Dear Dad and Mom,
I'm sure the previous letter I sent with the negatives hasn't been lost. It’s probably just taking a little longer than usual to arrive. It'll turn up if you give it a little more time, just like that New Year's card did.
1 There are nearly thirty negatives in that envelope, mostly from my trip to Houston last year and my recent trip to Atlantic City. By the way, Atlantic City is the gambling town. It's not Atlanta, where they're hosting the Olympics. Have you been watching the games? They rarely broadcast events featuring the Chinese teams here. Tonight is the closing ceremony.
I have three weeks left before I head back to Austin. Work has been going really smoothly, and I've made great progress—I've already finished developing two software programs. They've even asked me to come back and work for another month over winter break. I haven't given them a definitive answer yet because I don't know what my plans will be. We'll just have to see how things play out.
As for my decision on Ph.D., I'm still on the fence. My last letter might have caused a bit of a misunderstanding. Generally speaking, a Ph.D. narrows the kinds of jobs you can pursue. Bell Labs is primarily a research institution, so naturally they value advanced degrees and only hire international students with doctorates. However, most companies prefer hiring people with bachelor's or master's degrees over Ph.D.s. In other words, getting a Ph.D. often means limiting yourself to universities, major corporations, or research labs. Next semester, I plan to take three more classes to see whether any specific field catches my interest or whether I can find a suitable advisor.
Two weeks ago, about thirty Chinese employees at AT&T, myself included, organized an outing. It took us about three to four hours to drive there. On the first day, we went camping, where we barbecued outdoors and slept inside tents in our sleeping bags. I actually forgot how to write the Chinese characters for "tent" and had to look them up in an English-Chinese dictionary! I'm getting rusty when it comes to writing Chinese.
The second day was canoeing. Jim and I shared a boat, and we were supposed to paddle down the Delaware River for a full six hours. The river is very wide, and we were all wearing life jackets. Just twenty minutes after we started, our canoe flipped, and both of us—along with all our food—fell right into the water! Fortunately, it was summer and the water wasn't too cold. We got completely soaked and managed to swim about fifty meters to reach the riverbank. I ended up hitching a ride in someone else's canoe for the rest of the journey. I was much more cautious after that incident and managed to stay dry, but it was still a lot of fun. In fact, that was the first time I'd ever gone swimming in America, though certainly not by choice! I keep teasing Jim that I saved his life because I helped him out of the water.
Wishing you both good health,
Tong
08/04/96