Ice Cream For Dinner

When people give you times for opening and closing, they’re very serious about opening and closing at those exact times. My group mate, Helen, and I stayed after office hours to prepare ourselves better in the class today. There was another lesson about templates and we couldn’t keep up. We decided to get help from the Teacher’s Assistants. After we understood everything and even got ahead in homework, we went for dinner. It was about 7:32 PM when she and I arrived at the dining hall. Some kind students opened the doors for us, but a manager of some sort rudely forced us to leave because the dining hall closed at 7:30 PM. She even took away our plates, which were halfway full.

After missing many meals over the past few days, I just couldn’t believe the woman could be so mean. I work hard for about ten hours and that is what I got. She was probably going to throw away the food on our plates anyways, so why waste it? Apparently, being prompt is more important than satisfying the hunger of people. It’s so important, that perfectly good food could be thrown away too.

On the bright side, this gave me a great opportunity to learn about China. We talked for a long time as we ate ice cream, which was bought from the store near the dining hall. Yes, we had ice cream for dinner, but it wasn’t too bad.

We talked about so many things and I learned so much. I wasn’t aware that China still had the rule where families could only have one child. I remember hearing about it two years ago in World History, but I thought it was all in the past. Also, I didn’t think it was realistic to restrict the number of people per family. If America did that, I wouldn’t be alive and my brother would be an only child. If my parents didn’t immigrate to America, I wouldn’t be alive!

Also, there are still people in China who have multiple wives or concubines. I didn’t even think it was legal in the world. I remember reading about it or seeing it in Chinese Dramas, but I wouldn’t have guessed that polygamy was still a practice.

Things are very different on the other side of the globe. I’m really glad to be here. It’s been hard, but it’s all worth it. I get to learn so much in the classroom and out of it. From learning how to use Microsoft Word better to learning how others live, I just can’t be bored. Hopefully, I get to have a real dinner tomorrow night though!