Blog for xiej2

Day 2，VCU——DIY my breakfast & Barbecue night

Yesterday we looked around the campus with our interns, and they guide us around some important places such as GYM, supermarket and some restaurants, we bought some necessities in seven-eleven and then they took us for a wonderful pizza dinner. That provides us plenty of materials for a great breakfast. We heated the overnight-pizza and made some Chinese noodle. Each one of my dorm is satisfied with the meal.
In the day we visited the Capitol and enjoyed those historical sightseeing along the way. I was deeply impressed by those buildings because they are protected well and doesn’t change for hundreds years. Thus make the American culture passed down to the younger generations.
In the night we had an excellent barbecue, those hamburgers and chicken, especially the wings, they are awesome! Our interns have held a marvelous barbecue for us. Thanks a million~

Here are some tips from me, hope they may help me have a better life in VCU:
1.Eggs are cheap here, you will find they are even cheaper than the price in China after you convert dollar to RMB. So buy some eggs in VCU to keep you fit 

2.Butter can be used as Chinese oil when you wanna fry something. What you need to do is just to melt the butter and spread’em on the bottom of your pan. (What’s more, don’t forget to bring the butter, salt and pepper stuff from plane when you travel abroad. It may be in great help at the first days of your journey~)

3.There is a drink named Canada Dry in seven-eleven. It’s cheap and tasty. It contains 2 liter and only costs you 99 cents

I’ll write more tips as soon as I found new. So if you want to gain more survive guides, plz visit my blog frequently. I also eager others to share their experience, and thus may help everyone to have a better summer days in VCU. : )

Day 3, VCU—an awesome day~~
Today we did plenty of things. We had our first lecture, managed to get our VCU card, played basketball, and went to the Wal-Mart for necessities to survive in dorm. And they are all awesome!
The first lecture is about the Colonial period history of America. The teacher is professional and humor. We all appreciate his great work~
And the second lecture made us feel ashamed about our vocabulary cos we found many words never heard of. I thought maybe I need to make more effort to preview the lecture…
And experienced an uneasy noon and an uneasy afternoon, we eventually get our VCU card. I’m proud of the feeling of being a member of VCU when I got the card. And I should show my best reverence to all interns because they made such a great effort to help us to get the card.
And before our great shopping, all three members of dorm 313 and other five great basketball players made a great game on the playground. All we enjoyed the game and all we have a great fun. That’s awesome!! Thank you Brain for giving us a perfect afternoon~~
And in the rest of the day we visited the short bump the great shopping mall. I was impressed by the crystal artwork in Swarovski and we have a good dinner in Panda Express. They made good Chinese food! And in the next few hours we bought some necessities in Wal-Mart to survive in dorm. You can buy everything you want if you have patient to looking all around~

At the very end of my blog I wanna go on writing some tips for the summer program~
Survive Guide for VCU summer program, Chapter Two
1. If you still feel cold in night even if you turn off the AC, there is an awesome way to help you save your cost of buying a blanket. It is a talent idea thought out by my roommate Zhang Yuhan. He boiled some water, and put’em in a basin, and then located the basin in our room. The whole room got warm, and all of us have a sweet night~
2. Keep every receipt after your shopping. Then you will find they will help you remember anything that in a low price of high price. Thus will help you make less mistakes and keep making perfect choice next time.

Day 4, VCU----Wonderful day, terrible day
I just finished our sweet bowling night, and I am now exciting but out of energy. What I want to do now is just to finish my blog and go to bed as soon as possible. Sorry for that…
Today is a wonderful day, we have another two nice lectures and I managed to raise my first two questions, and both of them got an excellent answer. And in the afternoon, we played brainstorm in writing centre and learned useful writing skills. And then is our sport time. We played basketball again and had an awesome bowling night (Though many of us encountered much gutter stuff…)
Today is a terrible day. My tongue undertook a strike to me. I made zillions of silly grammar mistakes when I was talking. And I can’t remember most of the new words I encountered today. And I got myself lost when we were doing brainstorm…And to make the matter worse, my right arm seems to join the strike my tongue undertook.
Well, I’m fine, what I need is just a good sleep~

Survive Guide for VCU summer program, chapter 3
1. Try not use flashlight when you are taking photos on class, cos that may make our professors get stunned. So turning off your flashlight is a thing to show our polite to our professors.
2. Please think twice when you wanna try Dr. Pepper, I think it is not tight to our Chinese’s taste.
3. The bowling centre won’t back the money you pay for the shoes, which is quite different from bowling centre in China.

I am now surfing the internet in the library. I found some useful background knowledge for today's lecture. Hope them may help~

Civil rights movement(1935-1968)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_Rights_Movement
http://www.cnn.com/EVENTS/1997/mlk/links.html

Day 5, VCU----It’s cool for being a baggage!!
Strong winds are gathering volume collection of dark cloud when we finished our fantastic night with Harry Porter. And I will give my highest respect to Mitch who save us from been trapped by the heavy rain. And since the carriage was already full, I have no choice but being packed into the trunk. But I wanna say it’s really cool! I enjoyed the pitter-patter and my scrabbling on the rear window of Mitch’s auto.

About the movie, the cinema is quite cool! The screen there is just like the dome of the sky. Though I got stunned by it at first, I soon adapted it. It’s so cute that sometimes you have to turn your head right and left to catch up with the plot of the movie.

I’m sorry for my being late to the lecture this afternoon cos I was busy at working over the skype and finally I manage to find a way to make a good use of it. I will upload that way later on~coming soon, the Survive Guide for VCU summer program, chapter 4~

After two fantastic days, we got back to our sweet homie--GRC.
I took zillions of photos when I was playing in Busch Gardens, when I was walking on the VA beach, when I was enjoying historical buildings in Williamsburg. They are so attractive and the memorystick of my camera is nearly full because I was taking photos all the time to memerize those sweet recollections. I was impressed by those dreamlike roller coasters and just want try'em all. I can't forget those joyful feelings when I was strolling around the VA beach with my new friends. And those actors and buildings in Williamsburg brought me back to a life of colonial era America also gave me a unforgetable memory.
My fellows seemed a little bit tired today, and so do I. Though I took several naps on our way back to GRC, I still can't help but feel sleepy again. My camera is also "tired"(Because its battery is out of energy). Both of my camera and I need a recharge~So, everyone have a good sleep tonight, see you tomorrow~

Oops, I nearly forget one thing, my Survive Guide for VCU summer program~
Today I tried to cook a chinese snack called boiled green soy bean, and to my surprise, it tight to many people who come from different place of China. It's very simple to make and it's really delicious and nutritious. Following is the cooking method~
Step 1, pour some water and just half-full your container, then boil the water.
Step 2, put green soy beans into the container, and put two of three spoons of salt, and one or two spoons of pepper.
Step 3, wait for the water boil again.
Step 4, turn down the fire and boil it for about 15 mins.
Steo 5, fish out and enjoy the beans~
Pretty simple, huh?

Today we tried some Thai food with John. And we all enjoyed the rice which we missed for several days~It's pretty good! Though someone can't get used to the taste of coconut milk...

And at 8 o'clock, we went to ukrop's to buy some food. It's my first time to be there and I fall in love with it at the first sight~I managed to get a valued customer card and thus helped me to buy cheaper stuffs. And one thing I can't forget is that when I was registering for the card, I forgot my VCU card on the information desk. And one of the staff run several paces to catch up with me and get the card back to me when I was to leave. I was so moved because she helped me to avoid a great trouble! I gave her chinese knots to express my thank.
By the way, chinese knots is a thing that we chinese believe it can bring us lucky and wealth. I brought some with me, and I found people here love the knot very much. Maybe they will be the best farewell gifts~

Day 12, VCU—John VS John and movie adventure
Today we had the Ping-Pong tournament and everyone followed the tournament with avidity. It’s awesome that the first game I played with John. Wow, John VS John! That’s awesome! I should give my best respect to the organizer! And the John played a fantastic game~ Though I lost the game, I still have fun~ Ping-Pong is the best game for me to relax myself and the most important thing for me is not win the game but have a good time with my friends~ Thank you for giving me an excellent game, John~ (By the way, I met so many Johns here, and that’s awesome!)
And the tournament does improve the relationship between I and John, and we all had a good night in the Room 313. I love the sweet smell of John’s rice and Chen Meng’s chicken legs. What’s more, John’s skills at Ping-pong and Chinese chess are both professional!
Then we took a trip to Brain’s friend’s house to enjoy a Thai movie about surviving elephants. And for our tutor, that may be a risk to stay out of dorm those late, thanks for Brain and Mathew’s taking the responsibility of being security guards of the girls. Actually, I’m definitely not the so called “girl protector” cos I really not look that strong and powerful… Ted and Mike are good hosts, thank you all~ and don’t forget to bring my best regards to the kitty Oscar~~

Some insights today:
1. Someone think sports are only some competitive games, and others may think it’s only a way of relaxing oneself. What I wanna say is that the only thing we need from the sport is happy. Someone think relax that the game brings about may make one happy, and others may be think their happy are only come from winning the game. I think both opinions is right. What we need to do is just take it easy and have fun~
2. Living abroad will make many people sensitive to strangers, it’s a normal thing of human natural. But I really really want to show my best regard to Brain about the understanding of such kinda feeling. We both did a good job of handling some kind of culture shock~
By the way, can you guess what Brain is taking on his hand?

Today it's plain, there were few thing that can impress me.
At noon we have buffet and I gave a gift to the old lady who gave me a free meal last time. And she was out of happy and she gave me two hugs! I found that those gifts with chinese traditional arts are extremely popular in U.S. and I can't help but regreting didn't bring more with me... By the way, I prepared several gifts for my interns~
Then in the afternoon we played basketball again, and I found that a girl from Fudan is so so so skillful at basketball playing~I should value her talent a lot~
And in night I didn't arrange many things for me, just keep chatting in dorm~
About the paperwork, I thought out some crazy ideas, and some interns said my topic can be a good one for my paperwork. And I think I should start the paperwork from tomorrow~
OK, that's all for today, gonna sleep, zzz.......

Today we visited Bryan's cousin's house which locate on the coutryside of Richmond, and all of my fellows were impressed by their fantastic house which is the one I dream to live in, and they have two smart sons.
We had a excellent meal there, and played a board game called pictionary. I also played Halo II with Ben. There were so many great thing happened today and we have unforgetable recollections~Thing only thing that I will regret for a long time is that I only gave'em a simply gift. When I back China, I will definitely post them a more treasurable gift just to express my sincerely appreciation for their hosting~~

Yesterday there was something surprised me a lot and lot. My uncle and auntie who work in D.C. took a special trip to Richmond just to give me a visit and gave me some reinforcements.

They even put up at an inn near GRC, and thus they can spend a whole day with me in Richmond. We all addicted to that family-atmosphere. How lucky am I to have some family members here! We had a great dinner in an Italian restaurant and I talked a lot of interesting things I’ve experienced here. Then we did a huge shopping. I can easily fulfill my refrigerator now~

In China, family has a very deep and further meaning to us. A family is tighten by all family members, and family relationship is always strengthened by relatives. I think I found I similar sweet relationship between the relatives in U.S. Our intern Bryan and cousin’s family are in a warm and close relationship. And our fellows also mentioned such family relationship via their home visiting. Kith and kin appears everywhere around the world, just because we all have a unbearable passion to show our sincerely love to family

Today, we took a trip to Monticello and Charlottesville. And we took many photos there, and we were impressed by the gorgeous landscape.

What’s the most impressive thing, we found several goldmines of books in the city near the Monticello. We stepped into some bookstores and then we soon found that those stores are in a fine arty-crafty atmosphere, and those used books are really really sale in attractive prices! Many of us were having a big smile when we took back bags fulfilled with book. BFSUers always addicted in looking for great books~ Here I wanna show my appreciation to my professor, Ms. Zhang, she gave me several treasurable suggestions on how to picking up good book. We also had a nice talk with an owner of a bookstore~

After we back to GRC, I played pingpong with John and we spend a good time in GYM. Since John have already checked out from GRC, Quinn and I will always miss him in the rest days of VCU...By the way, John, don't forget to take back your chess, Quinn addicted in playing it these days...