If you were to dive into my iCal or folders, you would be sure to find tons of documents labeled “OH”. It’s not an exclamation, as much as I am always excited about it. Instead, “OH” is my abbreviation for Office Hours, a particularly defining element of my college experience.

Somehow, I’ve always had a romanticised picture in my mind of what Office Hours would be like: a cozy afternoon where the sun shines gently into a book-filled office, an erudite scholar sitting behind a wo...

     The Museum of Jurassic Technology (MJT) is an eccentric museum that houses objects from various geographical regions across different time periods — including human horns, a scaled model of Noah’s Ark, and mice on toast. Not only is David Wilson’s cabinet of wonder full of items that spark our curiosity in finding out more details about its individual marvels, it fundamentally challenges our traditional perception of museums and possesses unique educational values.

     Like other mus...

Scene Two: The 2,200-People Community

When you have 2,200 people sitting together in an auditorium, you bring a community together. Sure, out of the 2,200, the percentage of people who know their neighbours at the venue is relatively insignificant. As a liberal arts college that takes pride in our close-knit community and close interactions with faculty members, Pomona has a student population of 1,600. That evening, everyone — Pomona College students, faculty, alumni, family and sta...

Flashbacks

Reading Days just prior to Finals’ Week, May. Admittedly, I was in full nerd mode®, hectically studying for my exams at the Romance languages library. That was when an email that excited me for months arrived in my inbox. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was to visit Pomona College on the 22nd of October this year. Thrilled, I got up immediately to pick up my free copy from the Dean’s office.

Each year, Pomona College selects a “first-year book” that the inc...

SETTING: Our Beloved World

CHARACTERS: All the people in it

Prologue

Thursday, 3:30 pm. I walked out of my international relations class, trying to put aside the heaviness sparked by the discussion on the Rwanda genocide and other ethnic conflicts. The first floor of Carnegie Hall — that classy building resembling the White House to some degree, and home to the politics and economics departments at Pomona College — was quiet. I slipped into the pair of dark blue heels re...

When the sky is rinsed in that cathartic, faint blue hue; when the soothing pools of raindrops cleanse the dryness of this land; when the only sounds that echo around our ears are the gentle “drips drops” that flow and grow over time…

That shall be when, perhaps, those words will come back to me. I shall gather the faded memories from an earlier chapter of my life, and smile at the effort, faith, love, joy, gratefulness, and excitement that I had put into this project. Perhaps, one day...

文／J.C. 

国内对海外教育需求的白热化，让我乍舌。

昨晚参加了一场美国高中升学的某资深顾问召开的家长分享会，感受到一种传销式的狂热和个人崇拜，这位天上掉下来的老师，说自己在美国有强大的人脉，一个电话就可以搞定招生办，把A同学推进某个排名前50的私立高中，把没有托福成绩、没有SSAT成绩的B同学，照样能推送进某牛校……

美国的立国之本精神，公平、自由、民主，美国学校招生的独立公平性，好像被碾在他脚下，他翻手就是云雨，仿佛点石成offer的“神仙老师”。

有趣的是，坐在下面的家长们却很buy这套，他们认为这位顾...

文／J.C.

每年3月10日当周，是传统全美私立高中发放录取通知书的日子，这两年，来自中国的申请呈直线上升，于是在一个相对小众的圈子里，一群中国孩子翘首以待盼着心仪美国学校的Offer，渴望之情不亚于我们当年等大学录取通知书。

这群孩子被称为“美糕党”，取意“美国高中党”，年龄在13至15岁之间，他们要去美国念私立寄宿制高中，多数还暂停了在中国中学的正常学习，花至少半年的时间，专注复习考托福、SSAT等标准化语言考试，然后年级轻轻就考出了托福90、100分，让我这种当年大学毕业才姗姗考托福的人汗颜。

America talks too much about race. America also talks too little about race. This is a line from award-winning Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s latest novel Americanah that echoes in my head. I read Adichie’s book last summer, since it was the my college summer reading assignment. As I read, I jolted down some questions, which I hoped to ask the author (who was to give a talk at our college a couple of months later) in person.

You might have noticed from my previous entries th...

“ZZzz…z-i-ao Yeee?” 

“Here. Please call me April.”

And here we go again. Admittedly, my given name is difficult for Westerners to pronounce. While most Chinese names are badly pronounced in terms of their tones, my name usually causes a even greater struggle, to such an extent that some of my course instructors, on the first day of class, would hold their breadth for a second, and then say “I will give this a try, but…apologies in advance if I say it wrong.” or the equivalen...

Slowly, the dark sky is gently rinsed by hints of blue. Dark blue, light blue, lighter… And gold wash. So emerges the silhouettes of pink coloured clouds, rejoicing at the dawn of a new day.

One of my very first blog entries after I started college was on nostalgia. It was an overwhelming emotion that accompanied that first-year curiosity in everything around me in my new home. When I got my college acceptance, I knew that I would not be able to celebrate birthdays at home, or join the c...

美帝观感——无需适应的国度

图/文 雨塵

四个月前奔赴美国圣迭戈，基本不需要适应期，自然而然就融入了大洋彼岸的生活，像是以前就在那里待了很久似的；三个多月后回广州，却是要先好好适应一番，从前见怪不怪的事情，现在得先在脑袋里过一遍才能拐过弯来。

自不必说，在公共生活层面上，最大的不适应，便是上了公交车不用说“Hi”，下车时不用说“Thank you”，借过无需“Excuse me”，道别无需“Have a goodday”，更不用说“Sorry”时常挂嘴边，“How are you”是见面必备了。

美帝国民的友善和礼貌，已经不能叫做友善和礼貌了...

Before we explore what transitioning from secondary school to university is like, let me briefly present myself to you through this virtual platform. Some interesting (okay, perhaps weird too) facades of my personality:

• I tell my friends the books that I recently borrowed / bought to read outside of class, somehow hoping that they would ask follow-up questions about the specific content of the books. This could motivate me to read when there are so many priorities that are equally exci...

纽约，让我自信与自省

石雯

在键盘上敲下这些文字的时候，窗外的树枝光秃秃的，天色阴郁，风打在行人的身上，看着都冷。不禁回想起去年此时，初到纽约，各种学习生活上的不适应，加之残酷的天气，整个人都处于一种低气压的忧郁状态。而今年，短短两周的圣诞假期，说走就走的去了波多黎各，2014年的最后一天还安排了一门资格证考试，现在又在备课、修改论文、准备下一门考试，完全顾不上自怨自艾、天马行空的思考人生和未来，只想着做好眼前的事情。这大概是纽约留学生活带给我最大的改变了。

说到留学，我总是会回想自己的出发点：...

那些以为不可能的，不会不可能

孙金昱

两年前刚刚收到伦敦政治经济学院录取信的时候，常常遇到师弟师妹来询问我关于申请的经验。那时候遇到这一类的问题，我会从准备雅思考试、选校、申请材料写作直到如何和招生办公室的老师讨价还价争取更低的录取条件，一一阐述自己如何做事，但愿不落下一个细节。现在，我仍然会被问及关于申请的问题，却不敢这样笃定地把细节交待。这并非由于时间久远，我记不清申请的过程，而是我对于所谓的申请经验产生了怀疑：最终让我拿到录取的，真的是我自己的作为和努力么？

LUCK, LUCK, LUCK

实现自己...

北欧，初来乍到

郭宇星

留学如何改变了我？说实话，我认为那些在外漂泊多年的同学更有资格谈这个话题，也更有体会。但当我回顾出国短短的半年时间，有喜有忧，有苦有乐，去了很多地方，接触了很多新鲜事物，思想上也多少受到些影响，确实改变了曾经的我。很多事就是这样，你不去想的时候并不察觉，以至于前不久的某天早上，我醒过来惊讶的发现，原来是在国外啊！

最明显的改变当然是生活习惯。每一个留学党都经历过从厨渣到厨神的蜕变，做饭！是必备技能。在国内，我家楼下拐角的炸酱面都比我这城市的高级饭店美味，但是没办法，不...

 刚刚完成了大学第一个学期的学业，我有许多美好的回忆，也学到了很多。这些回忆绝不仅限于我的宏观经济学、微积分、中级西班牙语以及人类学的研讨课堂。作为美国顶尖文理学院，我的大学提供给学生充分的学术资源及与教授密切交流的机会。综合图书馆资料全面、不同学术领域的小图书馆提供温馨的学习空间、敬业的教授主动每周二晚上九点到十点半（有时会持续到深夜）组织额外的经济学“学习小组”，听取学生讨论课上所学的知识，同时解答学生的问题。此外，学校也为每一名教授提供一定的资金通过“请客”的方式，与学生一边共进午餐，一边...

This freedom that college offers also comes with a price. After all, nothing is entirely free. Even Daylight Saving Time (a brand new concept for me), which gives the illusion that we get a free extra hour, demands that we must eventually pay it back next spring. 

Living away from home has meant that I ...

Colour. *Color.

"So... I hope you don't mind if I ask you a personal question. Did you live in the U.K. earlier? No? Australia? No? Then where does the British accent come from?"

Realise. *Realize.

"Is this in real life?"

Favourite. *Favorite.

...

Classmates, professors, and strangers alike have been asking me similar questions. Since this phenomenon has continued for years, I would readily give out the frequently-repeated set of respon...

*本文为乐成教育集团内刊的内容。我在五月接受了该杂志的采访。

《乐成》 ：你是何时来到国际学校就读的？与之前的国内学校相比，你觉得都有哪些不同？

许筱艺 (April Xiaoyi Xu)：我是九年级来国际学校就读的，那时我刚刚上完八年级。之前就读于北京市重点中学二中的数学实验班，分数被视作最为重要的，所以功课特别紧，我每天回家都要面对做不完的试卷。

我觉得国际学校的不同之处在于：鼓励学生从参加各种课外活动中挖掘出自己的潜能。我创立的“根与芽”环保社团尤其强调这一点，“每个个体都是不一样的”。在全校范围...