Late Greetings from Orlando, FL
by Jing Liu ~ June 7th, 2007. Filed under: Life.Apologies for the late greetings from Orlando to my dear fellow Chinese Canadian Librarians group out there, no matter where you happen to be right now – Vancouver, Montreal or China. After a long and tiring decision-making process “to go or not to go”, I finally chose to take the chance and arrived in Orlando, FL, on May 27th. I started my job as a Regional Campus Librarian with the University of Central Florida Libraries a week ago. Every thing was new to me: a new job in a new type of library setting in a new city in a new country, so you should understand why it took me so long to finally update you with my whereabouts. I bet some of you are still wondering “where is Min now?” 🙂
Right now I am getting my orientations at the Main campus of the UCF libraries. I will spend my first month here to get to know better the library system, more importantly, my colleagues with whom I will have mainly virtual contact with in my future work. I will still come for meetings once per week, but I will be based mainly on a regional campus 30 miles away from the main campus.
I bet you all know how ‘first week’ was like, no matter what type of ‘first week’ it was, so I don’t want to bore you with the details. I’d just like to let you know that actually it was generally a good feeling to experience changes. Most of us are scared of changes — and that’s why it took me so long to make the final relocation decision, but believe me, once you are clear that it is the right direction to go, then you won’t regret of going for it. Changes are accompanied with inconvenience and frustrations sometimes, but in the mean time, they bring along new opportunities to us. They enrich our life experience and refresh our tiring selves.
I know it sounds a little suspicious like that I am trying to talk you out of the beautiful British Columbia and come to the HOT Florida like me, but I am not (hmm, maybe a little 🙂
Please do come to visit me whenever you happen to come to the Disney World. You know I miss you all and will be thrilled to see you again in the near future… My gmail and hotmail accounts are still in use, so don’t hesitate to drop me a line whenever you’d like to get in touch with me. Best wishes to you all!
June 7th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
I am so glad to hear from you in Wuhan. It might be even hotter than Florida. The first week can be very tiring mentally, but you don’t sound like uptight at all. I agree with you on 人挪活,树挪死。I’ve witnessed loads of positive changes during my first week in China. Enjoy the new job and new friendship.
June 9th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
You are very brave to take such a big step forward. I admire you! All the best to you and your family in Florida. Hope we have an opportunity to meet again. Take care, Mindy.
June 11th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Best of luck on your new beginnings, Min!
June 12th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Glad to know you have made your decision – it is indeed a tough one. Thanks for letting us know where you are and what you do. I suppose it will still take you a while to settle down and to get used to the new environment. If you feel stressful, that’s pretty normal, don’t worry. Everyone has experienced the similar situation and understands.
I just came back from a conference in South Dakoda, where I met a number of Chinese librarians from Florida. Hope you will find some time to explore the new place and to make new friends.
All the best,
June 13th, 2007 at 6:37 am
Thank you all — Jing, Linda, Allan & Heather, for your kind remarks and good wishes!