February 23, 2006

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on February 24, 2006 by stlplace

From mitbbs:
===========================================
看到前面东航的事情，我也来说说前些日子回国的遭遇。
我是坐UA由别处到chicago再回上海的，在我这个地方check-in
的时候，不知怎么搞的就没有给我chicago到上海这一段的正式机票，
只是一张confirmation，工作人员说，到时候一定会有位子的，我也
没多想。到了chicago,被告知票子卖得太多了，现在没有位子，要我
等20分钟看看，当时距离飞机起飞还有40分钟。我当时挺着急，但是
这样的事情听过不少，倒还没到出离愤怒的地步。就站在柜台边等
叫我的名字。过了15分钟，形势开始不对，这时候来的人，航空公司
都是一句话，没位子了，今天走不了了，等明天吧。可是很可气的是
他们不一视同仁，老外来了（这里指看上去肯定不是亚裔的那种），
绝对是有位子的，机票立马给你。中国人来了，先说没有位子，然后
问是不是绿卡，如果是，位子又有了，而像我们这种F1，或者探亲
旅游访友的，就绝对绝对地没有票子。看着这些人的嘴脸，我心里
那个气呀，尤其这些UA的工作人员都是黄皮肤，黑眼睛，说中国话
的中国人呀！
回到国内，唯一不开心的经历就是在大使馆，那些中国保安的
嘴脸，想必大家也见识过了，尤其是他们对一些拿探亲签证的老人
家，人家年纪大，不懂英文，也许连普通话都说不好，就更应该
多帮帮忙的，但是那些人那个凶，那个不耐烦，呼呼赫赫的，让人
看了心寒。我去拿签证的时候，发现签证上有些错误，去找保安，
本来只想问问有什么电话或者人我可以去找找问问的，却招来了
一顿骂。我很委屈，老爸说，只有白痴才跟这些人理论讲道理的，
我为此还跟老爸争了起来，可是现在想想，我是不是有点白痴啊？
我爱自己的国家和同胞，只是对这些人，实在无话可说了，只
是不明白，也许这些人不工作的时候，也是挺正常的，但是为什么
一工作就换成了那样的嘴脸，sigh…
=========================================

Comments:
I think it’s an extreme case. For international travel it’s a good idea to confirm the ticket before heading to airport. This applies to Southwest airline domestic travel too. Nowadays you can confirm the ticket online.

I don’t have Green Card either. Although I don’t have exact same experience, I felt there is some difference between PR and non-PR : I could not exchange the RMB back to USD at Bank of China; they look at my docuements more carefully when I checked out from “Chu Jing Chu” and airline counter. It’s ironic when I came back into US, because I had this thing called “advanced parole”, I got to lined up with Green Card holder (faster lane) and processed before visa holders.

I think there are always people who judge other people by the appearance, status, wealth, etc. What we need to do is we treat other people fairly; and when we felt we were treated very unfairly, complain and seek courses if necessary.

Don’t try too hard

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last Updated on March 5, 2006 by stlplace

It seems like China is going to get only one Gold Medal at this Winter Olympics games. It’s a bit disappointing for many Chinese who care about the game, including me. I think lots of people, especially the team China expected to win more gold medals this time. I believe four years ago we got at least two gold (Yang Yang, short track speed skating). This time we had gold hope on Pair figure skating, speed skating (both regular and short track), women’s skiing Aerial (jump), etc. But we only got one on Women’s short track. Why the disappointment? I think one reason is expectation is too high. While we had hope in those games, the competition is very intense and our opponents are very strong too. A lot depends on the performance at the spot. But we Chinese ususally can not do well when we try too hard.

This is not a problem for Chinese Athlets. Michelle Kwan, 5 times world figure skating champion, tried very hard to win a gold medal in 1998 and 2002 Olympics, did not get what she wished for. She tried again in this year but had to withdrawl at last minute because of injury. I think she tried too hard.

I want to share my own experience on this too. I wanted to go to Shanghai Jiaotong University when I graduated from high school in 1989. I was so nervous that I did not get any sleep during the college admission exam (black July). And did not make it. Four years later, I tried very hard to take the Graduate Admission Exam in order to get to the same university, I failed again. This time I failed on Math.