I feel like dying after/during the canoeing. My arms r too sour that I cant move them anymore. I supposed we have puddled for more than 20 km through the James River.
It was beautiful, I mean the riverside, but Im just not strong enough to handle this kind of tough sport.
Well, it is an unforgetable experience.
It was the last lecture that we take here in VCU, in USA. I treasure the lectures I took here. The last one is abt American Literature.
My favourate American novel is" The Old Man and The Sea".
This part of the novel has to do with relationships between two characters. The first to discuss are Santiago and Manolin, Manolin being the small follower of the old man named Santiago. Manolin is a small person that follows Santiago and listens to his wisdom. They treat each other unfriendly though for Manolin calls the Santiago 'old man' and he calls Manolin `boy' which seems to be absurd. In that situation I would consider both of them to go see a doctor. The next relationship to talk about would be that between Santiago and the village, which seems to be much better. He is given credit for food and he also is waiting to show his greatness to the villageby catching a great fish as soon as he can. His thought on that, though, is that any fisherman can ctach it during the easy season but only a few can go out and catch one during the hard season. He has no consideration for the luck, and would rather try to fish through being exact rather than being lucky. The other relationship in this story has to do with Manolin and his parents. Manolin seems to be very rebellious against his parents, although he does submit to their demands. Santiago's greatest link to the village is the boy. Santiago may be poor in the story, yet is proud.
Pretty tired I am. We drove for 2 hours to get to the lake site. It is beautiful and the weather is just fine. I went to swim for a while. I like the temperature of the water.
After hiking, we played soccer and card game. Im already very tired and everyone fell asleep on the way back.
Oh, its raining again~time for bed.
I just got back from the home visit of Hernan. It was fun, and we ate a lot. Im totally full and satisefied. We went to the Ukrops first and bought sth we need, and cooked some Chinese food for everyone. They made us a Virginia's ham and semon fish. All of them were great!
Hernan's friends from Colombia joined our dinner. We chatted a lot, abt everything, such as Chinese culture, politics, movies and so on. We exchanged our mind on the extra problems. They seem to be very interested in we Chinese and what we think. Of course, we r also interested in theirs.
There's sth should to be mentioned. They own two big dogs, Aspin and Kiwi. They r brother and sister, and they r both white and huge. Kiwi is agressive after hurt by someone, but Aspin is very friendly and nice. Since she's eight years old, she doesnt move much. We took a lot of pictures with her, and offered her good massages. She was like the Queen, coz she behaves.
The ppl we met were all pretty kind and nice. I also got some ham to take back. I learnt a lot abt American families' living style. I enjoyed it quite much. Big houses, beautiful gardens and huge dogs, that's the meaning of true lives. The most important thing is freedom. They could hardly believe that our passports got taken away by our teacher. I told them he's afraid of us running away, and they turned to be shocked, "unbelievable", that's what they reacted.
We should had our rights to decided what we do and where we go. But, obviously, we do not have them. We r under controlled everywhere, in China, even in U.S. No change. How can they treat us like prisoners? I cant understand. I belong to myself, not anyone else. I really doubt it!
Its humilate today. We walked along the canal after dinner, but the weather was killing me. Maybe it was abt to rain soon, so that it was wet and hot. Mosquitos bit me severl times and I killed one as revenge.
Tomorrow we r going to have a home visit. Our hostest is Hernan. He is not a typical American but I suppose it will be more fun to have an idea abt Colombian family living in US. We r also looking forward to the big dinner. Haha.
But I still have no idea abt what to do in the free day. I wonder there's another choice besides the lake outing.
I can't remember how long it took me since my computer got attacked by the virus. The attack was serious this time and made it didnt work. It was killing me coz that my laptop is the only way I can connect with others in China. The most important thing is all the photos I took during the passed days were inside it. I refused to lose the precious memorials.
Fortunantly, it was fixed by some one really good at it. I appreciate it very much. And that means I should write my VCU blogs!
Its the second time we go to the Short Pump and the Wal-mart and maybe the last time. Things there r obviously more expensive than the outlet in Williamsburg. But we couldnt help buying sth not to waste time.
It rains today while it doesnt always rain here. It reminds me of Shanghai, coz it always rains there, making ppl feel upset. I havent connect with my parents for couple days for the virus. I miss them but I dont eager go home. Im getting used to the life here, though it is tiring sometimes and the condition is not as good as before. But anyway, its a special and rare experiece for me. I think I can learn more from it.