Unforgettable rides

On 08/02/2015, we all woke up early in the morning ready to go face the crazy roller-coaster rides at Darien Lake. We left river campus at 9.00am with the intention to get back to campus in the evening when everyone would be exhausted. I was excited to go have some outdoor fun and thrilled to let the playful child in me get to enjoy the feeling of being thrown up and down, side to side in the air with the assurance that I won’t fall down. 

We got there at 10.30am and the sun was almost frying each of us. But of course we did not let that ruin the excitement for the fun that awaited us. The first ride that went on traveled on wood, so there was a lot of shaking which was a little bit painful. It also had a lot of free fall movements which scared people like me who are very afraid of heights. However the scare of the previous ride was quickly forgotten by listening to my peers’experiences on the rides as well as staring at their faces once they came off the ride. I found it hilarious how vulnerable we all appeared each time the rides were about to start; it was fun to watch some of my peers' vulnerable faces because they were priceless.

Below is a picture of a view that my friend took on top of one of the roller-coasters. Gorgeous, right?

Overall, the different experiences on roller-coasters were all fun, but nothing meant more to me than the feeling of finally being outside and getting ourselves some vitamin D from the sun. We all waited to get on rides in very long queues, but it was fun because while waiting, we interacted with each other without any cellphone around except when taking a  selfie, because we just have to keep these special memories very alive and always accessible J .

Here is one of the one million selfies that we took while in line. Please don’t mind my face, I was clearly lacking a sense of decency at that point in time.

Also the experience of meeting a lot of diverse people, who were not just diverse in skin color but also in age, profession, was fun. We also got to interact with some of them (because some were nice enough to talk to strangers) and that was a really enjoyable as well.

Lastly but not least, this trip to Darien lake was made more than memorable when prior to leaving, we performed “shake it off” by Taylor Swift in celebration of one of our classmate’s (Yujie) birthday. We all embarrassed ourselves by dancing to the song and singing happy birthday in our respective languages to her while the people at Darien lake stared at us wondering where that extra dose of happiness had just come from.

What a day right?

Culture Experience in the first week of Rochester

The summer in Rochester is pretty hot. We have different activities together in the Summer Immersion Program and I really experience a lot of different cultures here in Rochester. I think that's why a lot of people called this country a melting pot because all the people came here with different backgrounds and different cultures. I am going to talk about two things that fascinated me a lot.

First of all, I am going to talk about food difference.

American Food
During the first few days in Danforth, I found people in States really like to eat fries, burgers, pizzas and fried chicken which are the food I don't enjoy a lot back in my hometown. I can't find cooked vegetables here, all the vegetable is raw... People here also really enjoy salad with different types of sauce which I think is better than the salad in my home. However, I think my stomach really needs time to get associated with the food here.

Indian Food
We ate Indian curry and rice for the Thursday lunch here. The curry sauce was so tasty and colorful. With a lot different kinds of curry here, the rice can be changed into different but wonderful food experience.

Secondly, I want to talk about the music experience in the Eastman school of Music.

The Saturday night was a really wonderful night. We went out together to listen to African Drum Music performed in Eastman. When I first went in, I saw four young kids sitting on the stage holding with their own drums. The drums look beautiful and well-decorated. When the time they started the performance, one of the kid start to knock and beat the drum, the other kids whisper together and tap slowly on their own drums. As time passed, each of the four kids got their chance to solo and they suddenly knocked drums and whispered all together. The melody was so well- organized and beautiful when I first hear them. It was a touching experience for me to get associated with African culture by being an audience during their performance.

There was also another performance after the drum show. 7 adults came up to the stage, dressing with traditional African clothes. Each of them have different types of drums with them. They played the music with strong rhythm. At first I considered it to be simply another type of African music, I realized I had made a mistake later. They started to dance together.  With strong music rhythm and simple dance steps, the performers contribute a fascinating show for all the audience.

At last,  I want to talk about people's crazy spirit here.
After the show of African drum, I saw a lot of people standing on one bike and sang out loud together. I think they all have crazy spirit and I like their ways of doing things together.

The first week here is really awesome, I can't wait to have another 4 years here!!

Korean food found in Rochester

Before I came to Rochester, I was little worried that I might feel homesick for Korean food since it would be hard to get Korean food in Rochester. Since not many Koreans live in the Rochester, I thought it might be hard to get Kimchi and Ramyun, which I loved when I was in the Korea. I heard that there is a Korean church in Rochester but I don’t know where it is. So I arrived in the Rochester with lots of worries about the food. But when I came to the Rochester, I recognized that it was a literally worry.

Actually, there was many ways to get Korean food in Rochester. I’ll introduce the ways to get Korean foods in Rochester.

1. Wegmans food market

In Wegmans food market, there is a section for the Asian food. I found shin ramyun, jjapaghetti, neoguri, and choco pie there.

2. Korean restaurant

I don’t know the exact name of the restaurants, but many students, including myself, saw the Korean restaurants in the Rochester.

3. Korean church

As I said, there are few Korean church in the Rochester. Although most of them are far from the University of Rochester, you can go there for sunday worship and get some food from them.

Different food we tried in the first week

We have been in University of Rochester for a whole week till now. Besides eating in Danforth, which is the dinning area right located at the first floor of Susan B. Anthony Hall, we also tried a lot of different food either by ordering in or going to the restaurant.
The first we tried is Chinese food. As a student from China, I really think there are plenty of differences between food in my hometown and food we ordered that night. So anyone who ever tried Chinese food here and had a bad experience should not lose hope and try to find a Chinese fellow who can cook. Though the food is not that good, since we have all been kept from Chinese food for a while, it's still a comfort to have some familiar food.
The next we tried is Indian food. I seldom have Indian food before, so I am really not an expert about this. But one of the student in the program, Saurabh, is from Indian and he is my roommate as well. Therefore I always saw him not satisfied due to the lack of veggie food in Danforth and ate the food he took from home back in our room. The day we had Indian food was the first he really enjoyed the food a lot, which somehow did made the food more tasty. I don't know how did others feel, but Loic and I did like it.
The Ethiopian food came later when we head out for a concert. We went into a Ethiopian restaurant and ordered whatever we want. I chose a sampler to try more kinds of food and ordered a glass of mango juice. The food was quite good despite the fact that I may not enjoy the garlic and ginger sauce because it was a little bit sour. The mango juice, on the other hand, was a total satisfaction. The juice was quite thick, which I guess was the result of using a lot of mango. The sweetness was just good that it felt like having fresh mango.
We are still gonna be in program for three weeks. I believe we will experience more kinds of food and hope we would enjoy them all.

Concert @Eastman

After a tiring but rather delightful week, we finally sat down quietly and appreciated art last Friday at Eastman School of Music. (Well, until then, we probably have visited all U of R campuses, both downtown and riverside)

The Concert was about African Drumming and Indian Percussion. This was actually the first time I officially listened to Indian Percussion at a concert. I’ve watched a few Bollywood movies and really love the music scores, and there are a lot of different drums (sorry I don’t know the professional name of the instruments) as well as post-productions in the movies. But this concert was purely instrumental and it sounded really beautiful. The backgrounds of the performers vary. Some of them are elementary students but have studied Indian music for several years, and some of them have utterly different occupations than music and have only studied for about a year. What impressed me most was the little boy who was going to the fifth grade played so well!

After intermission, the African drumming and dancing were more exciting and active. It was also instrumental. The music was loud, with a lot of dance moves. The performers were very skillful and enthusiastic. I bet their hands must hurt a lot, at least when they first started practicing. I must admit that I’m still reminiscing about it now. 

(Except the second photo: night view of Eastman, others credit to Google)

The Public Market

Public markets have always been familiar places for me back in my city when I was busy buying things, but in Rochester everything in the public market seemed totally new to me when I found myself a new comer, someone who is on a trip to see rather than to buy.

In the morning we wandered through the narrow road surrounded by hundreds of different vendors, and I took twenty pictures of sunflowers, raspberries, blueberries, apricots, avocados, maple syrups, bagels and other things I have to stop naming because I am now getting more and more hungry. Those nouns themselves can convey more pleasant and feelings than any adjective.

The fragrance of all kinds of ripe fruits makes its way around me in the summer air of July; vegetables and fruits were washed clean and glossy under the strong sunlight.

I was also surprised by the vibrant colors in the market. Red, orange, yellow and green from light to heavy are put together, and each color here is bright and saturated as if it's squeezed out of the color tube a minute ago. The colors, the winds and the aroma are all too vivid to be true; I feel like I was walking in an advertising video. 

I had a donut, a box of raspberry and some cherries as my breakfast, and feel sated with my eyes and nose, too.

Dear Rochester

Dear Rochester:

  Hi, this is Alan Chiu from Taipei, Taiwan. You can also call me C. It’s really a great pleasure to meet you. I am going to start on my first impression about you.

  Before I come to States, I have long heard that you’re a mysterious and fascinating person. I am really eager to know more about you because I know we’re going to live together in the next four years. I am curious about your past, your stories and your life experience!!

  When I first saw you, you were so quiet and unreachable. I felt there was a long distance because I didn’t know you well. After our first meet, I try to live here in the city and found out that you’re really a kind person. You’re really warm these days and I guessed the reason is that you are happy to meet all the incoming new friends. I also enjoy my first night here with you because I am really happy to meet you and all the others as my new friends.

  Sorry for only have a little notion for the first impression, I will tell you more about how I feel next time.

Best Regards

                                                                  C