Blog 4 - Digital Story Script

Seven days with my host family 3^rd draft

  March.19^th was a milestone of my life. On this day I left China for USA, and started to pursue my bachelor’s degree in OSU.

  As the temporary housing in OSU is not available at that moment, a current OSU student informed me that international students could apply for a temporary housing and airport pick-up online through an organization called IFI (International Friendship). They coordinate the students who need help with available host family and airport pick-up.

  After total 15 hours’ flight, I landed at the Columbus airport. At the baggage claim area, Mrs. Wile gave me a very American style welcome, with a grin and handshaking. Frankly speaking, Mrs. Wile was the very first person I met in USA. On the way to my host family, Mrs. Wile and I talked about my family, my hometown, and how great Columbus was. Finally, I was standing in front of my host family’s house, with tons of questions in my head, such as, How many people are there? What do they eat for dinner? How should I behave as a guest?

  Chapter One: Self Adaption.

  The first problem is Jet lag. Although I got a chance to promote to business class, it was hardly a pleasant journey. All the noises from engine and outside air kept me awake. I was diagnosed with gastritis and a lack of sleep made it hurt more. In order to adapt the time difference, I was trying to distract myself from sleeping when I arrived at Linda’s (By the way, Linda is the hostess of my host family.) Luckily, Linda is a good talker, and she was taking Chinese classes as her fourth language. She helped me with my speaking English, such as how to distinguish the pronunciation “Close” from “Cloth”, “walk” from “work”. I was able to go through those tough day hours with the help of Linda; we talked about how Chinese form our writing and reading system. Linda mastered English, Spanish and French and was on her way to Chinese, so I also helped her with her Chinese, sometimes we just chatted with our second language, how amazing it was!

Chapter Two: Talking to native speakers.

  I always tried to talk to Linda and Matthew to enhance my speaking English. We had a wide range of topics including Chinese foreign police with USA, how to reform China’s political system and social welfare, normal USA citizen attitude towards China and even about the drug phenomenon in USA. Once, Linda told me that she had to remove the weeds in their yard. I was extremely shocked at that moment because I misunderstood weed as marijuana. “What! You have weed in your yard?” I replied. “Is it illegal in USA?” Linda suddenly realized and started to laugh.

Chapter Three: Campfire and toast Marshmallow

On my final day with Linda, I had my first backyard campfire experience. After dinner, Linda’s husband Roy set up a campfire in their backyard and invited everybody present to joy the little party and it was also provided with marshmallow. Sitting around campfire, I felt like warmth spread into my heart. Although it was 7600 miles away from home, being accompanied by friend and “relatives”, I did not feel lonely at all.

  Linda meant a harbor to me; she treated me as family, introduced and taught me about American life and culture, help me to adjust and adapt. I remember once I asked Linda, How to behave as a nice person here in USA? She replied, “You are already a good person, just be yourself.” Which lighten me so much and show her wisdom and concern.

  Time flied, all the doubt about USA and OSU would finally be solved. During the procedure of being familiar with new life, I leaned about everyone should adapt everything as soon as possible because time should be put into studying and being social, which is the foundation of university life.