Who am I personally

I am Xiaoyan Xie from China. The two Chinese characters of ‘Xiaoyan’ mean a colorful sky. I do like this name, but since it is really hard for foreigners to pronounce correctly, I would like you to just call me ‘Wendy’ which I have been used since 1994. 

My hometown is Fuzhou, the capital city of Fujian province in the southeast of China. The city is warm and humid, kind of like the weather of San Diego, CA. It is a leisurely and comfortable place, famous for jasmine, banyan, lacquer ware, horn combs, and stone carving. The history of this city can probably date back to before 306 B.C. 

At the age of 18, I left my hometown and went to Beijing for college. I still remember that fall how I sat on a hard wooden seat in a train for 43 hours to get to Beijing for the first time on my own. Since the time I stepped off the train, Beijing has become my second hometown, where I finished my college and worked for a couple of years. 

I came to State College, PA last year for my Ph.D study. This is my first experience to live in a small town. Though big cities have much more fun and good restaurants, I do like the current simple and peaceful life here.

I have a bunch of personal interests. I like traveling around the world to experience different cultures and natural beauties. I have been to Japan, India, Singapore, Malaysia, and a couple of cities in the United States. I am preparing my second-time trip to San Diego as a CSCW’08 volunteer. I really hope to have a look in Europe and Australia someday. Besides traveling, I also like music, especially the New Age genre with very peaceful, gentle, spiritual, or sometimes mystical music. I am also a volleyball lover. I play it every week in the IM building. This helps me make a lot of friends. I created the PSU Happy Volley group on Facebook and there are 33 members now.

One of my good friends has been leading me to Jesus, which my grandmother was always trying to do before she passed away. I have to say it is not easy to change the ingrained views about the world and values, but I am considering it seriously.