I’m ShiYizhou, go with Walter Shi. As a sophomore in SIEE, it’s really my pleasure to be here and share my story with y’all. Here goes my adventure.

    July20 2016, i started my trip from Pudong airport to Orlando and then to Texas Fortworth - where i did my intern . The company I was working for is Faps aka First American Payment System. If you have to ask why I chose this middle-sized company, I have to say I had a feeling that I could show them the real me in exact this size of company. So I did, and it worked too.

     Firstday work, I was super nervous about meeting the CEO and the vice president of my department. Murray(I will introduce him to you later) dropped me off at the city square and I went right straight to the shining building in the city centre. It had been the 10^thday in America for me so I had no problem chatting and doing”How you doing”stuff with strangers. When I made it to the comapny and finally settled down, I knew I was meant to be here and to spend 3 weeks with my lovely colleagues. After that, everything went smoothly. The day I left, my manager and vice president even promised me that whenever I want to go back here and work for them, let them know and they will make it happen. It’s really the greatest compliment I can ever dream of because they have all those interns from different places of the world. I really want to say thank you - Karen,Jerod and Jacki. You guys are so sweet.

    SoI successfully finished my intern there, and I even got myself a pretty close buddy - Murray. He is a 23 year old undergraduate student from Georgia Southen University. I lived with him for three weeks in his apartment in Fortworth benbrook. Through him, I got to know his friends and also bunch of other stuff of america. We held our own bachelor party, cooked food, I took care of his friends who are interested in chinese fuuny little stories and my piano playing ability. He wished I could be his family and he said if he can choose, he need exactly this kind of little brother. Because the only stuff he can not manage is classic music. We even got tons of inside jokes during our visit to Armen Carter Museum. Anyway, my experience there is everything but a visit&study in a college, it’s more like I lived there and people around me are my family and friends. I don’t know why or how, his friends never treated me like I am a foreigner, instead, I am more like their new friend who has bunch of new ideas and are very creative. I really appreciated it.

    Thereare also some glory time. The mayor of Fortworth gave me an hornored citizen prize in front of all the city council members. She introduced all three of us(Two other interns are from Nanjing&Suzhou) and shaked hands with us. I also got the chance to play my favourite piece of Chopin in the biggest church in Fortworth and they all clapped for me, which is great because I was told by Murray that they really did like the waltz.

    Iam very satisfied with this experience, and I got to understand that you need to earn your respect in American society. There are some racisit there in America, I admitted, but what really matters, just as Murray said”Be grateful and laugh at yourself”. Though I missed some beautiful tourist attractions, I never regretted about that because now I have so many friends who really like to help me out and share their stories with me. As far as I am concerned, that is far more interesting than simply visit and see new places in America.

    Youare gonna like Texas people there if you have the chance to get to know them. They have a cowboy heart, and always ready for new friends and funny stories!