Nothereorthere,ourdreamsaredifferent.docVIP

Andy Liu showed up at his dorm room in Perkins Hall long after midnight. He hesitated for a few moments before stepping past a poster on the front door that featured Chairman Mao, with the text Lets Party. He mumbled a greeting to his American roommates dragging behind him the nearly empty black rolling suitcase he had brought from China. The suitcase now contained nothing but sheets, a pillow and a change of clothes. Andy stole sideways glances around the room. A torn page from a magazine with a bare-breasted blonde was taped to the otherwise unadorned, generic wooden closet. A poster of a bronzed model in skimpy lingerie with the text 15 reasons why a beer is better than a woman, decorated the stained, yellow walls. Workout clothes were thrown arbitrarily around the room, and pizza boxes littered the floor, avoiding the three overflowing plastic trash bins. A five-pound tub of whey bodybuilding protein sat next to the microwave. When his roommate asked if he needed help unpacking, Andy froze. His English listening skills are not very strong, and he hesitated long enough that his roommate, unsure how to respond to the awkward silence, gave up and returned to his computer. Andy spread his yellow and pink striped sheets and floral print comforter on one of the two wooden bunk beds. He unpacked a change of clothes for the next day, and promptly left for the library. It was three weeks into the quarter, and this was Andys first visit to his dorm. He will end up spending most nights with his girlfriend, Popo Huang, at her off-campus apartment. Andy came to Ohio University in 2009 as part of a boom of Chinese student immigration. Chinas economic growth has created a burgeoning middle class with expendable income that, due to the one-child policy, places intense emphasis on childrens higher education. Chinas strict university entrance requirements and a lack of higher educational institutions limit the opportunity for study, which compels more and more Chinese students to