First week at UIUC from Allen

By Allen 詹仁傑

Feb 27 2020

First week at UIUC

(1/9~1/16)

Be a good chef

After getting here in the U.S, the very first thing that destroys me was their food.

Here, food price is insanely high and most of them are not our type. Frankly, it’s not that bad at first, but after you see the payment, it’s gonna ruin your day. For that, the best way is to cook by yourself. Those supermarkets or grocery stores are near our campus, and some of them have good quality ingredients with cheap price. Combine with UIUC’s great transportation system, there are no troubles for carrying to much stuff on the way back home.

Hard core

The first-week study in UIUC was kind of overwhelming. Work loading here is way harder than I expected and way tougher then YZU. Only going through two classes, professors are expecting you to write a reflection on what they taught or even a case study from the previous reading. (Just for your information, the pre-class study is mandatory) For that, I took three days to finish my first two assignments. As an exchange student, I feel stress, and it’s only the first-week study in UIUC. However, the stress I meant is not negative stress that made me become an alcoholic, instead, it’s the foundation of my improvement. Still, I don’t hope professors keep giving us assignments like that.

Happiness

After complaining, there are still some great things that happened to me. Like Prof. Huang, he took us to have a small tour on campus and off-campus, teat us some meals and even the Chinese new year’s reunion dinner. The place we went that night, was a restaurant opened by a Taiwanese, it was amazing, probably even better than some restaurants in Taiwan. Moreover, my roommate’s father was here a couple days ago, and he did help me a lot. Shout out two this two gentlemen, really appreciate your assistance.

These are my first weeks in UIUC. Hoping to get fit in the rest of this semester.

Or at least, get warmer!

當個廚師

到達美國後，第一件讓我失望的是他們的食物。

在美國，東西貴又不怎麼好吃（跟台灣相比）因此，我認為最好的解決方法就是自己下廚。

在UIUC這邊，有不少超市，而且超市賣的東西都很平價。尤其是牛排，每個禮拜都吃也不成問題。加上UIUC良好的公車系統，也不用擔心買太多菜回不了家。

用功讀書

在UIUC上課的第一個禮拜其實有點嚇到我，這邊的功課量大的誇張。跟我在元智想的有點不一樣。上了一個禮拜的課後，基本上教授就開始出作業或著課程reflection。而且教授要求每個人都要課前預習，每堂上課前都會先小考，看學生有沒有讀書。這些都跟我一開始對於到UIUC當交換生的概念有點不同，雖然是有壓力，不過也因為壓力才能讓我進步。但還是希望教授不要再出那麼多作業了！

開心的事

抱怨完了，來說些令我感動的事情。第一個是黃教授，他花了一天開車帶我們元智的交換生繞了好幾圈UIUC校園，邊開車邊介紹與解釋這些UIUC的地標與景點。不僅如此，他還帶我們到這邊最好吃的台灣餐廳（魚滿樓）吃年夜飯，還給我們紅包！！！雖然沒在家過年，不過因為黃教授，我感受到了台灣的人情味。還有一位是我室友的爸爸，他在美國的時間，幫了我很多忙。感謝這兩位貴人，讓我在異鄉讀書時還能感受到台灣的溫暖。

感謝各位，這是Allen在UIUC第一個心得，希望我能更快地適應這邊的生活。