In 2009, I left my family at home and went to the United States as a visiting scholar. My stay in East Texas Baptist University is an unforgettable experience.
East Texas Baptist University is a small university with about two thousand students from Texas and neighboring states, and about twenty international students. The American students were friendly. But as a foreigner there, it was not easy to really get involved with them. Most of them would say hello or what’s up when I met them. Apart from that, there was really not much between us. Maybe that was so because I was not a student there and there was really not many chances to get involved with them. So I preferred to interact with the International students. After all, we were all from other countries.It was easier for us to understand each other and became friends.
The international students would gather together every Friday evening to catch up. Every Friday evening, some teacher or staff would invite the international students to their home, to eat, to talk and to have fun. I remember one Friday evening while I was there, the host teacher brought out all kinds of chess. Among them, there was Chinese chess. She asked me to teach her how to play. At that time, I only knew some basic rules and had never played against anybody. So I taught her the rules and guess what, she beat me in the game. I was such a loser. The Friday gatherings really gave me a good chance to get to know the international students and I became friends with some of them. I really enjoyed the gatherings.
In the University, my favorite and most frequented place was the gym. It was a good place to kill time and “killyourself”, I mean, keep fit. Every time I went there, I exerted myself to the extreme. Running on the treadmill, lifting the weights and other stuff. These were the exercises I did there. During the basketball season, there would be basketball matches. Every basketball team has an animal as its mascot. The basketball team of the university is a tiger. So during a game, you would always hear them cheering “Tigers go”, “Defense” or “Attack”. Well, maybe I enjoyed the cheering more than the game. Good players make good basket matches.But I want to say, good audience also makes good basket matches. Besides basketball matches, there were softball and baseball games. Americans like sports so much that they have a season for almost any sport.
There is so much to remember, so much to write about. At this moment, only squirrels, Friday gatherings and basketball games come to my mind. Squirrels remind me to enjoy the leisure and freedom. Friday gatherings remind me to enjoy life. And Basketball games remind me to keep fit.