Arriving in the United States for the first time: living in a rural family for the first time
In August 2006, Zhao reported to Kenyon University, a prestigious college of arts and sciences, which ranked 32nd among American universities by plane. The school's manifesto is "a school, a community, a village on the top of the mountain, the idea of the world". At that time, the school only recruited 30 international students in the world and only 3 in China. Zhao is one of them.
When choosing to apply for American universities, Zhao is most optimistic about Kenyon University, which is surrounded by mountains and has a quiet environment. This is a very suitable place to study. As soon as he arrived here, he was attracted by the beautiful scenery of gambier Town. There are many Gothic buildings on campus, which are obviously different from the domestic scenery.
For the convenience of scholars from far away, many volunteers in the town take freshmen to their homes for accommodation before they report for duty. A family paired with Zhao keeps many goats and cocks. The warm and thoughtful hospitality and American country life of the host and hostess of the Ohio Forest Protection Bureau left a good memory for Zhao.
Food, clothing, housing and transportation: Shopping often encounters "Made in China"
As soon as school starts, the school will provide a detailed diet plan. Students will spend money to book a "meal card" for one year, and they can go directly to the cafeteria to help themselves every day when it is time to eat. It is not only convenient to eat in the school cafeteria, but also there are many kinds of food, such as salad, fruit, hamburger, pasta, hot dogs, drinks and hot dishes. , provided in the form of buffet. Steak and turkey can be eaten in large quantities. The fly in the ointment is that compared with the rich meat varieties provided by the canteen, there are few varieties of green vegetables, and they are all used for steaming or color mixing. For students who are used to eating "delicious" Chinese food, green vegetables taste almost tasteless. There are some restaurants in town that can order Chinese food, but the taste is a little sweet. So, since I missed my mother's cooking, I have been homesick. In order to find the feeling of eating Chinese food, Peng Yu bought a rice cooker and occasionally cooked instant noodles.
Compared with the accommodation conditions of domestic college students, the dormitory conditions of American college students are much better. Generally, two people live in a room with central air conditioning, which is warm in winter and cool in summer, and the bathroom has hot water facilities, which is more convenient to live in. There is also a laundry room in the school, which can be used to wash clothes and even dry them after coin is put in.
If you get the hang of it, it's not expensive to buy things in America. Many stores will have discounts on holidays, and students like to shop together on holidays, which will be much cheaper. Shopping online in America is very convenient, and many students like shopping online. Very interesting. Sometimes Peng Yu and his classmates will take a closer look at everyone's clothes, sporting goods and small semiconductor appliances. When they look at the labels, they know that many things are made in China.
Unexpected discovery: academic performance is regarded as personal privacy.
In China, teachers like to praise students "You are great!" Students with good grades will be included in the honor roll and widely announced. In the United States, academic performance is regarded as personal privacy, and teachers never praise or criticize a student publicly. For students with excellent academic performance, the school only sends me a separate email and never publicizes it.
Because of his excellent English, Zhao had no problem communicating with his classmates when he arrived in the United States, and quickly integrated into the campus life in the United States. He majored in economics, mathematics and public decision-making direction. The total score of the final exam of senior one is 4. He got 3.9 1 in the first half of the semester and 3.85 in the second half. He was used to being one step ahead since he was a child, and the course Development Policy he chose in his freshman year was taken with junior and senior students.
He arranged his study life to the fullest. Generally speaking, he arranges classes every morning, takes part in physical exercise at 4-6 pm and does his homework at 7-1 1 in the evening, so his life is very regular. In the final exam last semester, he got an A in his economics paper. The professor told him privately that one of his students got an A in an economics paper.
He also took the initiative to participate in some social work, received at the front desk of the gymnasium, and served as a Chinese teaching assistant in the Foreign Languages Department.
There are many opportunities: juniors can participate in overseas exchanges.
American school exams are based on the credit system. General exams and homework are counted as credits, and the final exam scores only account for 20% of the total scores. Like domestic universities, in kenyon, there are students who strike and sing every night, and there are also pale young people who are eager for their ideals. They bury themselves in painting scrolls or computer rooms. Two completely different but equally hot young people are intertwined into a line. Before the exam, students will stay in the school computer room until one or two o'clock. To Peng Yu's regret, two young professors in the Department of Mathematics, Professor Jones and Professor Milnick, reminded students that if they have questions in the middle of the night, they can send them an email directly, and they may still be online and can reply immediately. "There are many professors in kenyon who are very dedicated and get along well with students. They are admirable. "
In American universities, freshmen mainly study basic courses, sophomores and juniors mainly study specialized courses, and juniors have one or two semesters to contact foreign schools for overseas exchanges, so every student has the opportunity. Schools can exchange scholarships. Peng Yu intends to use his junior year to study in London, England, to broaden his horizons. There are also specialized courses in the senior year, with only five or six students in each class. They communicate directly with professors and conduct research on projects of interest to them, which is similar to the process of studying for graduate students in China. Graduation requires writing a thesis, and the degree setting is similar to that in China.
Experience: Plan the future and cherish the present.
Peng Yu, who has just arrived in the United States, thinks that perhaps because of the pressure of competition, or influenced by China's old adage of "being prepared for danger in times of peace" and "foresight", China students pay attention to planning the future. Inevitably, young people are calmer and less energetic. Most American students don't care about planning the future. They often say that immediate happiness is the most important thing.
After living in the United States for a year, Peng Yu learned to cherish every day's happiness. Every Monday to Thursday, he concentrates on studying hard. Starting from Friday night, it is the default party time of the school. He learned to dance with music and flashing lights to publicize himself and release the pressure and fatigue of studying hard for a week. Such a lifestyle is quite attractive to students from China. On the way back to the dormitory, I looked up at the bright moon above my head, but I couldn't restrain my deep homesickness with the joy I had just publicized.
He wrote in his notes that after a year's experience, he found himself gradually becoming stronger. You will soon forget all the unpleasantness you have experienced.
Harvest: Strengthen physical exercise.
Compared with before going abroad, Peng Yu is much stronger now, he said. This is because the physical exercise time has increased.
The first impression American students gave him was their persistence in sports. In the United States, what people talk about most is not how good their academic performance is, but their charm in sports. All the American friends he knows have one or two good sports. Influenced by it, he became addicted to football. At the beginning of the semester, more than 65,438+00 bold and unconstrained men gathered in front of the antique Pierce Hall, and then drove a red pickup truck, a cross-country jeep and an old RV to the endless green fields below the mountain with deafening rap music, sweaty sports equipment and a dozen rugby balls. That kind of heroism is not felt at home.
In the next seven weeks, with the team's overloaded training, he followed the football team around and learned a lot. The players love sports very much. Jesse, the Jewish captain from Chicago, ran forty yards with the ball like Ronaldo. David, a teammate from Pittsburgh, had just received the ball and was still in a state of stress when he was knocked down by the opponent's striker and temporarily fainted.
165438+ In October in the United States, the temperature was as low as 5 degrees Celsius and the wind was cold. In that game, Zhao played in person, and he could only keep moving his frozen fingers. "Every time I wait for someone to pass the ball, I keep cursing myself in my mind. I must not let the opposite person go. I just have to rush up and knock him down on the spot. " He gradually understood the unique primitive savage spirit of football and the Spartan spirit advocated by Americans: never give up, never retreat, never pity the weak on the field, and fight at all costs.
This spirit inspired him, and he told himself to strive to be an American who admired China and an international student who made pride of chinese.
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