The following evaluations are based on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest for a particular item being evaluated. Please see below for detailed descriptions.

Communication Theory (COMM 250)

SPRING 2008

For items from 1 to 5: 1 means strongly agree and 5 means strongly disagree.

For item 6: 1 means poor and 5 means excellent.

For items from 7 to 8: 1 means among the worst worst and 5 means among the best best.

Items being evaluated

About the Instructor

1. My instructor was very knowledgeable on the subject matter for this course.
2. My instructor was well prepared for class meetings.
3. My instructor explained the material clearly.
4. My instructor showed a genuine interest in the students.
5. My instructor treated students fairly.
6. My overall rating of this instructor is:
7. Compared to other instructors in the Department of Communication, this instructor was:
8. Compared to other instructors at the University of Maryland, this instructor was:

Students’ Comments (enclosed please find some sample comments, which are on the back of the evaluation forms)

My instructor was wonderful. She has a great understanding of the theories and explains to anyone who needs help.

The instructor really cared about students knowing the materials. She effectively explained each theory: spaced them throughout the week (very well); showed video clips to explain (very helpful); took time to explain theories; and very friendly and open.

I really liked this class and learned a tremendous amount of information.

Ai really knew just about everything there was to know in this class.

I really liked Ai and her teaching style.

Great job. Make the class like a team!

You were very helpful and knowledgeable about the materials.

Good TA, cares about her students and its obvious.

My TA was very helpful. She explained stuff more clearly and was ways willing to help. I liked coming to discussion.

Ai Zhang was a really great and excellent TA. She really cared about each student has always well prepared.

Very helpful. Had a good way of explaining things.

Ai was a very good TA always looking out for the students themselves and always gave in-depth discussions that were very helpful. She was always readily available to meet or through emails for students.

I really liked Ai. She was great. I wish she actually taught the course because I was very disappointed with the professor.

She seemed like she genuinely cared about the students. Her knowledge of the material was good and she showed she was passionate about communication.

She was really good in re-explaining the theories when some people did not understand. Very friendly and made it easy to learn from her.

Really great teaching. Was able to answer questions we had during the discussion. Very friendly and made everyone feel comfortable.

I think the class was well organized.

Thanks for working with my athletic travel schedule, the explanations in class helped significantly! I enjoyed this discussion course.

The instructor did a great job explaining and elaborating on the course material. She was very friendly and open to suggestions about the course. She was effectively able to answer any questions that students had.

Good teacher and I learned a good amount from her.

Good semester. You always tried to incorporate your ideas and culture into the theories.

Ai was very interested in each student. She always asked us for our feedback. She was very helpful in answering questions.

She was a great instructor and really kept the class interesting. I would definitely take a class with her again!

Great sense of energy.

Passion for communication.

Very knowledgeable

Personable

Very approachable

Great video clips that relate to the theories being studied.

Ai did a wonderful job teaching this course. She was patient and explained each theory to her best ability. Ai showed a great interest in her students.

Always good lovely energy.

Keep the class entertained and interested in the information.

Easy to approach.

Give good examples.

I really enjoyed this discussion! Ai is really informative, and really knows everything about each theory. She also responds to emails efficiently and with an abundance of information, and she genuinely seems to care about us and our success.

Ai brought an interesting perspective to communication theory because of her different cultural background being born in China. This helped especially when studying intercultural communication.

As a social scientist, I believe our ultimate goal is to make the world a better place. Classroom offers an ideal platform to disseminate information and initiate changes that can impact the world. My cross-cultural background and familiarity with both American and Chinese cultures render me a distinctive perspective to understand communicative messages and behaviors in diverse cultural settings. This distinctive perspective improves my scholarly sensitivity helpful for theoretical innovation and development. Therefore, in classrooms, I always expose students to newer and alternative ways to understand life to sharpen their critical thinking skills. I coach students to challenge what is usually taken-for-granted and accepted as the norm. Students, as a result, are always inspired to participate in the outside world with a fresher and more curious and critical mindset beyond the classroom settings. For example, in my communication theory class, I ask students to apply communication theories to everyday life and to examine critically of the applicability of these theories. Students demonstrate a great interest in noticing the relevance between communication theories and their everyday lives outside the classroom.

My understanding of being a teacher is also influenced by Confucius, a renowned sage and educator in the East. Confucius has taught us, “For the men[sic] of perfect virtue, in wanting to establish themselves they establish others; in wanting to succeed themselves they help others to succeed” (Analects 6.30). This Confucian teaching has been serving as the guidance on coaching me to be a good teacher, social scientist, and ultimately human being. I believe in the co-creation of knowledge between students and teachers. In trying to help students succeed, I become successful myself; and in trying to help students become established, I establish myself.

Following the above philosophy, I believe the best way to teach is through conversational dialogue and active participation. I take the responsibility to facilitate constructive learning in the classroom. Even in large lectures, I take the priority concern to create a participatory environment, in which students feel comfortable to ask questions, engage in discussions, share examples, and most importantly, contribute to the co-creation of knowledge. To facilitate such a participatory environment, I become a concerned teacher. My cross-cultural background and extensive mentoring time outside the classroom help me realize the importance in tailoring pedagogical styles to students’ needs, interests, and abilities. I have learned that this is an effective way to transform students’ classroom knowledge into their own understandings and practices of communication in everyday life, which will ultimately contribute to the Common Good.

For example, in my interpersonal communication class, I ask students to work in groups of five or six on a multi-week project. The project asks students to shoot a 10-minute video about a particular interpersonal relationship issue that is of great interest to them. Students are the playwright and actors for the video. They are also required to write a research paper by applying theoretical principles or concepts to creatively and critically analyze the relationship dynamics and tensions implicit in the play including their own roles. This hands-on experience has significantly sparked students’ interest in conducting academic research.

Finally, for my innovations in teaching, I have brought self-reflexive learning into the classroom. My pedagogy focuses on cultivating students’ internal learning. I believe education is more than a mere dissemination of information but an ongoing journey of engaging students in an internalization of knowledge. Without this introspective process of internalization, learning will unfortunately become a mere memorization of facts and information. Students need to engage in their mind, body, and soul to cultivate and experience holistic learning by utilizing their whole senses. True mastery of knowledge relies on such a reflexive journey. Reflexive learning also helps students cultivate desirable virtues and traits within themselves. Such characters are much needed by contemporary society. Self-reflection helps lay a solid ground for self transformation and external transformation of society. Ultimately, a collective effort is undertaken starting in the classroom and then expanding to the family, society, and the world. Although this road is not without difficulties, with a peaceful determination, I am unwaveringly dedicated to this pursuit of making the world a better place through the power of education. After all, students are the hope for the next generation and teachers hold the beacon to enlighten that hope.

Please consider this letter and enclosed materials as my application for your tenure-track assistant professor position in communication. I am currently a doctoral candidate in public relations in the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland. I finished the collection of data for my dissertation and expect to graduate by May of 2009. I believe that my academic and professional training and rich teaching experience in communication strongly positioned me to take up your job responsibilities and contribute to your program’s continuing excellence in teaching, research, and service.

In my graduate education and research at the University of Maryland and Syracuse University, I have explored the intersections between public relations, education, communication, and culture. Specifically, several lines distinguish my scholarship: 1) international/global organizational communication (with a predominate focus on public relations); 2) communication ethics and philosophy (with a primary focus on Confucianism and Taoism); 4) public relations education; 5) organizational communication and (Chinese) culture; and 6) health communication. These lines of research led to research articles (under review) on public relations ethics, culture and public relations, and health communication; eighteen conference paper presentations at various distinguished national and international conventions such as NCA, AEJMC, and ICA; and a number of awards and research grants. In these endeavors, I have developed a keen interest in examining, analyzing, and theorizing how culture, serving as the invisible machinery, has influenced people’s understanding of the communication phenomena in various organizational settings at different cultures.

For example, one research project, which won the Susanne A. Roschwalb Grant Award by AEJMC’s Public Relations Division, examines how Chinese cultural values have affected moral reasoning and ethical decision-making. Another research project, a Top Ten Interactive Paper Award by ICA, adopts a phenomenological approach to explore the meaning-making of a particular cultural group in the context of health communication. My other co-authored project, an AEJMC’s First Place Award, uses an inside-out approach to examine how culture constitutes an understanding of Chinese public relations. My dissertation project, which received a $5000 Graduate Student Research Fellowship from the University of Maryland, seeks to explicate specific cultural conditions that have influenced understandings of public relations education in China. Eventually, my goal is to publish my dissertation as a book and journal articles to facilitate a better understanding of Chinese public relations for scholars and practitioners in China and abroad. This project also aims to empower marginalized groups to embark on a journey to investigate the ways in which public relations is interpreted, taught, and practiced in their home cultures so as to challenge the dominant voices preoccupied in the mainstream intellectual dialogue in the U.S. public relations literature. Research findings will also help internationalize the U.S. curricular content and diversify its scholarship by introducing a Chinese perspective. In this respect, the project participates in larger scholarly conversations about the urgent need of multiculturalism in Western public relations curricular content and of strengthening the theoretical foundation of public relations education in China in ways that are sensitive to its cultural context.

Additionally, I have accumulated rich teaching experiences on several courses that touch upon a wide range of topics. At Syracuse University and University of Maryland, I taught introductory courses to communication, public speaking, interpersonal communication, communication theory, and advanced communication theory. I also spend extensive hours advising students outside the classroom, helping them work on research projects, improve their critical and analytical thinking skills, and enhance their theoretical sensitivity to everyday communication phenomena. While I am primarily a qualitative scholarly, I also have background in quantitative methodology. In my teaching, I expose students to both methodologies. For example, in my advanced communication theory class, I facilitate students in their own model building by utilizing quantitative methods. Additionally, while I familiarize students with mainstream communication theories, I also draw from my cross-cultural background to develop a teaching pedagogy that exposes students to newer and alternative ways to understand life and sharpen their critical and comparative thinking skills. I coach students to challenge what is usually taken-for-granted and understood as the norm.

I also believe in learning by doing. For example, in my interpersonal communication class, I ask students to work in groups of five or six on a multi-week project. The project asks students to shoot a 10-minute video about a particular interpersonal relationship issue that is of great interest to them. Students are the playwright and actors for the video. They are also required to write a research paper by applying theoretical principles or concepts to creatively and critically analyze the relationship dynamics and tensions implicit in the play including their own roles. This hands-on experience has significantly sparked students’ interest in conducting academic research.

As a result of my quality teaching, I was awarded a Certificate in University Teaching by the Future Professorite Program at the Syracuse University. I firmly believe that these experiences qualify me to teach a variety of courses in the areas of communication, organizational communication, interpersonal communication, communication theories, public relations (including principles, writing, campaigns and cases), ethics and philosophy, research method, and small group communication.

Meanwhile, I have accumulated rich professional in communication in industries. In summer 2008, along with a few entrepreneurs, I launched our own company entitled Heart to Heart International Communication based in Beijing, China. The company holds the vision of creating a global community by inviting people from all over the world to participate in its various language and business immersion programs that integrates learning and living. I am the CEO of this company in charge of planning, promoting, managing, and budgeting programs; coordinating communication between countries; reaching out to diverse cultures; building and sustaining networks with various government and educational sectors; and managing and maintaining the content of our Website. This experience has significantly improved my leadership, management, and communication skills. Meanwhile, during the same summer of 2008, while I was doing fieldwork for my dissertation in China, I had the honor to network with many influential educators and practitioners in the field of communication and public relations, and managed to build an ongoing relationship with them. Many of these educators and practitioners expressed their sincere interest in collaborating with American universities for cultural exchange programs. Two of the universities had also invited me to give guest lectures regarding educational systems in the U.S. These rich resources laid a solid foundation for securing external funding and initiating cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary collaborations in the United States.

Furthermore, during graduate school in Syracuse, I worked as a public relations specialist for a year at Model Neighborhood Facility-Southwest Community Center, where I developed technical skills and creatively practiced theories of public relations. During the senior year of my undergraduate study in China Agricultural University, I had the honor to be selected as the only undergraduate student to serve as the chief program manager for International Volunteer Organization ITOI, organizing and providing opportunities for volunteers from the United Kingdom to teach English in rural areas in China. These practical experiences have tremendously sharpened my theoretical understanding of the communication knowledge that I learned in the classroom and helped me realize the urgent needs of communication experts in various professional settings.

Last but not least, I am a concerned scholar who has commitment to the public good. As an international student studying abroad in the United States, I am fully aware of the challenges that this experience has upon students’ adaptation to a new culture. Drawing from my personal successes and failures, I become interested in mentoring and advising international students to help them make smoother transitions to American life. Since the second year of my graduate study in the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland, I have been serving as a mentor for incoming international students helping them cope with the difficulties that they encounter during their study and social life. Recently, I have just become an admission assistant to help the Department of Communication recruit new students, answer their questions during the process, and advise them once they get accepted.

To serve the university, I helped organize a Chinese Culture Club sponsored by the Confucius Institute at the University of Maryland. I am also an active member at Confucius Institute, designing cultural activities to introduce Chinese cultural heritage to the West. I helped launch a Forum on Chinese Culture and Language. This forum serves as an exchange platform for people interested in Chinese culture and language to learn Chinese language, mainstream and subcultures in China, and to discuss economic and social transformations along with various contemporary social issues. Meanwhile, I am an active member of a university-wide Initiative for Education in Peace, Cooperation, and Development (IEPCD) participated by 30 faculty members and students from various disciples at the University of Maryland. The initiative is dedicated to bring peace and social justice to the world through various interdisciplinary projects. One such interdisciplinary project is study abroad. I made critical contributions to the initiation and planning of this project. I help integrate study abroad into a peace education certificate. I am also working closely with faculty members from the College of Education and East Asian studies at the University of Maryland to launch a study abroad program in Japan. Along the similar line, I am helping initiate another study abroad program in China. Both of these two study abroad programs will come into fruition by summer of 2009.

In service to the discipline, I was the chair of the External Affairs Committee for the NCA’s Chinese Communication Studies division, and served as volunteers for both NCA and ICA conferences. My service also extends to an international level. I was honored to be invited to give lectures about communication studies in the U.S. at two universities in Hangzhou, China. In these roles, I come to see myself as a cultural bridge, fostering understandings and cultural exchanges between the intellectual communities in China and the U.S.

Along with the letter of application, enclosed please find 1) a copy of curriculum vita that lists the contact information of three references; 2) three samples of my recent research; and 3) summary and copies of students’ evaluation. Should you need additional materials, please feel free to let me know. I sincerely appreciate your time and consideration. I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely yours,

Ai Zhang

Doctoral Candidate

Department of Communication

University of Maryland

2130 Skinner Building

College Park, MD 20942

aizhang@umd.edu

已经都好久没有写文章了。。。时间过得好快呀。 i remember that one of my friends told me that as we age, time flies faster and faster before you even realized it.

我的夏天过得很爽，回国玩耍了三个月份， 其实也不单纯是玩，很大的一部分时间还是用在了工作上， 当然了还有体验奥运风情。 暑假的时间大部分用来collect data for my dissertation. 走访了不少的高校，采访了30多个有名望的公共关系方面的老师， 感觉很有收获。还有啦，个人感觉公共关系在中国发展的很快，是一个很有前景的专业，对传媒感兴趣的朋友可以考虑一下。 i really think that PR in China is going to have a great future. Even if you don't want to work in industry, you can find great positions in academia with good salary and compensation. 你们要是有这方面的问题，尽管问。我一定尽量回答。

在家的腐败包括疯狂的看dvd, shopping, traveling, and enjoying the delicious foods in China. It is really great to be back home. 出国的经历真的教会了什么是生命中最重要的东西，那就是亲情，友情，爱情，归根到底，就是情一个字。

九月份顺利的回到了美国，我现在马上就要从马里兰大学毕业了。现在正在找工作。i plan to teach communication in universities...各位线上的朋友们，你们将来就可以申请小女子的学校读书了。。。呵呵。。。i still remember these days when i was a student. cannot believe with one more semester, i am going to be a communication teacher. So, you never know how life is going to treat you. Back then, i still remember how sad i was when i did not do well in 高考。但是，我现在竟然马上就要成为一名高校老师，可以教书育人了。 So, just be determined in doing what you are doing and believing in yourself and having faith in yourself. Regardless how tough the journey is, you will make your goal. Just put your heart, energy, and desire into what you want, the entire universe will respond to you and help you fulfill your dream! 世界上本身没有成功与失败，一切都是相对的。 failures are always great opportunities for us to grow and discover new potentials within us.

我这个学期teach an upper level communication class...学生们的水平参差不齐。。我要花上很多的时间辅导他们，但是overall it is a very rewarding experience. 美国学生大部分还是很可爱的，跟他们朝夕相处一段时间还都产生了感情。

我们马里兰的传播系看来是很喜欢中国学生， 我们今年招了六七个中国学生。 很热闹。

i wish you everyone the best! i am sending you lots of positive and loving energies from the US.

I will write more frequently in the following days! promised. :)

Aicandoit

I am writing this reflection at a retreat center, located in a deep forest in Pennsylvania. It is kind of weird to use the Internet at such a peaceful and natural place. But, since all of my lovely friends are gone, I thought it would be nice to jolt down my feelings, at this moment, right here in this deep forest with trees, sunshine, moonlight, birds, and all the unnamable and beautiful flowers surrounding me.

This is the third time that I attended a yoga retreat. But, it always feels refreshing. It is a liberated feeling to stay away from the mundane world and everyday life for more than 15^th days. Without cell phones and without computers, life all of sudden seems quiet yet exciting, but in its unique ways.

Surrendering to the beauty of nature

Human beings are the most arrogant species in the world. We want to control everything. We thought we are the most capable specie in the world. Unfortunately, we are not.

Immersing myself into nature, I did yoga and meditated in nature, with tress surrounding me as my clothes and birds singing to me as my best friends. I felt the love from the universe and my dearest friends and teachers. While meditating, a stream of pure joy and happiness encompassed my heart. It was a feeling that I haven’t experienced for a while. I felt relieved, relieved from the social mask of being a hardworking and intelligent student. I felt who I was, the true me beneath these layers and layers of social masks. The true me is made of compassion and unconditional love. The deep meditation and singing in the forest rekindled that deep sense of who-I-am. I felt the love and energy vibrating through every single cell of my body. I felt being conquered by a flux of positive energy. I disappeared as I reunited with Mother Nature. I am who I am because it is what it is! The beauty of nature only needs a beautiful and peaceful heart to discover it!

I felt so humbled standing in front of these beautiful tress with sun light gently touching my beautiful face. At the moment, I forgot who I was. My heart melted into a sense of oneness with nature. I became nature and nature became me. We were hands in hands and arms in arms, marching forward into life. What a remarkable future is unfolding in front of me. I am excited.

I felt renewed. I lifted my head; I touched the sky; I smelled life; I kissed the earth; I hugged myself; I embraced nature; I melted into the flow of energy; and I surrendered myself to the beauty of nature. I love you—I screamed to the forest in my heart!

I thank my beloved mom for giving a precious opportunity to experience this divine life.

With my mind and with my heart, I am vibrating in love and hope. This vibration makes every single day of my life meaningful, memorable, and enjoyable.

Let’s all surrender to the beauty of nature and dance with the rhythm of life. Let’s vibrate in love and forgiveness; compassion and creation!

I realized that:

Nothing is unconquerable unless the heart is conquered;

Nothing is evil unless the spirit is in dark;

Be strong and confident; and be optimistic and authentic, life has everything figured out for us! My duty is simply to enjoy.

How about you, my beloved friend?

The other day, i came across the above sentence and then immediately fell in love with the wisdom therein.

Zhuang Zi teaches us that our life is limited but knowlege is not. If we use our limited life to compete to the unlimited knowlege, we are doomed to die. There is no end to knowlege but there is an end to our physical presence in life. We should enjoy life to its fullest extent. Rather than spealizing oursleves into a knowledge area, we should strive to live a balanced life, having a little bit of every single spice in the world. Diversity is what makes life interesting. The beauty of summer lies in the coldness in winter. Without winter, summer loses its beauty, and vice versa.

Pursing one degree after another, i come to realize that there is more to life than becoming a master or doctoral student. The meaning of life is not an accumulation of piles of degrees, but of a possession wisdom. Wisdom differs from knowledge. Wisdom is an internalization of knowledge, information, and facts. It teaches the ability to discern good from bad, and right from wrong.

Living a balanced life, it is easier said than done. We have too much pressures to please our parents, teachers, bosses, colleagues, ...etc. But, most of all, we forget to please ourselves. How can one really love others without loving himself or herself first? Everyday, we are making choices. I cannot change path of my history. But, I am holding the pen to write my future. Today, right now, at this moment, i have chosen to love myself and bring peace to the inner self and then transform them to the external world.

For this weekend, I am going to a yoga retreat to give my body a break and to align my mind, body, and spirit. Sometimes, they depart too far away to comprehend our purpose of life.

I love yoga as well as the word itself. Yoga means unity, the unity among mind, body, and spirit. Loving what i do and doing what i love, my emotion is the best guidance on life. I have been listening to my mind and intelligence long enough; it is the time that i follow my heart and live a rejuvenated life!

Home: A Feeling of Familiarity

            When being asked of missing home or not, Hillary shared, “I do not miss home. I miss my parents.” For Hillary, missing home means “you need support from your home or you need care from your parents, so you miss them, you want them to be with you.” Because she wants to “give more care” to her parents and she does not “want to give more burdens in terms of emotional or economic problems,” she does not miss home. Instead, she is more obligated to give back to her parents. As she said, “I want to give them support. I want to take care of them. After I get a job, I will give money to my parents to let them have a better life in China, try to ask them to come to visit me and stay with me in the US for a few months.”

            Hillary’s differentiation of missing home from missing parents seems to suggest that home is more of a feeling grounded in care and support than of a concrete geographic location. I resonate with that. My receiving a hug on a Mother’s Day communicated the same message. Home is not so much a geographic location as an emotional harbor where authenticity is guaranteed. Home allows one to comfortably expose the most vulnerable aspects within oneself without any worry. At home, people converse through hearts not mouths. The feeling of home warms a lonely heart, cultivates an authentic being, and completes the yet-whole human soul.

Longing for a Home: The Ground of Humanity

            “My name is Ai Zhang. I came from China.” I introduced myself. “What’s your plan after graduation? Will you go back to China?” In these situations, I was always reminded of being different and of the fact that the United States was not my home. It was only a place that allowed me to stay temporarily. As Hillary shared, “The life that I have right now [in the United States] is pretty temporary not authentic.”

It seems logical for international students, far away from home, to develop an urge to embark on a home-searching journey in a foreign place. The journey seems long and never-ending. We still do not know whether we could find a home, a warm feeling that infuses your heart with the very thought of home. Would there be a home for international students in this wonderland of the United States? As Hillary shared, “China is my country. I am a Chinese forever. It is my home definitely, particularly in terms of emotion. I have my parents there.” She further contrasted her feeling of being a legitimate citizen in China and an international student in the United States, “China is like your mother; America is like your parents-in-law. You left your own home and you become a member of a new family” Would this new family of parents-in-law generate the same feeling of home? Hillary did not give an answer. But, perhaps only people who have the experience of living together with parents-in-law could offer a satisfactory answer. Home-searching and longing for home, the journey has just begun.

Heidegger discusses “forgetting of Being” (Moran, 2000) and states that, “forgetfulness is actually a positive phenomenon, a mode of relating, which reveals Being and brings it to presence in its own special way” (p. 196). Studying abroad is a learning experience of forgetting who you are. Yet, this forgetfulness of who we are opens up our hearts to embrace the unknown and to expand the frontier of our being. Forgetting of being frees us from our present being of living in the United States and the past being of living in China. The forgetfulness transcends a current level of being to an upper dimension that is connected through human soul. The forgetfulness heals the fragmented heart and encourages it to look at the world with a new eye. The new being reveals and reinvigorates the spirit across race and ethnicity transcending race, class, and gender. It creates unity.

Home-searching should not be a journey unique to international students. People native to the culture need home as well. Having a place that you could comfortably call home warms a lonely heart, completes the yet-known humanity, and nurtures authenticity. Home is feeling that familiarizes one and make one become authentic, grounded in the authentic being of self. If human nature has an authentic root to it, human life is meant to live authentically. Home-searching is a race that all human beings should be engaged in on a global scale. Regardless of a person’s race and ethnicity, he or she deserves a home. For international students, until they could be surrounded by people with whom they could engage in authentic conversations, home in a foreign place would just be a dream.

As international students continue their home-searching journey, at an international level, home is a collective effort co-created by people living in the planet. Humans should take a break from the busyness and the inauthenticity of our everyday life to engage in more authentic moments by demonstrating genuine care. The world would eventually become a more homely and peaceful environment by having more people dwelling in the presence of authentic moments. Everyone will then have a place called home.