Starting to Feel Like Home

Dear Dad and Mom, I've finally moved into my own apartment! My new address is: 8 Koster Blvd. Apt. 3A Edison, NJ 08837 U.S.A. Phone: 908-906-2487 This phone line is entirely my own, so you can call whenever you like without having to worry about roommates. I hit the road from Austin on July 4th, America's Independence Day. My friend Xun suddenly backed out a few days before the trip, but luckily I found Emma, another classmate of mine, who wanted to tag along, do some sightseeing, and meet up with her friends in New York. The drive took seven days, but we didn't push ourselves too hard—especially toward the end, when we took a detour to camp in a national forest and go swimming at the beach. We even found our way to Chinatown in Washington, D.C., where I had ginger and scallion lobster for the second time. We had a great time. The car didn't give us any trouble at all during the entire 2,500-mile trip. I drove roughly two-thirds of the distance. Throughout the drive I stayed in touch with Wei Jin, and I'm really grateful for all the effort he put into finding my apartment. We finally arrived in New Jersey on the night of July 11th and stayed at Wei Jin's place for three nights before picking up the keys to my apartment on the afternoon of the 14th. The apartment is surprisingly spacious. The neighborhood is really nice. It's just a two-minute walk to a local park, and driving to a nearby mall only takes a few minutes. One day, Wei Jin took us to a nearby Chinese grocery store, and he was pretty amused by our jaw-dropping reaction when we walked in. It was at least ten times bigger than the one in Austin. They even had mouthwatering hot food served all day. Apparently, Edison has a large Chinese population. Lately, I’ve been busy showing Emma around and helping her meet up with her friends, which is why I haven't found a moment to write to you. We recently took the train into New York City. The ride from my place to Manhattan takes about forty minutes. The conductors walk through the train constantly checking tickets, so it actually feels much safer than the subway. While we were in the city, I showed Emma Morgan Stanley's headquarters, right in the heart of Times Square, as well as the building where I'll be working—a 36-story glass tower on Seventh Avenue. Seeing it made me even more excited about starting my new job. We also drove to West Point, home of the U.S. Military Academy, and the campus is absolutely beautiful. Yesterday and the day before, we went out to the Delaware River for kayaking, camping, and paintball with her friends. Paintball is a mock combat game, not with real bullets, obviously, but with little capsules filled with colored dye that burst open on impact, splashing color all over you. It was tremendous fun. Those paintballs fly really fast—they really sting when they hit you! Today, Emma and I went to check out Princeton. Since moving in, Emma has been a huge help in getting the place furnished. We picked up a queen-sized bed from BJ's—a giant wholesale club—and a dining table and two chairs from IKEA. The bed was too big to fit in the Corolla, so we had to tie it to the roof of the car. As we drove gingerly home on local roads, we took a wrong turn in the midst of confusion and ended up on a high-speed toll road with a queen-sized bed strapped to the roof of a compact sedan—not exactly ideal. Driving in New Jersey is nothing like driving in Texas. The roads here are a maze of highways, traffic circles, and jughandles that make absolutely no sense until you get used to them. Anyway, I'll gradually pick up other things as I go, but at least the apartment no longer feels empty—it's starting to feel like home. We took quite a few photos over the past few weeks, about seventy or so, and I'll mail some negatives to you in a couple of days. I even made sure to include the car in two of the pictures. Oh, by the way, the moving company has already delivered all my stuff, and everything arrived in perfect condition. More next time—it's about time for me to head to bed. Love, Tong 07/21/97