How to evaluate your study abroad I appreciate this experience. Actually, I got great peer pressure, for example, in academic study, and communication skills. I have to overcome two obstacles. Firstly, is the language problem. You have to seize any opportunities to communicate with native people, to present you work and to socialize in groups. Secondly, I have to learn bioinformatics by myself in such a short time. I used to be major in oncology, While I have no background of any computational science. I learn the linux, perl, python and R from scratch. It's really tough challenge for me. Finally I make it. My suggestion is don'e be shy, ask people questions, take part in the journal club and group therapy. Do more brainstorm and round table discussions. The most important is to make fully use of your mentor. To guarantee the right angle of your project going, communicate with mentors as much as possible.

How to overcome procrastination How to become stronger? How to become more efficient? The culprit for my success is procrastination. Every night, I tell myself you must finish this module tomorrow. However, 'tomorrow' becomes a limitless iteration. I guess everyone has a to do list for tomorrow when you feel regret to have done nothing today. The other day, you open you eye, get up, then you will be confused by errands. We are so easily compromised to entertainment. We can find any excuse to indulge ourselves. That's procrastination! And in another way, you have ten things to do today. But you will choose the easiest job first. That's definitely a common phenomenon. You comfort yourself you will finish one by one. But at last you will find you are reluctant to do the last thing, which is the main task for your achievement. That's the nuance between the loser and winner. How to get self discipline? How to overcome procrastination?

Italki is awesome platform I heard italki from the coursera course: Learn how to learn. I signed in italki in January. I can't remember the accurate time. But I have to admit italki is a great platform. I posted my compositions some times and I got the quick response from everywhere. The natives are patient to correct every mistakes in my composition. Furthermore, they supported my standpoint and encourage me in different ways. The best thing part of italki is that I learn a lot friends and language partner here. I knew Cat first. She is awesome and trying to learn Chinese. Now she lives in France. She is so assiduous and send me a lot of links about shows and word files. That's my first try from italki and gave a great beginning. Even though I did come across some creepy man, it didn't ruin all the hope of italki. Then I learn Ed, who is a Polyglot. He helps me a lot. He is always the first person I want to contact when I get a problems. One time, I called him at 5am and surprisingly, he was still awake and studying Chinese, which stimulated me a lot for his hardworking. And then I knew an exchange student from Irish and he will come to Shanghai soon. He is an artist. Sometime he is quite but is gentle,too. He listens more than talks. A lot of friends I got here. I am so happy and really grateful especially in this tough period. They support me no matter from the education aspect other then the spiritual aspect.

Gift difference I got an email today. It’s a reminder for the first anniversary of our English corner group in St Louis. There is a very kind and nice teacher to volunteer to be our teacher. Her name is Tricia. Everyday we have a topic and round-table discussion. Tricia is a very patient and know how to control the whole situation. She is willing to give us any chance to talk and to express ourselves. Time flies. The organization has been set up for the whole year. I have made a lot of friends from every corner of the world. We spent really happy time together not only in classes but also out of classes. We promulgated the latest events and hiking on the weekends. We had potluck and birthday celebration. We are already more than coworkers. We are FRIENDs. And these days a colleague took part in the English corner. Today he suggested to buy gas card for Tricia for acknowledging her priceless contribution. I felt a little shocked and thought-provoking. In china, when the holiday is coming, people would like to buy some valuable things (including money) as gift. Like teachers’ day, parents would send gas card instead flowers. It’s a really bad custom but now it becomes a routine in China. But in America, it’s totally different. Money is kind of a burden for other people. I would like to read the words on the cards from my close friend. It’s heartwarming and won’t owe each other. It’s a culture difference but I think it’s a treasure we should keep. When corruption permits in our daily errands, we set up a deformed society and set up a bad example for our children.

Society Q: To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities. Once mentioned China, what comes to your mind? Qing Dynasty? Great Wall? Or poverty? I have to say that you should change your mind of China now. Diversity! Yes, that’s the answer. Not America, China is diverse society in 21st century. I ran into America guys in the bar on the bund in Shanghai. I came across the students from Korean in Beijing. I said “Ciao Ciao” with my Italian friend on a train. My friends treated Africa people in Guangzhou General hospital. I lived in a hostel opened by Spanish guys in Guilin. People or migrants come into China more and more. I remember there are some TV shows about how to deal with the relationship between the mothers-in-law with foreigner sons. During the gossips or tabloid, you will know the complaint from mothers-in-law about their foreigner daughters. We have especially some TV channels, which have multiple language and subtitles. Especially Shanghai, as a harbor city of China, is the most diverse city in China. The best-selling food in Shanghai is Japanese food. Students like the Korean barbecues. I had never imagined I could have tacos just near my university. Belgium chocolates, German beer and French toast become the necessity in our daily life. Language school spurs around the whole city. People are getting used to bread and butter instead of bud and congee. We accept pastas and avocados. Our food market are flourish as usual. Even though Sichuan, a province which is located in the inner land. You can find foreign people are playing mahjong with natives. The traditional Sichuan hotpot mixs with shabushabu. Kong Fu Panda becomes another icon here and propagandizes the bamboo culture in this peaceful city. Like the idea of the World Expo, countries united together and EXPO is a real miniature of China. China has the large land and construct multiculture district across the mainland. We, chinese people, open our arm and harbors the friends hospitably.

meaning of cities Q: To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities. This is question of GRE. what does it mean about the major cities? It asks me to describe my city (like I am born in shanghai. I should describe Shanghai?) but why its plurality?

Technology deteriorate human thinking As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate. People rely more and more on technology. Without calculator, we can't get the change in the supermarket. Without computer, we can't get access to the information era. Without mobile phone, we can't reach our families. There rises some argue that people get spoiled by the high-tech. I don't think so. Even though I get so worried to witness that a lot of children get addicted to ipad in their early age. The high-tech era is the trend which can't be twisted. We shouldn't consider whether we should abandon the technology and go back to the nature. Instead, I think we should consider how we can fully make use of high technologies. The internet unites the world as a whole and shorten the distance. We can easily get any resources while surfing on the net. One example is Coursera. I am native chinese living in Shanghai. I can't afford the tuition in studying abroad. Through coursera, I can wander in the library of Stanford, meanwhile I can immerse myself in the lectures support by John Hopkins. The other example is TED. TED is a non-profit organization to spread ideas. They invited expertise from all walks of life and present their secret of success. Only by the technology can we open our mind. Technology is only a tool which can never deteriorate our brain. Only we ourself can deteriorate our thinking without using it.

Love confusion The Valentine's Day is coming. Let's discuss about love. In terms of the TV series I followed now, I found something interesting about the difference of the idea of love between Americans and Chinese. One America TV series is The Arrow, which depicts a man got stuck in an island and suffer a lot of tragedies. When he got back, the whole character and his mission have changed. He became a hero. While battling with the loneliness in the island, he was concerned about his girlfriend. Even though he had someone in his heart, he still had short relationship with other beautiful girls. So the conclusion is that Americans can love somebody and the same time he can like others. The other is Chinese TV series, which describes a couple in the university have to been separated by the distance. The girl went to America for some reasons and had stayed there for 7 years. The leading actor waited for her for 7 years. Even though there were bunches of girls conveying love for him, he wasn't moved and stayed distal to other girls. Chinese people, a traditional country, prefer loving only one person till love. The phenomenon is so obvious that you can find in all the TV shows.