Clark Diaries

20th Jan, 2009

Welcome Back

Hey everyone, Happy New Year, and welcome back! It is nice to be back at Clark.

I didn’t go back to China for the break, instead, I visited Washington DC, Philadelphia, and New York City. Even though the three cities were not far from each other, they showed very different characteristics. The broad roads, magnificent buildings, and great museums in Washington DC all showed the vigor of the capital city, while the liberty bell and stone roads in old town Philly symbolized the city’s long history. I lived in a hotel which was only a 10 minute walk from the capitol in DC. My friend and I spent all three days in museums. It was great to see many famous art works by distinguish artists, rarely-found animal exemplars, aircrafts that I’ve studied in books, and so on. However, we didn’t have enough time to visit many “must go” places such as Lincoln memorial and Philips collection because of the time limit. But I think the imperfect trip makes it more special and I will definitely visit DC again. When I was in Philly, I stayed with my suitemate Ali, who is Jewish, and I celebrated Hanuka with her family which was a good and special cultural experience for me. Also, the food in Philly was delicious, especially Ali’s mom home-made spaghetti. Different from DC and Philly, New York City was much busier and it looked like the city of Shanghai in China. Although that was my third time to NY, I visited many places that I hadn’t been to before, such as Central Park, Battery Park and Flushing. Travel during Christmas season was pleasant since all the places were decorated beautifully which created a warm and nice holiday atmosphere, even the Wall Street Bull had a garland on. Moreover, the Karaoke place was awesome and Chinese food in NY was authentic, which made me homesick. After I came back from NY, I stayed with my uncle in Boston for a week to celebrate the New Year, and I got a much needed rest and read some books. I came back to Clark for the last week of break to work in the Admissions Office, as well as earning some pocket money for the new semester.

The first two weeks of the new semester is always one of the busiest times. Besides studying, I went to the Intercultural retreat last weekend. My fellow Clark Diarist Tuku wrote about that event already. I will post some pictures taken in the retreat here. I hope everyone is enjoying the new semester.