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Tammy Ren's blue tent. A life by the sea and a dream in the clouds.
How far is 7012 miles? A flight at 500mph would take me 14 hours; a drive at 70mph would take me 100 hours; a ride at 14mph would take me 500 hours; a walk at 3.5mph would take me 2000 hours. If I could travel with light, it would only take me 0.038 seconds; even the sun needs 13 hours. A better choice than light is my mind.
The year of 2003 has been a fabulous year in my life. I graduated after four-year college life and started a new four-year study abroad. In January I studied for my last finals at Tsinghua in the smaller study room of the old library. Winter vacation came in February; I visited my grandmothers who live in the northern cities and celebrated the Chinese New Year with my family. In March I devoted my hard work to a part-time job instead of my dissertation in the expense of my health. I received the offer letters in April and I decided to be a Dukie. My application for the U.S. visa was approved in May. I started two websites using Frontpage, one for my class and one for myself. June is the season of graduation, everything was beautiful and touching. All the good memories came up when I was trying to leave. Graduated with a B.S.E.E. degree in July, I left Tsinghua University and Beijing, the place where I spent four colorful years. Six huge boxes were all things I had to send home. ThuClimbing Team achieved a huge success that summer. After returning to Dalian, my hometown, I spent a week with my mother's mother. I hope she could visit U.S. one day. In August I left my home country and arrived at Duke after a twenty-hour flight. Everything was new to me. I still remember clearly that I sniffed at the two month cultural shock period printed on one of I-house's handouts. Less than two month later I discovered that the cultural differences are very likely to follow me, a foreigner, for my whole life. At the beginning of September I was assigned the TA of a course taught by my advisor. The first steps are always the most difficult, especially for a foreigner, especially for one who had very limited work experience. In October I bought a used car and learnt driving. The first day I practiced driving in a parking lot; the second day around the campus; the third day on a highway; and the fourth day from Durham to Wilmington. I finally got my driver's license on the last day of that month. Later on, I paid a weekend-long visit to Boston in November. At the end of that month, I had a better understanding of the relationship between living and safe driving. My first winter vacation in North America came in December. From Monterey to Quebec, I enjoyed the sunshine, the snow and the reunion with old friends.
