Sonora Center Reflection

The five hours in Sonora Center definitely changed my view and the life in ASU that made me a more mature person than before. To be honest, I am a child born in a harmonious family, and nothing could bother me because of the protective shield that my parents provided in order to protect me. However, after I traveled 12 hours by plane to further my abroad study at ASU and reach my first-year dorm--- Sonora Center, the five hours in there changed me forever.

After I had got off the plane at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, I struggled to carry my two pieces of serious heavy luggage to find a taxi. These two pieces of luggage almost killed me due to the their inconvenient design. The sharp wind blew in my face and shivers just came to my body that let me feeling terrible. My arm felt a bit painful little by little just in that 500 meters long distance, and I lost my strength little by little. At last, I was on my way to my dormitory----Sonara Center. I had never realized that it was just the beginning of my nightmare.

When I reached Sonara Center, it was already 9:

00P.M. But Sonara Center seemed still very ablaze with light. After 12 hours’ flight from Shanghai, I was too tired to do anything except sleep. However, the scene inside my first-year dormitory shocked me deeply when I entered. There were only two beds (my Chinese roommate owned one of the beds) in the living room with nothing and after I went into the room inside, there were two rooms with four Americans who were my future roommates, and they were all drunk! That is not the end; my Chinese roommate told me that they even smoked weed in the dorm! There was a strong odor of weed. It almost made me choke. They have tables, chairs and even a water dispenser inside. In contrast, we, Chinese have nothing.
Just at that time, one American, who is the friend of my four roommates, came straight to me and my Chinese roommate and told us some unbelievable words.

‘Don’t play with the people inside, they are all junk. I knew that Chinese people are all smart. They are all the future of America,” said Nick. “OK, I got it,” I said. This was the only thing I could say to this stranger insinuatingly; we did not even see him before! But just after he told us to get some drink in his house and wanted to take us to some places to play in his car. We realized that he wanted to use us for money. The cheating smile on his face made me sick. What’s more, the most unbearable thing is that, he even wanted to use my phone to send his phone a message. I just could not endure anymore; I quickly came up with an excuse to get out of that room then I phoned my Chinese roommate to come out and escape from that

cheater.
It was already 11:00 P.M. The cold weather made us tremble, but the weather I thought was much better than the “weather” in my dorm. My Chinese friend and I walked on the sidewalk. It seemed that it was already so late that nobody walked on the road. And what the only thing I needed to do was to keep walking and had some chat in order to avoid feeling bored.
Actually I made a promise with my Chinese roommate after one hour’s wandering. If that guy was still in my dorm, I would call the staff. When we came back, he was still there thus I called the staffs immediately. Next, the real nightmare began. When we went to Room 116, that cheater was still there and kept on telling us some nonsense rubbish.
After 30 minutes of bullshit, I made an excuse to come out and call the workers. When two Staff were coming for that cheater but my four US roommates and other several friends of them just freaked out and thought the staff was coming for the alcohol intake. I could see that they all stood in front of the bedrooms door and wanted to hide something. Due to their panic performance, the staff just forgot that cheater and came straight into the bedroom and want to find something that they were hiding. I could not forget the fear and worried expression on my four American roommates, faces and their heavy breathing of them. Without doubt, the result was that they would all get a $510 penalty for alcohol intake and were required to attend a meeting of punishment for drinking alcohol on campus.
What really made me mad is what those two staff told me! He told them directly it was me who called the staff here. At that time, I realized that I was in real danger. Four husky men who were Mathew, Kevin, Nick and Stevenson with a fierce expression surrounded me. “Why don’t you tell us first? Are you stupid?” “You are in trouble now! OK? Screw you” Those words really hurt me.
In the end, after one hour’s preaching with some abuses (one NY guy who was Mathew even said that he wanted to kill me). “Fuck you, you bastard, I will give some staff to you! You know what, I really want to kill you myself.” The serious expression on their faces and the rude words came from their mouths hurt my friend and me deeply into our heart. Various noise and drunk flavor surrounded me, which made me not want to stay in my first-year dorm anymore. After that they took their wallets and went out. At that time, the only thing we thought about was getting out of that damn place as soon as possible. We got our luggage settled immediately and got out of the Sonara center through the back door. After that, we needed to cross a long distance lawn in order to get to the main road. We did whatever we could to pull our heavy luggage to our destination---- the traffic light on the main road. It was already 1:30 A.M; cold wind, no taxi and no help made us suffer. There was no taxi because of the middle night and the danger at night in USA; helplessness and fear came into my mind and almost made me cry. After 30 minutes’ horrible memory, we finally found the nearest available hotel, which was Super-8 hotel and started our new journey to the long- distance destination.
When we reached at hotel and got all procedure settled, it was already 3 A.M. I lost strength with my arms because of the heavy, annoying luggage. The body and mental hurt almost destroyed me. At last, we fell into the happiest sleep we had ever taken.
This nightmare taught me how to face the difficulties and deal with them. Also, I should say thank to this nightmare because it makes me mature, it makes me learn to be careful about the people I do not know and deal with them smoothly. My future life will be full of frustrations and danger. However, this unforgettable experience is not only a caution for me but also a lesson that I could gain knowledge and experience from.