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2008/7/24 Settling DownI should've updated here earlier, since it has been almost 5 days since I landed on America, but the unpacking was unexpectedly time-consuming and my pace was kept very slow by the inconvinience of not owning a car.
It was the longest trip I have ever had in my life (11 hours from Beijing to San Francisco, then 4 hours from San Francisco to Atlanta, plus the hours I spend on airports), fortunately, everything went on quite well.
The guy who checked in for me at beijing airport was unexpectedly nice, when he found that we were hometown mates, he actually exempted me from paying half of the penalty for my excess baggages.
Luck stayed with me to SFO. I didn't know that agricultural products were not allowed to bring into the states until I saw the customs declaration on plane, so I had more than 1 pounds of dried agricultural food, all given by my grandma, in my baggage. Some one on the plane told me that I could either throw them away and tick "no" to "whether i bring vegetables and food" on the form, or I tick "yes", and let customs officers give me some special check, which would probably last for a time long enough to miss my next flight from SFO to ATL, or I could also tick "no" and still keep my food, but take the risk of being caught lying in customs declaration and got all my stuff seized or even pay a big amount of penalty. I didn't want to throw my grandma's gift away, but nor I want my baggage opend before I finally arrived. It took my mom a week to compress everything and put them in order. So I decided to take the risk. It was hard at SFO airport, I have 3 suitcases, all together weigh 1 times more than myself. I could hardly move my baggage barrow. As soon as I stood in line outside the security counter, a black officer walked to me and checked my declaration, and asked me to follow him to another area where no one was there. I used to hear that Chinese always got some special check in the US customs, so I thought "well, this is it! maybe I should prepare for the blame and penalty for grandama's illegal presents". Instead of openning my baggage, the officer asked me to show him my bank draft. I then realized that it was my tick on "yes I bring more than $10,000 cash or equivalent financial instrument" that caught his attention. He then asked me to follow him to here and there, but didn't even offer to help on my heavy baggages. That was the hardest part in this trip. My arms still aches! After he finished a long record on his computer, he finally sent me to another officer who seemed in charge of checking the baggages. That officer just asked me whether I brought any meat, I said no, and he just let me pass. My "illegal food" finally entered America safely. One thing I noticed at SFO airport was there were so many Asians. They work in different positions, speak English with heavy Asian accent. I was a little surprised cause I didn't really expect to meet so many people who spoke english even worse than I did here.
Then everything just went on as planed, my flight landed on ATL on time, I found the pick up person easily, then here I am, at a place called clairmont campus, a campus of Emory University, in Atlanta.
Environment here is great. Trees are everywhere. I can see a forest through my window. Day time lasts from as early as 7 am to around 8 pm. I like long day times. My roommate is a 22-year old black pretty girl. I like pretty girls. People are friendly.
Till now, I've met most of Chinese students and become good friends with some of them. There were 2 girls who seem like clubbing more than I do. I also met some Indians, a Thailander, a Japanese, a Clumbia couple, a Salvadorean, a Serbian and my american friend here. It's interesting to talk to people from different cultures. My roommate and I talked a lot and I found that actully Americans hold very similar opinion with Chinese in stuff like relationship, career, etc.
Transportation is a pain in my neck. It's very inconvinient not having a car here. I haven't seen any cab yet, and nor much public transportation vehicles. When I lived in Beijing, I went downstairs and there were KFC, MCdonnald's, supermarkets, everything, but here, I can't find any store, even a softdrink vendor nearby. I had to take some shuttle bus to a place called Publix to get some food, or to share a ride to further places, such as Wal-mart, Asian food market. I already felt boring here, cause it's too quiet. We don't live in downtown, what's around us are pretty houses, trees, clean but empty roads. I'm a city girl, I miss when I got out of my office and went east, there was sanlitun, went north, there was Very Siam resturant, went west, there was xidan with big shopping malls, went south I arrived home, and when I went to underground floor, there was subway that can take me to almost everywhere in Beijing. Here, firstly, I can't tell directions, secondly, no matter where I go, there is only quietness. People said there were many fun places at downtown, but without a car, downtown seems like at another planet.
There are many many black people in Atlanta. I can't tell whether it's black accent or southern accent, but some people are really hard to understand, especially those shop assistants and drivers. I am working on it, it won't be a big problem.
Yesterday I went to a shop called CVS (dunno what it's short for) to develop some pictures. There I found an "advanced" machine. As a foreigner, my face become very thick. I ask everything that I don't know. So there in the shop, I found a photo developing machine. You just need to plug your USB or digital camera in, and click buttuns step by step, then you get your photo developed. I had never seen that before and I became quite excited about this cool machine, I asked a shop assistant to teach me how to use it (felt like a baby), and even asked could I take a picture of the machine, cause I wanna show it to my friends in China. I must looked very silly, but I don't care.
There were many other things I did, such as openning an account in Bank of America, going to social security office to get rejection letter so that I could get a Georgia driving license...things are getting clearer and better (I was totally confused on my first day here).
So much for the update. I am going to wal-mart and IKEA again tonight to get some decoration stuff for my room. Those pictures I developed were pictures of you guys and me, I put them on the wall beside my mirror, so I can see you and think of you every day. Believe it or not, this is my first time to put pictures of my friends on my wall, looks pretty good. 2008/7/18 LeavingI am leaving for the US today. Yes, there is a long story behind, started from last April, but I will save it till I settle down in Atlanta where I will start a whole new life in Goizueta business school, Emory university.
I used to say in one essay here that Beijing is a fun place, but not my place. Now I wanna make a revice: Beijing is a fun place indeed, and also my place.
I used to feel homeless: it felt like taking a business trip when I visited my hometown changsha. There were so many places and streets that I was not familiar with, I couldn't visit around freely without a taxi. I've been living in Beijing for 8 years but I had never taken it as my home cause I always have to share apartment with other people, I spent almost every mid-autumn day with friends or alone, instead of with my family as it supposed to be, I had to deal with everythinig all by myself, I knew that there was no one that I could count on because this was not where my home is.
Yesterday I came back to Beijing after spending a month in my hometown. I suddenly realized that I love this city more than I had thought. This is the place where I grew up from a simple-minded little girl to a much maturer and more experienced woman (although still not mature and experienced enough). This is the place where I made great friends who changed my attitude to the world, to friendship, to love, to everything. This is the place where I gradually know more about myself and explored what I really want (dunno the final answer yet, still working on it).
About my hometown, yes, this city has changed so much that I sometimes feel that except the dialect there is nothing I know about it. However, as long as there is family there, there is a reason I always save a significant place for it in my heart.
It's people that makes a place home. My family makes changsha my home forever, these great friends I am so lucky to meet make Beijing my another amazing home.
There is too much thank you to say here, but no need to make it as an academy award thankyou speech. I already knew for years that this day would come sooner or later and a simple "thank you" is way from enough to express my appreciation.
I love you all my dear friends, see you soon, and have fun! |
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