I have realized that serious cooking for one person is neither very time effective nor appetizing. It takes too long to cook a meal, and after that, too many days to finish. So my passion for cooking has shrunk significantly. Not that I do not want to try new things or make up for the terrible Chinese restaurants here, I just start to accept the fact that fast food and dining halls can be reasonably acceptable in gradschool life.
Cooperation is important. Being too much of a loner, I could be very tough cooperator, and annoying. Discussion and cooperation can be a wonderful thing, you just have to treat others with respect and understanding. Nobody always gets her way, absolutely true even for me. I still have a long way to go before becoming a good team worker.
Winter can be pleasant even it is cold and long. With the snow, the cool breeze (some time blizzard though) and beautiful winter creeks, Ithaca unfolded a wonderland right in front of my eyes. Roads could be slippery and snow inches deep, but you never get bored.
Chinese students speak very bad English. I thought we were bad but not this bad. We are practically the worst, well maybe students from southeast Asia (Singapore excluded) are our fellows. But there are numerous Chinese that speak excellent English, we do not have a persistent accent that cannot be corrected. It's up to each individual.
Americans are more open-minded than I expected, because they are used to multiculturalism. But at the very core of this society, its value system is more conservative than I would have hoped to match its open-mindedness. It's like the difference between de facto and what is right.
