ISI E-ZONE

The long hunt

2005-08-21T23:45:00.000-07:00

By Monika Patel

Searching for an apartment in Evanston has been an interesting and at times frustrating experience.

One of the first things we learnt on coming to Northwestern was that the apartments near it are VERY EXPENSIVE. I have friends in other cities that live in spacious apartments and pay approximately half of what I paid for my first month’s rent at Englehart. Armed with this terrifying bit of information, and having concluded that if we stayed in graduate housing for the academic year we’d probably be bankrupt by the end of it, my room-mate and I began looking for an off-campus [read cheaper] apartment to move into in September.

The first thing we did was to get ourselves a map. Being new to the country and having no cars of our own, we thought that the new apartment should be close to our departments. So, we thought that we should walk around the neighborhood and look at all the available apartments. Since we were walking everywhere we would also be able to figure out when far became too far. So every day after class, there we were, walking, using my cell phone and leaving phone messages for every ‘For rent’ sign we saw. By the end of the week, we had worn out shoes, very few appointments to see houses and much weaker spirits.

Then we decided to get onto the Internet. We did it all: craigslist.org, rent.com, the off-campus housing site of Northwestern University. More phone calls and a few more appointments followed.

We went to all the appointments we made and managed to see many houses and to meet many prospective landlords. I remember the pretty red house two blocks from campus -- it was fabulous and the family who owned it HAD A DOG! That almost convinced us to rent it. We also thought that if we were nice to the landlord he might let his dog come upstairs to our apartment once in a while. It took well-meaning friends a lot of time to convince us to look beyond the cute dog – the rent was quite beyond our means.

I remember another house we saw. The landlady called and said that we could come see it any time that day, so we went as soon as we could. We knocked on the door of the house, only, there was no answer. Having walked a long distance and in no mood to give up – we decided to keep knocking for a few more minutes. After some time, the door did open to reveal a fat, hairy man in shorts, holding a can of beer and blinking at us with “What are you doing here?” written all over his face. We explained why we were there, and finally I saw a flicker of recognition on his face and he let us in. The apartment was a disaster: we stepped around empty pizza boxes strewn all over the floor and tried not to look at the heaps of dirty clothes thrown everywhere. Needless to say, after seeing the apartment in that condition we did not feel like renting it.

Our apartment hunt has taken us everywhere: from Central Street to Chicago Avenue and from Sherman Street to Ridge Avenue. We’ve seen all kinds of apartments – small and big, cheap and expensive. We’ve been to apartments so nice we were scared to walk into them, and to apartments so dirty we had to hold our breath all the time we were in them. We have calculated and recalculated how much money we can afford to spend each month on rent. We have bargained with landlords, and have reduced a $1,300 apartment to $1,100 and a $1,000 apartment to $900. We convinced a landlady to give us a microwave if we moved into her apartment. We also convinced at least two other prospective landlords to give us the first month’s rent free. In this respect, I must mention that the ISI practica sessions on apartment hunting have been very helpful. It is because of the sessions that we know how to get the good deals!

We have now narrowed down to two or three choices. When I look back on the past two weeks of apartment hunting, I can say I learned a lot. I believe that my search has almost come to an end, and it feels good to dream of a nice, warm home with lots of home-cooked Indian food in the refrigerator!

MEAL-Many Experiments Are Lively

2005-08-21T13:53:00.000-07:00

By Li Huang & Bin Xu

If you meet someone named "Men not only eat rice but also have to eat vegetables" or someone else named "Meal is God" on MSN, do not be skeptical. They are two new Chinese students from Northwestern University, Karl and Wei. Karl is from Shanghai, China, where men cook a lot. Because, apparently, he is good at cooking, he was able to say something confidently like that. But poor Wei! He had to "wash" a fried cabbage dish he cooked with water because it was way~~~~~~~ too salty. We think he will not change his nick name on MSN for a long time.

Most of the ISIers came here after their undergraduate degree or after marrying a good wife. Some of us have never touched a pan or pot in our entire lives, and some of us have to cook for everybody we know in ISI. To be either toughly independent cooks or to be humble toward those who cook is a necessity for survival.

Cooking is hard, and cooking is an art. Every ISIer knows it, especially Yan, who majored in art history. We are quite sure she can think creatively in her academic area, but to be creative in cooking seems to be much harder for her. Sandwiches and boiled eggs have become her breakfast, lunch and supper for about two weeks. The only difference between the three meals is that there is orange juice for breakfast and supper but not for lunch. Luckily, she has a good friend who came to visit her about a week ago. This nice girl cooked some fried eggs and rice for Yan. For almost a week, the delicious rice saved Yan a lot of trouble on figuring out how to cook something else besides sandwiches. But unfortunately, everything has an expiration date, including fried rice. Yan suffered from a strong stomachache from the expired rice and it was a while before she tried to be creative in the kitchen. But later, having learned a lot from the rice and stomachache, she experimented with frying eggs and steak all by herself. Although both came out inedible, they came out interestingly different. The egg was OK on one side, but heavily burnt on the other, while the steak is way too rare. She had to throw them both away.

At least Yan tried. We appreciate her tough spirit. Compared to her, the gentlemen from India and Korea gave up their home foods much earlier. Amit has already become one of the most reliable customers of D & D Finer Foods. If you go to D & D on Friday, chances are good that you will meet Amit in front of the frozen food section. From our conversation we believe that frozen food and the limited amount of noodles he brought from India will accompany him through his whole apartment hunting time. As for Sung Yong, it seems that being patient is the only things he decided to do. Wife and kid will arrive next month. This strong man for sure can bear American fast food for a month. But if it is two months, we are going to worry about Sung Yong's weight.

Another issue vital to our survival is how to buy the right stuff at the "right" price when you do grocery shopping. Language is the main barrier. The day before yesterday, Li went to buy some yogurt in D & D for her sweet tooth, but somehow, when she got back and put a spoonful of the "yogurt" into her mouth at 10 p.m., she realized it was BUTTER! Li has already gained four pounds in the last three weeks and she cried herself to sleep after the butter-taste "yogurt" or yogurt-shaped butter.

And also, there are times when you have paid enough attention to the labels and names, but just wondered if there are ways to lower the price figures a little bit. Jimmy has already bought a tiny bottle of sesame oil that's five times more expensive and some ginger that is 20 times more expensive than in his home country. We don't think he will talk about these with his mother or mother-in-law who are in Singapore. They would be astonished.

According to the "miserable" situation most Asians are facing now, our renowned "chef", Bin would like to share his recipe of "Korean BBQ Chicken Wings" with all ISIer. It is one of the most delicious dish that has almost the lowest requirement on both learners and materials.

Ingredients: Korean BBQ sauce (could be purchased in Chinatown super markets or Marketplace), green onion, sesame oil (optional), a box of chicken wings, one or two onions (optional). Process: 1. Marinate chicken wings with one or two spoons of Korean sauce, green onions, sesame oil(optional) for 30 minutes. 2. Set the oven to 400 degree, put the marinated chicken wings in theroast pan. After about 20 minutes, turn over the wings to bake the other side for 15 minutes. Then you can enjoy the delicious wings!

Compared to the Asians' situation, westerners might do better. For instance, Aurelien has already been enjoying a good time cooking here at Evanston. He would like to share a great recipe for grilled tuna or salmon. Choose the tuna or salmon steak; put it into a plastic bag together with soy sauce, garlic (or garlic powder), lemon juice; shake it for a while; take the fish out and put it on a plate close to the grill; grill each side for five minutes; then, enjoy the fish! And also, we are surprised by the way French cook vegetables--steaming. Now we know why French girls are so beautiful and slim. Just look how healthy their foods are! But Aurelien also made a “serious” mistake when he arrived in American several years ago. As most of you might have noticed, milk here is usually categorized into four kinds: fat free, 1% low fat, 2% low fat, full fat. Usually Aurelien and his wife drink fat-free milk in France. Once he went to buy milk under his wife’s order in America, he misunderstood the categorization and took four bottles of full-fat milk home. He felt guilty after he realized it, and drank the full-fat milk all by himself.

Before we interviewed Lapo, we guessed that he might be the happiest one in our group because it seems that Americans have been living on Italian food such as pasta, pizza and macaroni, for decades. Lapo confirmed our guess, but he has just a little trouble when he cooks and goes food shopping. Although there are many kinds of pasta in American supermarkets, Lapo said there are still not as many options as in Italy. He also has trouble finding tuna, but Bin has seen a lot of canned tuna in American groceries. Maybe it's not the right kind. Lapo confessed that he did not cook a lot when he was in Italy, because his parents usually prepared the meal for him. So after he came here, he chose the safest and most common way of cooking in this international students group, that is, the easiest way. Lapo is happy to share his recipe of easy but authentic Italian pasta with the rest of us: buy a box of pasta from the grocery store; follow the directions printed on the box but don't believe too much in it. You still need to taste it from time to time to make sure that the pasta is okay to eat; and, that's it! Another European student, Caroline, does not have a lot of trouble either. What she used to eat in Austria can be found in American groceries except for some special cheeses and dumplings. The only difficulty she has is with transportation. Because she does not have a car yet, she cannot go very far for food shopping and has to buy food in downtown groceries where she finds that food is way too expensive. That is a common problem for almost all newcomers. So we reached a conclusion that, in this country, no car, no food.

Federico, the only student from South America in this year's ISI, also has trouble with the price of food. Meat and other food, as he said, are much more expensive than in Uruguay. He also complained about the limited options of food in American grocery stores. It is pretty hard to find a South American restaurant in Chicago. But fortunately he found fish here is good. (As Chinese who are used to eating a lot of fresh fish every day in China, we don't agree.) He cooks very often and usually he cooks pasta, rice, meat (roasted and grilled), and potatoes.

Paul, the only student from Africa, has his own traditional food which is totally different from American food. We are not sure whether we understand the cooking method of "Ugali", which is the name of the food. Ugali is made of ground white corn, but, as Paul said, corn in American groceries is mainly the Mexican type which is not as good as the one he was used to. We agree with him because since we came here, we have not seen any corn as good as that sold in Chinese marketplaces. Fortunately Paul found an African restaurant in Rogers Park which is good enough.

Here are some of the "experimental exercises" ISIers have conducted in the last three weeks. Should you have any "laboratory findings" or opinions on restaurants you have visited, please share them in the comments part of our blog. We are in great need of cooking tips and good dining places!

Dumped by the Landlord: be careful

2005-08-20T20:01:00.000-07:00

By Yi Wu

I started my apartment hunt through surfing the website: craigslist.com. I made a list of all the apartments I am interested in, and called their landlords one by one.

This procedure works pretty well. However, sometimes the landlord showed us an apartment different from the one I found in the post. I figured out that in most cases the original apartment had been taken by someone else and the company/landlord tried to offer an alternative, usually an inferior one. Furthermore, releasing your phone number can make things worse, for you will get many unidentified calls. I once got a call from a girl claiming that I had contacted her for an apartment, but I never did!

Then, my future roommate, Her, invited me to see one of her finds. I had another appointment that day, so we rushed there and were only able to take a short look at it. The living room has much sunlight, which Her likes very much. Two days later, we went back again for more details. The landlord’s son-in-law, Sam, showed us around. He is a middle-aged American and never has much to say.

I will never forget the day when we decided to take this place, not because we liked the apartment so much, but because of the unusual things we experienced afterwards.

That night, when I happily arrived home, I got a call from Sam. He said he had had a fireman examine the kitchen of our apartment and it was considered unsafe, thus the landlord would not rent it to us. The kitchen is very important to us as Chinese enjoy cooking very much. He thereafter recommended another apartment to us. I was so surprised and hurt that I declined his alternative offer. I claimed that he had broken his promise, which is unfair and kind of illegal (Ann said I was brave to say so!). But Sam said he was not the landlord and we hadn’t reached any written agreement. I told him his act was too disappointing to accept for we had already turned down all other options. To my surprise, he started telling his success story from when he first arrived at New York with no money in pocket and no place to live in. After 10 minutes of educating me in how to be hard-working and independent, he said he would try to persuade the landlord to rent the apartment to us.

I felt he was not so bad as he appeared from the beginning, but I understood we definitely should consider other choices. We anxiously searched around Ridge Ave and Sherman Ave and called every phone number shown on the “for rent” signs. However, it was approaching mid-August at that moment and most apartments close to campus were already gone. One day, we were waiting in the front of an apartment building when coming across two ISI students, Wenchun and Richard. To our surprise, they came to see the same apartment. More surprisingly, the prices offered by the same agency were significantly different, $2,100 for us v.s. $1,200 for the boys. When the agent came, she told us the boys asked for a two-bedroom apartment, so the manager offered them a three-bedroom apartment at the two-bedroom apartment’s price. But she had no special deal for us any more. When we mentioned another previous apartment, Richard said he had also visited that one and the landlord offered him $1,150 per month, instead of the $1,245 we were offered. Discrimination! I felt we girls were treated unfairly. The apartment hunting story finally had a happy ending. Several days later, Sam told us the landlord would install a hood above the stove to insure cooking safety, and quite surprisingly approved our application. Anyway, this was our first chance to understand the American way. Learn to make deals, and learn to enjoy

Culture Shock

2005-08-15T18:34:00.000-07:00

It hurts when you dodge me

2005-08-11T20:39:00.000-07:00

by Li Huang

People in my country are famous for having no idea of interpersonal space, not only physical space, but also mental space. People crowd into buses or subways every morning like canned tuna; people ask about your age whenever and wherever they want to. I hate it. But, on August 2, 2005, when a 20-something American boy dodged me on the 2-meter-wide sidewalk, I was hurt.

He trampled a beautiful Evanston lawn rather than walking close to me. I felt like I was disliked and avoided.
I conducted a very serious self-examination while I walked back to Engelhart, feeling a little bit upset. I am only 112 pounds and have never played goalkeeper in a football game in my entire life, which means I could not and don’t know how to occupy the whole sidewalk; I am not ugly. At least my boyfriend says I’m not. I am a quiet Asian woman, which means I am not at all intimidating. I take a shower every day and I was not just back from jogging, which means I did not smell. And I hardly ever eat garlic, which means my breath was at least OK. So, why?

Two days later, I found that it is not only he who dodges, but also other people. They all dodge. Not only dodge, but also mumble! After very careful listening, I figured out the mumbling was, “Excuse me.” Although on one hand, I am confused, I am totally relieved on the other hand. No matter what they were apologizing for, they were not avoiding me because something was wrong with me.

Two more days latter, I was very impressed by the large kitchen sinks, huge supermarkets, big cars, and gargantuan amount of food served in restaurants, suddenly, I understood! Americans like big stuff and they also like to keep a very large space between other people and themselves. It seems that they are always afraid of having not enough space to breathe or to swing their arms. They ask people to excuse them when in fact what they mean might be, “Could you please step further way from me? Otherwise I might hit you accidentally,” or “I don’t mean to be so close to you, and I am sorry I have deprived the clean air of you”.

This behavior is polite, I admit. But there are times when it could be perceived as coldness. The distance between heart and heart is far enough already. Sometimes I just want to say, “Excuse me sir, if I promise I would never hit you accidentally or on purpose with my arms or feet, and I will hold my breath for a while, do you mind if I just stand a little bit closer to you?” Sounds weird, right? Please excuse me.

The Important Trivia

2005-08-09T10:05:00.000-07:00

by Monika Patel

Most of us in ISI experienced some form of culture shock when we came to the U.S. a week ago. For me, it was a series of little things I noticed about America that seemed different from home.

One of the first things I noticed was that the electric switches in apartments work the other way around from India. In India when they are pressed downwards it means that the current is flowing and when they are pressed upwards it means that they’re "off." Here, down is off and up is on. The traffic on the roads also goes the opposite way! I remember having to make a conscious effort to look in the correct direction when crossing roads.

Another thing is the excessive use of electricity. Back home if someone suggested rigging up the garage door to a cable, and then using electricity to raise and lower it instead of doing it manually, he would be laughed at! So many things seem to be automated over here, and it's fascinating to see and experience them.

American food has also been an interesting experience. Most of the fast food seems to have cheese in it. The portions are also very big. On the first day in Chicago, I ordered a coffee with ice cream, and it came in a glass twice the size of one that would have been used to serve a similar drink in India. Almost everything seems to be served in bigger quantities than back home. Even the pizza slices in Bombay are smaller! I find this to be a very curious thing, and wonder why it is so.

Americans come across as very extroverted and friendly. On the whole, I think that American culture is easier to get used to than many other cultures, since it, in itself, has been influenced by so many different cultures. For the most part, the "culture shock" has been a pleasant one.

Tanned skin vs. pale skin, which do you prefer?

2005-08-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

By Yi Wu

Housing:

The first day I arrived at Evanston, I was surprised by the presence of so many beautiful houses. They are really amazing! At that moment, I was wondering what life was going to be like in such a wonderful place. I had not anticipated the hard road ahead in finding the perfect roommate and a fine apartment.

After several days, I started thinking about roommates. Who shall I live with? Maybe someone warm-hearted and easy-going. However, that is not enough. She should be clean, not like spicy food, not own a pet, and better, have a car. Is that a perfect roommate? Not quite enough, she’d better also be a great cook (a chef is preferred), and share the same interests with me, like watching movies and working out at least twice a week, so that we can have fun together. Well, is there anyone who met all my criteria? By the way, do I myself set a perfect example? Not at all.

I feel a little frustrated that I can not be perfect. But back to the real world, I have met many nice people and living with any of them would be a pleasant experience. Why not be less critical and find the merits in everyone? You can have smooth conversations with a person, and feel the kindness of another person. You can enjoy a good meal if you do not mind a little disorder in the kitchen. You can have fun with whomever you live with!

Finding a nice apartment is an exhausting and tedious task. The sparkle gradually died out and chores came up. So many things to be considered at a time in looking for a cozy house. Is the room large enough? Does the owner have a special deal? Are all utilities included in the rent? Does the apartment have a laundry room? How about the distance to my laboratory? At first, I even dare not call to the landlord. However, ISI helped me a lot. Many thanks to my teachers and fella students, sincerely.

I do hate making decision, like choosing the house and roommate, for it means eradication of other possibilities. But be brave. Making one's own decision is a big step towards independence.

Water:

When I arrived at Engelhart, I asked the lady at the front desk: “Where can I get some drinking water?” She said: “Oh, just have it from the tap.” I thought she was kidding me, because in China, it is unsafe to drink water without boiling. But later I found people here just used a filter to eliminate the contaminants roughly (from a biologist’s perspective it is not quite safe), then drink water directly. I like this way but I dare not to tell my mother about that:-)

Beautiful Skin:

This is my favorite part:-) I have done some research on how people define healthy and beautiful skin. In China, pale skin is preferred. For example, if I took a sun shower, my mother would frown and say, “What happened? Look at your face. What a weird color it is!” But in western countries, people like tanned skins more than pale ones. When foreigners visit China, they will find many women wearing hats or holding umbrellas when walking in the sun. Most time it is not because the sunshine is too strong, but because women tend to protect their pale skin color. For traditional Chinese, it is kind of weird that western people like to look tanned. We Chinese use all kinds of cosmetics to make it lighter instead!

There are so many interesting things I have found out about America. As different peoples have different skin colors, different cultures have different perspectives on how things should be. Please share your ideas and opinions with us on our blog:-)

Life is Elsewhere

2005-08-09T09:50:00.000-07:00

By Bin Xu

Sorry for stealing the title from Milan Kundera’s famous novel. This fancy title is meant to impress readers and to show off a little bit. Besides, I think the title is the best expression to describe my experience of culture shock in this country.

When I first came to the States two years ago, everything was fascinatingly new for me. The sky is blue, which is rarely seen in most big cities in China. Squirrels can be seen everywhere and they are not afraid of people. There are a lot of cars and very few bicycles. There are no separate, closed bike lanes in most cities, and in some cities there are no bike lanes at all. I admire American bicyclists so much because they usually ride very fast and share the road with even faster cars. Sandwiches are awful, but ice cream is delicious. People generally are nice. They are pretty patient with my bad English and keep praising my “good” English. They are also smart because they manage to understand the words I use which sometimes even I do not understand.

However, after the “honeymoon” with this country, I had a lot of trouble adjusting to this brand new environment. The biggest trouble was the language barrier. I could not understand what people were talking about. Nor could they understand what I was talking about. When that kind of communication failure happened, I used “pardon me” as my most effective tool. I had problems talking to customer service at the telephone company, my graduate student peers, my advisor and the secretary in my department. Once when I was shopping in a grocery store, I felt uncomfortable and really wanted to go to the restroom. I asked a service person: “Excuse me, where can I find the W.C.?” He was confused. I thought that the confusion was the result of my pronunciation and repeated my words very clearly and slowly. He was still confused, but this time he asked me a question which gave me a hint of my problem: “What’s a W.C.?” Then I tried a bunch of words related to restroom, such as toilet, handwashing, bathroom. Thank God! He caught the last word and gave me directions to the “bathroom” which I needed so much at that time. A lot of small incidents like that happened, but not all of them were so humorous. I gradually felt isolated and began to miss my family, my city, and my home country. I was afraid of talking to people in English, so many times I just smiled and listened, but actually I did not understand them. People also lost interest in making conversations with me because I did not respond to them. In graduate seminars, I usually kept silent and had a really hard time understanding what instructors and my fellow students were talking about. After seminars I ran away from the classroom and went to the library or my place where I felt a little more comfortable. I did not have to talk to people in English there. There were also a lot of practical problems. In a small town like Davis, California, you cannot go anywhere without a car, even for grocery shopping. The coursework also made me nervous and stressed me out. My only pleasure in the first several months was talking to my family on the phone. Every morning when I woke up, every afternoon when I walked through the crowd of students who looked different from me, speaking a totally different language, every time when I sat quietly in a seminar, I felt that I lived in a strange country and I just did not belong here. I recalled the title of the novel I had read: “Life is Elsewhere.”

If my experience intimidates my readers, I apologize for that, but this is truly how I experienced culture shock. Fortunately, I did not suffer from depression for long. After the first quarter, I got “A”s in all my classes, which cheered me up. One day, when I reread one of my papers written in English before I came to the States, I realized what a big improvement I had made in only a few months. Then I gradually began to feel comfortable and have a lot of fun. I realized that although nowhere can be compared to my home country, life can be elsewhere. Now I have moved from California to Chicago, which is also a brand new environment for me. But I think if you try to understand and even enjoy every new society and culture to which you have to adjust yourself, rather than isolate yourself from the surrounding environment, life can be anywhere.