Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Cheng Pak Hei @ Syracuse University, USA (from CityU) 25 August - 25 November 2010
2010-8-25
Sitting on the grass in front of Hendricks Chapel, I recalled what happened to me last academic year in CityU. With the ambition to strive for the best in my studying life, I have attended several business competitions, gained several awards, and had an excellent internship in Shanghai. But I don’t really feel good about it, I even can’t stir up a weary smile last year. Yes, I was just too into the aggressive competition.
Luckily, I was allowed to stay into a professor’s family in Syracuse. Everyone in the house is nice and honest. Like me, they are all Christian, we will just start our one-hour-long morning worship every morning. Hopefully I can have a nice semester!
Syracuse University is a quaint university with an array of colleges and faculties spreading across the campus. Newhouse and Maxwell School are very famous in America, I just can’t wait to start my semester here!
2010-9-5
Still a lot of things to be settled down, I am just preparing my own necessities with the help of my new friend, Aniaka, an African studying International Relations here. He helped me just packed things up, went to grocery, and bought me a new cell phone with a new phone card here. It is so expensive, I can’t imagine how such technological advanced country could still charge us US$45 per month with unlimited call and SMS within the same SMS provider. This is so sick!
Anyway, my professor drove me to Niagara Falls last Saturday. Going along with some Chinese Students, I made a lot of friends studying here. They were majoring in Media, information, and business, this lifts me a room to train up my Madarin. Nagara Falls is fabulous, there was a ship just rowed me to an area closed to the Falls. It is a really nice experience for me to see how strong our nature is. Yes, I got wet.
2010-9-20
Look at my study, I can’t just concentrate on my study well. Students and teachers here speak too fast. Because I have picked some courses on Media and Creativity, there is only one Chinese here, that is me! I can only understand 40% of what they are talking about. They required me to read an array of articles and news by myself within a few days, that is really hard. Studied in Chinese-language-based secondary school, I cannot even finish an English book in my leisure time. This is too much to me. “Dennis, could you please come to my office this afternoon?” asked by my lecturer of the course named Global Marketing Strategy. I felt so depressed because I can’t figure out what’s wrong with me, I just missed the deadlines of some assignments even though I concentrated so much in the class. It is too much to me.
The only moment I feel well is to participate in church activities. My housemates, Tony, Li Ya, Shela, and Ivan gave me a lot of support. Sometimes I did not live quite well with them, maybe this is a matter of cultural difference. I didn’t like to speak too much, they may feel that I am not a nice guy, but it is obviously wrong! So I just accepted their invitations to go to the same church every Sunday. That was an impressive moment that I can look at how different my church in Hong Kong and America is. People here is relatively more emotional when worshiping God, they will stir up their smile and happiness in the God grace. But when look at Hong Kong, people there is relatively sad when praying, maybe they feel so stressful in Hong Kong. And me? I am just trying to stir up a weary smile.
2010-10-15
My friends having exchange here have been to so many places across America, I still stick to my own place. But my life here is so fruitful, I have made a lot of best friends. Simon, a Hong Konger studying Architecture major in Syracuse for five years, always find me to have a lunch or dinner. I do enjoy the moment with him, we both shared lots of happiness and sadness throughout our university life. When I talked about my life in CityU, I felt depressed, because I spent so much time of competing. Yes, I won a lot of rewards, but is this what I really need? It is still a question.
After one-and-half month studying here, I become a bit faster in reading newspaper everyday. My Media course required me to read newspaper everyday for a weekly quiz. This is so harsh! I tried to finish my reading within four hours, but I can’t. but I started understanding more about US culture and history.
I don’t like the partisanship in America. Both parties just pointed their figure to each other because of the seats in Congress. Hey! Please have a look at US economy, there are so many unemployed screaming on the street and asking for government’s help. I am so tired of the noise posted on newspaper everyday. Therefore, I was required to finish an article on US congress election this semester. That’s my time to reflect the partisanship of America!
2010-11-25
Thanksgiving week is a special holiday for me. I had a big Turkey meal with my friends in a Chinese’s home. He is a lawyer and he has two young daughters. The house is big, but it is not as expensive as I thought. It costs around US$400,000 for a four-story house in outskirt area, far bigger than 600-square-feet flat in Hong Kong.HHHhdfj; We came together to give thanks to God, and then started sharing and eating. Once the sharing session started, they pointed their fingers on me. At that moment, I understood that I am an exchange student, they wanted to know more about my life in Hong Kong.
After the dinner, I started planning our strip at the end of semester. I decided to hang around east coast of America including Washington, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, and New York. With an afterthought of an array newspaper reading, I started to understand what’s wrong with America. American is too sticky to their “American Pride”. The overconfidence leads to a fear of the challenge from China, this can be viewed that so many negative openings of articles about China were posted at the front page of newspaper.
Time is the beast, the more articles I posted here, which means, the fewer time I have in Syracuse, it is the end of November now. Please, don’t kick me off from America!
Sitting on the grass in front of Hendricks Chapel, I recalled what happened to me last academic year in CityU. With the ambition to strive for the best in my studying life, I have attended several business competitions, gained several awards, and had an excellent internship in Shanghai. But I don’t really feel good about it, I even can’t stir up a weary smile last year. Yes, I was just too into the aggressive competition.
Luckily, I was allowed to stay into a professor’s family in Syracuse. Everyone in the house is nice and honest. Like me, they are all Christian, we will just start our one-hour-long morning worship every morning. Hopefully I can have a nice semester!
Syracuse University is a quaint university with an array of colleges and faculties spreading across the campus. Newhouse and Maxwell School are very famous in America, I just can’t wait to start my semester here!
2010-9-5
Still a lot of things to be settled down, I am just preparing my own necessities with the help of my new friend, Aniaka, an African studying International Relations here. He helped me just packed things up, went to grocery, and bought me a new cell phone with a new phone card here. It is so expensive, I can’t imagine how such technological advanced country could still charge us US$45 per month with unlimited call and SMS within the same SMS provider. This is so sick!
Anyway, my professor drove me to Niagara Falls last Saturday. Going along with some Chinese Students, I made a lot of friends studying here. They were majoring in Media, information, and business, this lifts me a room to train up my Madarin. Nagara Falls is fabulous, there was a ship just rowed me to an area closed to the Falls. It is a really nice experience for me to see how strong our nature is. Yes, I got wet.
2010-9-20
Look at my study, I can’t just concentrate on my study well. Students and teachers here speak too fast. Because I have picked some courses on Media and Creativity, there is only one Chinese here, that is me! I can only understand 40% of what they are talking about. They required me to read an array of articles and news by myself within a few days, that is really hard. Studied in Chinese-language-based secondary school, I cannot even finish an English book in my leisure time. This is too much to me. “Dennis, could you please come to my office this afternoon?” asked by my lecturer of the course named Global Marketing Strategy. I felt so depressed because I can’t figure out what’s wrong with me, I just missed the deadlines of some assignments even though I concentrated so much in the class. It is too much to me.
The only moment I feel well is to participate in church activities. My housemates, Tony, Li Ya, Shela, and Ivan gave me a lot of support. Sometimes I did not live quite well with them, maybe this is a matter of cultural difference. I didn’t like to speak too much, they may feel that I am not a nice guy, but it is obviously wrong! So I just accepted their invitations to go to the same church every Sunday. That was an impressive moment that I can look at how different my church in Hong Kong and America is. People here is relatively more emotional when worshiping God, they will stir up their smile and happiness in the God grace. But when look at Hong Kong, people there is relatively sad when praying, maybe they feel so stressful in Hong Kong. And me? I am just trying to stir up a weary smile.
2010-10-15
My friends having exchange here have been to so many places across America, I still stick to my own place. But my life here is so fruitful, I have made a lot of best friends. Simon, a Hong Konger studying Architecture major in Syracuse for five years, always find me to have a lunch or dinner. I do enjoy the moment with him, we both shared lots of happiness and sadness throughout our university life. When I talked about my life in CityU, I felt depressed, because I spent so much time of competing. Yes, I won a lot of rewards, but is this what I really need? It is still a question.
After one-and-half month studying here, I become a bit faster in reading newspaper everyday. My Media course required me to read newspaper everyday for a weekly quiz. This is so harsh! I tried to finish my reading within four hours, but I can’t. but I started understanding more about US culture and history.
I don’t like the partisanship in America. Both parties just pointed their figure to each other because of the seats in Congress. Hey! Please have a look at US economy, there are so many unemployed screaming on the street and asking for government’s help. I am so tired of the noise posted on newspaper everyday. Therefore, I was required to finish an article on US congress election this semester. That’s my time to reflect the partisanship of America!
2010-11-25
Thanksgiving week is a special holiday for me. I had a big Turkey meal with my friends in a Chinese’s home. He is a lawyer and he has two young daughters. The house is big, but it is not as expensive as I thought. It costs around US$400,000 for a four-story house in outskirt area, far bigger than 600-square-feet flat in Hong Kong.HHHhdfj; We came together to give thanks to God, and then started sharing and eating. Once the sharing session started, they pointed their fingers on me. At that moment, I understood that I am an exchange student, they wanted to know more about my life in Hong Kong.
After the dinner, I started planning our strip at the end of semester. I decided to hang around east coast of America including Washington, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, and New York. With an afterthought of an array newspaper reading, I started to understand what’s wrong with America. American is too sticky to their “American Pride”. The overconfidence leads to a fear of the challenge from China, this can be viewed that so many negative openings of articles about China were posted at the front page of newspaper.
Time is the beast, the more articles I posted here, which means, the fewer time I have in Syracuse, it is the end of November now. Please, don’t kick me off from America!
Labels: 2010/2011 Semester A
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