moin moin

This is what happened in my recent life, I jot it down so I should not forget about them.

The spring semester of 2009 is educating and challenging, plus a little setback. I finally find out something that has been bother me long time ago, even though I may not be the answer I have been looking for. I have been too proud and arrogant to make some stupid mistake and did some meaningless work. There is something I used to have (like responsibility) that I let it go so easily that I even not pay a slight attention to it. Hopefully, the answer I found now is correct, I must be cautious for there is no chance to make the same mistake and come back again.

First, in this semester I secure a job as the graduate assistant working for Dr. Wolf, well, actually for the whole finance department. The job will consume 14 hours of my study time per week. This is indeed, a wonderful opportunity for me to observe and even become part of professors’ daily life. If I want to land my doctor degree, this is the best position as a graduate student could have. What I really did: first, is to locate the reference or resources to Dr. Wolf’s academic study. He wanted to do a little study (write an academic article) about tax system in the United States. The tax system now is based on the daily necessity of an individual or it taxes the right amount of money that one individual can live. However, he would like to argue that the system should adapt to the contribution that one person did to the country. Then, there you go. For the next month or two, when I was in the office, his little research became my mission and I have to login to the various data base on campus. Well, I now want to complain about the computer in student worker’s office. A computer with 256 MB RAM, can you believe that? My first computer in junior high school had the same amount of RAM as it does. So, it is ridiculously slow to do any research. Anyway, it seems he is satisfied with my little assistance which makes me feel a little better about my contribution. My second mission in the office is to assist other professors in the finance department with their daily teaching trifles. I wrote the instruction for the scanner in the office and scanned different document for professors; I copy some document I tried to fix the electronic stapler; I learned how to use the fax machine; most of the time just help them to prepare for the class and exams; I also do some heavy labor to carry some big cases too; most often I did the printing job for them and this is really a lot of printing! I even learned how to open those huge printers and take out those jam papers. They are really huge complex that they can not only print hundreds of paper but also staple them and do the three holes punch which save me a lot of work.

Second, Delta Sigma Pi, a professional student fraternity that helps to affiliate the real business world to the school of business. This semester is the pledging process for me which indicates they will determine whether accept me not at the end of semester. Here, Fraternity and Sorority play quite an important role on campus and consequently it is a wonderful opportunity to involve and mingle with the American students. The most fun part is to discover they are the same just like us. In the pledging process, this is what I did:

a.       86 interviews with all the brothers in the fraternity. Boy, this is really the most time-consuming errand I have done so far. In the end, I discovered that they let me do this in order to develop some relationships with the existing brother or I learned to build up my personal net work during the process.

b.      Taking a position in the organization and I joined the professional department. I am in charge to organize a professional speaker lecture. It looks very scary to me at the beginning because I have never done it before plus I have no net work in business world in La-Crosse and now I need to organize it within 2 weeks and report to my supervisor. It is a painful process, I harvested friendship with the group members as we gather together to share progress in our own project; be yelled and hanged up when business manager thought I am a solicitor trying to selling him something. Eventually, I settled a program manager from TRW automotive company lecturing about what the really market looks now. It is not very good but very cultivating.

c.       Addend weekly meeting each Thursday at 5:30. I have class until 5:20 so this is not so fun! Every one needs to dress in professional dress attending the meeting, and here are the dress code:  a. business formal  b. business causal c. letter

d.      Taking a test every week about history of the fraternity after the weekly meeting. I need to recite a whole bunch of names and numbers that represent historical meaning to the fraternity in the exam. Off course, it is boring and two American students figure out a way of cheating! They first wrote down all the answers to a paper then shuffled it with other paper and hand it in. It is smart isn’t it? Unfortunately, they are pick out and kicked out of the fraternity immediately. One of them admit it quickly, and the other is still defending meaninglessly, he sent an email to each of us saying he has been persecuted. Well, this is another good experience telling me that Chinese and American are so similar.

e.       Attending one social event, one fundraising, one big brother meeting, one community service.

f.        Attend final exam. The final exam is to recite the whole 33 questions within 90 minutes and a minimum of 80 percents is required.

Third, Vice president for International Student Organization. Even I could not believe I made the decision to attend International Student Organization and Delta Sigma Pi at the same time. My original plan is to attend either one and the other is the back up plan. The meeting of International Student Organization is at 7:00 on Thursday and meeting of Delta Sigma Pi ends at 7:00 pm so this makes Thursday my least favorite day during the week. The experience of I.S.O. is totally different from Delta Sigma Pi, for there are lots of bullshit here. One is professional business and highly efficient the other is the debate between different countries. Every meeting is like a bargain, well, maybe that is why UN is always slow in reaction to the world event. The biggest event is the international banquet which is about 500-600 people level, we as a team not only need to host a banquet but also organize the performances. My job is to negotiate with the university selling ticket signing the contract and ushering. Ushering is the job that maybe no one like for every time people just want to sit with their friends but the seats are always limited. I need to first arrange the students who apply to be an usher and give them training. The most difficult part is some of them are ESL students (English as Second Language) and it is difficult to explain without knowing their language.

Due to a variety of extra curriculum job this semester my grade is not as good as last year. I took Finance 355, Management 393, Marketing 309 plus Marketing 749!!! Taking Marketing 309 and Marketing 749 at the same time is suicide. One is principle of marketing the other is advanced research by statistical means. I need to study Bus 735 first but I skip that one which causes more trouble than I expected. Marketing 749 is to do a real business research by one person or two. The students need to first choose a target market discuss with the manager of the store and then design their own research, distribute questionnaire, analyze data, do the presentation, hand in the final paper. Until the end of semester the terminology like ANOVA, MANCOVA, Logit analysis, regression analysis etc. are still looked Greek to me! I do not have a partner so everything should be covered by me and then for several weekend nights without sleep I finally made it. At least the professor said my presentation was pretty good and some of my classmates told me that she thought mine was even better than the American student. I guess this is the one of few academic achievements I made this semester. If I still want to pursue my academic study, there has to be more work like this!

Final week is going to come the good news is after Monday next week, this I am going to say Bye Bye to everything. The bad news is all the exams concentrate on MondayL. There are three exams in total: Statistics, Information system, Accounting. Here, I want to say something about Accounting, this is the one I have the most bonus points so far. Pro. Sherroni is a nice lady though someone may deem her as a horrible teacher. Anyway, she is so nice that allows us to drop one lowest exam score and gives a bonus exam worth 50 points. If not, I will be really miserable, lucky me this time. For Winter Holiday, I planned to go to Britain but now there is no response from the British consulate in Chicago for my visa application and therefore I no longer have too much expectation about it. Nevertheless, I am just hoping they will return my passport in time so I could still go to California. I should never trust those British dummies who screw up my plan and I swear to remember this lesson!

Another thing is that I save $300 for Microsoft Office 2007.In the States, there is no Pirate version, so people here normally buy the genuine version however, I got a free one.  I mean I first downloaded a free trial version and then successfully upgraded it to the genuine version with paying a penny! It is so unbelievable that my professor teaching American Law said Microsoft could not sue me as it is their fault to tell me series code by telephone.

I want to say something about the economy crisis, it affect the education system so dramatically that even an optimistic one like our chancellor began to worry about the budget for UW-La-Crosse. On the other hand, the positive side is there are more and more students from Chinese mainland are showing up. In this campus along, there will be around 100 students from Chinese mainland which I am firmlly believe the future for us will be more prosperous than any era in the history of China. We are going to join the inevitable process of globalization which is an unshakable destiny. We could see the opportunity is now, the question is whether it will be seized or not!

Well the time has come to summarize the first semester. First the academic study: it is not too bad at least I maintain my GPA above 3.50 therefore I am still qualified as a doctor candidate. I took 12 credits graduate course which are all above 700 level so my work load is a little heavier than other ME-PD students. What I need to reveal is that I felt so low when I know my SAA705 is a B(3.00) because I have spent so much time and energy on this course and I am so closed to AB (the final score is 87% but AB is 88%). Anyway the reason is the alma mater paper, the first real long paper I had finished in UW-L yet I totally screwed it up! Dr. Backkum gave me a chance to review it however I did not improve it a lot. So I guess I deserve this grade, hum? The rest courses are just as my expected, one thing to mention is that Dr. Nick (SAA701) told me that some my classmates envied my public speaking skills or presentation skills. This really means something to me as these guys from SAA program are more strictly selected than ME-PD. During this semester I often pondered that whether I could make it if I were in SAA program instead of ME-PD. Because this program seems far more demanding than ME-PD. The classmates are not so friendly but rather arrogant and the directors are more challenging, addition to it, SAA program belongs to the psychology department rather than education college. So finally I have something to feel proud of. Last thing to tell, I have registered another SAA class(SAA 735) for the next semester for I needed stay with those funky guys to learn what I need to learn.

The registration for next semester is horrible for I took one course called independent study which refers to one to one study between professor and student, what make it even worse is that the supervisor is Dr. Satoshi from Communication Department, a Japanese professor who used to teach me two years ago. I know this abnormal freak too well, “there is no assigned reading material for this course because you are going to search for it and then you could educate me about what you learn from the articles and books and I am looking forward to meeting you next time we meet”, this is what he told me. Though I know this course is the most challenging one I have ever taken, it will be way helpful for my future academic study for Satoshi is the only one who could teach in such a crazy way.

I made another important decision, I will live off campus next academic year which means I will abandon the way I have been used to, and the job as a desk assistant that I will have been serving for 3 semesters. So I need to secure a new job by then. This time I want to be a TA, high salary and good working condition.

At the end of this semester, there is a girl that comes into my mind. I have not had this feeling for an incredibly long time. She is indeed, I believe, the blessing from the god. There are so many coincidences between us. Well, I am going to talk about it….

I have to admit that first; I am not as diligent as last semester due to the winter break. Second, this semester will be unbelievably crazy not only because I registered 5 classes but they are the senior ones compared to CST 190, CST 110, or FRE 100. Well, I really missed them, as they are the entranced class. One paper just require 3 pages,  3 or 4 sources. Today, I took a look at the syllabus of CST 302, and found that the last paper comes up to 10 pages, more than 10 sources. Gee, if I can grow like that I should be the next Yao Ming.

Yesterday I came back from psychology class. To my great grief, I found that I did not know what Pro Talor talk about, and thus, psychology class become the best lullaby for me in UW-L, I really have no idea that will it be wise for me to drop this headache? Yet, one the other hand , it is indeed important for me as a student studying communication.

If I said psychology is the only challenge for me, it will be regarded that I am just cheating myself. By the way, the professor teaching me intercultural communication is the guy from Japan whose opinion is that people should not change themselves when they come to another country if they want to build connection with the mainstream of the society, which is just the opposite from mine. If one from the east never accept the notion that every communicator is equal and open to each other how can he communicate with others in the society of the United States? Anyway, maybe for the reason that this Japanese guy has been here for almost 20 years he has become quite Americanized so he wants to keep some parts of his identity as a Japanese. Addition to it, his way of teaching, is really different from what I expected. His class, Interculture Communication, is more like a philosophy class rather than case study. Therefore, I have to struggle with the notion like "Ontology", "Epistemology", "Axiology", etc. Anyway, It is really tough, but he is not a tough guy. May be that is the only thing that is positive for me.

Last but not least, the Reasearch method class, which is the premise for senior project, is the one I need to talk about. Frankly speeking, it resembles Public Speaking Class: Every one need to have a presentation about his or her own theory, which must be taken from communication theory catalog. Threre are about 90 theories in total and the one I chose is the "Social Exchange Theory". By the end of this sememster I need to develop a 10-page paper about it which is way challenging for me. To tell you the truth, I need to give a presentation about it next week, do need to worry to much about it, just a 3 minute-presentation. But, be aware that most of my classmates in this class are senior or junior and for that reason the speach will be much more demanding than the public presentation class for last semester.

It is almost 3 am now and I need to stop to prepare for my 8 am class!

  When I received the e-mail from Annie, my boss now, I could not even believe my eyes. I made it, not just because I become the first Chinese guy working in the Baird Hall front desk but because I used to fail landing another job a few days ago, and thus it is the last opportunity for me to get a financial support for this semester.

First I need to finish the following answer sheet as the written test:

1. List any extracurricular activities or jobs you will have this semester/ year (sports, band, student government, etc) and how many hours a week you are available to work.

Since I don’t have any extra activities so far so I will be available except for the class.

2. Explain past professional or work experiences and/ or skills that would make you an excellent employee.

What special personal quality do you process which make you a good candidate for this position?

3. What special personal qualities do you possess which make you a good candidate for this position?

4. Have you ever dealt with money in a job situation?

5.Have you ever held a job while in school?

6. Have you ever dealt with food in a job situation?

7. Why do you want to work at the front desk?

8. Have you ever been terminated or resign from a job? If so, for what reason?

9. What idea do you have for making the Front desk better in general?

10. What do you perceive is the function/ purpose of the front desk program in the halls?

Second, I needed to take an interview with my boss Annie and another hall assistance on Friday. I was quite nervous at that time because I already lost one opportunity to work as a housekeeper. If  I did not get this one, the only chance to work for me is to work at the restaurant! Even though, that would be a good chance to experience the American society, anyway, I don’t think I can have as much experience as this one. Thus, that interview was really really essential to me. Especially after I knew that I have to compete with 7 American students.

If you ask me what is the funniest so far I found in the campus of United States, I would rather choose American students’ umbrellas. Why? Because when it rains, American students would like to take anything to cover them from their little bags to coats or they even play in the rain as if they never be bothered by it, but they seldom use umbrellas which we normally use in the rainy day.

Just now, it rained again, it was raining cats and dogs and thus I found my classmate, Ritual, who was also a pretty girl got all wet through. So, I asked her that why she did not use an umbrella? “Well, because I have a hood!” she pointed to her coat proudly. Indeed, it did make sense, however, it just partly answer my question. “ It is impossible that they don’t have one, do they? Just looking at the parking lot and then you will know how rich they are” I told myself. Finally, I got the answer when having dinner with my friends. I asked Dan, one of my best friends, why American student seldom use umbrellas? And I told him that my assumption was that because the students were too concentrated on their class and thus they ignored the weather report. “Oh! The answer is really simple, Tony. Because we just don’t have one, to tell you the truth” he pointed out to Peter “ Peter is the only guy that owns an umbrella in our floor. As for me, I never took an umbrella with me”