Some Experiences about purchases in US

Yesterday I bought a pair of gloves in the college’s bookstore. They felt so great that I decided to buy them. However, when I got back home and tried them in no time, I found a hole on one of the gloves. It seemed only if you strech it, you could see it, otherwise, you won’t be able to notice that. But what if I wore it for a long time and the hole would just keep growing bigger and bigger? So I thought I should bring them back to the store to see if I could get another pair to change for these ones. Then I went back to the store today and soon got a new pair. Things just went smooth which I have not imagined.

This remind me of another story my friend experienced a couple days ago. She got a curtain from Target with one of her roommates who is an American girl. When they went back home, they found that the curtain was too long for the window. Since they have ripped off the wrapping paper and the boxes, my friend thought they would’t be able to return it to the store. But her roommate told her it was alright and helped her return the curtain and get a new one. Before my friends told me about this story, neither of us believe it would be that easy to return a purchase in America.

Buying things in America seems simple and convenient. Also, return and refund are both easy, and safe. For example, I bought some books on Amazon a month ago. When I proceeded to check out, they say I could try a month’s Prime membership so I accepted. However, when I checked my account of bank online, I found there was a charge from Amazon that I have never consumed. I checked all the online and offline consuming records and realized it was the annual fee that the Prime membership charged. It was because it automatically renew my membership while no one informed me. I wrote a complaint to Amazon about this and soon received an email that promised to refund the money. This assured me and left me a really good impression of Amazon.

I am careful with my pocket because life in America is really expensive. Thank god I haven’t met bad sellers or bilks till now but I still told myself to keep an eye when I went shopping.

Only if one lives all by himself can he understand the rigors of life. Just like the lines in Friends say: “Welcome to the real world! It sucks, (but) you’re gonna love it! “

Patroitism is a feeling inside

China put its first aircraft carrier into service on Tuesday (Sept. 26th, 2012)  in northeastern port-Dalian, my hometown.

It is so exciting when I first saw this piece of news on facebook. One of my friends posted,” China has lauched the first aircraft carrier in Dalian, my hometown, yay! ” I am not sure what is the meaning of “aircraft carrier” at first so I looked it up in the dictionary. It has been talked for a long time that there is an aircraft carrier in Dalian however I have never seen it before. I lived in Dalian for more than 20 years since I was born. I have never left it until I came here.

Dalian is a beautiful coastal city which has long beaches and blue seas from three directions. It is a penisula. The house I was living is located beside the sea, with hills on the other side. The climate is so good, neither too hot in the summer nor too cold in the winter. Most young people in Dalian are very proud to be a Dalianer because our hometown has all the beautiful characters that appeal every one of us to be willing to live in this city.

Thinking about the aircraft carrier thing, however, when I read throught the piece of news on The New York Times, I can’t help getting angry. The piece kept teasing China’s military and navy, with a tone of unbelieving and squib. They thought China’s action is nothing but showing the “occasion to stir patriotic feelings” (as reference), and it “has an increasing number of impressive assets to deploy.”

I am not a truly patroit, which means I will show my loyalty to my home country but not in every unecessary ways. For example, I don’t want to bring a national flag with me all the time, I won’t wear a badge of the leader on my shirt, and of course I won’t break Japanese vihicles to show my attitude toward the dispute between these two countries. But, in this case I must say something about it. I know many people out of China think it useless and a waster of time launching the carrier, whereas this action is absolutely a positive power for Chinese people to hold together in mind. Recently the relation between China and Japan is so tensive that it may result in any bad outcomes at any time. So meaningless provocation is no good to solve the territorial disputes. All we need to do, I mean as citizens, is to calm down and give constructive suggestions to the government and wish things are settled down as soon as possible.

It is also insignificant to estimate the purpose why China put the aircraft carrier into service at this sensitive moment. Becaue no matter what  the reason is, it is unprofitable for anyone to put this into deep consideration.

By the way, I am so happy that my hometown has seen the very first aircraft carrier being put into service. I am even prouder to be a Dalianer and Chinese at this very moment. For me, Patroitism is a feeling inside, deep.

Reference: Perlez, J. (2012, Sep 26). China launches carrier, but experts doubt its worth. New York Times, pp. 4-A.4. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1073457201?accountid=14270

Happy “Full-moon” Day

I can’t believe it has been a whole month when I come to America! I am just like a new-born baby in this new land, so I just call it the “Full-moon Day”.
My friends and I held a not big but sweet party to celebrate this special day. Girls were cooking while some boys were in charge of helping and some played guitar. I could just pick up some pieces of my memory to memorize those lovely moments. Katrina was the chef and she really did a great job. Even her American roommate liked her dishes very much. Ying and Lin came back home late but we saved food for them. The best dish to me is the “stewed Chinese cabbage with fish ball, tofu and silk noodles” because my father loves it a lot and so do I. After the “we are so full” dinner, we sang some Chinese songs together. “Those years”, which is a very popular song in China, reminded me of the last days before the graduation of college when I spent a month with the guys in the choir to make a music video. The song we used was just “Those years”. What an amazing surprise to me! The memories and facts came up together and linked in my mind at the very moment. I was so touched.
It felt so warm to have this little get-together with these young people who came from the same country as I do. To tell the truth, I got a little homesick a couple of days ago. But when I hung out with my friends, all those gloomy feelings flew away and I soon cheered up. It feels like I am not far away from home ’cause those friends are my new family.

Stop the STUPID Protests

As those disputes happened these days in Diaoyu Islands, the anti-Japan movements are growing fierce in some cities of China. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sept. 18th that reacting to anti-Japan protests that struck parts of China over the week end, some of Japan’s largest companies on Monday shut factories, advised their employees to stay home and closed shops, moves that have aggravated tensions between the world’s second and third-largest economies.(WSJ, Sept.18th)

This reminds me of a series of languages that were posted on Weibo.com (China’s Twiitter) which called on the mad people who stood in the front line of the violent act of protest to stop their stupid activities. I couldn’t agree more.

As far as I’m concerned, those who blustered about the aggro are either idiots or havingulterior motives. Let’s see what they did: in the protest until Sept.15th, about 1900 Japanese vehicles were burned or smashed, and more than 70 Japan stores or factories were destroyed. There were 50 people who ever expressed their Japanolatry injured during the protest, even with 2 pregnant women to abortion, causing more than 2.95 billion RMB economic losses. I am so angry that I want to ask: what is the purpose for those thugs to do such cruel things?!

The most stupid thing is, who those “patriots” assaulted are their fellow citizens, rather than those they really hated. The owners of the toyotas, hondas and other Japan cars are not guilty. The stores which sell Japan products are not guilty. People who like Japanese things are not guilty, let alone the two pregnant women. What the hell were they thinking about when they lifted the hammers and firebrands to pounce on their fellows?

More and more scholars and ordinary people appealed to stop the farce. I am glad to see that “rational patriotism” has arisen to be the mainstream opinion in China. Crazy movements have been mostly stopped and people begin to think about the effective ways to protect the sovereignty of our nation. Known that it is a historical issue between China and Japan, we cannot solve it simply by temorary impulse and unwisely behaviors. There is still a long way for both China and Japan to go. Let’s calm down and be a real patriot.

Reference：

Osawa, J. (2012, Sep 18). Tensions with china: Wary of protests, japan firms lie low. Wall Street Journal, pp. 8-A.8. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1040772607?accountid=14270

Music in me

I’ve never thought of being a singer until I became a sophomore. It is in 2009 that I joined the chorus in the university which revealed the best part of my college life. I spent the next three years with the chorus. Even when I was busy writing papers or doing researches, it never stopped me from going to the rehearsals or performing on the stage. I enjoyed the best time with a bunch of fiends who share the same hobby with me. It’s amazing. I think this is something called, passion.
When I graduated from college, I entered this new school to peruse my master’s degree. It is totally a different place not only because it’s in another country but also because I am now surrounded by different people with great talent and perception. It made me nervous and not sure about myself.
Whereas I decided to challenge the new life. To begin with a familiar field, I participated in a recital choir. The minute I entered the rehearsal room, I have no idea what to do. But when the singing began, I immediately realized that I have found what I need for life – that is MUSIC. The great voices are just like several little streams, flowing and flowing, and naturally meet, then absorb each other, develop each other, and tightly become one whole new sound, just like a wonderful feast, for ear.
I am so touched in deep that I determined to stick to this activity. I realize what I’ve been looking for is just a place like this, following the conductor’s directions, doing my own section of work to the best, listening others’ voice and try to be one of them, and enjoying the most beautiful sound in the world. this really relieved me, from the initial anxiety and confusion when I put my feet on this new continent.
This is such a fabulous experience with music as to adjust myself into this new environment. I feel being a lucky one to get this grant from life. I will cherish what I own.

A Leader’s Vanishment – How do Chinese People know around themselves

It pretty tricky when I was wandering around the WSJ to find if there is anything I like that a news appeared in front of my eyes read “China’s Leader Vanishes”(9/12/2012, Wall Street Journal). The reporter said “Chinese government spokesmen refuse to say where Mr. Xi is and insist nobody should worry, but as they object to media requests for confirmation that Mr. Xi is alive, the Internet speculation about a leadership struggle mushrooms.”

It’s not weird that I didn’t see this piece on any of newspapers or websites of China, not even on the weibo. Recently, maybe in the past five years, many striking information became unavailable to the Chinese. Just take a turbulence in Dalian for example. It happened because the government dicided to open a chemistry factory which will produce poisonous chemical. People learned about tht through online forums and registered for a parade to protest this policy. Tens of thousands of people gathered in the city hall square with poster and slogan, declaiming their opinions. Soon after that, the police appeared and arrested some leaders in conducting this action. Such case is so common in China, as far as I see, that people tend to be more cynical in mind while less brave in practice. And meanwhile, not as it used to be, it becomes more and more laborious to get information from websites. It suggests that the government is holding the supervision on the internet, managing to cut out the “nagative” news from the view of the public.

Mr. Xi’s vanishment is tending to be explained that he was abducted aboard a train. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter where he went but  the fact itself is so astonishing that it may push many Chinese people into panic. As for a big country who bears 1.3 billion population, this is definitely not a good news. But as a matter of fact, Chinese people are so beclouded even the government is doing good to them, it actually violates their rights for knowing. The same thing wouldn’t happen in the US since the US citizens are always protected by the First Amendment which explictly announced their freedom of expression. So America represents freedom while China stands for stablility. This gap will continue distinguishing these two huge countries in the world in the coming decades.

Last but not least, as a Chinese student studying in the US, I feel awful to hear about news from American press. But it seems I have no choice in the present situation. In fact, I prefer to know nothing rather than knowing bad news.

Reference: China’s leader vanishes. (2012, Sep 12). Wall Street Journal, pp. 14-A.14. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1039014674?accountid=14270

List

Inspite of a longing-for list, I could just come up with a checking list that includes all the tasks to be done…

1. Read, read, read!

As a new comer to the English-speaking area, I soon met with a lot of difficulties and confusions here. The most significant is I could not read freely, especially in academic fields. The papers, assignments, articles, etc., all hard to understand! Recently I am reading textbooks about legal issues and research methords, which are even harder to get the point(mostly because of the jargons). So I just forced myself to read no matter what I have access to improve reading ability.

2. Write, write, write!

Taking the course of Special Topic of Journalism is such a great challenge to me, ’cause personal essay is a whole new conception, I’ve no idea how to write one and what exactly to talk about. I think blogs could help a lot, so I will definitely stick to it and try to make progress during writing here.

3. More communication with local people.

In order to adjust to the life here, making more friends then!

4. Learn to think in English rather than Chinese.

Last week I went to the WritingCenter of the university, the tutor I met there suggested me try to alter the current thinking system from Chinese to English, that is, the more I think in English, the quicker I will get the point and make a response. I’ll try.

5. Taking photos around the neighborhood.

I was an active photographer in college, and I took some really nice photos. Just being a little scared of the safety around, I didn’t bring my single lens camera with me to shoot sceneries. However, now I realized that  it doesn’t matter if I use a good camera or cellphone to take a picture, on the contrary, it is the willingness and longing for life that exactly count.

6. Save money.

Education is expensive, I should take more care of my pocket.

7. Keep singing as I want. 

I enjoy singing. I used to be an alto in the choir, so I know a little about scientific singing skills. I have joined a recital chorus here, and felt a great pleasure to sing with the fellows.  This will absolutely teach me a lot and help me get rid of the bad motions.

8. More and more to discover…

I’ll explore the city, visit friends, doing volunteer jobs, etc. There are so much to discover.

Girls’ Night

It is so fun to have this girls’ night. For me, I am not quite a party girl. On the contrary, I prefer to do something more quiet, like reading or listening to pop music, in my spare time. However, I would like to talk to people, no matter what the topic is, just talking, will make me feel good. Of course I like to share those ideas and feelings more with my friends rather than acquaintances or strangers.
So here comes tonight-an real girls’ night with my roommates and neighbors from the apartment! Actually I have not talked to them much so as to get to know them, so tonight gave me a great opportunity to know these girls who had almost the same experience with me. I mean we all come from China, we have moved here for just a couple of weeks, we didn’t know much of the neighborhood here, and we all have confusions about studying and life here. Ma, a Zhejiang girl from downstairs, is just wondering how to improve her speaking and listening ’cause she majored in social work which required her to have internship in social communities and she is turned down twice because of her weakness in English fluency. One of my roomies is taking courses of English and give her some advices on that situation. She recommended Ma to get a school buddy whose first language is English and try to improve her spoken English with him or her, because she thought the best way to make a great progress in language is to talk to a native speaker as much as possible. I also encouraged Ma to practice listening by watching American Tv shows such as Friends or Oprah Winfrey’s show thus she may learn what she want and entertain herself at the same time.
I really appreciate the time with these girls tonight for they share what I have met with, listen what I’ve been through, and understand how I feel to try to get adjusted with the whole new life. Though I wanna make friends with Americans or people from other countries, the Chinese are still the most trustable and liable for me. I think we made each other feel associated and hopeful, and we are supporters for each other, in any aspects of life. I am so thankful to have these pals and will regard them as my best gift from the god.
Good night my treasured friends~

Breakfast

Just made myself a western style breakfast: egg, bacon, lettuce,bread, and yogurt. They taste not bad, but I am still missing the soybean milk and deep-fried stick back in China. I have cooked for like a hundred times when I come to Philly and I did a good job. But can you imagine, I seldom do that at home! I got used to the life that parents cooked for me and arrange things for me, even I could do it myself , I still don’t want to, I don’t wanna be independt, don’t wanna face the true life, neither don’t wanna grow up. However, with so many”I don’t” , I still chose to be here, living a whole new life that I have never met before. I think I got a little tired of the old life, which contains hardly any challenge or fresh things. I have to be here, and have to have a new life to actually be a big girl.