2011

It has been the end of 2011, is it the time to retrospect this year? What I should do but did not do this year? What I should modify next year?

2011 is a little different from past years because I leave family and live alone in another country which is far from my home country. Because of this, I realize I am a home sick person, but I gain lots of things as well.

Living alone let me learn lots of things, such as cook, clean, etc. When I was at home in Shanghai, China, I did not need to do anything, everything was done by my mother, but now, I should do everything by myself.

I think I become more independence in the past year because I have to make decisions and solve problems by myself, especially when I stand in the intersection.

Most things for me are not that important, so most time I will follow others, but in 2011, I learn how to say “No”.  To be honest, I still do not like saying this word because it sounds too strong and not friendly, but I know I must say no sometimes to express my opinion and steadiness.

2011 is too relaxed for me because I spend too much time to play and it is the most relax year in my life.

Rainy Day

Drizzle from leaden sky, falling down drop after drop, cars coming and going breaks its consistency.

Rain hitting ground composes its beautiful music, along with the sound from wind blowing trees.

Fresh fragrant derives from washed plants and the unique wet in this kind of weather.

What to do in the rainy day:

Stay in the room alone, listen the music with a little bit melancholy, enjoy the gray view out of window, and taste inner peace.

Occasionally, walk in the rain that wakens brain and wash out exhaustion and worldly thoughts.

Or read a tragic novel. Maybe the novel was created in the rainy day. Reading it with a melancholy mood is probably closer to the author’s mood at that time.

Rainy day fits reminiscence. Reminisce those lost family members and friends and those days we went through together, which all become vivid images curving into brain.

Rainy day fits commemoration. Commemorate our lost youth. As time slipped between fingers, we have not been teenager any more. Looking my face reflects from the window, I doubted that did I still keep the original dream and have enough courage to try unknown things.

Drizzle and dim sky blurs the view in front of me. I cannot see it clearly. However, what I am sure is rainbow always appears after rain.

My Long Birthday

After a long, exciting, and tired birthday, I decide to write sth to share with someone who likes my blog. But right now I don’t know where to start. I think I should thank for those who remember my birthday.

from Fangzi,  I dont want share the thing in it with you guys.

one of my roommates, Fangzi. She is the first person who celebrated my birthday this year and gave me a gift that was really out of my expectation.

 And she invited me to her light show in her studio.

the light made by egg crates is her work





from Jenny



My cousin, Jenny Wang. Even though she works busy and lives in Columbus, OH, she still remembers my birthday and gave me a big surprise on Friday morning.

My teacher, Ruth. She gave me an very unique gift, especially, I am so moved that Ruth, Tony, Yuchieh, Clara and Ruth’s friends sang birthday song for me at the Fernbank Museum, which let me almost cry. In addition, congratulate for her successful exhibition.

from Ruth

one of my friends, Ying Song. She invited me to the dinner and a concert, and prepared cake for me.

from Ying

Chinese orchestra performs in GSU

The other one of my roommate, Season. Her birthday is 2 days earlier than me, so we celebrated together on Sunday night. We blew candle and cut cake together.

Season and me

Originally, I wanted to skip my birthday silently this year cuz it reminds me I become older again, so I did not plan anything. However, you guys did lots of things for me. It has been more than I can handle and much more than I deserve.

Thank you so much!!!

Swim meet in UGA

Today I participated in a swim meet with our swim club in UGA which is located in Athens. There are so many college swim club join the meet, such as GT, GSU, KSU, UF…

The meet started at noon, and before that, we had 1 hour to warm up. I registered 4 events: 25 yard fly, 50 yard breast stroke, 100 free relay, 200 free relay.

Except me, all members in swim club are Americans, which let me really feel I have left language school and go to a real US university. But my English sometime still makes trouble to me.

The gym in UGA is really huge and amazing, but except its gym and the peace in that small town, I still like GT more.

I have not formal training and race for such a long time. Even though this competition is just for fun and communicate with each other, I feel getting back to 10 years ago when I represented my county to participate swim competition in Shanghai, China.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCE

           Today, I went to GTLI and had a nice talk with Ruth who was my teacher in creative writing class. In our conversation, Ruth told me sometimes she did not understand me because I told her I took many classes, but when she asked me whether I was busy, my answer was no. At that time, I did not feel something wrong, but when I went home and thought of it, I felt it could be an interesting thing. I don’t think we have problem in expression and understanding, but we have different way of speaking and thinking because we have different culture. For example, few Chinese will say something is so easy even though they think it is. It is not because they don’t want to tell the truth, but it is because if they don’t do it well next time, they would be so humiliated. Therefore, Chinese is likely to express their humble in front of others. However, Americans will speak what they think directly. It lets me remember the time I just studied in GTLI. At that time, I was not used to be the way Americans speak. For instance, when two persons meet, one of them always asks the other  “ how are you doing?” The other answers “Good” every time. As I heard that, I was so confused because every day is similar, NOT GOOD, NOT BAD, JUST IS (from Ruth). Life is so wateriness. So at first I answered “SO SO.” But then I figured out it was just a way for Americans to speak. You don’t need spend long time to think your life is good or not. “Good” is just a fixed answer for this question. Maybe it contains good expectation, similar to “Have a good day.”

            I think GTLI is a really good place because there are so many students from different counties. The students have different cultures, backgrounds, religions, thoughts and personalities, but they could study together, make friends, share food, chat and understanding. How amazing! When different cultures, backgrounds, religions, thoughts and personalities crash each other, how powerful! Maybe that’s why the answer is “GOOD”.

Mid - Autumn Festival

September 12^th is a traditional Chinese festival ---- mid-Autumn Festival which originally derived from Zhou Dynasty. In Chinese Lunar Calendar, the festival is on August 15^th every year. At night of the day, the moon becomes fullest and roundest that means harvest and gathers. Therefore, famers celebrate their plenteous harvest and people will gather with their families at home in this day.

legend

A beautiful but sad legend is about mid – autumn festival.  An immortal couple, Houyi and Chang’e, forced to separate by Jade emperor. Houyi lives in the sun, but Chang’e lives in the moon. They are far from each other and cannot meet each other except August 15^th in Chinese lunar calendar. Only in this day, Jade emperor permits Houyi to visit Chang’e. Therefore, the moon becomes most beautiful and lightest in August 15^th.

Food

it is my favorite taste

Mooncake is one of most typical food in mid – autumn festival. It is like the moon and means union. Now we have different sorts and shapes of mooncakes, such as round, square, sweet, salty, etc. Moreover, we put different stuffing into mooncake, such as meat, egg, sweetened bean paste, ice cream and so on.

Taro boiling green soy bean is another typical food we eat in mid – autumn festival.

Duck is also typical food in mid – autumn festival. Duck soap or roast duck is a good choice for this festival. But be attention, it has to be whole duck. 

Activity

Praying , having dinner with family, watch moon at night….. all of them are traditional activities we could do.

In this special day, I miss my family more than any other time. Luckily, we still live under the same sky, watch the same moon and breathe the same air, and we are always together.

Hope everyone have a wonderful mid-autumn festival!!!

My new roommates

Last week I moved in my new apartment which has 3 bedrooms, so now I have 2 new roommates. They are completely different kind of persons. One is a young girl who is from Beijing, China and she can speak very standard mandarin. I like her optimistic personality so much because she is happy every day. It let me remember a sentence in the poem, which is, teenager doesn’t understand the feeling of sorrow. In addition, her behavior is similar to her personality. She decorated her bedroom so colorful, such as yellow pillow, red chair and desk, black wardrobe, pink sofa… The other is a faithful Christian. She goes to church and participants in related lecture every week. She has been in ATL for 5 years. During this period, she experienced so many difficulties. Luckily, she overcame them. Now when she meets problems, she would say it is a test from god.

It is so interesting for me to look for two strangers to be my roommates because 1 year ago I thought it was impossible for me to live with the person who I didn’t know.

Every day, we meet so many people. Someone brushed past us in the street, someone only say hello to us, someone could be our friend, and someone could be so close to us. Is it difficult to look for the “Someone” in millions of people? Not easy, but also not hard.