Isabel Zhang @ VCU

In Japanese this phrase means "Tokyo incident", and it's also a name of a Japanese brand. While I use this title to infer to the flight incident we encountered on our way here. Due to the late flight of China Eastern Airline, we couldn't catch the next flight when we got to Tokyo. Unfortunately, a typhoon was approaching Tokyo at that time. If we don't get back to Shanghai as soon as possible, we could go nowhere in the following days. So, believe it or not, we get back to Shanghai on the same plane we went to Tokyo. We had stiff negociation with the airline company late in the midnight and finally managed to get the next day's ticket to Chicago.

What I found really strange is that I felt a little indifferent inside. Though I helped my groupmates to negociate with the airline company and shot the video of the whole process, I was not as rageful as others.
They said you'd better go back to Shanghai. I thought okay, it's not a big deal.
They said let's talk over the ticket thing tomorrow. I thought okay, it's not a big deal.
We had to fly for dozens of hours. I thought okay, it's not a big deal.
We had to eat plane meals all day long. I thought okay, it's not a big deal.
Later I told my parents and friends about the flight incident. They were all very angry and blamed the airline company for the whole thing. I thought yes, you were all right, it was all their fault and they should pay us back. But actually I did not hate them and I was not mad at all. I can not explain why. Just like I couldn't control my mind in those days and it happened to be too calm.

Anyway, we finally arrived in the night of 15th July. It's a clean city with fine houses lined up along smooth roads. The life style here is quite different from that in Shanghai, just suitable to spend the summer holiday.

Hi, Richmond. Nice to meet you :-)

As you can see from the title, we'd just come back from WAL MART. Guess how much we spent? $72. Now you can imagine how many things we had bought and moving them to the dorm made us exhausted. Many thanks to Mitchell who accompanyed us and waited for us late in the night. Clap~Clap~Clap~

Today is the first day that we started to have lectures and lessons. To be frank, I think the one in the morning is more interesting than that in the afternoon. I guess you think so, too. :-p Then we had brainstorming in the writing lesson. One thing interesting is that no matter what word you start the mind map with, you can always come up with the word "ADVERTISING" sooner or later. Advertisitng might be the product of the modern and advanced world. Nowadays, we even can not live without them. And, it's just my major. People don't like ADs because they are not good ADs. People like to see good ADs. They are amusing and they provide information. We have a TV in the dorm so I watch it during breakfast or dinner time. I saw marvellous ones as well as awful ones, similar to those in China. But it's still interesting to see dozens of new ADs.

Moreover, I find my skin obviously much tanner than three days ago since the sun is really strong here. But I don't care. I regard it as a good souvenir.

It's bedtime now, my roommate and I had to get up early to cook breakfast ourselves.
Tomorrow morning's lecture will be given by the same professor we met this afternoon. I'll try my best to focus on him. (づ￣ 3￣)づ

I guess that one important reason we easily fell asleep on Dr. Tunnell's lecture is that he doesn't use the powerpoint. It's now a picture-reading era especially for the TV-generation. Without colorful pictures, speeches alone can not attract us effectively. Yesterday when Dr. Smith was talking about Captain John Smith meeting with Pocahontas, he intended to give us a more direct image of the woman. So he turned to the Internet. I thought he'd use Google. But actually he opened the Youtube. And he referred to it as "amazing!". Pictures are more impressive than words while videos even more.

I know one respectable professor in my department who does not use email nor mobile phone. He thought computers evict radiation and the buttery in mobile phones are likely to explode. It seems that eldder ones are unwilling to accept these changing new technologies. But the spreading power and ever-growing influence of the Internet, Web 2.0(or even Web 3.0) and other interactive media are kind of overwhelming. No matter you like them or not, you can not turn away from them. Seems that I tend to link whatever I see and think to my major subconsciously,haha. Okay then change a topic--the library.

We toured the library this afternoon. It seems omnipotent. Others say that libraries in Japan and HK are alike. I can't agree more on the view that you can judge a university by its library. So there's still a long long way for libraries in Fudan to go. But I'm not sure if the libraries in my university become one like VCU's I will go there frequently or not. Coz we have an individual journalism library and it's close to our dorm but er......few of us go there very often. Then let's say this ---- living life, loving library! um......poor slogan.

Sitting here thinking I should write a No.4 so that I could finish 5 by tomorrow and enjoy the weekend without thinking about the blog thing.

I've just came back for the movie. Actually Shanghai has an Imax, too. But I've never been to. I have a favorite cinema which is relatively closer to my home. After seeing the Harry Porter today, I discard my favorite cinema immediately and decided that I'll always go to Imax when I return to Shanghai. The dome is really cool~~~Though the movie itself is so-so, compared to the last four episodes.

I took a nap yesterday from 5 to 9.30 and went to bed again at 12. The activities arranged for us are really full. I mean all activites are attractive and interesting. But all together they are beyond my load. Maybe boys don't think so. It's just because I'm toooooooo weak.

It rained this afternoon. I refer to this as a special thing coz I searched for Richmond's weather before I went here. It's said that total rainy days in the summer is around 9. Together with today's rain was the stronge wind which blew down big trees and mailboxes along roads. After the rain the temperature was fairly comfortable. We went to a Chinese restaurant today. The owner offered us free drink and we chattered with the clerk. We also went to the Ucrop's before dinner and bought some bread, salad and bottles of coffee. Now our refrigerator is really really full.(One bottle of milk is even in other's refrigerator......) I like it as full as this.

um.....No.4 is not as good as the last three.

Too many things to say...
Then just let the pictures tell! :-)

See what we had for dinner the first evening at Virginia Beach. The bill was also handsome...

Nightfall view from our balcony.

The sunrise on 22nd. Actually I took nearly 100 pics that morning coz my video camera was out of battery...

Shadow and name on the beach.

Let's call it...comparison...Okay, that's a little evil.

I guess I was a little addicted to the architectures in Williamsburg.They were all fantasic. If only my physics had been better, I would choose to study architecture!

To conclude, stirring and unparalleled weekend! But I found that I spent toooooooo much money... I've determineded to focus on study next week!

It seems that I went to the library to keep the promise. That doesn't sound good. Actually I realized that it's time to get something prepared for the paper. I read the AD AGE. Though I can browse it on the internet in the dorm, I don't think I'll do that automatically. I read about JASON JIANG in a special report called "40 under forty". It's a report about 40 young and successful executives. Of course Jiang was among those. He and his Focus Media perfectly incarnated the golden rule of Marshall McLuhan --" The medium is the message." I know the latter operation of the whole company is good. But comparatively speaking, the idea that putting TV screens in buildings in BCD which show ads on and on is the key to success.

Still I saw CONDE NAST's ad in AD AGE. Nearly a quarter of the magazine was occupied by it. Maybe this is the way how giant media group works. As long as a brand or a company grows into a certain phase, creativity is no longer important to their ads. They only need to be as extravagant as it could be.

I admit that I wrote ten postcards during the lectures toay. But I only mailed two of them coz I haven't got enough coins. What's more, the stamp machine in the students' commons eats money!!! When it's time to eject changes, it always displays "Temp out of service!" And the stamp fee is much more expensive than the postcard itself...Anyway, I'll still send them out coz I know my dear friends on the other hemisphere are waiting for the cards. One important thing I realize during this journey is that I can not live without you. No matter your emails, comments, messages or MSN chats all make me feel that I'm still banded closely to you.

Miss you all and kiss!

I have to confess that I really don't like politics. All I care about is how the new media influence people's life, how to persuade people into buying products, how to pull the money out of their wallet. About fast moving consumer goods, cosmetics, fashion and luxury goods. This seems to be superficial while others are drastically talking about democracy, civil rights or even the future of the country. But just like there are people who are wild about politics, let me be the one who have no interest in it.

The saying that "all Fudan students have is a free but useless soul" suddenly occurred to me today. Maybe this is exactly true. Students from Beijing especially those from Peking University used to frequently involve themselves in political campaigns. While students from Shanghai cares more about the way how they live. Of course especially those from Fudan. The north cares about the country while the south cares about themselves. This is not a right or wrong thing. It's just the way who you live and think. What is improtant is not pretending to be scholarly so that others will regard you as sapient but to stick to your own cognition and not be influenced by others. So, just let free and useless be free and useless. And just let the south be the south.

The Adcenter is where I've always been looking forward to visiting ever since I arrived at VCU. And, finally finally the dream came true this afternoon! I took the school bus to MCV and walked several blocks to the Adcenter. I've got a map with me but still got a little lost. Of course I managed to get there in the end. I remember that Dad told me to be with friends all the time and I did feel a little nervous while walking on bypath alone. But it's really exciting to walk around downtown alone in an unfamiliar city.

I met Katherine, the student affairs coordinator, there as arranged. We've talked through emails already and she was so kind to show me around the Adcenter. First she introduced the curriculum and the scholarship to me and I introduced the American Studies Program and the video-shooting program (I have no idea what exactly the name is) to her as well. Then she show me around all their classrooms, computer labs and discussion spaces. One thing left deep impression on me is that the whole center looks like a maze and you can see students' works all over the wall. This place is really somewhere suitable for creative work! All computers in the lab are MACs~~~ (We have one, too. In my teacher's office...) Students there make their own journels and I got the latest one.

I guess here lies the biggest difference between graduate students and undergraduate students. We've got lots of lessons to attend everyday. We also do group works but usually at the end of the semester or before the deadline of the project :p. Besides, our classroom building is nothing more than an ordinary classroom building. On the contrary, the classroom at the Adcenter is more like a workshop. And students there have got more opportunities to practise and do group work.

It's really a lovely afternoon spent with Kathrine at the Adcenter. She hopes I could go there again sometime. I hope so, too.

Got a little vague o >_< o

The lobby

Words on the wall

Group working space

Special walls

The Moonpie Madness

Adcenter

I laughed at my buddies for suddenly being addicted to collecting different quarters in the afternoon. But but but, I joined them in the evening......

We went to the automatic beverage selling machine, put in one-dollar note and then push the return button. It would return four quarters. I got twelve coz I only have 3 one-dollar note on me. All them are California, Idaho, Indiana, Montana, Nebraska, Washington, North Carolina, South Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island and two Vermont~ They say that Vermont ones are very rare. So I'd keep them and trade the extra one with others.Billy's the luckiest coz he got a two-hundred year anniversary one which some American can not get in their lifetime.

Danielle adviced that we could go directly to the bank, give a ten-dollar note to the clerk and ask for different coins. But lots of fun lost if we do so. So we decided to go on playing this game with the machine. I admit It's some kind of childish but isn't it fancy to get back the childhood memory in unacquainted country?

~~~Coins together with the Adcenter students' journal as background~~~

Em....how to comment the walk along the James River? Well, as someone said, it's more quiet here than the Bund. It's hard to compare. The Bund & the Huangpu River and the bank of the James River are two totally different style. But I still miss the Bund coz I used to walk alone it to get the bus to school everyday after work during my last internship.

Then the walk became a picture-taking competiton. Everyone loves to take pictures, girls as well as boys. I think that we can always be easily recognized as visitors coz we take pictures everywhere, as many as possible. I'm wondering whether foreignors do that too while they are visiting Shanghai. We just want to memorize and embrace as much of the country as we could.

I told Dad that I was eating Haagen-Dazs just now. He said he envied me. I guess you can find it in very dorm's refrigerator, even in dozens. Haagen-Dazs together with Levi's and Neutrogena are all incredibally cheap here. (Maybe I'll talk over this in my next blog.) So, it now seems to be our bedtime dessert. But sorry guys, I cannot bring them back as souvenirs or send them by UPS (though they boast they deliver everything...). Then just... envy me as you like~ :-p

Squirrel

Colorful stores lining up the road.

The pink panther!

See how hot today at 4. I walked dozens of blocks to the post office to get you STAR WARS stamps!

The sky at 8 p.m..See how beautiful it is.

Cameras can be used as pens or keyboards to keep the diary. (Though the DPI of these pics are not so good when posted on the blog. I'll have them printed when I get back to Shanghai.)

Standing in the doorway of GRC, staring at the heavy rain, we were afraid of their not showing up as time passed. Fortunately, the white Toyota Carmy appeared sharp 4. Just as I thought, Americans won't easily break the promise.

It was about a twenty-minute ride to Virginia and Lorenzo's home. An ordinary two-storey house. Not big and they were also changing the house so the wall in the livinig was bare. But all these doesn't matter. They've got a dog and two cats. The dog was quite friendly. It likes to lick as if we were lollipops. While cats looked more arrogant and sometimes it's hard to find where they were hiding. The black one was special coz it does't have a tail. The grey one didn't show up until dinner time. And it suddenly dumped on my leg after its appearance. I was not afraid of it biting me. But it was really really heavy that my tummy ached as its claw step on it.

We made the salad and talked about history and Chinese characters before dinner. They taught us to have cheese together with apples. It was delicious and maybe I'll try again after I go back home. Virginia gave each of us a cup and let us write our names in both English and Chinese. Then we told the pronunciation of each character and explained our names. We were introduced to their daughter Melissa after she got up. She was sixteen and seemed to be in her rebellious time for she looked indifferent and seldom spoke. And it also took us twenty minutes to figure how old exactly we are coz the calculation way is quite different in China and America.

Another family came before dinner. The husband works for a Chinese company and they've been to China for several times. They have a one-year old baby. She was a cute little blonde with big blue eyes and a serious face. It was really thoughtful of them to invite another family for they thought maybe we'd have more common topics. Then their son Daniel and his friend David arrived. Daniel studied graphic design while David would get his degree in psychology in VCU this coming December and he was actually born in Taiwan. Of course, everyone had his or her own cup with their names both in Chinese and English on it. I should have taken a pic of the cups. What a pity!

We had pasta, salad, garlic bread and dessert for dinner. Everyone serve him or herself as the typical American way goes. The dessert was called Boston cake. It was really tasty. I loved it.
Virginia teaches Spanish so she seemed to be very interested in language. We tought them how to pronounce Chinese while she tought us to say Spanish. The dining room was just like a language classroom. We also talked about culture difference (sounds serious, haha~) and we helped David to figure out his past a little bit.

After dinner we played a card game which actually helps to learn English and took pictures with all of us in it. It took a long time for us to have the pic shot coz too many people. Then we went to the oldest theater in Virginia to see SHREK 3. The ticket was cheap, only 2 dollars.The decorations in the theater was classical and well-preserved despite of the sticky floor and shabby seats. It even had an organist performance before the movie! The movie was interesting though Daniel nearly fell asleep.

We exchanged email addresses and planned to go to Sushi sometime next week. We really enjoyed the home visit.

We with the baby.

We had thought that the Americans performed democracy well and their operation of journalism was free of restriction. But what we've learnt here is that they are not so satisfied with both their political and journalism system. They don't like Hilary. They don't believe what is reported on the news. Then is that Utopia is no where to be found or no one on earth ever feels content in what they've got? But at least their president could be faddled at and appear on souvenirs. And their note could be used in ads.

What left deep impression on me as for the typical American way is their way of spending their leisure time. At the beach we saw many families driving a long way to enjoy the tide and sunshine there. They went back to work and ordinary city life on Mondays. But they would definitely utilize every minute of the weekend or even just Sunday to embrace the Nature. We saw the same thing at the lake yesterday, too. Even the beach was that tiny and manmade. They still seemed to be having a great time with their family. Many of them bring foods for a whole day. They swim, hike, ride bicycles, fish or do what ever they want or they could imagine of. Although the lake is very far far away from their house.

The highway here is also different from that in China by having so many trees lining up the two sides. From some special angles, the view could be splendid. If my memory serves me, the twosides of the highway are nearly bare in China...

What we usually do is that staying at home, watching TV or going shopping. We seldom leave Shanghai for weekend.(One reason is that the city is amazingly big.) We are used to dirty air, fast-moving living pace and terrible traffic. Seem to be trapped in the city, always. Yup, Shanghai is on the list of Most Suitable Cities to Live in . We can get everything we want within a dozen of steps. The only thing missing is the breath of the Nature.

I didn't go hiking on the mountain partly due to my fatigue, partly due to my laziness, my habit of sitting there doing nothing. I'm thinking of going picnic with Mom and Dad in the coming autumn when we have free time. Many of the ways I live would probably be changed after this trip. I'm in love with cheese and now the Nature as well.

It seems that the Utopia lies in the nature and Americans' loving for it.

I'm not sure whether is't proper to comment the father of the Declaration of Independence is this way. But it's my true feeling after touring around Monticello. I used to think that it's only the country with a two-hundred+ year history, it's only a two-hundred years old house. Photograph, touch or accidentally laying a finger on the door is prohibited. Is it necessary to be sooooooo strict? But all these dissatisfaction went away after seeing the inside of the house.

The bed placed between two rooms.
I forget the exact name, it must be a term. Jefferson thought put the bed there could save place. But from my point of view, he could shift himself between the two rooms by jumping across the bed! That could be a lot of fun! And there's no need to build the door, though there's a door there. I'm not using enantiosis by saying so. This is really a rare design!

The closet above the bed.
There are three holes on the wall above the bed. I'd thought wooden cuckoo could come out from these holes at sharp o'clock by singing "BU KU BU KU~~~". But the guide said these holes could let air and light in the closet so that Jefferson could find things without holding a candle. (Fine, here lies the difference between an extraodinary leader and an ordinary kid......) The access to the closet is behind a door at one end of the bed. The bed together with the closet were really cute!

The automatical door.
The other side of the door closes automatically while you pull one side. I was wondering why he didn't make all the door like this. Others say it was his experiment. I thought it was left intended for later tourists to be amazed at......

The wine's elevator.
Obviously, I made up the name again. It is more common than the former designs. But as for Americans, it should be mentioned.......But together with another delicate rolling-door, it sounds the serve of the meals became high-tech related.

He drew, he designed, he worked on politics, he struggled between the equality of every humanbeing and slavery and he drafted the Declaration of Independence. He could use seven languages, he taught himself Spanish and architecture. In one word, he's really a talent! I'd thought the trip might be boring. It turned out contrarily.

I don't want to say "How time flies." But the truth is that only a few days left before we depart for New York City and Washington D.C. Browsing all the pictures in the folder of VCU, I found that few were taken on the campus. Most were taken at all kinds of resorts. So maybe the tour part outweighs the study part. Though I had always said to my buddies, I am going to learn, not to play. Fine, then action speaks louder than words.

The delay of the paper could be a good news. I really want to write something thoughtfully about the use of new media and the difference between their influence upon American and Chinese life. Doing it in such a short time won't do any good. After all, the biggest gain so far is still the tour around the Adcenter. Few could have the chance to visit the graduate school they are going to apply and to have someone as a guide.

I'm wondering whether I've really grown up in the past couple of years. Mon told me that I dragged her clothes and wouldn't let her go the first day of my kindergarten. I remember weeping in the bed the first night of my highschool coz I had to lodge on campus on weekdays. I thought I would miss Mon and Dad badly. But it turned out contrarily. Despite of the emails and msn chats, I only phoned them once. (Maybe the activities were too fascinating that relieved my nostalgia :-))Besides, I learned to cook. Though the boiled egg always looks like an egg pie. Give me a pan and I can make all kinds of eatable dishes. Moreover, I washed clothes so frequently that they call me "washing machine". Seemed that I could live by myself if one day I have to leave my family and study abroad. I really learned a lot even though not academically.

I know you guys in Shanghai are having various gethering. I desperately want to join you. I know no way. But the deadline is approaching. I'll be in your positions in two weeks. Hope Shanghai's weather gets better at that time.