American Friend

 So I signed up to participate in a program through Chi Alpha Ministries at Georgetown University to be a friend to an incoming grad student through this school year.  They paired me up with Ruo Shuang Lim (Chinese name) but her American name is Alexis.  We emailed back and forth for a week before she arrived then I got to meet her in person yesterday!

Teri and Alexis in "Selfie"

 She's 23 years old, from Singapore and is here to study public policy.  She's on a govt. scholarship so her country pays for her schooling for 2 years then she is required to go back and work for them for 5 years.

I met up with her at the Metro in DuPont Circle which is near her student hostel where she'll be living.  I taught her how to use the Metro (she was a quick study!) and we headed to Union Station.  She was very taken by the beauty of the place.  Then we walked over to the Capitol and again she was in awe over how gorgeous it is.  Hoping to get her in to a tour before she gets crazy busy with school.  We spent the next few hours walking down the National Mall, explaining how it's NOT a shopping mall, took a quick peek inside the Natural History Museum as she said she loved Night at the Museum, did another Metro hop to a REAL shopping mall at Fashion Centre in Pentagon City, back on the Metro to Columbia Heights and introduced her to Bed, Bath and Beyond & Target for shopping, then back to the Metro and DuPont Circle.  Phew! Oh, and she asked what was considered the most American type food.  I thought perhaps a hamburger, fries and a soda so THAT is what she wanted for lunch.  Johnny Rockets was right there so she had her first burger in America complete with swiss cheese and sautéed mushrooms.  The Route 66 it was called.  We had to take a photo as her dad is afraid of the food she is going to have to eat in the states!

She was mesmerized by all the squirrels and birds and how they're not afraid of people.  She was frustrated by our standards of measurement as she was trying to compute what she needs for school and a couple of things for her room.  "Why don't you use the metric system like the rest of the world?" she asked.  Hmmm.  Not sure except that at one point when my kids were in school they SAID they were going to start teaching metrics but it didn't last long.  She asks lots of interesting questions. We talked about what she should expect things to cost. Like movies or a dress. Should she use the term black or African-American. How she should respond when people say "Hello, how are you?".  She's very smart, speaks great English and is very funny.  It will be easy to be her friend.

 Today, we met again at DuPont as we found that Georgetown University has a FREE shuttle that runs every 10 minutes or so right close from the Metro and will take her to campus.  So we decided to try it out before she starts school on Monday.  We met up with my friend Kristin and HER American friend from China named Michelle.

 Michelle and Alexis became fast friends.  They'll be in the same department, both studying the same thing and they can speak Chinese with each other.  Alexis said she speaks at about a 70% level of Chinese (this is what her Father speaks) and 70% of English (which her mother speaks) but fears she's not 100% at either.  But a professor in Beijing told her that if that's true she's actually speaking at 140% which makes her better than most people!  I thought that was a cute story.

 We took a tour of the campus that was mostly geared to incoming freshmen and their parents but it gave both girls a chance for a foundation of where things are.

 They'll get another orientation through the Intercultural organization on campus and one that's specifically for grad students.  After the tour we had lunch at a great buffet on campus called Epicurean.  Really good food!  Another girl that Michelle had met named Anna, joined us for lunch.  She's from the UK, did her undergrad at Cambridge and is on a Fulbright Scholarship to Georgetown.  Darling girl as well.  And clearly, a smart one.  I think it's going to be a great year!

Kristin, Michelle, Alexis and me!

 Oh yeah, and another Selfie!  Who knew this sort of pix had it's own name?  Good thing I'm hanging with young people!