After two days with busy schedules, today was kind of laid back. We finally got to catch some sleep this morning and left for Boston at 10 AM. I never knew that it would only take us 30 minutes of train riding to go from Rhode Island to Massachusetts!
The focus of today’s trip was, of course, Boston College. In terms of appearance, BC has both old, fancy buildings and up-to-date, high-tech structures. There was construction going on on the campus which were said to follow the “Ten-Year Plan” of renewing and preserving BC for the better education of the increasing number of students.
One distinguishing feature that I learned today would be the religious domination in BC. Yes, it is a "Roman Catholic Jesuit research university". As a very non-religious person, I was shocked when I heard this fact and I almost lost my interest in this college. I did not want to be surrounded by Christian peers and pressured by religiously affiliated environments and clubs.
However, as we went on to the campus tour, my mind was changed by the enthusiasm of the students at BC. As our student guide said, “Everyone here loves Boston. Everyone wears BC shirt, BC pants, BC shoes, and BC socks EVERYDAY. ” I believed this was also one of the major reasons why he fell in love with BC and decided to go there. He also said no matter whether one is Christian or not, he or she is loved and respected in this big family.
I was also amazed by the high-tech laboratories BC possesses. According to our tour guide, the BC physics lab has awesome equipment such as the refrigerator that can go down to absolute-zero and the gravity creator that can possibly affect the rotation of Earth.
Now I am in love with BC, too.
Zijun,
ReplyDeleteIt can often be a real culture shock for people who come from the Bay Area--where religion may not be such a dominant force--to visit areas where it's just the opposite.
Boston is a big time Catholic kind of town just as part of the mid-west are big time evangelical areas. Then again, I here that the Mormons have a lock on pretty much the whole state of Utah.
If you're not prepared for this, then you need to really consider whether the pros outweigh the cons before even submitting an application. It's not much different than an ultra liberal from Berkeley moving to Montana--they might feel a bit out of place.
You might want to check into those claims about their fancy ice box. While I'm sure they've gotten things pretty cold there, absolute zero still has not been achieved on this planet and some consider it to be a theoretical impossibility. That being said, I've been with a few women who came pretty close to absolute zero but being as imperfect as they were they still didn't make it. :-)