* This is an old blog entry that I wrote, about 4 months after Renee moved to Chico 3 years ago. I was just about to start my 5th year in graduate school at UCSF.
August 30, 2006
There are several newbies in the lab (mostly postdocs) who started during the summer month. This entry is about Dr. C, one of the newbies from China. He joined our lab as a postdoc just a few weeks after he received a Ph.D., leaving his wife and two yr old daughter behind. I went to the airport to pick him up the day he arrived, and said 'welcome to America' to a foreigner for the first time in my life.
Almost immediately I knew that Dr. C is a friendly guy--it did not take long to realize that we're gonna get along just fine (his doctoral thesis is something similar to mine, and he's given an assignment to work with me). Although there is a great difficulty for all lab members to communicate with him, he shows smiles on his face often even when i give him a sign like 'I'm-very-annoyed-that-you-don't-understand-what-I'm-trying-to-say' look on my face.
What a guy. What a character. I can't even imagine what he's going through without his family near him. I tried to picture my parents when my family immigrated 17 yr ago, and even when we were together my parents had tough time. This guy (though he's more educated than my parents) must be lonely as hell, but he seems perfectly fine. He misses his family a lot, but he works harder than anyone else (he shows up before I arrive shortly before 10am, and he is usually the last person I say 'good night' to before I leave work. He works on saturday and sunday, and all weekdays).
Last night right before I left the lab, I witnessed one of the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen at work (well, maybe the only beautiful sight)--Dr. C talking to his wife on the phone. It may sound so simple and ordinary, but what's amazing is that I've never seen him so happy since he arrived in late-July (even though he smiles often). this was truly a Kodak moment, the kind that you only get to see on TV (which are mostly, if not all, dramatized). I had no idea what he was saying on the phone (it was in Chinese, of course)--maybe about his daughter, life in America (which i think consist of 70% work and 30% bed), or what he ate for lunch and breakfast. No offense, but the tone of Chinese language is not the most romantic one out there and it is really hard to tell whether one is having a heated argument or simple conversation to someone like me who doesn't understand the language. Nonetheless, it was absolutely a beautiful sight to me, and I was just quitely observing from the opposite corner of the lab thinking of Renee.
