Linda thought it was strange that they didn't seem all too worried
about leaving me in a foreign country for a few weeks when I barely
speak the language and am pretty helpless by myself. I figured it was
better than them clinging to me until the last second, and I suppose I
have to learn to be a big boy sometime. I guess I get my
nonchalantness from my parents, and I'm not sure whether that's a good
thing or not. After my folks and sis hopped a taxi to the airport,
Linda and I also took a taxi to Tsinghua University where I was picked
up by my exchange student partner. I'm still a bit astonished that we
made to the right place via my broken Chinese and poor sense of
direction. After all, he did tell me to meet him at the "east gate"
of campus, so imagine my surprise when the taxi driver told me there
where two different east gates. I just did the kind of "uhh...." -_-
face. Well, in the end all turned out ok, and Changqing along with
another exchange student in the program met me at the "real" east
gate. The first thing that we did was go to meet the professor who's
lab I would be working in for the first part of the summer. I wasn't
surprised that he spoke English well, but the encounter was still
closer to the awkward side of conversation than I would have liked. I
think I expected more of a structured plan for what I would be doing
this summer rather than a informal interview session. Looking back, I
don't know why I didn't see this coming, after all we had never spoken
nor did he know anything about me. At the end of the day, I'm not too
worried about it, but I just have one small, nagging reservation which
basically boils down to the notion that I don't want to embarrass my
self. To be blunt, I am a little nervous about presenting myself as a
representative from Purdue at this premier institution since I don't
really speak the language, this is my first formal research
experience, and I don't think I'm really qualified to be here. I
mean, I'm not really worried about it, but I'm a little worried about
it. You know what I mean? You know what I mean.
Apart from that, Tsinghua has a beautiful campus. The food in the
cafeteria is cheap and awesome. I just hope I can find a gym
somewhere.
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