Week 11

Something I was very excited about was my ability to obtain a United States drivers license. This was easy for me to do because I have a Chinese drivers license. To get a United States license I had to contact the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and set up an appointment. This had to be done within the first thirty days that I was in Ohio. On the day of my appointment I had to go and take both a written and a driving test. I had to show my Chinese drivers license and my passport, as well. Since I passed both of the tests I was able to obtain a US drivers license. I felt it was important for me to have a license because I wanted to have the experience of driving to the grocery store, going to the mall, going out to dinner, and taking trips while I was studying. Though I do not have my own car, my roommate allows me to drive her car. We go out to dinner once a week and we also go grocery shopping together. It is very fun to drive around Ohio. I enjoy the days we take trips to different areas of Ohio. This allows me an opportunity to look at the landscape. On Saturday evenings, my roommate makes dinner for me so I can try foods that she eats with her family. On Sunday evenings, I make her some of the Chinese food that my family frequently makes. My favorite meal that she has made me is a taco salad. Her favorite was the sesame chicken that we had last weekend. I've really enjoyed being able to experience all the foods that she and her family eat.

Week 10

I have recently been thinking about home and beginning to have a feeling of homesickness. Coming to America to study is the first time I've been out of the country and living in another country. I dream about my family and my home quiet frequently. It was difficult to find my way around campus and the city, when I first arrived. This also added to my homesickness. Studying and taking all my course work in a foreign language was difficult for me. Also, there were many times I was unable to join in conversations with fellow students because I was unable to follow the jokes or understand their humor. However, now that I have been in America a while I am becoming better acquainted with the campus, city, and students. I am finding it easier to follow their conversations and my friends are very good at explaining the parts of their jokes to me that I do not understand. To communicate with my family I have been able to use a program called QQ. It is similar to Skype but it allows me to do more. I have the ability to talk with my family but I can also set up a blog and post pictures. I am an only child, due to the one-child policy in China, so my parents miss me a lot. They were very nervous about me being away for so long and studying in another country. However, QQ helps me to keep them updated on my life and the experiences I am having, which helps them to be less worried.

Week 9

The University of Akron had Spring Break a few weeks ago. This was a new experience for me. For an entire week the University held no classes and many of the students left campus and went home. In China, we do not have a Spring Break from classes. We are on a semester system but it is set up a little differently than the American semester system. I was pretty excited to have a break in the middle of the semester. It gave me a chance to get ahead on some work. I was also able to spend some time with some friends and we were able to take some time and travel. In China, most of our universities have a fall and a spring semester. There are typically no summer semesters. We also have a month long winter holiday, which occurs at the end of the fall semester. This break is fairly equivalent to the break we experienced at the end of fall semester here at Akron. This break occurs during Chinese New Year celebration. This year our New Year was celebrated on February 3rd. The New Year celebration is similar to the Christmas celebration in America, full of many stories and traditions. It was very difficult for me to be away from home this year, during the New Year celebration. After spring semester we typically have a two month long summer holiday, which is equivalent to the summer break at Akron. Unlike Akron, however, we typically do not offer classes for students to take during this break.

Week 8

As an international student studying in America I have experienced many situations that are vastly different from those I experienced back home in China. The Office of International Programs (OIP) has been very beneficial to these experiences. They provided me with an international orientation in the summer to help me learn about America, Ohio, and Akron. They also helped me learn how an American classroom culture, immigration regulations and how to find my way around the Akron campus. Throughout the semester OIP provides seminars to help international students adjust to life at Akron. These seminars helped me to meet other international students on campus. We also have a University of Akron Facebook page, that students in China can join to help them meet other Chinese students studying at Akron. The writing center, in Bierce library, is also a very important tool for me. My program requires a great deal of writing and the writing center allows me to get help with my English grammar, wording and even APA format.

Week 7

Today at work I was asked to write about my experience in obtaining a visa to give other students an idea of the process and how they would go about obtaining a visa for themselves.

My first step took place long before I actually applied for my visa. I began by applying to the University of Akron and obtaining a passport. After about a month of waiting I received my letter of admissions. The University of Akron also sent me an I-20 form, which is a certificate of eligibility for non-immigrant students. The form states that I had the right to receive an Visa. Once I obtained these forms from the University of Akron I was able to obtain my United States Visa. I took my admissions letter, passport, I-20 form, and various other personal documents (GRE test scores, financial evidence, etc) to the American embassy. At the embassy I had an interview with the a visa officer. Again I had to wait while the officer examined my interview responses but I was eventually issued my visa.

Week 6

International students are not very common in Chinese Universities. When there are international students in a Chinese University it is because they are there to learn Chinese and it is uncommon for them to have a lot of exposure or classes with Chinese students. Most of the time these international students have all their classes together. These students are typically at private universities, that have a connection with a university in the United States. It is very uncommon for an international student to be see or have class at a public university in China.

Week 5

Valentines Day

Last week was Valentine's Day. There are many similarities and many differences between American and Chinese Valentine's Day. Recently the American version of Valentine's Day has been taking hold with the younger generation. A similar, more recognized holiday takes place on July 7th, however. This is known as the Qixi Festival. At the Qixi Festival gifts are exchanged between boyfriends and girlfriends. The older generation focus on a beautiful, but sad love story associated with the Festival. The fairy tale tells the story of two people who fell in love, a goddess (weaver girl) and mortal (cowherd). The goddess ran away from the heavens and married the mortal. They lived had two children and lived together for years. The goddesses mother learned of the marriage and forced the goddess back to the heavens. Her husband's ox began to talk and told the husband if he killed it and put on its hide he would be able to travel to the heavens to find his wife. The husband took their children and the ox hide and travelled to the heavens. The goddesses mother learned of the husbands plan and created a wide river across the sky (the Milky Way). Unable to cross the river the husband and wife sat on opposite banks. Once a year the magpies take pity on the husband and wife and fly to the heavens creating a bridge, allowing the husband, wife to be together for one night.

Week 4

Colleges in the United States are very different from those in China. To begin with, American colleges have a much greater attendance rate than those in China. Chinese universities are much more elitist, though they are working to get away from this. In 1999 China implemented a higher education enrollment explansion plan to increase the number of students attending Chinese universities. My classes in China were taught in a much different style from those that I am attending here at Akron. My classes were much less discussion based and there were very few online aspects. The Springboard discussion sessions that we have here, were not part of my courses in China. In China, our computer science and technology is not nearly as develped as in the United States. Students in China are primarily traditional students and they primarily all live on campus. This is a very different situation from Akron, where there is a large commuter population. We do not be large areas of space dedicated to parking garages, as Akron does. These spaces would more than likely be filled with Resident Halls.

Week 3

This week has been an interesting new experience for me. On Tuesday and Wednesday the University of Akron closed and cancelled all of its classes. I never had days off, due to the weather, when I was in China. I never experienced severe weather conditions, which required the university to cancel its classes for the day, so having two days off was very new interesting to me.

Week 2

I would like to talk about my Diversity class for a minute. When we first began the class I was very disappointed because the class was comprised of white males, white females, and myself, a Chinese female. I was disappointed because as a diversity class, I felt there should be a lot more diversity. To me, it felt as though I was the only diverse student in the classroom. When we returned for our second class things were a little different. Our class now contained a few African American students. I have also learned there are some gay students in the class, as well. I am learning, and happy to see that the class actually has a lot more diversity than I had originally thought. I am very interested in the gay students in our class because this is something that is not talked about in China. I feel that I know very little about these students and I am interested in learning more about them. I really enjoy my classes here at Akron. I feel that I am learning so much and I am very happy to be here.

Week 1

A new semester is about to begin this week. I am very excited to attend these classes. It is my second semester attending classes at the University of Akron and the experiences I am having are still quite new. I have only been in the United States for a little over 4 months now and things are very different from the way they are in China. I learned a lot from my classes last semester, and I'm hoping to learn just as much this semester. I feel I am learning a lot of information that I can use when working with foreign exchange students when I return to China.

I am lucky to have a graduate assistantship, which allows me to work with other foreign exchange students, while I am at Akron. I am really enjoying the opportunity and I feel I am gaining invaluable experience. I was able to work on China week, last semester. I was happy to be able to invite some of my fellow graduate students to an event we were having. They were able to come and enjoy Chinese food and learn how to make it, as well. I really enjoyed having the ability to share some of my culture with them.