Today it snowed in Greensboro from about noon to evening. Everyone seemed very excited about the snow. I met a few other friends from South Korea (Alex, Sumin), Mexico (Gozi) and Chile (Paz) in front of the I-house when I was going to the café for lunch. We spent almost half an hour taking photos in turn there. Although I have seen snow before (during my trip to Dongbei Province of China), I have never seen such large-scale falling snows. Like cottons from the sky, the snows did not hurt but just chill people. Of course, they are water after all.
I carried my umbrella with me when I was walking to the café, in order to prevent me from getting cold from the wetness, especially when I did not wear any clothes with a cap to protect my hair. It was such a difficult walk that I would have collapsed if the café was in a doubled distance away from the I-house. The snows were blown by the wind to hit every part of my body, rendering my umbrella almost useless. I ate more than one bow of white rice and a piece of big steak in the café. Eating something warm and good in a snowing day is so wonderful!
After having lunch, I went to the library to study. I chose the library rather than the dormitory room mainly because the former is nearer to the café than the latter. I did not want to have any unnecessary walk in the falling snows, though doing so was quite romantic. I became very lazy when I was not prepared for the coldness brought by the snows. I spent about four hours in the library, reading the short story ‘What I saw from where I stood’ as preparation for Monday’s fiction exam, doing Spanish final exam exercises, taking a half-an-hour nap and watching a an-hour-and-a-half Naruto Shippuden movie. I left the library at 6:30pm for dinner in the café. At the exit of the library, I met Fernando (from Spain) and Anne (from France), who were taking photos of the white bushes in front of the library.
The food for dinner was normal but one interesting thing happened during the dinner. I sat in the same table with Fernando, Anne and a local female student. While we were eating, we heard three female students in the neighouring table talking passionately about religion and science. It seemed that two of them were trying to persuade the third one something because they talked apparently confidently and eloquently. I heard them saying something about science theories. This was the first time that I heard students talking something serious in the café. ‘Yes, this is a university. And is an American university.’ I said to myself. But since I have thought much about religion and science before, I was not interested in engaging in any discussion in the same topic, particularly when almost everyone takes it for granted that meal time is a time of socializing and relaxing oneself. I therefore did not intend to mention to others in my table about what was happening in that neighbouring table.
But suddenly Anne mentioned it. ‘Those girls are discussing the relationship between religion and science, but I think they are not something good to talk about’ she said. ‘I don’t think religion and science are comparable’, responded the American student immediately. Then the rest of us echoed her comment. I also said, ‘They are fundamentally different. Religion is based on belief. But science is based on proof, evidence.’ Then we continued talking about belief. The girls shared their personal experience about what they thought religion typically was (teaching people to be good people) and should be (should not give pressure to atheists and believers of other religions). The discussion in our table continued for quite a while—I guess at least 15 minutes. I did not participate fully in the discussion, but I was deeply amazed by the power of academic talks outside classrooms—in a place like the café. I am sure that all of us (including Anne) did not originally want to talk about the topic of religion and science. But once someone started it, it could not be helped. A first-viewed boring and belittled topic had as an influential power as an infectious disease.
On my way back to the I-house after dinner, I was attacked by a group of my male friends who seemed ready to start a wild snowballs war. Running away fast, I luckily dodged all of the attacks!
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