Meeting with Alan 6

Alan and I met for the second to last time today.  We sat at Bistro Burnett in the library and talked about school.  We compared our experiences here at TCU, and we also talked about how our high school experiences differed.

As far as out TCU lives go, things are pretty similar.  We’re both really busy right now, and both sort of amazed that the semester’s almost over.  One thing he did mention is that his psychology class seems to be more difficult for foreign students than native speakers of English, because the reading is more difficult for them, and they have to look up more words.

When Alan talked about how high school is in China, my mind was blown.  I’d always heard that it’s more difficult there than here, but I don’t think I’d quite grasped it before.  He said that typical high schools start around six in the morning, don’t finish until about ten at night, and still assign homework every day.  I have days when I’m not even awake as long as Alan was in school on a usual day.  I’m not sure that I could have handled it without just collapsing from exhaustion.  Maybe if it were normal to me I would have just dealt with it without question, but I’m a product of Texas schools, so the whole idea just sounds insane.  In the end, we’re both at the same school, and I don’t feel like whatever advantage I may have gained from such intense prior schooling would have outweighed the costs, both in time and in sanity.

He also said that in China, universities are easier than high school, and are a time to relax and enjoy a lighter workload.  I thought this was interesting, as here it’s the other way around.  High schools are easier than universities, and are typically the stepping stone to them.

Alan went to a special program his last two years in high school in order to prepare him to come abroad for college.  I mentioned that several of my friends were looking to spend a semester abroad, and his response was interesting.  He wanted to know why anyone here would want to study abroad when the United States is the most powerful and has the best schools.  I feel like this gave me an insight into his worldview and his reasons for coming here to study.  It seems that the cultural aspect of living abroad isn’t nearly as important to him as the education itself, whereas most people here who study abroad do it for cultural enrichment.

We also chatted just a bit about summer.  He asked if I’m going to do summer classes, and I told him that no, I’m going to go home for the summer and spend some time with my family, especially since I’ll be looking to have an internship next summer.  He said that he’ll go home for the summer as well.  I think we’re both ready to spend a few months de-stressing.  It’s hard to believe how quickly this semester’s flown by, and that Alan and I only have one meeting left.