Flying to America

Summary of this summer

2007-10-03T08:10:00.000-07:00

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.

My trip to Berkeley

2007-09-02T00:49:00.000-07:00

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.

Another UM and goodbye my dream school

2007-08-04T06:39:00.000-07:00

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.

Another USA

2007-08-04T06:23:00.000-07:00

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.

Children under the Arcade

2007-07-26T15:04:00.000-07:00

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.

Knock into a Panhandler

2007-07-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Art Fair

2007-07-23T12:02:00.000-07:00

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.

Eating here

2007-07-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I went to a restaurant to have a weatern-like dinner. Not sandwich or hamburger, I mean the food which you may see in Hollywood films that everything put in a dish, diffenrent from China that each dish is for all the people around the table.
When the waitress got to know I am foreigner, she became very hospitable. She recommended a dish to me. However, I don't think it tastes good. Though I told her it was good when she asked me. Americans seem to prefer to put various kinds of fresh vegetables together, and eat them using a sour source. I don't think Chinese will like it in heart.
I will try the steak here when I have time.

Booking tickets and shopping on-line

2007-07-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

It is convenient here to buy something on-line. You can pay by credit card marked with visa. Usually the package will arrive in 3 to 4 days. I have bought a prepaid cell phone at $9.99. The company is called at&t. You could find a shop of it in Ann Arbor. However, shopping on-line is much cheaper. There are two famous wensites, http://www.fatwallet.com and http://www.dealsea.com. There you can find many deals.
Because I am going to Berkeley, I book the tickets. Usually, you could search the tickets on http://www.orbitz.com, there you could find tickets from different companies. But I find NWA almost always the best. Then you could book the tickets directly from the website of NWA at http://www.nwa.com , you may also use visa card.
You could use your visa card here even in a very small shop. So it is very convenient to take a visa card with you, I think.

A visit to Prof. Takayama

2007-07-11T07:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I paid a visit to Prof. Takayama, a friend of my mentor at PKU. He is on the north campous. As a Japanese, he is very passional, and I gave him some snacks I bought at Tokyo. He asked what exciting paper I have read recently, but I failed to answer it. Though I have read a lot of papers, I just read them. I can't say which is exciting and which not. It seems that in America Professors emphasize on you interst. Actually, every paper I read I find it exciting. Though some paper seems to be in low-quality, I could find something to learn, however.

Things are different from China here

2007-07-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

Labs here are very different from China. They are clean, and the instruments are in high-quality. However, people here don't seem to work so hard as in China. In Kennedy's group, people start work at 9 am, and leave work at 6 pm. It can't be imagined in China!
My first work is to make a chip using PDMS instead of glass. I think it is not difficult. 3 gradute students in the group are from chemistry department at PKU! The graduate student mentor of mine is a very nice person. He taught me many things to take care of, not only academic, but also daily ones.
The shops here are also different. They are closed on holidays. On Jul 4th, the American National Day, all the shops are closed here! And no people walking in the street! If this was in China, I couldn't imagine how busy the town would be!
Food here is well, in my opinion, though my Chinese claasmates think it does not taste good. However, I indicate the American food here, such as sandwiches and hamburgers, not the Chinese food here. The Chinese food here is so unsavory that I can't stand more.
People here are fat. So the food is often 0% fat and 0% sugar. If you buy something, you must look at the labels and make sure it's the worst food here--100% fat and 100% sugar! That tastes well for Chinese, I think.
So many interesting things! I will keep a diary from today.

First week in UM

2007-07-08T08:12:00.000-07:00

A week has passed since we arrived in Detroit. Though it seems that I have done nothing big in the past week, but I felt busy and tired. We have completed so many little things and they together become a great thing--get customed in a foreign country!
Katie, the student assistant of Prof. Coppola, helped us a lot in the last week. Without her help, we even could not find the place to complete the arriving-and-checking procedure. Now I live in a big house called Oxford Housing, have joined Kennedy' group on the fourth floor of the chemistry building. What remains to be done is just hard work. Thanks for so many Chinese graduate students, they tell us many things that Chinese must know, such as the food, the shop, and most important, the customs different from China in Michigan.
Though I have made a full preparation, something has been ignored however. First, the wire to connect to Internet is very very expensive here, compared with China. So you'd better buy it in China. Another thing is the adapter, the plug from China isn't fit for the jack here. And the adapter is also very very expensive here. What's worse, it's difficult to find one even you are willing to get it at high price. For example, there is only one such adapter in Meijer, the biggest supermarket near the campus.

Exciting Fly

2007-07-03T23:50:00.000-07:00

There are still 6 hours left! And there is no movie on this plane, so it becomes very tiresome now. Another reason is that the power of my notebook PC could only lasts 2hours! So there is only 1 hour left! So next time, if you go to U.S., don’t forget to bring a good power that could at least be used for 10hours!
However, now you can have a beautiful view outside. Just now we are emerging in dark. But now I can see the sunrise, and it is very wonderful! That’s interesting that we leave Beijing near noon on 2nd Jul., and will arrive in Ann Arbor on the same day, 2nd Jul., and still noon!
I find the Indian boy ahead is wearing a T-shirt printed ‘University of Michigan’. That’s interesting. After landing, I will have many many things to do, research, communication, and I have to complete a website for my group in PKU! I think I must work hard, or I will certainlt fail. So now I would like to read some papers of Kennedy, my mentor in UM, before the power used out.

Getting on the Plane

2007-07-03T23:49:00.000-07:00

The final exam lasted for 2 weeks, ending on 28th Jun. Then only three days left for us to prepare the luggage.
This is my first trip to U.S. So I don’t know what to take actually. I have bring some clothes, my notebook PC, these two are most important in my opinion. I also bring $ 200 cash, totally 40 $ 5 paper. Besides, I bring some books, Biochemistry, Cell, Physical Chemistry, pocket dictionary and GRE/TOEFL books. Other things depend on personal favour, I think. For me, these include: medicine, blankets, paper, bags and other things, how to say, things for daily life-many small items-actually all the daily-used items in my dormitory. Though I guess everything could be bought in U.S., I bring them to save my time during the short 8-week stay.
We left at 6 am from PKU and took taxi to the airport, about 100 yuan for a taxi which can hold two of us. You give the ticket which you have booked and printed from the web to people of the airport and they are very passionate, I promise. If you have any question, don’t hesitate to ask them, and they will help you until you get on the plane successfully.
The plane departs from Beijing at 9 am and lands in Tokyo at 3 pm (local time there). So about 4 hours are needed. I enjoyed a movie called ‘Monster Inc.’, it’s funny. Then it departs from Tokyo at 4 pm (local time there) and it is said 11 hours are needed to go to Destroit. However, I am still on the plane yet now.
At the airport in Tokyo, we bought some Japanese food. I have used thousands of Japanese money, though only equals several dollars! I had a bowl of Reman, a kind of noodles. Other snacks, I will bring to U.S., and share them with the students in the lab which I will join.
I could see clouds outside the windows below the plane now. And the trip is easy, because we are a group of four, each helps other. And nothing is difficult for a group, though maybe troublesome for a single man. That’s the same in scientific research, I think.

Prepare for U.S. Travel

2007-07-03T23:47:00.000-07:00

Now I am writing on the plane flying to Destroit.
Because the final exam, I failed to write earlier about my preparation for this trip. I will try to remember as much as posssible. I hope there is no mistake. Below are all the things I have done before getting on the plane.
On 19th Apr., I went to a place near PKU to apply for the passport, it is an office of the Exit & Entry Administration Ministry of Public Security. 200 hundred yuan is needed. And an extra about 50 yuan is needed if you do not bring your photo and a copy of the identity card. I haven’t, actually. The passport will be sent to you 2 weeks later if you pay 50 yuan at that time. However, I don’t know that then, so I had to go to the Exit & Entry Administration Ministry of Public Security to get my pass port after 2 weeks.
After you get the paaport, you could make an appointment with the visa officer for a face-to-face interview. To complete this, you should go to China Citic Bank to pay $ 100 for the interview, this money will not be given bank even if you fail to get the visa. You should also buy a telephone card there, too. I suggest you buy the 54 yuan card for 12 min. Only using this card, could you contact with the precontact center of the embassy. Beforing you go to the embassy, you should prepare all the things listed here: passport; I-156, I-157, I 158, these could bu downloaded from the website of the embassy; DS-2019, offer letter, these two sent by UM; receipt of SEVIS fee, SEVIS fee is $ 100 that J-1 visa applyers must pay, it could be paid through the link on the website of the embassy, vis a credit card, you should print the page shown on the screen after you pay the fee, and take it to the interview. However, a formal one will be sent you after one month.
I went to the interview on 4th Jun., it’s so easy that I only said several ‘yeah’s and a ‘no’. The only ‘no’ is for the question ‘Have you ever skipped classes?’. I think it is very easy for PKU students to get the visa via the high reputation of our university. The visa officer will keep back the pass port and I156-158, and the passport will be sent to you after a week with the colourful visa on it.
After all the things described above, my final exam came.