Come on Aileen

For the last part, I lived in California, where the sunshine and the beaches are, not to mention that it’s south California, where angels reside and most important, the other side of the Pacific. When I was in Tennessee, every time I went back home for a holiday, I kept telling myself that I hate this 3-connection, across more than half of the earth experience and had to move to somewhere closer to home.

While applying for grad. school, I got into UCI. Yepe, south California, “never” rains, China town everywhere, and only 12 hours non-stop flying back to Shanghai. Same as the last entry, I probably won’t list any friends’ name in this one, ‘cuz there are so many of them! And once I start, I can’t just write two or three.

Anyway, UCI is a new school, and pretty, but ppl work there are sorta way too bureaucracy.  And I understand why alumni don’t donate any $ to them. Tell you what, I won’t either. But I like LA. I like San Gabriel. I like Rowland Height. I like Pasadena. And I like Acadia. Yeah, correct, where all the great Chinese food are. Oh! And there’s a karaoke place in Rowland Height. In the 2^nd year, we’ve made a lot of trips there.

To sum up, I gain lots of weight in LA, due to the food, and because I lived in school’s apt., I also had time and ability to make great food everyday. I think California is a lot different than other states in US. Once I’ve heard someone say that, “There are all kinds of people in California but American.” Typical and classical. I had to agree, I feel like I’m in another country.

So now, I’m back in Shanghai, and ppl keep asking me why I chose to come back. They don’t know how boring it’s like in US. Maybe life is convenient there, but there’s something missing. Life stuck in certain pattern. Some are sure that I will miss US and wanting to go back within 3 months. Oh well, I’ve been back 4 months already, and I don’t miss it at all! Thank US for giving me the education I needed. I still prefer Shanghai.

UTK is a big school with 60,000 students in total, undergrad. and grad. this public school is not as famous as those ivy league schools, but some of the program is ranked top 10 nation-wise, like nuclear engineering  and #1 region-wise, like logistics.

oh! and not mentioned that it has the largest football stadium among universities, the best (information-wise) library among universities and #1 party school (this is 2003 and 2004 ranking, in 2005, University of Indiana took that crown back). when i talk about this so proudly to a friend, he commended, “so it’s either sport maniac, or nerd or party animal in your university.”  i have to admit that he got the point. then he asked me, “so which one are you?”

well…i do watch football games, but that passion calmed down within 2 years. i only went to one game in my senior year and none in my junior year. freshman year is probably the craziest, that i've only missed one home game. then speak of the library, well, it is cool, and i do went there for study sometimes (meaning i only went there for projects or review with others, and i never went by myself), but i've never used any resources in there. at last, but not least, parties. there's always parties going on campus. they said that the freshman year should be the worst year of parties, but guess what? i didn’t go to one until my junior year, and i can count the number of parties i've been to during this four years just using my ten fingers. yepe, they are that less. so i guess i'm none of the three categories. or i just didn’t contribute to enhance school’s top advantages.

while started university life, i started to live with a “host family” again. i was invited by my high school teacher Mr.Francis, even though i've never had his class. all of his family members are graduated from UTK and he’s so proud of me that i've got the scholarship. so he invited me to live with his family with a cheap rate each month. i think i'm lucky to be able to live with him. since UT requires all freshman students to live on campus, i had my mother signed a letter to give him my guidance and that settled everything. i think i’ve learned a lot of American cultures and how they actually live from them, and i feel so happy to have a pair of American parents and a set of American siblings.

i spent 4 years in UTK and 4 years with the Francis and most of the time, i had fun. i made a photo album at the end, and put all the memorable pictures in it. it was thick and it took me almost a month to finish it, but i think it worth it. my school life in UTK was frustrated with all those classes and credit hours and fun with all my friends, no matter what their nationalities are.

they were right. your undergrad. years should be one of the best periods of time in your life. i always have a smile on my face when think of it. that little country town in the middle of nowhere, but has people with great passion and purest spirit.

sorry that i was caught up by the trips in the summer and the jobs as a new hire, i will continue the summary. XD

so then, after i left utah, i went to tennessee, in where i spent 5 and a half years, which i stayed the longest time and had a lot of things going on in my life. the high school i went to is a Christian boarding school. so no more host family anymore for me, and i started to live in school.

it wasn’t that bad at the beginning. they made me take a qualifying test to determine if i need to be place in ESL. i finished it while still having jetlag, oh and btw, just recovered from the horrible fever while still back in China.

the dorm life was a little different than in China. i also went to a boarding school in Shanghai, with 6 ppl in one room and trained like military. in TN, it was different. there were only 2 ppl in each room and even though there are 2 floors of girl’s dorm, only the first floor is being used and not yet fully occupied. according to the dorm director, only two ppl from different country can live in one room and only seniors can have the room by themselves. i lived with a korean girl first. she's a nice person, but while asleep, she’d like to have her music turned on the whole night. well…they won’t crazy loud rock music, but still, i couldn’t handle having some sound around my ear when sleepy. we were trying to negotiate with each other but apparently, she couldn’t fall in sleep without the music. as a result, i asked the dorm director for another roommate, and she agreed.

since our school has a sister school in korea, there were many many korean students. and again, i was assigned to another korean girl. this time, it worked fine. she's quiet for most of the time and rarely speaks, maybe also because her English is bad. i made friends with Japanese girls more than korean girls. there were only 3 Japanese girls. Megumi, someone i still talk to through emails nowadays, Toyoko, a Shanghainese grown up in Japan and always joke about she being Toyota CEO’s daughter, and Sumika, someone only dates American guys and you can’t recognize her after she takes off her makeup.

在那所学校里，我清楚地意识到韩国人的劣根性，她们欺负日本人，欺负我这个唯一从大陆来的人，和她们的一年半相处简直就是血泪史，像是恶梦一样！以防大家说我也变成愤青，我就不多说了，如果没有她们，我想我的高中生活会更加快乐的。

and in that school, i met with a lot of Taiwanese. i've learned in Utah that u should never talk about politics with them. most of them are nice and they also feel comfortable speaking Chinese with you. most of the time, they treat you as you are from the same place like them. to be specific, there was only 1 taiwanese guy, named Jack, in that school and hence, we became close friends. there was anther taiwanese girl, but since she was born in US and grow up in US, we all consider her as American.

it wasn’t quite happy over there, but i did receive a lot of help. ppl always mention that certain part of US worship white and treat other nations as crap, but in TN, it’s fine. you never feel discriminated by someone. in senior year, i placed top 10 in a math contest held by University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and along with it, there’s this 4-year full scholarship. as a result, i went to UT. i was also accepted by Wells, an all-girl college in New York State where you can take courses from Cornell, and University of Florida, located beside the most beautiful beach and Jack was there. however, i chose UTK at the end. yeah, i admit it that i went there for the $.

today is june 29 (GMT+8). i'm back home. it's like a dream, both the fact that i've been out there for 8 years and the fact that i'm back home right now. still feel like 16, maybe that's because that's the last time i've been home, actually home, not just stay for summer/winter.

ppl always ask me why i chose to go to USA at the age 16. seriously, i don't know. i guess from all the movies from USA, i always wanted to be there. not for any special reason, but just to make a difference in my life. i might have missed some specific experiences if i stayed, but i never regret my choice. some one has said that when you should take some adventure while you are young so that you can recover and actually learn. but one thing for sure, i wasn't happy with the education system back then. but with this many ppl in this country, it might be the only way.

so i left, without thinking about what's gonna happen next. all i have in mind is i'm out in another world. it wasn't as exciting as i thought it would be when i first got there. i landed in utah, one of the states that locate in the middle of nowhere. my mother went with me, and when i got settled, she left. i didn't know why, but i didn't cry. i realized that i wouldn't see my mom for a long time, and i couldn't rely on her anymore on anything, but i guess the excitement surpassed the fright of unknown world. i stayed with a host family, mormon, but nice ppl. the husband is a fire fighter, the wife is a secretary in a small company. all their 5 children live somewhere else. and i still remember when i moved in, there's a chinese-japanese girl lived downstairs. she told me how to put make-up on.

i only stayed in utah for 1 semester. it was too dry there, my skin couldn't handle it. so the next semester, i transferred to tennessee. went back to china during the winter break, while actually, the winter olympic was on in utah. i got really sick, as they said, first time backer from europe/USA always got sick for they are not used to the air in china anymore. and hence, i was 10 days late for that semester in that new school.

went to the baseball game last weekend. my first US major league baseball game. angels vs. mariners. i didn't know that angels were top 1 in american league. and the two teams play 3 games altogether.

anyway, since nami wants to see ichiro, we choose this game. well, only if i have a better camera, or we have more money, maybe we could seat closer...but anyway, i didn't go for ichiro. just to fulfill my experience. major league baseball is a big thing here. and everyone's crazy.

yeah...just before i left for the game, i realized that i never own a baseball cap...the first half of the game is kinda boring. angels didn't play well, but later on, it gets really excited. final score is 8:9. angels lost, but the next day, as i checked online, they won by 11:0. i guess it wasn't there best players on saturday.

at the end, some extra news about my thesis. XD  it's at wrapping up stage, which means a lot of things to do. have to look at the big picture, give conclusion and introduction. the 2 chapters i hate to write. and then i just found out that there are so many data i need. don't even know if i can finish by this week. well, for those busy professors to look at it, i have to finish this week. to give them some time, and not to stress myself out.