Dear Dad and Mom,
The semester is already half over, and the fall term wraps up in mid-December.
Right now, exams are starting to pile up, and I expect I'll have tests every week from now on. On one of my recent exams, there wasn't nearly enough time, and the questions weren't easy, so I only managed to finish about half of them. I honestly thought I'd completely blown it. The exam was worth 75 points, and I ended up scoring 42. Fortunately, because everyone did so poorly, the professor had to adjust the total down to 50 points. That turned my score into a 42 out of 50, which actually isn't bad at all!
My apartment lease is up at the end of February. I could renew it, but if possible, I'd really like to move somewhere else and have an American roommate. It would force me to use English every day and help me understand American culture better. The university's International Office runs a program called PALS (Partnerships to Advance Language Study), which pairs international students with Americans to promote friendships and practice language skills. I signed up and was paired with Sarah. We meet once a week just to chat, and we've been doing it for about four weeks now.
A week ago, I bought a used color TV for $120. It's practically brand new—even the plastic wrap is still on the remote control! It's a Samsung from South Korea, so the quality is pretty good. Since I haven't had cable hooked up, it can only pick up about seven or eight local channels. I especially enjoy watching comedy shows called sitcoms.
1 They seem very popular here. Each episode is only about half an hour long, which fits perfectly into my busy schedule. Most importantly, they're very funny and always make me laugh.
October 31st was Halloween, which is a pretty big deal here in America. I'm not entirely sure how to translate it into Chinese—maybe
Wànshèng Jié (万圣节)—but it's essentially a ghost festival. The story goes that on Halloween night, ghosts come back to haunt people. American children dress up in costumes and go door-to-door trick-or-treating for candy, while adults put on scary or elaborate outfits and take part in street parades. Lately, television has been full of ghost stories, and people buy pumpkins to carve faces into them. I imagine Dad probably knows a little about all this already.
2
Today, I rushed to finish up a roll of film and got it developed so I could include the photos with this letter. Because I've been so busy, I haven't had much time to take pictures, and there hasn't been anyone around to take photos of me. Getting film developed is incredibly expensive here—it costs as much as $15! Photos 14 through 21 show the apartment where I'm living; 22 through 28 are a few spots around campus; and 29 through 33 were taken inside my room. Photo 34 is the outside of my apartment building, and 35 and 36 are of the supermarket where I've been doing my grocery shopping lately.
Some good news: Chun finally received her transcripts, so she's busy putting together her applications. She's applying to five or six graduate schools, including UT. I check in with her by email every now and then.
Take care,
Tong
11/05/95
P.S. My wristwatch stopped working, and I still haven't bought a new one. It's not that I can't afford one—I just can't justify spending that much money on a watch. A digital watch only costs a few yuan back home, but here it runs between $20 and $30.