Columbia is Far from Home

My First Touch with Thanksgiving

2007-11-30T21:17:00.000-08:00

This year, I first experienced the customs of Thanksgiving in America. During the full whole week Thanksgiving break, I stayed with two host families in Chicago and St. Louis. Chicago is more exciting than Columbia, as many have expected. Though, for me, Chicago is not that surprising, 'cause Chicago is quite like Hong Kong. A big city with lots of tall buildings and chain stores. So, the biggest bonus for me is the hosts.

My Russian accompany and I cooked some dishes from our countries and we had a dinner with our hosts. We enjoyed cuisines from different countries and spent a good time on chatting.

We then spent our Thanksgiving day with another host family in St. Louis. We had our Thanksgiving meal at 1pm. There were like 6 dishes, including Turkey, of course, and also smashed potato, corns, beans, pies and so on. We were so full!

Unfortunately, I got a fever on Thanksgiving day. Anyways, most of the stores were closed on that day. So it might not be that bad that I was sick on that day.

Although we did not know the hosts until we stayed in their house, but the hosts treated us with their hearts. I felt so warm in their houses.

Cars and U.S.

2007-10-20T21:07:00.000-07:00

Recently, I have been busy with researching about the trip around U.S. during semester break. And I read a blog from my classmate in Hong Kong who went to California to exchange last year. When he traveled to San Francisco for the fist time, he wrote something about the transportation system there, which has inspired me to write something too. (coincidently, Camilla has written something about cars in U.S. too!)

Transportation and cars have been a big topic among us, at least among the students from cities with good transportation system like Hong Kong. In my hometown, I never need to drive. We have trains, metro, buses, mini-buses, taxi, ferries, just everything! I can just go to wherever I want without seeking anyone's help. But as far as I have lived in Columbia, even if I just want to buy a piece of garlic, I get to find someone to help out! Even if I want to check out any festivals in the weekend, I must get someone to drive me! I just feel like myself being a trouble-maker and have to bother others a lot...

I understand the Americans can reach wherever they want with their own cars. But have they ever asked why they need to drive everyday instead of taking transport system? Is it because the U.S. continent is too large? May be it is for the country. But some of the big cities do have metros. This shows that it is feasible to get the community centralized in urban planning and develop into a better transportation. Or is it because of individualism? I bet a good transportation system will not hurt individualism. But with almost every American own a car, the emissions produced by the cars will be tremendous. Shouldn't the Americans review this habit?

First Time Clubbing

2007-10-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

Finally, I have spent my first clubbing in Columbia. One of my friend bought me to the Tropical Club in Downtown. It was a cheap place to go. I only paid $3 since I am already 21. Tropical Club is a rasa club filled with South American culture. Many Spanish and Mexicans go there because it's similar to their culture.

I first danced with my friend for practice, because I don't know how to dance at all! After practicing for a while, a Japanese guy invited me for my first dance. He turned me around, around and around...I felt so dizzy after dancing with him. Later in the night, I kept dancing with different people, most of them are Mexicans. After all, I felt weird to dance with so many strangers. One "enthusiastic" Mexican guy kissed me two to three times on my neck and cheek. I felt uncomfortable to be kissed by someone that I meet him for the first time...Perhaps it's South American culture, but I come from Asia. I am Chinese. I am conservative!

Jewells not dead yet

2007-09-23T09:40:00.000-07:00

The permit for the Buried Jewells box expires this month, so this may be your last chance to find it.

However, if someone wants to take it over and move it within the area (we will help modify the clues), I believe you could apply for a new permit. Let me know at clyde.bentley@gmail.com if you are interested in taking over this extremely popular box (which, if the state permit goobers are listening, probably brings more people to this important historical spot than anything but teen passion in the parking lot.)

C2B2

Who Moved My Mooncakes!

2007-09-22T23:28:00.001-07:00

Just received a package for the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is a second biggest festival for Chinese, following the Lunar New Year. I was really excited about the package, cause there should be a can of moon-cakes inside! Moon-cake is an undifferentiable part of the Festival custom which is made from lotus paste and egg yolks.

When I opened the package, I saw several lanterns which people hang them up or keep them in hands during the night. And also a bundle of glow sticks. They were all out of my expectation! Then I started to open the can of moon-cakes...but...they weighed rather light...

I removed the lid and found that - There were NO Moon-cakes inside!! It's incredible! There was a paper left inside the box from the Department of Agriculture, saying my moon-cakes have "meat"not admitted by US which refered to the egg yolks inside. One mystery was that when I read through the ingredients written on the box, it only mentioned the moon-cakes contain "duck eggs". So how can the officers know the moon-cakes contain "egg yolks"?

The paper also stated that "meat may contain diseases which do not occur in US". My interpretation towards this statement is the America, the strongest country in the world, is truly defensive towards things outside US. Is the strongest country actually scared?

Corn Maze vs High-rises Maze

2007-09-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

09-16-2007

I follow a group of Journalism school students to a Corn Maze called Shryocks. Corn Maze may not look special to you. But it can really amaze a girl coming from a "big but small" city.

Hong Kong is such a big city that we have lots of people within a small place. Can you imagine how crowded it is when there are nealy 7, 000, 000 people in 2,755 square-kilometers. On the contrary, Columbia has less than 90, 000 people. Lands in Hong Kong is an extravaganza. Every inch of space counts for money! Buildings in Hong Kong cannot go horizontal, they have to go high in vertical. Hong Kong cannot afford so much space for a maze.Instead of lots of corn, we have lots of high-rises to build up a maze. Moreover, the urban planning in Hong Kong is not very well-planned. You will easily get lost there, I really mean it.

Is US Environmental Friendly?

2007-09-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

On the last Saturday night, I went to the International Welcome Party with my friends. There were lots of participants enjoying the food from different countries. However, a friend and I found that lots of polystyrene bowls, plastic utensils, aluminium containers, tissue papers and so on were used in a single function. Both of us felt sorry about the massive waste produced on that night.

And here came to a question of environmental protection. Can we do more to save the earth? It will be difficult to use glass bowls and plates, but at least we can use paper plates instead.

In fact, this is not the only event which harms the earth. I even heard that one-time utensils are used in dining halls in MU, which serve hundreds of people each day. Can you imagine how much waste is produced each day?

On the other hand, when I dine out, I found that almost every restaurant are prepared for costumers to take away the unfinished food. It seems that the Americans do not want to waste. In such a paradox, the to-go-boxes are usually made from polystyrene.

From my impression, there are lots of people advocating for environmental protection in US. Is
US environmental friendly?

ALL OVER THE WORLD

2007-09-09T19:56:00.000-07:00

France, Mexico, Brazil, Romania and me, from Spain. These are just a few of the places where international students come from. If we think of all the Asian students that are at Mizzou, and we add the people from coutries of South America, that makes the number of people of different nationalities that live together huge.

It is quite weird to come to a country such as the US and find people from all over the world. So many experiences, really diverse ways of thinking, different food and languages... However, we all came for fairly similar reasons: the unforgetable experience of studying abroad, far away from home, especially now that we are young and we can do whatever you are not going to do later. That is what I really recommend you and everybody: make the most of your time, learn another language, change your habits. When you travel, you see the world in a different way, so big and so small at the same time. You look for the similarities between the different cultures, and you find them. That is human nature, different ways of doing exactly the same. Also, you learn what it is like to be away from your family and close friends; that teaches you a lot of things. You miss them, of course; but you are fine, you feel lucky, and that means that maybe you postpone your trip back home. Yes, because you realize that there are lots of places where you have not been and you would like to.

This is how it feels to be in a different country; it is good, especially here.

Hello world

2007-09-09T11:33:00.001-07:00

We are here