crest website, the first thing that
background with students' smiling faces.
"That's my school!" I told myself.
humid air made me feel "Florida."
Bright sunshine, beautiful Tampa Bay,
nice host family...Everything looks so
nice! The only thing I was worrying
going to be like from the movie "Mean Girls." which I had
watched when I was in China.
Everyone in Shorecrest, including faculty, staff and students all
looked so cute and so nice, and when I smiled at them, they
smiled back. Although I still felt lonely at the beginning, which
people experience all the time when they go to a new place, I was
confident that I would make some new friends here! Actually I did
make lots of new friends, and I had so much fun talking and doing
things together with them.
public high school when I was in California last year, and it was not
that hard for me to get good grades there. At Shorecrest, an inde-
pendent school whose students are 100% accepted to colleges,
the academics were pretty challenging for me at the beginning.
In China, the semester grades are just dependent on how stu-
dents perform at the mid-term and the final exams; in America,
every homework students do and every quiz students take all
have weight to the semester grades, so I needed to be serious
about everything I turned in every day. Life started becoming
really intense, but I really enjoyed it because it makes me feel like
I am responsible for everything I am doing now, and I actually can
make an achievement by daily things I am doing. I believe the
way of approaching success is to keep trying.
best school activity I have ever had. Theatre in Shorecrest also has
ers and students, look so professional. I had so much fun partici-
pating in the play and district thespian competition. Also, I was
teaching Chinese with Xingkai Liu in the Lower and Middle
Divisions last semester, and when I see those cute faces trying so
hard to pronounce Chinese clearly, and finally getting it right, I
felt like I am doing a very good job!
tural difference from America. For example: in China people who
sit in the back of the car are always bosses or leaders because lit-
erally it is a safer area in the car, and that is also why most cars in
China have big spaces in the back; in America, people who sit in
the back are always children, so the space of most cars in the U.S.
is not enough space to stretch legs; also, in China, people most-
ly eat Chinese food at home, and different locations in China have
their own special kind of food. Like Sichuan Province is famous for
their spicy food; Beijing has awesome roasted duck; Lanzhou has
delicious hand-pulled noodles, and Guangdong province has
very good dessert. America has different food from around the
world but do not have very good Chinese restaurants everywhere.
Small different things like that could be very interesting because
everything reflects the local culture and custom, and it is also one
of the most important things that attracted me to come to study
in America. I really love experiencing different cultures and learn-
ing customs from another country, and also I can practice my lan-
guage skills making it sounds more orthodox, that is the best
thing ever.
to study abroad because I have had so much fun and learned so
much about life and culture from the other country. I look forward
to making more achievements and having a fulfilling life!