Last week, on Tuesday October 26th 2010, our whole LC went to Mason Hall for the East – West, Identity: Journeys and Transformations panel discussion. This discussion took place from 12:30 pm to 2:30 pm and was a mandatory academic enrichment workshop that we had to attend with the rest of our freshman class. There were quite a few different panelists present who each shared their experience with us, but the main reason for this get together was, of course, Charles N. Li, who is the author of The Bitter Sea and who was present there in front of us and ready to answer our questions. Like mentioned by some of my classmates in the previous blogs I got to read this did not seem like the most interesting event ever straight of the bat when I first heard about it and the fact that it was mandatory did not make it any better obviously, but in the end it actually did turn out to be quite interesting because this was an opportunity that does not come around very often. We usually read books and look at the authors and think to ourselves how great and amazing and almighty they are especially if the book is good but we never quite realize that they are in fact regular people just like us who simply put a great deal of effort into making writing their fulltime job. Also like mentioned previously I do regret not having my book there so Charles could sign it, but disregarding that it was a rewarding experience to see Charles in person and have him answer many questions that people asked. When reading a book we get the idea that the author knows exactly what he or she is going to say and that he or she never stutters or stops to think exactly what he or she is going to say but of course these authors are in fact just people and Charles also had to slow down and sometimes re ask the question just so he could answer them. I liked one question in specific when a kid asked him if there was any significance to him naming the book The Bitter Sea. For such an easy question for an author I found that Charles had quite a bit of trouble putting words together to answer it. Instead of revealing some deeper meaning and making us think again how intelligent he is, he just said that it was something catchy and something that came to him and had absolutely no significance. I was a little disappointed in this response as I was asking myself the same thing as I was reading the book and I was expecting a much better answer. Of course the other big hit was how good Charles looks for a 70 year old man. That was the other question that caught my attention as this kid asked what was his secret for staying in such great shape. I could relate to the feelings of the person who asked the question as I myself believed Charles to be not more than 50. Overall, I found this experience to be much better and much more rewarding than I thought it would be when I was walking in.