Farewell~
Every time when you feel finally get accustomed to a place or a kind of life, you will find it is already the time to say goodbye. It seems that three weeks is really a short period of stay, however, what Happy Valley brings us is definitely not just “happy”, also the beautiful serenity, friendliness and lasting memory.
I still remember the first time after a whole night’s study, Shuang and I walked out of HUB onto the quiet Pollock Rd. Without any noise, all we could hear was the birds’ singing from time to time, which deeply impressed us. When we walked outside in the daytime, there’s also another kind of serenity waiting for us. Every time looking up into the sky, we can see the white clouds floating here and there in the forever blue sky, just like a painting that will never fade. That is a face of State College: simplicity and quietness.
I also remember the people here who are so kind to have given us so much helps and friendliness.
Once when the air conditioning in our dorm was broken, the repairman came just within 3 minutes after receiving our phone call. They not only fixed it, but also gave us two fans in case that the air conditioning didn’t work again. We were really impressed by their high efficiency and kindness.
Another time, when we tried to take a bus to Walmart, we got on a special V line and threw our money in before realizing that. The nice female driver immediately grasped the phone and called the driver of the next regular bus, telling him to let us get on that one. Coincidentally, after three weeks, today we got on her bus again when we went to Walmart for the last time. She could still remember us and joked on us that “You two have finally got to Walmart!”
Carol, the girl with who we are doing our project, also leaves so kind and friendly an impression on us. She invited us to a bar to spend time with her friends, cooked delicious spaghetti for us at her apartment and also always did a good job in our project.
At the end of the stay, in retrospective, we can feel not only the discrepancy but also so many similarities between here and PKU. The dining hall of Pollock Commons is exactly like “Xueyi” cafeteria in PKU. It is just near our dorms and provides some basic food, which is really cheap comparably. And HUB dining is really like “Nongyuan” cafeteria, near classroom buildings and offers more kinds of food, ranging from Mexican to Chinese, which are also more expensive.
Honestly, not only the food, even the life here is actually similar to it in PKU. Students are busy with study and have to stay up late before the homework deadline. The familiar pace of life made us easier to blend ourselves in, and harder to turn around and leave.
This experience is full of happiness and novelty. Here, we have learned knowledge and how to better collaborate with others. Those interesting experience and smiling faces will always linger in our memory.