Some Interesting Experiences in Huntington by Dr. Xianling Meng

During my studying in Huntington from September to December 2001, there were many interesting experiences from which I learned a lot. All these experiences or memories have been embedded in my mind deeply. Now it is time to leave and come back to our country, therefore I write down some of them and want to share it with you. 

It was fortunate that we could experience three popular and typical America holidays during our stay, Halloween, Thanksgiving and the Christmas holiday. After experiencing these holidays, we learned much knowledge about American culture, customs and history. For example, when the annual trick-or-treating celebration approached, we learned the origin of this holiday and we learned that because of the money people spend to buy costumes, candy and decorations for this holiday, Halloween is in second place behind Christmas as the biggest U.S. retail holiday. On that holiday, besides our taking part in the Halloween party where people dressed up to attend the contest of the best make up, we also went to the community near Ritter Park at night and played trick-or-treating games. It was a nice night, we enjoyed acting like a kid and got a lot of candy. Maybe it is the main reason why Halloween is so popular now as adults can accompany their children trick-or-treating and act like they are back to their carefree childhood.

Among these three holidays, Thanksgiving is the most typical holiday in America, someone told us that Thanksgiving is the reuniting day of the family just like the Middle Moon Festival in China. As there are so many stories telling the origin and customs about this holiday that many foreigners know something about it. However, when we watched the video telling the whole story of the origin of this holiday, we were so moved that we were all looking forward to its coming.

During this holiday, we were invited to attend several dinners. One of the Thanksgiving dinners was provided by the Campus Christian Center. All the international students were invited and required to say something which they were thankful for. After the dinner, several students gave passionate and impressive speech to express their thankfulness. At that moment, I thought of many nice things which I am thankful for: the chance to study abroad, my son's coming into our life, my parents-in-law who are taking care of my child when I am here. I think that we should keep our thankful hearts not only on Thanksgiving day, but we should be thankful on each day for all the nice things we see and experience, such as our making progress, the good health of our beloved, the encouragement and help from our friends etc. Now it is the right season of the Christmas holiday, it is full of holiday atmosphere everywhere you go and everything you see, it is a pity that I have to finish this article before Christmas, therefore, I couldn't tell you about my experience on this holiday, but I am sure that I will have a good time on that day.

As for the fabulous scenery of West Virginia, there is no more appropriate words than " Wild and Wonderful" to describe its beauty. We arrived in Huntington in the fall. When it is worthy of viewing its multicolor autumn scenery and the best time is in the middle of October. Therefore we went to visit the famous New River Gorge Bridge in October. On our way to the bridge, we stopped to look around the Hawk National Forest Park, it is a very natural and quiet place full of trees with endless splendid foliage. When the winds blew across the mountain forest, there were thousands of colorful leaves falling down to the ground, just like thousands of awing butterflies in the sky. After a short period of looking around, we had lunch in a very nice restaurant located on a hillside, then we took a free cable car down to the valley beside the restaurant where there was a white water river, wooden trestle and two lovely swan swimming in the river. Then finally we arrived at the site and saw the grand bridge by standing on a wandering wooden bridge. It is really a masterpiece standing for the optimal combination of grandness with delicacy. Because of the season, there was less water in the river lying in the deep valley, which sets off the bridge more magnificent.

 
In summary, it is a brief description of some of the interesting experiences I had while studying in Huntington, WV. Besides, there are some other interesting experiences, such as beginning to learn to play tennis, watching football games in Marshall's stadium, participating in various parades etc. I think I did learn much from these experiences and had a marvelous time. I will cherish these good memories always.