ARIZONA STATE

College Experience
UNIVERSITY

HUIPING FENG
PUBLISHER

SPECIAL
POINTS OF V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1 1 1 / 1 / 2 0 1 7

INTEREST:

Briefly high-
light your
point of inter-
Freshman Year
est here.

Briefly high- I have heard

light your that students
point of inter-
who have
est here.
studied abroad
Briefly high-
enjoy a better
light your
point of inter- future than
est here. those who
Briefly high-
stay behind.
light your Therefore, I
point of inter- decided to
est here.
attend an in-
ternational
high school in
my
INSIDE hometown,
THIS ISSUE:
Jiangxi, so I could one am at Arizona State Uni- ucation in the United
Inside Story 2 day also study broad. versity, finally beginning States.
Three years later, here I my pursuit of higher ed-
Inside Story 2

Inside Story 2 The Challenge of Language

language is my main challenge.
Inside Story 3 My English ability has not only
prevented me from having effec-
tive communications with others,
Inside Story 4 but also affected my academic
performance and my understand-
ing of American culture. In my
Inside Story 5 second night on campus, I was
alone, trying to find some place
Inside Story 6 for dinner. I asked two people on
the street for directions. They
tried their best to give me direc-
tions to the restaurant, but since
my English is limited, I couldn't
understand them. The result was comedy film, "The Hitman's
that I didn't eat anything for two Bodyguard." The movie had no
days. In regard to academics, I Chinese subtitles or English sub-
cannot follow the pace of my titles, so it was hard for me to
professors and understand them. I follow. When everyone around
especially struggle in my biology me laughed, I felt embarrassed
class, where I have to understand because I didnt get the joke in
many terminologies. During class the movie.
discussions, I also do not know
what to say to my classmates.
Outside of school, my lack of
English also becomes a problem.
I went to the movies with my
friends two weeks ago to watch a
 Chaotic Daily Schedule
PAGE 2
My chaotic daily schedule not
only made me unhealthy, but
also let me miss something
important. I don't have a good
sense of time. I'm also not very
efficient. In the past month of
living alone, I have been sleep-
ing at 2 or 3am and sometimes
waking up before 6am to finish
work. Im physically tired with
Far Distance
Every place is far away
from my dorm. It's incon-
venient to go to many plac-
es. If I am going to a super-
market or a restaurant, I
will spend a lot of time on
commute. Since walking is
not a good choice for a
place as hot as Arizona, I
sometimes choose to call
Uber, which can be very
expensive after converting
Resolve Problems
I need to find a way to re-
solve these problems. My
plan is to listen to online
classes to practice my lis-
tening on the weekends. I
will also bravely communi-
cate with other foreign stu-
dents to improve my listen-
ing and speaking skills. To
improve my chaotic time
COLLEGE EXPERIENCE
only three to four hours of
sleep every day, and I feel that
I can fall asleep anytime even
when Im walking on the
street. My skin has also been
getting bad, along with my
physical health. The worst part
is when Im so sleepy that I do
not hear my alarm going off. I
have missed two classes and
the cost into RMB. Not
only is it expensive, it is
also not safe to call Uber
when I am alone. Therefore,
I will have to wait until my
friends have time to go out
so we can share the cost of
Uber. Some buildings for
my classes are also far away
from where I live, so I am
sometimes late for classes.
The buildings for my TEL
planning, I should have two
schedules, one about my
general plan for the semes-
ter, another about short -
term goals for the week.
Finally, I can buy a bike or
a scooter to reduce the time
I spend on walking and the
fares of Uber. I believe that
I will improve these prob-
one exam so far because I
overslept in the morning. I had
my math exam this past Tues-
day, but I didn't go to bed until
3am because I was reviewing
for the exam. When I woke up
the next morning, I realized
that it was 8:45am already
which was when the exam was
supposed to end.
and WAC courses are 15-
minute walk apart from
each other. If the professor
of my TEL class begins
class late on one day, I will
probably be late for my
WAC class.
lems in the coming days
and learn to love my new
life in this city.
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 3

People are Kind

After being at ASU for two months, I got a lot of help from other people on many things, which

made me believe that people are mostly kind.

For instance, there were passers-by patiently to show me the way when I got lost. It was my sec-

ond night on campus. I was alone, trying to find some place for dinner. I asked two people on the street

for directions. They tried their best to give me the directions to nearby restaurants. There was another

time that I was very grateful receiving a help from a stranger. I was supposed to have my math exam on

the past Tuesday. However, I overslept because I was reviewing for the exam and didn't go to bed until 3

am. When I woke up in the morning, I realized it was already 8:45 am that the testing hour had already

ended. I sent an email to my math professor to explain the situation, but he didn't reply to me. I then de-

cided to find my professor during his office hour in the office, and ask him if he could give me a chance

to take a make-up exam. After I found the professors office location and office hour on the school web-

site: MyASU, I attempted to find my way there to the office. Because I had a poor sense of direction and

was not familiar with the geography of the university, I got very lost in the campus. At that time, there

was a schoolmate saw me looked worried and lost. He came up to me and asked if I was looking for a

classroom. After I told him the address, he walked with me to find my math professor's office. It was a

very nice experience to encounter strangers offering to help.

In addition, some people also helped me with heavy things when they were hard to carry by my-

self. For example, when I first came to phoenix, I took a lot of luggage - three suitcases and two back-

packs. I had a difficult time pushing them to the right direction altogether. I ended up at the end of the

line all the time in the airport. Some travelers were very nice. They helped me push one or two luggage.

On the plane, because my luggage was very heavy, I could not lift it up and put it into the overhead com-

partment. Some passengers willingly offered help and later helped me took it out when the plane arrived

to its destination.
 When I arrived in phoenix, I went to the "best hall" and was ready to check in the temporary dormitory. A

girl of the front desk saw that I had so many pieces of luggage, so she helped me carrying some up the stairs. She

was so strong. I clearly remembered that she carried the two heaviest pieces, one step at a time to the second floor.

Another example, one time I went to the store near my dormitory and bought a case of water. Because my strength

was weak, after a little walk, my hands began to ache, and it caused me difficult to walk. At that moment, I met my

friend Alice. She came to help me. We lifted the case of water on each side and walked to my room easily.

At another event, everyone was friendly and took care of each other during mountain climbing. On Satur-

day, a week before the start of school, at 4:30 in the morning, I climbed a mountain to watch the sunrise with

schoolmates. There were two boys and four girls. All of us were freshmen and were not familiar with each other,

but we took care of each other and were very cautious of being safe. It was our first time to climb "A" mountain (a

famous mountain in Arizona). It was very the early morning, the sky was very dark, we couldn't see the way. All of

us took out the mobile phones and turned on the flashlights to illuminate the way. Everyone was tight, cautiously

walked into a single file line. A boy walked in the front to lead the way. Another boy walked at the end of the line,

and let girls walk in the middle, in case of anyone fall behind. Everyone had a sense of collective consciousness.

We walked slowly. When someone was tired, all of us would stop to rest for a while, or we would wait on the

schoolmates who walked slowly. A thoughtful girl brought everyone a bottle of water. After a while, it began to

rain. Only three people brought umbrellas, tow of them shared the umbrellas with the rest in the group. Although we

didn't see the sun rises that morning because of the rain, the experience of that day was very warm.

Finally, my friend took care of me when I was sick. On a Friday of early last month, at noon, I suddenly felt

l abdominal pain during a writing class. It was so painful that I could not concentrate the class. When the class was

over, the pain became worse. I bore the pain and moved slowly back to my dormitory. I finally reached back to my

room and rested on the bed, but the pain was not relieved. I used We-chat (a social media app) to contact my friends

and ask them if they had any pain reliever. When my friend Jocelyn knew I was ill, she immediately called to ask

where I was and what was going on. Then she asked her classmate, who had the painkiller, and promptly went to

her classmate's dorm to get the medicine and came back to my dorm. After I took the medicine, she accompanied

me to the Health Services center. She spent the whole afternoon with me until I didn't feel the pain. I was very

touched. It would have been very difficult if she was not with me in that afternoon. A friend in need is a friend in-

deed.