At Yale, it would hard for me not to have the feeling of being well taken care of. The administration were so considerate that on each and every Friday afternoon from 5 to 7:30 p.m. we don't have to go to the Morse College Dining Hall, which is ten minutes' walk from Calhoun. We can have the meals on the meadow outside our rooms!
Just look at the yard decorated with several long tables with delicious cakes, muffins, slices of water melons, salads, and beef/pork hot dog hamburgers! And the smiles on the faces of the staff!
The Friday yard dinner is only a fraction of the beautiful picture that WE ARE IMPORTANT. Another one would be the early morning or late night minibus service, operating seven nights a week all summer from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 a.m.
The story goes like this. Some of us were heading for New York City by train. As they planned to take the first train from New Haven to NYC, they need to hit the road at 3:30 am. Among the teachers living at Calhoun Residential College, I am the only one who has an American cellphone card, so I promised to make a call at 3:10 for the three colleagues on the tour.
It was small hours in the morning, and I got up in time to make the call. The female voice at the other side of the line was crisp like a biscuit. No impatience. No anger. Calm and cool like the morning breeze. The minibus is FREE. And the driver waited for us five minutes earlier than the schedule. When we opened the door of Calhoun and saw the bus waiting for us quietly across the street, we found it hard to describe the gratitude deep down.
And Yale also offer free late night escort. If you feel uneasy walking alone on the street late at night, you may make a call, and the security guard would faithfully appear, accompany you to your destination. No need to worry or feel scared. We are WELL TAKEN CARE OF!
Hospital service also impressed us. We were fortunate enough not to have any disease here, of course, but we felt shocked when we heard the teachers saying that you don't have to prepay for the in-patient fee. If you are rushed into the hospital for some emergency case, you would be taken care of by the hospital staff. The bill is another thing to consider. That's why many foreign women gave birth to their babies at hospital and got away and disappear, leaving the bill to the tax-payers, who were annoyed and irritated. If you are rich enough, you would receive a bill, which is very, very expensive. If you are poor, and you are not able to pay the bills, then you can leave and the hospital has to deal with it itself. Then who has gonna to pay? The tax-payers. Back in our country, things are totally different. No prepayment, no treatment - that's the policy. We did have some rare cases that the medical staff took care of some sick people for charity, but that's not common. I don't mean to accuse anything back in my motherland, for things are totally different in our country, thus it needs totally different policy to suit it, but I do like the feeling that "It is LIFE itself that is valued and respected".
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