Lunch with Professor Coppola

It is always a great pleasure to talk with someone who knows so much and can hold your attention so long, who widens your views and makes you think. Happily and luckily, we get the chance to have lunch with professor Coppola today. Of course, he is the "someone" I just mentioned.

We went to his office first. Wa! It is unbelievable and really amazing. So many collections about China. There is even a piece from Han dynasty. I was supprised by the fact he knows a lot things about China that I never heard before! Definitely, I spent a much longer time in my own country than him as well as a lot of foreigners who travle to China, however, they always have been to more places than us and know a lot things we don't know. Why will something like that happen? Sometime, it is a shame for us. There is a saying that there are always no beauties nearby (I paraphrase). It means that we cannot see the wonders and beauties from the things we see everyday or we will not take it a big deal if we can get it easily. Having been in Beijing for two years, I haven't been to Yuanmingyuan Park, haven't seen the red leaves on Xiangshan; as a student of Peking University, I haven't been to the old building Honglou; actually, I haven't even gone through to every corner of our school let alone the old building remains. We think, we have a lot of time and chances to visit, to appreciate and to enjoy; we think, they are just commen things not worth our attention. Then, the day comes when we have to leave the campus, the day manifests itself when others know our country better than we do. I am a Pkuer, I don't want to leave Peking University without knowing its history, without feeling its breath, wituhout touching every corner of its stature. Similarily, I am Chinese, I want to know my own ancestors, feel the history, appreciate the beauties. The fact that you see it everyday or you can see it at any time you want doesn't makes "the place nearby" worthless, contrarily, that makes it more precious because you never know when you gonna lose it. So cherish it, now!

During the lunch, we asked professor about the application for graduate school and he also explain how the undergraduate education carried out in UM. It is really impressive and mind-blowing.
Firstly, about the attitude of top students. Back in my school, we students take the grades so serious and think it is very important for applications. Then bang! He told us they treat the students from our schools more or less the same. We can vary in our grades in our own school, but put us in China, we are all the top. And at that high level, it is hard to tell who is the best, the first one does not certainly promise a more outstanding future than the second or even the tenth. We always care so much about who is the number one, and the meaningless competition for it wastes a lot of our time and takes us to a wrong direction.
Secondly, about the rank of universities in the US. I know many students make their decision of application according to the rank, however, we never care or even try to know how the rank is made. Today, we were told that the rank is based on people's opinion. Even the opinions are from the chairmans of the department all over the country, it is not a valuable or even a reliable one. Moreover, what the rank gives is an average, it doesn't tell us the information about the individual professors. It is lucky for us to know the truth about the rank now, however, we are lost again. I think it not for no reason that people take the rank into count, it is because we have so little information about the school, about the professors, sometimes, the rank is the only thing we can look at when we make our decisions. The situation is pretty hard for us, we are searching our future in nowhere. So an experience like us is very useful and important! It opens our eyes and builds the connections between the professors in individule and us which makes the information transfering possible and much easier. Just today, I got some information about the professors here for one of my friends who will apply for graduate school this year.

Then we talked about the undergraduate education. Independence and creative are the most impresive characters I feel about the students I met here. And I think the latter one cannot happen without the first one being guaranteed. To be creative, you have to think independently first. The education system here leave the space for students' creativity and even at the cost of less knowledge.
One thing is that the "job" here is done by project, in laboratory as well in classes. The best part of project is that it is a whole thing, with beginning and end, theoretically. So one has to understand the whole thing to make to the end and each project is a unit relatively independent and systematically. Take me for example. I never do anything about simulation before, let alone molecular dynamics. Then I came here, with fear of ignorance. I am so frustrated the first few days, sitting in front of my compter, trying to figure out what is going on. And my mentor gave me a project, not for research, but for tutorial. With the system I start my journey. I first make clear what I am going to do and what I need to know to get the thing I want. Then I search, I ask, I read, I try. Step by step, now I've got a movie of molecure! It is true that you don't need to know everything, just know what you need and where you can find it. A project leads you through the learning. UM students conquered projects after profects and reach their graduation. They maybe don't know as much as we do, but they can do much more than us with the independence and confidence as "naive courage".
Another difference is the content of the project. They just give the students something no one knows the results or even the future. There is no right or wrong, only reasonable or unreasonable. They can try as what they think. Independence comes from freedom. That is the one thing our system lack, freedom. For us, everyone does the same experimet and even the same as the students many years before us. We know what is a good result and everyone pursues it. We have to follow the traditional ways to do it because that is the way leads us to a good result and a good grade. Creative? That costs too much risk whick is beyond our bearing and out of our consideration. So, gradually we are used to follow and lose the creativity as well as independence.
And we value grades very much. To some extend, I think the education system in China is not only for educationg students but also for selecting. A lot of things are related to the grades: the fellowship, the honor and even the way people treat you. Most important is the future, far as the job and the life standard, near as the offer we get after graduation, which I know now is not so important as we thought. So our classes are designed in a way that they can evaluate us. That is the reason!

A lot thougts are still flying out of my mind but I cannot continue anymore. Save for next time ...

Harry Potter Mid-night

July 21th, 0:00
We were waiting, with thousands of people standing and excited, in the bookstore Borders. With the time coming, we count "3, 2, 1!", as if waiting for the New Year. It is the magic!

I like Harry Potter, the story, the world J. K. Rowling builds for us. And I found not only me, so many people from different countries, speak different language, with different culture and backgroud also like it and crazy for it! When Katie asked me if I want to go to the mid-night party of Harry Potter with her, I answered without doult at all: of course! Not for the reason that I like it and want to read it at first, but also for the reason that I want to feel the tide of Harry-fun here in America and make myself melt into it.

We went to the Party at 9 pm and found the store was full of people already, adults as well as kids. We first played chess which was my first time. Then we walked around. There were a lot of people dressed in the characters in the book, Harry, Hermonie, Luna and so on. Just look like a assembly of wizards. And there were also many activities about the book and magic! I tried the face painting. A lot of people would like a scar to appear on their faces just like Harry Potter, however, I choosed a posion instead of a scar because I knew I will never become Harry.

As the time came, we were all very excited, but the problem is we cannot get the book at the same time! I was very curious about how the bookstore solve this problem and how Americans would behave under this situation. When we check in, everyone got a belt with different color, and it is the color which separate us into different groups that dicided the order to get the book. The work people in the bookstore tried to organize us and keep everything in order. They first moved the color in low rank upstairs and asked us to wait patiently because it is the only way for everyone to get our books quickiest. Half an hour later, we still hadn't got our books. We were tired and upset, some were a little angry and complains spreaded out slowly, but no one actully stood out to object or took act. finally, it was our turn, we were happy but also a little regret: if know how the store make it, we can come tomorrow...

On the way home, I walked alone in the late night. The city wasn't sleep yet. Three guys stand by the street, talking. I passed by and suddenly, they turned to me and said something. I don't know why I was so composed and just walked on as if nothing happened. I was not scared at all and I got home later, still felt unbelievable. Maybe it is because I was sure that nothing would happen to me. Luckily, and interesting experience, isn't it?

First time Meijer by myself!

It is so different to buy stuff here!
It is so hard for us to fing a store to buy stuff not so far from where we live. We have to go to the super market which is half an hour's driving from Oxford housing. I think it is because people here all have cars and it is convinent for them to go shoping once a week in a far away place. However, the situation is hard for us. Luckily, we get buses!

The bus system here is very developed. One can find the route's map and schedule on the webside easily. And the buses keep time very well. I took route 6 today which can send me to the mall as well as to the super market Meijer. By the way, there is a big cinema called showcase just near Meijer, and one can buy tickets of discount with a M card. However, the route 6 goes as far as the Michigan Union which is still 15 min' walk to Oxford housing.

You can buy almost everything in Meijer. Weiwang has bought stuff to cook there the other day and we cooked with a lot of fun yesterday. What is the most interesting is that we can scan the items we buy ourselves! I never done or even seen that before! I was wondering what if someone forgets or fail to scan some items? And the system relies a lot on the self-control of people. I think a self-scan machine in China may encount some unexpectable difficulties.

Something unforgetable happened on my way back to Oxford. I bought so many things that I can hardly move them by myself. When I was just wondering how I can make to Oxford, two guys showed up and asked me if I need help. They are college students but are now serving the church for two years. I cannot imagine what I am going to do if I haven't met these two guys. They help me with the heavy bags all the way home and left a small book about the christ when we say goodbye. What an amazing experince!

I got a project!

Actually, it is not a formal one yet, but I do have something to do now. I have new account and can run charmm on our main computer now.

It takes me a long time to get started with charmm. I am even a little frunstrated. After a day-long's trying and failing, finally, I can make a file valid. However, there still is a very long way to go. I will try my best to make it!

My project is very simple. It is about a bate hairpin of protain. What I need to do is to pull the structure to see its stability and make a movie of pulling maybe. The aim of the project is to get me familar with charmm and how the MD carried out. I look forward to getting a beatiful movie, hehe.

In the lab

For no reason, I cannot post blogs last few days. Finally, it works today~
I am in the lab now, I have a desk, a computer and a beautiful view:-)
Unfortunately, I haven't begin my project for the guy who is in charge of putting on my account in the system of my lab is on vacation. I am upset a little. But it is ok for I can have some reading to compensate my poor backgroud on computational chemistry and on charmm.
I hope the problem will be solved soon and I can start my project immidiately.

We are here!!!

Yeah~

After almost sixteen hours flight, finally, we are here!

Every thing is great! The apartment, the weather, and the view!

We have the first dinner here in a Chinese restaurant. And the second meal Chinese too, and the third meal Chinese again... We are kind of sick of American Chinese food now, for they really taste different and honestly not so good. Fortunately, we have an American food for the fourth meal in "bd", a buffet dinner of barbecue, it is great.

Happily for me, I order the new Harry Potter here and have planed to go to the midnight with our guaid Katie! I am so excited.

We also got our account yesterday and we can write a check to pay now, which I have never used before !

We went to Meijer, a big suppermarket, yesterday and bought a lot of stuff. And we bought the so-called "cereal" for our breakfast which we saw one guy lives with us have for breakfast yesterday morning. I hope I will like it~

We have dinner with the professors and our graduate student mentor yesterday. Everyone met their advisor or mentor except me! My advisor and mentor were not here and Prof. Coppola said humorously that I will have a lab to work with.

And there are some problems we have to work on. First of all, the languge. Althrough we can listen and speak, we can understand and be understand most of the time, we still run into trouble now and then because our incorrect pronunciation and poor vocabulary. However, I am confident that I can make progress to communicate fluently in a few days!

Ok, I like it so far and I am sure we will have a great time here~

Some photos we take:

the Oxford Housing we live in. Isn't it great?!

neighborhood

The house of the president of UM