University of Michigan International Center

I am sitting beside the window and writing this blog. This is the window in my room and through where I could see the clouds, twilights, and even beautiful moonlight. Let alone someday, I could soak into the sunshine and enjoy my blueberry smoothie by sitting here. What a wonderful life, huh? NO, NO, NO! It's not true, the reality is that I am bored with this! I have been sitting and doing anything I could do here for almost one month. Studying, working, taking a nap, reading, watching Netflix, FaceTime with friends, eating, dazing and etc. My life has been totally changed under the COVID-19 pandemic. Normally, I cannot stay at home for more than one hour except for sleeping time. While I must have to stay at home 24 hours now. So what did I do to entertain myself? NO. 1 - Keep exercise even though there is only a 2-square-meters space. I am a real sports person, in other words, limited space cannot limit my enthusiasm for being active. Weight lifting by using water bottl...

Looking out of the plane window, I could only see the sidelight on the plane wing sparkling lonely in the dark night. I would usually sleep through international flights, but right now, I couldn’t. That side light seemed to have some magic to keep my eyes on it. I was nervous and afraid, though. It was not that I hadn’t been to the United States before, but that it was my first time to be here on an F-1 visa. That night, I made it to the campus for the first time with my two big suitcases, alone and tired. The next day, contrary to my lonely arrival, my roommate arrived with his whole family, carrying all the necessities and setting up the place for him. They are all friendly people; they even invited me to have lunch with them, but when the conversations became question and answer format, I started to feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. I still envied him a little bit, though, as I also wanted my family to be here to congratulate me on starting life in college. Suddenly, I realized ho...

Since I moved to the U.S. for graduate school, people here tend to think that I am Chinese or Japanese first time they see me. But, I like to see how their faces become confused when I start to speak and they hear my (quite notable) Russian accent. And the faces become even more confused when I say that I am not from Russia, but that Russian is my native language. It is important to emphasize that there exists a Kazakh language, and it is spoken by most of the population in Kazakhstan now. But Russian remains very common – almost everyone in my home country at least understands it. Its official status in Kazakhstan is a language of intercultural communication (if I translate it correctly). But how did it happen? There are not only geographical reasons for that. People familiar with the world history of the 20th century may immediately say that another reason for that is the fact that Kazakhstan was a part of Soviet Union. And they will be right. To some degree. In sixties, the Soviet g...

What does Kunming, Yunnan Mean? Kunming is the capital city of Yunnan Province . It is a small city on the Southwest border of China . Yunnan is adjacent to Tibet , Myanmar , Laos , and Vietnam . There are approximately 48.3 million residents in Yunnan . Kunming , to me , means home . Rarely have I encountered people from the states and other countries who have heard my city ’ s name , not to mention the location . Yunnan is an underrated city that I believe people should visit .  Geography & Climate The province of Yunnan has one of the highest altitude among all provinces in China . Take Kunming as an example , our altitude is 1900 meters (6234 feet ), comparing to 33 feet of New York City . The mountain area accounts for 88.64% of the total area of the province . Most of Yunnan ’ s geography is characterized by undulating low mountains and round hills . It ...