Chinese student enjoys friendly Reno culture
by Xiao Zhang, Outpost staff
Yipei
Zhao
Ask Yipei Zhao what her deepest impression of Reno is, and
she'd say, "gambling."
OCCUPATION: Graduate student and teaching
assistant, Computer science department, UNR
RENO RESIDENT SINCE: August,1999
BORN: Shanghai, China
"This is a gambling city," said Zhao, who has lived in Reno for three months. "The development of the whole city is based on the fact that gambling is legal here.
"In other cities, if you want eat out, you go to a restaurant; if you want to go to a cafeteria, you find one to go," said Zhao, a graduate student and teaching assistant in the computer science program at the University of Nevada. "But in Reno, you can go to the casinos for all these."
Coming here from Shanghai, a metropolitan city in China, where gambling is outlawed, Zhao was not shocked by the difference in the two cultures.
"I like going to different places and seeing different things," she said. "If I grew up in Reno, I might be tired of the casinos. But they are new to me."
Zhao finds herself liking her life here.
"Before I came, I had been told that Reno is a small town, and that life here is relaxed instead of having a fast-tempo," she said.
But the most important reason she likes Reno is that the people here are so nice.
"Strangers in the streets say 'morning' to me when I am walking to school, which really cheers me up," Zhao said. "I am in a new place and don't have many friends. When I see people so friendly, I feel really good."
Having done a little traveling in Houston and California, she said she thinks people in this small town are more polite.
"You seldom hear people honk in Reno," she said. "People would wait for older people to cross the street even when the light turns green. But in Houston and California, you hear a lot of honking."
Despite liking Reno, Zhao said she will not stay here after finishing her degree in two years.
"There are not many job opportunities here," she said. "California looks attractive to me. Almost all the graduates from my department went to the Silicon Valley."
Teaching and grading keeps Yipei Zhao, a
computer science graduate student and teaching
assistant, busy in her office.
Photo by Xiao Zhang
But now, Zhao is enjoying her life in Reno. The 20-hour teaching assistantship at the university has been keeping her busy, and it took her a while to get used to it. Each week, she has three lectures to prepare for a computer science lab and dozens of papers to grade.
"In the beginning, I spent about 30 hours a week on work because I didn't know how to arrange my time," Zhao said.
But her worst experience was with a long distance telephone carrier. She had to stay with it for six months before she could quit the program.
But overall, Zhao said she is happy with her life here. She is also happy that her semester is almost over, and she has successfully finished her work.
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Posted Dec. 16,
1999
Copyright 1999, Nevada Outpost
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