Esther (From China):
I had a wonderful time in Hansen Summer Institute this summer and I got a lot of sweet and happy memories there. However, it does not mean that there is nothing to regret. One of the most regretful things for me is that I did not have enough interactions with the American students. But still there is something to say about the limited interactions between us.
The most impressive thing I had about the interactions between me and American students is Katie and Roby teaching Long and I how to play Boogie boards. They led us into the sea to find a perfect wave. They walked very far into the sea that I thought I might be knocked down and got drown just because of a very small wave. I was scared a little bit, but Roby and Katie were very kind and they held our arms tightly to prevent us from the tides. Every time there was a good wave for Boogie boards, they shouted to us: Jump! Jump! And kick! (Sounds like if we did not jump onto the board we were going to die...) And then Roby pushed my boards hard. With his help and the perfect tide, I had my first experience with the Boogie boards and it was so much fun. We had a great time but when I am thinking about the day now, I realize that they were too busy to have a good time as we did, because they spent most of the time in teaching us how to play.
Talking about teaching, I should say thanks to Maria-Clare. I should say that she was my first professional swimming teacher. She taught me how to get rid of the fear of water and how to float on the water. I still remember her commands of floating: monkey-soldier-flag-…. I was really sorry that she had such a stupid swimming student as me. I have no talent at all for swimming but she was very patient. Although in the end, I did not learned how to swim but we had a great time chatting about how to get along with our boyfriends and trying to loose weight in the water at the same time.
From my experience in HSI, I think it is fair to say that most of the American students are warm-hearted and willing to help others. Despite the thing mentioned above, I should also talk about Rachael and Michelle. I used Michelle’s cell phone like 20 times and some times she needs to pick up the phone call from my friend and pass the words to me. I bothered her a lot and she was really kind and did not show any feeling of annoying or impatient to me. I feel very thankful for her. For Rachael, most of the girls in our dorm want to give her a big kiss for all she did for the Prom-Party. She made our hair and did make-up for all of us. When we were all beautiful and ready for the party, she was still in a middle of a mess.
When I remember all these happy memories, I think it is kind of wrong to say that American believe in individualism because in my mind, individualism in some extent means selfish and not care about others. On the other hand, I feel that American students are very independent and most of them have a unique and sheer personality. In this way I agree that Americans believe in individualism.
Every American student in the HSI is so different and quite isolated from each other. (Especially compare with Chinese girls. Sometimes, I worried that we three were too close to each other that might let the Americans thought we were lesbians.) Greg is happily “noisy” and very frank, Adam knows a lot of things and quiet, Shiva is full of enthusiasm, Rachael is a very kind girl but performs cool, Michelle is very easy-going and nice, MC is polite and mature and Katie is sweet, Julia is cute and clever, Peter is shy in my eyes but very humorous sometimes, Landon is gentle.
But no matter what kind of personality they have, generally speaking, they are very clear of what they like and they do not like. And most of them are full of energy. They are devoted to what they like. They can spend a lot of time and energy to what they want to do, such as the arrangement of the Prom-Party, Greg’s Cycling Club, M-C’s swimming lessons and so on. But to the things they do not like, they will also express their feeling of dislike. This is very different from Chinese. I believe that most of the Chinese are trying to hide and control our feelings but Americans do not. (For instance, sometimes I felt not it is not so proper of what Americans did or said but I just kept quiet or smile. In my mind, it is not so polite to say “you are wrong” or “you are not right” directly.) It is very hard to say which one is good or bad because that is tradition and national personality, that is how we and how Americans deal with things. But generally speaking, I really appreciate the courage and enthusiasm of the American students they have to things they like and the free mindset they have. That is the most important thing I learned from them.
Although I believe in most of American students’ mind I might be a quite girl, (no, I am not) and we did not have much interaction, it is because we were not trying to know or just because of some unexpected things that prevent us from knowing each other and I hope this blog will be a platform for us to ask and answer questions to get to know each other more.
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