Last Thursday (Nov 27, 2014), Professor Kuo held a Thanksgiving luncheon for our MCL members at Ichiban Restaurant in El Monte. Around 35 people from our group including some family members and Professor Kuo’s family attended this great luncheon event at noon of Thanksgiving Day. There was a fusion of food such as Sushi, seafood, Chinese food, pizza and dessert, which was great for us since MCL has members from various regions. The most important thing was to have a social communication among our group. In this luncheon, everyone enjoyed talking to others and our topics were pretty diverse, ranging from research, course study, to sports, hobbies and Thanksgiving plans. Professor Kuo introduced his family to us and it was a great pleasure to receive warm Thanksgiving greetings from his family members. Besides, Professor Kuo went to each table to chat with group members, showing a touched concern about our life in the USA. Moreover, Professor Kuo’s sharing about his experience on research, PhD study, sociality, and life benefited us a lot on many aspects.

Two visiting scholars, Prof. Yang and Prof. Wang, mentioned this luncheon as “a valuable chance to understand the spirit of MCL group, to know the group members, and to learn more about Professor Kuo”. “My husband and I had no idea before about where to spend our Thanksgiving, but right now we find the answer is to have a good time with the big MCL family right here!”, as Dr. Nie told us. Yes! This is definitely correct. Most of our members are international students, whose families are quite far away. On this special moment, Thanksgiving Day, we just felt like we were a family right here, right now with Professor Kuo and all other members.

(News article written by Jian Li)