Hello, it is Echo!

This is Echo, my Chinese name is Zhan Liu (刘展). I come from Beijing, the capital city of China, but I was born in another northern province Shang Dong. Now I’d love to introduce some stuff that makes me. This is my second year in Theater major, and I am trying to emphasize in directing.

For me, studying theater is like dreaming every day, because I can create everything, even a new world that I have never thought or I will never face, through the stage which I would like to call magic machine. It is true that all my free time are occupied by hanging out with friends, visiting art museums, watching plays, listening to folk music, and watching plays. I can’t imagine my life without FRIENDS and ATRS! Both of them are magic pills that make me completed and help me be better.

I am beginning my second year in UCSB, it took me a long time to adapt the life in the USA because it is very different from Beijing where I have lived for more than 10 years. Without doubts, Beijing is filled with skyscrapers, but it is very rare to see tall buildings in Santa Barbara, even in LA. I have been to NYC and Chicago during vacations and I think these two cities are more similar to Beijing where provides millions of choices for citizens. But I have to say that the natural view, especially the ocean and trees, surprised me when I arrived at UCSB, and they always make me calm down and appreciate the present what I am going through. Furthermore, culture is different too. People here value extroverts more by couraging us to speak ideas in class and public, but in China people would like to keep their thoughts own. It seems that extroverts are the mainstream in America, so everyone here is very passionate and enthusiastic, and most importantly, Americans love to smile：）

That is all I wanna share in my first blog, I am Echo, a full-time dreamer.