Dear ASSE teachers,
How are you doing now? I have been in America for about one month.
Sometimes, I think everything that happened is a dream, an amazing
dream. I left my parents, my teachers, my best friends in China,
and came to America by myself. Everything I have to try, and
everybody I have to get on well with. I think it is a new experience
for me in my life.
This one month, I lived with my host family in Topeka, Kansas, U.S.
. My host parents are very nice to me. My host mother is a very kind
woman. She has to get up very early in the morning to drive me to school
everyday, and picks me up after school. I appreciate her very much. My
host father is very humorous. He usually tells jokes to me. They taught
me lots of things I haven’t done them before: I was taught how to cook
noodles, how to sweep the floor and how to wash my bathroom by my host
mother. My host father taught me how to paint the house, how to pull out
the weeds in the garden, and how to edit photos on the computer. I lived
with them very happily.
Before I went to formal school here, we had a group of exchange students
came from other countries. We studied together. We went to lots of fun
places, such as an amusement park named Worlds of Fun, the museum of combat
planes, the capital building of Kansas and other interesting places. We
enjoyed ourselves very much. But after that, all of us had to leave here
to go to another host family in another state. Because of my visa, I had
not been placed with my next host family in America at that time. I had to
stay in my host family in Topeka, Kansas, and waited for the information
about my next host family.
My school’s name is Topeka High School. It is a very good school here. I
began to study in this school on Aug. 22nd. The study here is quite different
from China. The school begins at 8o’clock in the morning, and ends at 3o’clock
in the afternoon. I needed to choose 8 subjects which I wanted to study. The
teachers and students are very friendly to me, and I have made lots of new
friends in my school. There are some other exchange students from other countries.
I have a party with exchanges students after school every Wednesday.
The afternoon of the day before yesterday, my host parents told me they had
found my next host family in West Virginia. So I have to move there soon. It is
so sudden for me. Even though I knew I had to move to another host family sooner
or later, I still could not accept the truth. My host parents and I cried very
seriously. They gave me hugs, and told me it maybe a good experience for me. That
night, I cried more seriously in my bed. I didn’t fall asleep until 2o’clock in
the morning. I needed time to accept that. I really don’t want to move away, and
my host parents didn’t want me to leave them. I knew that they would be very busy
this year. They would go to Turkey, so they don’t have enough time to take care
of me. I believe I will miss them very much after I move to my new host family. I
call them “Dad” and “Mom”, they call me “Sonny”. I am very happy with them!
My new host family lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia, U.S. . The city is very
close to Washington D.C. . My new host mother is a single mother. Her son, Samuel
is 16 years old as I am. There is another exchange student who comes from Germany.
He is also 16. I think it will be very interesting in my new host family. I have
to fly there on 2:30 p.m. September 18th. My life in America is very happy. I believe
it will be better in the future.
By the way, I have a photo album on the Internet. If you have time, you can go there and
have a look. There are many photos about my new life in America .
My photo album’s address is tiffany_530.photo.163.com.
Thank you very much!
Best wishes to you!!!
Sincerely,
Quan Zhang
9/13/2006 
