China Study Tour: More from Ya — University of Illinois Extension Blog

August 11, 2008

More from Ya

I'm very sorry that I haven't kept the blog updated since we left Champaign. I'll try to make it up. We were hosted by Steve in St. Louis; and by Donna and JoAn in Chicago. I'm very grateful to them. Every day was well arranged; we were busy but had a lot of fun.

At the first afternoon in St. Louis, we were given an informative and interesting presentation by Wilbon, a coworker of Steve. Wilbon taught us how to make robot in the presentation. It was very cool. In the rest of our stay, we visited two local schools, went to Bond Community fair, Union Station, city museum, the Arch, St. Louis Botanic Garden, etc…We also went shopping, drank beers, had witty and humorous discussions on cultures. It was so much fun to be with Steve who has been thoughtful to us and made us relax. In the morning we were leaving, we felt the time just flied and hard to part from him.

After six hours on the train, JoAn and Donna met us at the Chicago Station. After lunch, we took a wonderful water tour in which we were fully exposed to the uniqueness of the city, especially its architectures. Then we walked to the Sears tower where I got a very thrilling experience in my life. We were on the top floor of the building, enjoying the beautiful night view of the city. Everything was gorgeous until it started lightening and the building began to shake! JoAn and I were not comfortable with the shaking and decided to leave first, even though we knew the place was safe. The waiting for the elevator was probably the longest one in my life. Finally we got to the ground floor, finding people rushing into the hall from outside, all wet. Then we were told the windows on the 49^th floor blew off and the storm was probably a tornado. Once we five got together, we decided to change our plan, skip the dinner in the restaurant, and go immediately back to Donna's house. The next morning, we saw trees were cut down by the storm and some areas lost electricity. What an unforgettable night! Now I start wondering what would be the next unexpected experience in my America tour.

I should apologize for my previous stereotype that people in Chicago are indifferent to others. In my stay in Chicago, I was impressed by people here who constantly showed their friendliness to us. The recent one came when we were in Ravinia Festival with JoAn, Donna and her husband, enjoying the pavilion of Chicago Symphony Orchestra at lawn. A gentlemen and a lady offered us two free tickets for indoor watching. What a wonderful surprise! JoAn generously gave her chance to us; Keren, Laura and me watched the performance by turn. I don't know what to say, though I do know I should be very grateful to the people who hosted us and helped us in our visit. They also taught me how to understand and appreciate others. What else would the trip bring to my life? I am seriously curious.

Posted by Martina Mohrbacher at 11:02 AM |