baseball game held in Richmond Gym(maybe,hehe) between Braves and ONE TEAM. sorry, i never remember the other team's name:) Braves is Virginia's team, so it is the host team. And the other one comes from Canada. Frankly, I thought it was interesting that a Canadian team played the game in US just like playing in their own nation. That's why people always consider US and Canada as one nation.

Katherine drove us to the gym. When we arrived, to let us do not have a high expectation, she said, the game would last for at two hours, maybe you guys would feel a bit boring. Honestly, when we heard that we truly was afraid of it However, on the contrary, we was attracted by the game and the audience.

The game was interesting and full of fun. People around us were all energetic, hehe. And the most interesting thing was during the break of the game, all the people, except us, in the gym stood up and sang a song with the music from the video of the gym and most people also danced with the music. WOW, quite interesting and quite moved. That's a typical American way, I think.

I love the song very very much, whose name is "Take me out to the ball game".

Take me out to the ball game

Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd;
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,
I don't care if I never get back.
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win, it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game.

Yesterday was the day of Home visit. When I heard that we had the arrangement to have a home visit, I was a bit worried, as I had no any experience, This was my first time. I just thought whether they were easy to communicate with?

In the afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Nichols, with their three daughters, came to GRC to pick us up. That, in Chinese, we use "red-carpet reception" to describe it. Mr. and Mrs. Nichols were quite nice and friendly. Their daughters, two were a bit young and shy to talk with us at first, and the eldest daughter was a smart girl.

They offered us a mini golf game as the first activity in that day and entertained us with delicious ice cream. It was my first time to play mini golf, which was a good game for a whole family to play, I thought. After that, they invited us to visit their house. Wow, when we arrived, we were amazed at what we had seen. Their house was pretty good and had a beautiful swimming pool nearby. And the most surprising matter for us was that their house was surrounded by many trees. Actually, they built their house in a small forest, which was seldom to see in China. I loved it very much:)

In their house, we swam in the pool, enjoyed the sunlight and fresh air, enjoyed the singing of the birds, played with balls and played some American games in the house. Dinner tasted very well,hehe. I liked the roast chicken with BBQ saurce and salad very much,hehe.

That was an unforgettable day.

Hey guys, take care of your CREDIT CARD!

Today, some of us had the lunch in Caffe Italia. But later, when we received the message from the bank in China, we were surprised to notice that the fee of our lunch was more than we had signed, at least 10 dollars.

Now, we are dealing with this problem.

Crazy! Guys, pay more attention to using your credit card in US!

That's great to enjoy swimming in the MCV swimming pool every free afternoon:)

Since last week, some friends and I keep swimming if you have the free afternoon. It is free for VCU students and you can also be free to borrow a lock to keep your clothes safe.The pool is not big but the water is high quality. And the deepest place in the pool is just 5 feet. Quite safe for me as I am still unfamiliar with swimming.

The equipment in the pool is quite good. Last time, i found there was a swimsuit water extractor machine to help you make the suit a bit dry to carry.

If you wanna go there, take No. 84 school bus, whose termination is just before the library. Pay attention, the number is 84.

I am keen to go to New York! I wanna visit Broadway, I wanna go to the Wall Street, and of course I wanna see the Statue of Liberty.

But it seems that we will take an eight-hour bus! God! Thus, we would spend 2 days on the road. Well, squeeze the time to rush from here to there in the city.