Danielle CP#4

On 9/28, I met with Vicky for our fourth conversation partner meeting. She brought two of her friends from CIES with her, as she usually does, and we had another great discussion about the cultural differences between America and China. This time, we focused on the American norms when it comes to giving gifts. She wanted to know what would be an appropriate gesture to express gratitude for a professor that has really helped her a lot, and I told her that if she really wanted to buy something, than a gift card to a nice restaurant of no more than $30 should be sufficient. The three of them seemed very surprised by this, and I assumed that it was more expensive than what they were accustomed to. Turns out $30 is significantly cheaper than what they would spend back in China. We also discussed the American political system as the debate happened just a few days prior, and they were curious as to why we nominated Trump and Clinton. I couldn't give them an answer because to be quite honest I don't know why either. So we had a discussion about the two-party system and the nature of the majority of the politicians and also compared the American system with the Chinese system.