It is the worst week. I mean it should be. Because I have so much study work to do. I got a group presentation, an individual final project, and an exam to deal with. Now I am going to die actually. I wanna confess that maybe I didn’t do well in some aspects of my academic life this semester. I got a bunch of friends in the U.S. and hanged out with them often, which I think may be one of the reasons why I am now trapped in a terrible situation.
First year of master’s degree, I kind of enjoyed the new life but ignored the ultimate purpose of being here. I came here to study, rather than wasting time and money all the time. I guess I am just not to adapt to the new surroundings which in fact I should adjust myself into. I wanna escape from the outside world and stay warm and cozy in my small world. It’s such a cowardly thought. Where is my courage? And where is my braveness? I have to be strong even if I am just one young woman coming from a non-English speaking country. I should try my best to stick to my initial goal.
It’s late at night but I am determined to go over the chapters of the book that is relevant to the exam. I can’t catch up with the lost time, so I have to seize what I have right now. Good night Philly. Good luck to me.
Study night
Tonight is nothing special. I had dinner with my friends who lived in the same building with me and we hanged out for a while in the living room of my apartment. Then I decided to work on my assignment when others went to another apartment to have some chit-chat. After 2 hours, I finished my homework and went downstairs to join them. But they told me they had just decided to have a special “study night” tonight. How ridiculous it is! They must be kidding. I wonder if they spent any time studying in the day. Now speaking of night? Come on…The fact was they spent the night playing x-box and none of them ever mentioned the study plan…
I remember I have a “study night” in my undergraduate. It was with my roommates before we had an important exam. We studied in the reading room of our dorm. We both had more than one cup of coffee and encouraged each other to keep awake and conscious. We actually did. But as far as I’m concerned, we didn’t do much better in the exam but we did feel sleepy during the exam. After that, I never say yes to “study night” because I know it has more cons than pros.
Tonight sets an good example of my judgement.
What does Obama’s reelection mean?
As all of you know, Barack Obama has won the 2012 presidential eletion on November 6th, which means he will take charge of the White House for four more years. Just when he won the eletion, Obama posted an image tweet in which he hugged his wife Michelle Obama tightly. I can tell the excitement from his face, but also a bit of anxiety underneath.
Since in the past four years, Obama has been through a tough time in his political life because of the bad economy, he was not striked down. As a president, he survived the hard time and tried many positive ways to defer the negative effects of the depression. So before the election day, I have thought of the result that Obama will continue his term of office. He may not be the best person to make every effort to save a desperate situation but compared with Romney who shows an aggressive image in front of the public, Obama is still the hero in most of the American citizens’ hearts.
Standing at my position, as an international student studying in the US, I know Obama’s reeletion is a better result than letting Romney take the place of him. Because Romney has said to be strict to some foreign countries including China. He thought China is a great threat to the US as well as to the world so he promised to adopt a series of measures to restrain China’s development. It is such a ridiculous assessment that makes me angry. So I don’t like him at all. But I’m not saying I like everything that Obama advocates, I just think Obama is a better choice than Romney.
To be mature enough, I know the promises made in the campaign can not all be realized. Just like the advertisements, beautiful but not veracious. I congratulate Obama, but I wanna see what’s actually going on in the next four years. Good luck President Obama.
Reference:Obama Wins a Clear Victory, but Balance of Power Is Unchanged in Washington
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/us/politics/a-divided-nation-keeps-the-status-quo.html
Exam
I’m going to have an exam next Tuesday. Actually it could have been held last Tuesday but since hurricane Sandy came to strike all along the eastern coast last Monday and Tuesday, all the classes were canceled including this exam. I didn’t remember it until I received an email from my instructor reminding me of this exam.
I seem to have a bad memory, especially short period memory. I sometimes forget what to do in the middle of something if I am interrupted by something else. For example, I often opened the refrigerator to fetch something when my roommate asked me something, the I am likely to forget what to take out from the fridge. At that time, I will very angry and hate myself. It’s okay ’cause i am just kidding.
But this is really an annoying feeling. Fortunately, till now I have never screwed up anything because of my bad memory, but who can tell if I would make big mistakes some day? I am afraid.
I started to use colored marks or small reminding cards to help me remember things that are important to me. Sometimes they help, but sometimes they don’t because sometimes I don’t have time to write down the reminders so I always turn out to forget writing down the reminders or immediately forget the things themselves, which is no difference in fact.
Do you guys have any ideas to help improve memorizing things? I’d be glad to try~
Trip to Ikea
Yesterday I went to Ikea with my friends. It was the second time that I went there since I moved to Philly. In my hometown there is an Ikea too, nor far from my home, so I used to visit it a lot, sometimes with my mom and sometimes with my friends. Ikea is such a cosy place that once I entered there I couldn’t get my eyes off the beautiful furnitures and home-decorating goods. Because they are so well designed that I can’t help praising the designers’ wonderful ideas.
It funny to discover that the word “Ikea” looks much like “Idea”, which is also the main point that Ikea represents. I know there are many other places such as Pottery Barn and Metro that also sell home supplies, but I am still fascinated by Ikea. I won’t tell you I am fond of the food there but it is a key point though. Anyway, to me the most fascinating part of Ikea is that I never get bored in it. Every time I walk between the shelves and inside the model houses, I am impressed by the different subtle details. Sometimes it’s just a small cute mirror or a well-designed cup, but I’m still enjoying finding the elements that is not discovered last time. Those products are amazing. You’ll never know them well in Ikea.
Boys seem not so interested in finding those perfect feelings as we girls do. So yesterday the boys just found what they need and checked out far beyond us. But they still had to wait for us to finish our lovely Ikea Trip, that’s the most interesting part of the journey I thought, lol. Maybe next time they could go to the Best Buy to shop electronic things, instead getting bored with the Ikea goods, which I guess will be more appealing to them. But I’ll still stay with Ikea, ’cause my favorite place will never change!
College Students was fined $675,000 for illegal downloadings
I was checking my weibo (a social network like twitter) when I found a piece of news saying that an American college student was fined 675,000 dollars because he downloaded 31 songs from internet illegally. I am so surprised. Not just because of the severe penalty but the fact itself that differs a lot from the situation of my home country.
Actually things are different in different countries. In some countries, it is illicit to download files from the internet without the authorization of the owners holding the copyright. But in China, it is a aquiescent practice to download files without permission or giving credit to the owners. Thousands of Millions internet users download songs, pictures, documents, videos everyday, the majority of whom are college students. Just take me for example. When I was an undergraduate student, I often participated in student activities in which I have to catch different kinds of information from various sources of course including the internet. I sometimes downloaded songs, pictures and videos online and used them to build my own work. Just a few years ago, I never realized it is improper to download from the internet without being authorized. You know, it is something that you often do but don’t know it is wrong. This sucks. I wish I had known that and try not to do that any more. But the more important is, I should ask others to do the same things in order to make a better world without infringment and plagiarism.
Something Fun
This photo is downloaded from the Internet. It comes from a comedy TV play called Ipartment (3rd season) in China which is very popular among the youth this summer. Actually the former two seasons of the play were both popular … Continue reading
The Election
I am that kind of person who doesn’t want to show his or her opinion of the candidates if he or she is not qualified to elect. Since I am a Chinese who is studying in the US, and both of the countries are walking through the period of presidential alternation, I want to say something about the eletion, just from my personal point of view.
Yesterday I saw a friend tweeted on Weibo.com saying that he supported Obama because his policy is more friendly to China. I laughed and showed this tweet to my friends here, and said that friend who posted the tweet is so childish that I hope he is not serious.
I have no idea about whom to support between Obama and Romney because I said I am not the persons who will share their political opinion even if they are not qualified to vote. I am not an American citizen so I am not able to vote. Every time I walked past the vote table on the road, with people saying “Registered to vote?”, I’ll sigh because I feel voting will be fun. Back in China, some of my undergraduate classmates told me that they were preparing to vote. I don’t have to ask them who they decided to vote for because the answer is quite explicit to almost all the Chinese citizens. But things are very different in the US. The two candidates are making their best efforts to impress the voters to give them the vote. Just take the first presidential debate for example. I saw an agressive Romney, throwing all the knotty problems to Obama, who has struggled for four years trying to solve all the problems. They are actually competitive, not just act in front of the camera. We’ll see, the big result will remain unclear until the last moment in November.
That is the fascination of the election, I guess. It seems that 2012 is a key time point to the world. Not only the rumer of doomday, but also a big change of the whole human world.
Great tired but FUN week with friends
I have been stayed up for almost a week. Not didn’t sleep at all but everyday I just slept for 3 or 4 hours. There is so many fun things to do that I always forgot the time to go to bed.
Just like last night when some of the girls living in my apatment gathered to have some chitchat, I felt as if I were back to the undergraduate, lying on the bed, chatting with my roommates. It was great fun. Actually when I talked about my roommates I can’t help missing the friends I just waved goodbye three months ago. Thank god I don’t feel lonely now because I made new friends here.
In fact, the neighbor guys and girls are my mental supporters in the US. I remember this Tuesday when I had a very bad day and felt depressed, it was them who gave me courage to cheer up. They accompanied me to play games, sang songs with me, and chatted with me, which really helped me swept the bad mood away. The most impressive night we spent together was last Saturday when we watched dracula movies at home. We watched The Grudge, Goasting, House of Wax, which were very horrible but appealing. Since we watched together, I felt less scary than I wathced them myself. This is what friends for, right?
Thank you my dear friends.
Economic Pressure on Politics
It seems the dispute of the islands between China and Japan will never end. When I was having breakfast this morning, I glanced at this piece talking about China’s officials canceled the attendence of the international financial meetings in Tokyo, which was believed to be a action to show the displeasure with Japan’s handling in the disputed islands.
It said, “The stakes are particularly high for Japan, whose long stagnant economy has become increasingly reliant on China as both a manufacturing base and a high-growth market for Japanese goods. On Wednesday, Japan’s leading stock index fell 2 percent after Japanese automakers reported a large drop in sales in China, the result of consumer boycotts of Japanese products.”
As a Chinese citizen who is living in the US, I can only have access to the latest news through the internet. As I menioned in an earlier blog, when I knew the tension between China and Japan has arised recently, I felt a little worried. This is actually a matter of history. When it dates back to the year 1937, all the Chinese will recall the day of September 18th, which is regarded as a national humiliation day for China. Japan began all-round invasion of China that day thus planted the seed of hatred between these two countries.
Though time has passed for more than half a century, the dispute between China and Japan has never ended. Many patriots in China tried to wage a war to settle the problem but it was so radical never approved by the government. Seeig from all the practices these years, the best and only way to solve the dispute is peaceful negotiation. Two sides should discusse their positions respectively and positively try their best to reach a consensus.
I am so hopeful to see both of the two neighbor countries to step on a tranquil way to make a longterm cooporation and to have another blooming economy era together.
Ruby Han 