Sorry to write this passage so late for god sake. The famous GWF-The Great Fire Wall of China has blocked my blog. This passage will be the last one for my blog for UM exchange program.
This summer is very exciting for me, and of course for the other three. I have met so many professors and students, and even my uncle in Drexel. Thanks to Mr. Coppola, Mr. Kennedy, Rex, Walter, Xiaoxue, Xiaowen and many many other people. Without your help, I will not enjoy this two months in another country, in another university and in another lab.
I have written something talking about the difference between PKU and UM for Prof. Li at PKU. I would like to translate some here, maybe it will help you to see this question from the perspective of a student.
In UM, the students majoring in chemistry never only study chemistry. They have many other courses. Though we have also some other courses at PKU, they seems much fewer than these in UM. Only by learning different knowledge in different fields, could the person gain a view of the whole world, and know what is his duty, what he should do next.
We don't make full use of our instruments here, though we have fewer instruments than UM. People here are not familiar to use and improve the instruments for their own experiments. They just follow the manual and press some button. At glass service, UM students are able to design some instruments fit for their exeriments but here we just do just like these drawn in a paper. And there is even no machine shop at CCME, though it is common in every US Chemistry Department.
The most severe problem I felt is, the US researchers are doing something important, they are doing what they are interested in, though they may later find their new idea is in the wrong direction. They are more likely to have spark of genius. However, here we are accustomed to do something that foreign people not do, so that we could survive in the vehement competition of science. Or we follow the research started by some foreign group and do some details in this field when the founder has already moved to another interesting question. We lack our own new ideas. I hope someday when we have enough money, we are able to start at the same line for this race.
Anyway, I have really learned a lot from this experience and I think I will remember this summer all my life. When I see the copper Prof. Coppola presented to us, I will remember him, a teacher and a friend on the other side of the earth.
I would like to communicate with you if you are interesting in this program, especially interesting in finding the difference in education and research between China and US, and finding the solution to make our country stronger, more active on the stage of this world.
2007年10月3日 星期三
2007年9月2日 星期日
My trip to Berkeley
Sorry for not writing for a long time. After my arrival to San Francisco, I was working almost all the time, lack of time for renewing the blog.
I went to San Francisco on August the 9th, and stayed there for the weekend. I spent the nights in a house owned by a Chinese graduate student who is from Nanjing University. I also met several people including PKU alumni. San Francisco is a very beautiful place. The most famous place , I think, is the Golden Gate Bridge. There are blue sea and white birds. When the wind flew over, you could smelled the sea.
I spent one day in Mathies Group at berkeley. The chemistry department ranks No. 1 in USNEWS. However, the building and rooms are really very shabby, though they own a lot of expensive instruments. The students are very enthusiastic in the group and I learned a lot from them. I am repeating their paper at UM.
I went to San Francisco on August the 9th, and stayed there for the weekend. I spent the nights in a house owned by a Chinese graduate student who is from Nanjing University. I also met several people including PKU alumni. San Francisco is a very beautiful place. The most famous place , I think, is the Golden Gate Bridge. There are blue sea and white birds. When the wind flew over, you could smelled the sea.
I spent one day in Mathies Group at berkeley. The chemistry department ranks No. 1 in USNEWS. However, the building and rooms are really very shabby, though they own a lot of expensive instruments. The students are very enthusiastic in the group and I learned a lot from them. I am repeating their paper at UM.
2007年8月4日 星期六
Another UM and goodbye my dream school
When I went to Baltimore, I found some building called UM ***. I felt puzzled. UM has another campous even here? At last I found it standed for University of Maryland@@. And its abbreviation is just the same UM. interesting, isn't it?
Once John Hopkins was one of my dream schools. Maybe because I like medicine since childhood. This time I get the chance to see it. It is just in the downtown Baltimore. As for the reason I said before, it is not as beautiful and tranquil as UM. And my uncle told me the proportion of criminal is much higher in downtown. I felt the same. I caught in with a youny black man who asked me for a quarter again. This is a strange phenomena here. I never see such thing in China--a person in the street ask for a quarter for no reason, and he is obviously not a beggar. So I wonder whether I am pleased to go to Hopkins for my PhD. My uncle told me not to walk in the street of downtown by myself in the night. However, I often went back to Oxford in mid-night because I often do experiment very late.
University of Pennsylvania, member of Ivy League, is the same. It is in the downtown PA.
So up till now, I find UM, University of Michigan, really a good school to pursue the PhD, and Ann Arbor really a good place to live in. Beautiful, tranquil, rich and the academic environment excellent.
Once John Hopkins was one of my dream schools. Maybe because I like medicine since childhood. This time I get the chance to see it. It is just in the downtown Baltimore. As for the reason I said before, it is not as beautiful and tranquil as UM. And my uncle told me the proportion of criminal is much higher in downtown. I felt the same. I caught in with a youny black man who asked me for a quarter again. This is a strange phenomena here. I never see such thing in China--a person in the street ask for a quarter for no reason, and he is obviously not a beggar. So I wonder whether I am pleased to go to Hopkins for my PhD. My uncle told me not to walk in the street of downtown by myself in the night. However, I often went back to Oxford in mid-night because I often do experiment very late.
University of Pennsylvania, member of Ivy League, is the same. It is in the downtown PA.
So up till now, I find UM, University of Michigan, really a good school to pursue the PhD, and Ann Arbor really a good place to live in. Beautiful, tranquil, rich and the academic environment excellent.
Another USA
Today I flew to Baltimore. And Then took a bus called GreyHound to Philadelphia. Why I did so was that it was much cheaper than flew to PA directly. I am to pay a visit to my uncle. After we arrived in USA, we have always lived in Ann Arbor, a small tranquil town, never left it. So this time I get the chance to see the big city in USA.
To tell the truth, it is not a pleasant chance. The downtown is a little dirty and disordered. And to my surprise, there is nearly no white people in the downtown. All the people here are black. When I got on a bus, I found only myself yellow, and all the others black. I felt a little strange. It seemed that I had gone to an African country.
In philadelphia, the situation is almost the same. So where have the white people gone? All to have a vacation in China?
My uncle tells me that most white people live in the suburb, and black people in downtown. That is why I have found nearly all the people in the street of downtown are black. My uncle drove me to his house in the suburb then. It is really beautiful there, many trees and a river. Just like Ann Arbor.
To tell the truth, it is not a pleasant chance. The downtown is a little dirty and disordered. And to my surprise, there is nearly no white people in the downtown. All the people here are black. When I got on a bus, I found only myself yellow, and all the others black. I felt a little strange. It seemed that I had gone to an African country.
In philadelphia, the situation is almost the same. So where have the white people gone? All to have a vacation in China?
My uncle tells me that most white people live in the suburb, and black people in downtown. That is why I have found nearly all the people in the street of downtown are black. My uncle drove me to his house in the suburb then. It is really beautiful there, many trees and a river. Just like Ann Arbor.
2007年7月26日 星期四
Children under the Arcade
There are several black children selling MM, a kind of candy which is also popular in China, under the arcade near Chemistry Building. Beside them, some black adults are watching them. When a person passes by, the children will hawk to him their candy.
This is common in China in some big city. Farmers from the country, mostly from the northwestern part of China, are very poor. Their children therefore sell flowers or small items in the street. Sometimes there are several adults watching them, to make sure they do not hide the money they get.
Up till now, I have been in USA for nearly one month. I find black to be poor and weak in the whole society here. Most of all, there are few black men in labs. Most groups I see have no black students. By the way, There is an old black beggar near here, every day I meet him on the way to lunch.
Maybe the society should do something to change the situation.
This is common in China in some big city. Farmers from the country, mostly from the northwestern part of China, are very poor. Their children therefore sell flowers or small items in the street. Sometimes there are several adults watching them, to make sure they do not hide the money they get.
Up till now, I have been in USA for nearly one month. I find black to be poor and weak in the whole society here. Most of all, there are few black men in labs. Most groups I see have no black students. By the way, There is an old black beggar near here, every day I meet him on the way to lunch.
Maybe the society should do something to change the situation.
2007年7月25日 星期三
Knock into a Panhandler
Yesterday when I came back to Chemistry Building from a grocer in evening, I knocked into a panhandler. He was a black young man, and he was with several other black young men. He said to me:" Sir, could you give me one dollar? " I felt surprised then, because they did not look like beggars, I had seen a beggar beside the street, an old man, in dirty clothes. But these young man seemed like to be panhandlers (later my native friend in my lab told me this name). I felt a little frightened, so I gave him one dollar, and he said "Thanks!" Then I left quickly.
Maybe I mistook the whole thing, I hope so.
Maybe I mistook the whole thing, I hope so.
2007年7月23日 星期一
Art Fair
The past four days' art fair was very inretesting.
The town became crowded. There are many people, though not as many as in China. But it was really infrequency in Ann Arbor, such a small town, not like Beijing. I am not special at Arts, so I can't tell about the value of the thousands of paints, jewellry, cloth and vases. However, quite a lot of the exhibition really seemed cool.
All the shops in Ann Arbor are selling items with discount. I bougtht a pair of shoes, Adidas, at $30. It's cheap, yeah.
The town became crowded. There are many people, though not as many as in China. But it was really infrequency in Ann Arbor, such a small town, not like Beijing. I am not special at Arts, so I can't tell about the value of the thousands of paints, jewellry, cloth and vases. However, quite a lot of the exhibition really seemed cool.
All the shops in Ann Arbor are selling items with discount. I bougtht a pair of shoes, Adidas, at $30. It's cheap, yeah.
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