My first impression of Dr.Wright is a 30ish, kindness women, with normal dressing and classic Iowa tone. At the first couple classes, I realized that she is a really professional professor. She is always objectively and fairly grade our paper. I got a little scared by that, I noticed that there is no advantage I can take by being a international student. The first paper "Science in Jurrsica Park", I failed. This is the first fail paper since I came to United States. This made me extremely mad and I had no one I can blame. I was trying to blame my self but I realized I did my best. I went back to my dorm and punched hard on the wall to release my angre and I started to blame Dr. Wright. After a while, my mind calmed down. I read through the rubric again and did research on how to write a scientific paper. I realized how many mistake I made in the paper. Dr. Wright was right. I began to reconsider my topic and rewrite my paper. The rewrite is still not very good, I only got 75 on it. But I knew I was improving, I was on the right track. Because of Dr. Wright's laughter, the whole IS class turned into a big family. No one skipped class, no one slept in the class. The second huge points was the debate, I started planning my paper long time before the due date. I sent my idea to Dr. Wright and she amazing quickly replied me. My idea got proven, then I started my paper. Once I finished my paper, I sent to Dr.Wright for some advices, and she amazing quickly replied me again. Dr. Wright did read through my paper and told me the essitial mistake I made in the paper. I really really appreciated that. I corrected my paper again and went to writing reading speaking lab that night to correct all my grammer mistake. During that debate, I confidently turned my paper in. I got 94 on that paper.
I appreciated you let me realized the difference between high school paper and college paper. I appreciated all you did to us this semester. Thanks. Dr.Wright.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Let me talk about the weather between Shanghai and Iowa.
Since there was a huge blizzard happened yesterday night, and my car got stuck in the snow. The first difference I wanted to talk about is the temperture. In Iowa, people love to make joke about the temperture because its just too cold in the winter. Every time after blizzard, everything became white. Roads, houses, trees, even sky became white. But the people are still warm. They are still really nice during winter. Iowa people would help you push your car out of the snow even they never met you before. In Shanghai, people also love to make joke about the weather. Shanghai is a city beside the coast, the temperture is always warm and wet. Especially during summer, its super hot and stuffy. But in winter, the lowest temperture is around 50. I have been living in Shanghai for 16 years, I have only seen snow twice. People always excited about snow. Kids love snow. My mom would make a tiny snowman and put it on the windowsill. The biggest differrence is, the people in Shanghai are really cold. They never say Hi in the hallway. When your car got stuck somewhere, they would never thought about to help you out. This is one of the biggest reason that make me stay in Iowa.
My car got stuck in the blizzard....
On Saturday night, I made the worst decision in my life. I was trying to drive to Mcdonald's in the blizzard. Then, bad thing happened.... When I was trying to get out from D lot, my car got stuck. I tried so hard to get my car out, but failed. My friend was kind scared in my car and kept telling me to run back. I listened..
Next morning, my roommate and I went there and tried to push my car out.. But the curve was too deep.
Finally!!!!! By pushing my car forward, we finally made it. My car was out again!!
This is how deep the curve was.. It was about 10 inches deep..
Thanks god we finally made it.. lol
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Max's new superpower!!!
People like to talk about "What if I have a superpower?" this kind of stuff. Actually, in this first semester of my college year, I got a SUPERPOWER!!
Before I came to college, I passed though the insane Chinese education. But I wasn't studying very hard until I got into high school, so I kind of experienced this insane "trails". But in this first college year, I was ready to put my 100 percent hitpoint (my muscle cells) and 100 percent mana (my brain cells) on every course. I studied extremely hard on everything. I didn't attend basketball which is the only sport I used to attend in high school. I didn't find any job on campus because I wanted to try how good grade I can get with my full power. All the people around me think I'm smart, but I truly wanted to tell them, " I'm not". I have a 120 IQ when I was in the middle school, which is decent in shanghai. There was a 160 IQ kid in my school. The only thing that matters is how much effort you had. I never compare my grade with average because I understand the reality. I'm not america, I'm Chinese, I'm Asian. I know racisim is not happening in America but subconsciously, native people still like white people better. I understand this situation. So if I wanted to get a good job, I can't stand on the same line as native people, I have to be much better than them.
For biology, I study over night before each exam.
For Chemistry, I read the almost every chapter more than 5 times.
For IS101, I spent more time on my paper than other native people; I emailed my professor to make sure the main point of my paper works; I went to writing, reading, speaking lab for grammer checking.
For English class, I almost did the same thing as IS101 course.
I studied over night by using the power of espresso almost 4 days out of 7 days a week.
Recently, I felt like I don't have to drink espresso to keep me awake and I didn't feel hungry when I was concentrating on my assignment. I can work on my project 24 hours straight or even longer without sleeping and eating. And then on friday night, I can sleep for about 16 hours to refill my energy.
It's just like there is a switch in my brain. When I switched into Study mode, my mind would fully concertrate on my work and forget everything. When I switched off my study mode, my body would have a long time sleep.
This Study mode switch is the new superpower I got! lol~ This superpower will help me a lot in the future.
Before I came to college, I passed though the insane Chinese education. But I wasn't studying very hard until I got into high school, so I kind of experienced this insane "trails". But in this first college year, I was ready to put my 100 percent hitpoint (my muscle cells) and 100 percent mana (my brain cells) on every course. I studied extremely hard on everything. I didn't attend basketball which is the only sport I used to attend in high school. I didn't find any job on campus because I wanted to try how good grade I can get with my full power. All the people around me think I'm smart, but I truly wanted to tell them, " I'm not". I have a 120 IQ when I was in the middle school, which is decent in shanghai. There was a 160 IQ kid in my school. The only thing that matters is how much effort you had. I never compare my grade with average because I understand the reality. I'm not america, I'm Chinese, I'm Asian. I know racisim is not happening in America but subconsciously, native people still like white people better. I understand this situation. So if I wanted to get a good job, I can't stand on the same line as native people, I have to be much better than them.
For biology, I study over night before each exam.
For Chemistry, I read the almost every chapter more than 5 times.
For IS101, I spent more time on my paper than other native people; I emailed my professor to make sure the main point of my paper works; I went to writing, reading, speaking lab for grammer checking.
For English class, I almost did the same thing as IS101 course.
I studied over night by using the power of espresso almost 4 days out of 7 days a week.
Recently, I felt like I don't have to drink espresso to keep me awake and I didn't feel hungry when I was concentrating on my assignment. I can work on my project 24 hours straight or even longer without sleeping and eating. And then on friday night, I can sleep for about 16 hours to refill my energy.
It's just like there is a switch in my brain. When I switched into Study mode, my mind would fully concertrate on my work and forget everything. When I switched off my study mode, my body would have a long time sleep.
This Study mode switch is the new superpower I got! lol~ This superpower will help me a lot in the future.
My final presentation.
Last weekend, that was a horrible weekend. For is 101 course, we had to read a Michael Crichton's book and design a creative presenation. I got the book during thanksgiving and started my reading. Because of my english reading skill, I can't read as fast as other native people. And finally, I finished my book during the last week before presentation. During that weekend, I found that 2008 remake of this book which is Andromeda Strain and watched it. Actually, I feel like this is not a bad show. Designer recreated the ending of the story and I think it makes more sence than the regular book. After movie, I started to think about what should be my topic for my presentation. I finally decided to make a presentation about virus. I collected the data of recently high motality rate virus and spent a lot of time made a powerpoint. I also sent a email to my professor just wanted to make sure this topic works. When I about done my powerpoint, professor told me that this topic is not the main point in the book. I was trying to explain a little bit... but I carefully thought about that, my professor was right.... Then, I immediately draged my whole powerpoint and material into the trash can and started my new idea, which is a movie trailer. I downloaded a movie designer software and movie editer. When all the software was ready to go, it was 2:00 o'clock on monday morning. I used movie editer to cut of the short part from the remake and then put them in order by the movie designer. All the parts are only 3 seconds long. The whole presentation should be five minutes. I didnot even need espresso that night because my mind is highly concentrated on my work. Finally, I finished everything at 8:00 o'clock in the morning....oh my god... That was a long long night...... I prayed so hard that I could get a good grade on my presentation....
Difference between winner and loser
W: This is my mistake. Sorry.
L: I did nothing wrong. This is your fault.
W: Never make the same mistake.
L: make the same mistake all the time
W: Facing the problem
L: Avoiding the problem
W: I respected the students who are better than me.
L: No one is smarter than me.
W: Looking for the problem from the mistake
L: Looking for the mistake from the problem
W: I should work harder next time.
L: This exam is too hard.
W: I'm so tired, but I still need to study first.
L: I'm so tired, I need to take a rest first.
W: Comparing their achievements with their final goal
L: Comparing their achievements with other people
By concluding my mexican lab parter's "loser feature".,I actually learned a lot from him.
L: I did nothing wrong. This is your fault.
W: Never make the same mistake.
L: make the same mistake all the time
W: Facing the problem
L: Avoiding the problem
W: I respected the students who are better than me.
L: No one is smarter than me.
W: Looking for the problem from the mistake
L: Looking for the mistake from the problem
W: I should work harder next time.
L: This exam is too hard.
W: I'm so tired, but I still need to study first.
L: I'm so tired, I need to take a rest first.
W: Comparing their achievements with their final goal
L: Comparing their achievements with other people
By concluding my mexican lab parter's "loser feature".,I actually learned a lot from him.
My biology lab group.
My biology lab group used to have four people just like other groups. But one month after school start, one of us swithed her major and droped off the biology course. After that, my group had only three people, a Mexican, a Japanese Hawaiian, and a Chinese. I used to think only American students don't work very hard because their life are full of fun and happiness. Actually, some of the Mexicans are even worse. I used to hang out with this him a lot. He is really not smart but pretend to be so smart. I hate this kind of person. But he is from Waterloo, so I realized by using him I can meet with a lot of people (I'm devil). That is the only reason I hang out with him. Everytime before exam, he would tell me he was so ready for that exam. Then, when we got our exam paper back, I asked him what he got, he told me he failed. I almost laughed at him, because that was like the most typical type of loser. I have a xbox 360 in my room. One day, I got a new game called "Halo Reach" and I accidentally told him that I got that game. Then, he almost came to my room everyday and played that game. I don't really care about that because I had never touched my Xbox since I got into this college. But things started to get out of control, he started to eat my snacks and drink my pops. He also would come into my room without my permission. This situation continue happened for about three weeks. He finally got boried of my game and never came to my room again.
One day, I was talking to my biology professor about my lab group. He told me that this kind of person worth nothing. If I want to reach my final goal which is to be a doctor, I need to cut off the friendship with him immidiately.
Of caurse, I listened to my professor and stop hang out with him any more.
One day, I was talking to my biology professor about my lab group. He told me that this kind of person worth nothing. If I want to reach my final goal which is to be a doctor, I need to cut off the friendship with him immidiately.
Of caurse, I listened to my professor and stop hang out with him any more.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Reality of Shanghai marriage.
Here, let me make a simple Shanghai wedding statistics. (6.7RMB = 1 dollar)
Decent wedding: (200 guests, four stars hotel) 120,000 RMB
Decent honey month: (Hawaii) 70,000 RMB
Decent condo in shanghai: (80 meter square, 15,000 per meter square) 1,200,000 RMB
Decent decoration: 100,000 RMB
Decent funiture: 300,000 RMB
Decent car: 150,000 RMB
Total: 120,000+70,000+1,200,000+100,000+300,000+150,000= 1,850,000 RMB
Annual salary calculation:
A Chief staff of a hospital: 500,000. He needs 4 years without eating and drinking to have a decent marriage.
A division manager of national bank: 360,000. He needs 5 years without eating and drinking to have a decent marriage.
A public servants: 100,000. He needs 18 years to have a decent marriage.
Aveage salary of students graduted from four years college: 60,000. They need 31 years to have a decent marriage.
A construction workers in city: 14,400. He needs 128 years to have a decent marriage.
This is the situation of one of the biggest city in the world. My consion was living in the London and he told me the life in london is about the same as Shanghai.
Do you still think love is priceless? This quote maybe only works in the america...
Reality. (please comment on this)
Girl X and girl Y were in the element school. One day, they naively promised :"We will be together forever." Then they studied really hard together and both got into the same key middle school. Girl Y have a rich family. Girl X's family is not very rich, her family didn't have enough money to offer her private high school tuition. (Chinese government offer 12 years free education system, but good private high schools require tuition fee).
As the time passed, Y started to understand the society, learned how to dress up, how to straight hair. X just liked to silently follow Y. Finally, Y got into the really good private high school. But X got into a non-private high school due to her family cannot offer the tuition. X was really sad and Y felt really sorry about her. In high school years, X worked super hard because the chance to get full scolarship depended on how good her grades were. Y enjoyed her high school year, she started dating with her boyfriend and her grades droped. X tried to save as much money as possible for her college, thus she was always wearing the same clothes. Y started to realize that X's family was not rich, so she tried to keep away from X because she didn't want her rich friends to know that she had a friend like X before. Little by little, Y forgot the face of X and the promise they made.
After three years, Y's grade was not good enough to get in that college. She let her father use money to beg the president of college. Next week, Y got accpted from that college. On the other side, X finally got the full scolarship from the college that Y tried to get in. She was so excited and can't wait to tell Y. X asked her parents to buy her a new clothes. X never asked her parents for anything since she found out that her mom had been suffered from illness and didn't have enough money to pay for the treatment. Her mom gave her five bucks from her thin wallet.
X happily ran to Y's condo with her new shirt. X waited outside of her door and wanted to tell her this huge suprise. X was so happy that they can be together again. X recalled the time they spent together; the road they walked together; the song they sang together; the Origami they made together. Finally, she heard the sound of the opening of the door. while Y walked out of the door, X jumped out and surprised her: " Hi, Y. Long time no see." Y numbed for a while, she looked at her face, said: " Who are you?"
Reailty is always cruel. Money is the final scale for everything. Best friends, promises, loves, even your honour would all fall apart in front of money. This is reality.
( this story is real, I exaggerated a little bit)
As the time passed, Y started to understand the society, learned how to dress up, how to straight hair. X just liked to silently follow Y. Finally, Y got into the really good private high school. But X got into a non-private high school due to her family cannot offer the tuition. X was really sad and Y felt really sorry about her. In high school years, X worked super hard because the chance to get full scolarship depended on how good her grades were. Y enjoyed her high school year, she started dating with her boyfriend and her grades droped. X tried to save as much money as possible for her college, thus she was always wearing the same clothes. Y started to realize that X's family was not rich, so she tried to keep away from X because she didn't want her rich friends to know that she had a friend like X before. Little by little, Y forgot the face of X and the promise they made.
After three years, Y's grade was not good enough to get in that college. She let her father use money to beg the president of college. Next week, Y got accpted from that college. On the other side, X finally got the full scolarship from the college that Y tried to get in. She was so excited and can't wait to tell Y. X asked her parents to buy her a new clothes. X never asked her parents for anything since she found out that her mom had been suffered from illness and didn't have enough money to pay for the treatment. Her mom gave her five bucks from her thin wallet.
X happily ran to Y's condo with her new shirt. X waited outside of her door and wanted to tell her this huge suprise. X was so happy that they can be together again. X recalled the time they spent together; the road they walked together; the song they sang together; the Origami they made together. Finally, she heard the sound of the opening of the door. while Y walked out of the door, X jumped out and surprised her: " Hi, Y. Long time no see." Y numbed for a while, she looked at her face, said: " Who are you?"
Reailty is always cruel. Money is the final scale for everything. Best friends, promises, loves, even your honour would all fall apart in front of money. This is reality.
( this story is real, I exaggerated a little bit)
Let me talk about my best middle school friends
My middle school had a really strong polarization problem. Only had two kinds of students, really good students, and super bad students like me. Referring to a famous Chinese quote: " getting closer to red ink you would became red, getting closer to black you would become black." He that lies down with dogs must rise up with flea. I got influenced by other bad students. and also, my friends all got influenced from me. Games, girls, arguing with professor, fighting, and all kinds of bad things. Since right now, I have already got out of that "black ink.", I would like to talk about some of my middle school friends. One of my best friend "carle"(we call him carle because he is not from shanghai) got in a Technical school, which is like the worst type of school. But he started to understand the world and he actually started to work hard. I'm still taking to him almost every week. My friend "fatty", we call him "fatty" all the time. Of cause he didn't like us to call him that way, but after a while, he got used to it. He had a really rich family, so he doesn't need to worry too much about futher. He had a decent grade in middle school so that he got into a key high school like me and also got into a "level two" college (In china, from the best to the worst there is level 1 college, level 2 college, level 3 college, vocational school and technical school ). Another middle school friend, he is a good looking guy to be honesty (no homo). He got girls all the time and emotional highly strung. I think his emotional strung was influenced from me. We still remember the first day we met. For some tiny little reason, we had a really serious fight during math class. It's like that old saying:" No fists, no friends." He became a really good friend of me. He got kicked out of his first high school because he punched a teacher and poured a bottle of mountain dew on that teacher's head. Somehow, he finally got into a decent level 2 college.
"Carle", "Fatty", "good looking guy" and I are still best friends. During summer when I came back, we hang out a lot, talked about the stupid things we did together in middle school.
"Carle", "Fatty", "good looking guy" and I are still best friends. During summer when I came back, we hang out a lot, talked about the stupid things we did together in middle school.
Max's GPA battlefront!
6:00 Wake up in the morning with shadows under my eyes.
6:15 Shower
6:30 Worked on my paper
8:30 Talked about my dream with english professor...
9:30 Kept working on my paper
1:00 Conference with another professor
13:30 Woked on paper again
15:30 Took a nap
18:30 woke up again and go get meal transfer ( a bag of chips and salad)
19:00 Take a rest from paper, and started work on chemistry
22:30 Switched back on paper again
00:30 drunk Starbuck espresso shots (refill energy)
01:30 Took a rest from paper again and started reading biology book
03:30 Final check on my paper
04:00 took a nap for 3 hours...
06:00 woke up again..
Max's GPA battlefront = Espresso+paper+conference+reviewing+nap....
I never sleep in college, I only take naps.. This is my new credo..
6:15 Shower
6:30 Worked on my paper
8:30 Talked about my dream with english professor...
9:30 Kept working on my paper
1:00 Conference with another professor
13:30 Woked on paper again
15:30 Took a nap
18:30 woke up again and go get meal transfer ( a bag of chips and salad)
19:00 Take a rest from paper, and started work on chemistry
22:30 Switched back on paper again
00:30 drunk Starbuck espresso shots (refill energy)
01:30 Took a rest from paper again and started reading biology book
03:30 Final check on my paper
04:00 took a nap for 3 hours...
06:00 woke up again..
Max's GPA battlefront = Espresso+paper+conference+reviewing+nap....
I never sleep in college, I only take naps.. This is my new credo..
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