My first stop was Virginia. I stayed with Xueqi, who is now studying with her masters in Virginia Tech. Virginia is really a very beautiful state. All the mountains, trees, lakes and other natural scenery are just spectacular!
Most importantly, this is where I saw snow coming from the sky for the very first time in my entire life! It was really pretty. Snow is very light and would fly in the air for a while before it hits the ground.
Left: Within 30 minutes, the road was all covered by snow.
Right: Look at my foot prints on the snow under the dim street light....
Left: This is a Natural Bridge in Virginia. If you click and enlarge the picture, you could see how small the people are comparing to this Natural Bridge. On the top of this Natural Bridge, there runs the US highway number 11. Isn't cool?!
Right: I drove a small part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Along the parkway, there were different sceneries with descriptions for the landscape, plants or animals that could be seen. Here is one of the Overlooks from a mountain. I merged 4 pictures here.
Left: My feeling about Virginia Tech is that it is very similar to Texas A&M. First VT and A&M are the only 2 non-government military college that have a uniform organization (Corp of Cadets). VT is also good at Engineering, Science and Agriculture like A&M. And they also use MAROON as their color. However, another color they use is Orange..... what a combination...
Right: Guess how did I take this picture....As I knew Xueqi wasn't able to spend too much time with me while I was in Virginia, in order to get somebody to show me around, I emailed the Hong Kong Club in VT in advance. I got a few responses and I finally got to their Chinese New Year Celebration and met some people there. Kit was the nice guy who took my previous picture. Thanks!
Xueqi has 2 friends that's now working in North Carolina. We drove there for a weekend to visit them. The Tar Heel State gave me a pretty good impression. Moderate climate, liberal culture, friendly people, basketball, research...
Left: We've got YuQian, Xueqi and me in front of the Duke Chapel here. This Chapel is one of the very few Chapel that could marry Gay/Lesbian couples. I guess this is a good demonstration of their Liberal Atmosphere around the area.
Right: They have a BEN & JERRY's store near the UNC campus.
Left: So this is Xueqi and I in front of YuQian & Li Qian's brand new house. That is really a very nice house. I think it is something that people from Hong Kong would never dream of. So nice!!
Right: Here's everybody, (from left to right) me, LiQian, Tu YuQian, Tu's Dad, Tu's Mom and Xueqi. They are all super nice. We had a lot of very authentic Northern Chinese food. (Oh well, for me everybody's "Northern" even though they might not consider themselves as "Northern Chinese 北方人") Garsh... the "Grill Pork 紅燒肉" YuQian made was soooo good!