An unfamiliar place

A Chapter by Serena Tan

This was an unfamiliar place where everything started!

Chapter 1: An unfamiliar place

My heart was beating so hard with the highest point of excitement I’d ever felt in my whole life.
I was walking through a crowded and noisy wide line. My left hand was pulling a heavy travel-bag. My eyes looked around into the crowd, trying to find a chubby woman in the picture, which was tightly held in my right hand.
I was quite short for a 17-year-old, so that I could hardly looked over a sea of heads to my host-mother; jumping barely helped at all. The international airport was really nice, but I didn’t have time to consume that kind of environment right now. My host-mother must be waiting somewhere in the crowd. I wanted to find her as soon as possible. I was really keen to go to my new home in Washington.
And then I saw her, a chubby American with short red hair holding a sign which bore a nice monogram “Xin Tan”.
“Excuse me!” I yelled loudly, and waded as fast as I could through a sea of people to her. “Excuse me, ma’am,”
The chubby woman turned to me. “Are you…”
“Xin Tan, ma’am,” I introduced myself. “I suppose you are Ms. Newton?”
“Call me Susan,” my host-mother smiled sweetly. “Well, welcome to Washington, Xin.”

“Thank you, Susan,” I smiled back, feeling so warm by her cozy welcome.

“You’re prettier than I expected,” Susan said.
We were now sitting in a black car. My host-mother was driving.
“Thank you,” I replied in a bashful tone.
“You know, this is my first time hosting an exchange student. You’re my first one!”
“I’m glad to have you as a host-mother.”
Susan laughed. “You’re so sweet, Xin.”
I looked out of the window, watching the picture of the unfamiliar surrounding passing by.
I was an exchange student from Thailand, whose family was entirely Chinese. My Chinese name, Xin, meant “New”.
“So, there’s your new home,” Susan said, pointing her free hand at a medium-sized house in front. “Hope it’s okay for you.”
“Sure, it is,” I replied sincerely. The house was neither big nor luxury, but it was nice and full of coziness.
Susan pulled the car into a white garage, and hit the break.
“Welcome to Newton’s residence,” she said proudly.
I walked out of the car, and looked around. There was a small garden in front of the house; it was full of beautiful flowers and plants.
“Gardening is my hobby,” Susan spoke. “Do you like my garden?”
I nodded. “Yes, Susan. I like it very much.”
Susan giggled like a high school girl. “I’m glad to hear that from you, Xin.” She walked to the back seat of the car, and pulled out my pink travel-bag.
I put my hands out to grasp the bag. “Let me…”
“No, no,” she turned my bag aside. “I’ll help you with this. You just get inside the house, and look around. Make yourself used to it.”
I hesitated. She was quite an old woman. I didn’t really think it was a good idea to let her hold such a heavy bag, but as she insisted to do it, there was nothing I could do; I walked into the house.

“Wow,” I exclaimed softly. The house was full of beautiful flowers and creative portraits. The wall was painted pink, and almost everything in the house was in bright color. The scenery made me feel Susan’s good-natured and happy personality.

“I really like bright colors, especially pink.” Susan spoke, having a little trouble pulling my bag.
“Susan, let me…”
“I’m okay,” she refused my offer even before I made it.
I sighed. “I like pink, too.”
“Your travel-bag is pink,” she gave a short glance at my bag. “I really love pink every much!”
“I can see that,” I smiled. “Your house is pink.”

Susan nodded happily.

“And here is your room,” Susan opened a pink door, showing me a nice bedroom.
“Hope it’s not too small for you,”
“No, not at all!” I spoke at once. I admitted that the room was really small, but it was kind of cute and warm.
I didn’t really believe that I’d be appreciate if the room she showed me was a colossus luxury room; big rooms always made us feel lonely, especially if we stayed inside there alone in a foreign country whose culture and tradition were polar opposite to our native ones.
“Thank you very much,” I added. “This room is really perfect.”
“I just wanna make sure you really like it. Don’t forget that it’s gonna be your bedroom for the entire year.”
“Really, it’s perfect,” I insisted, nodding my head firmly.
She pulled my bag inside. “Okay, I believe you.” She turned to me. “Should you want anything else, please let me know.”
“Huh?” My ears were widened. “Sorry, but could you repeat the last sentence, please?”
“I said, should you want anything else, please let me know.” She spoke very slowly, accenting every single words clearly, but problems still occurred in my head.
“Sorry, ma’am, but I don’t understand the sentence.” I stammered shamefully. It was my first day in The United States of America, and I couldn’t understand what my host-mother said.
Oh, dear! I had already lost my confident. I didn’t really believe that staying in the English-speaking country was easy for me anymore.
“Don’t be sorry,” Susan shook her head. “English is not your native language, Xin. It’s okay if you don’t understand some of the sentences. Well, if I tell you, if you want anything else, please let me know, do you understand?”
I nodded.
“The meaning of this sentence is equal to that of what you don’t understand.”
“Okay,” I tried to remember the structure of that sentence.
“Should you have any question, let me know,” she grinned.
I laughed a bit. “Okay, Susan. Now, I understand it.”
“That’s good,” she walked outside the room. “Now, I think I should give you some personal time. I’m going downstairs to prepare lunch. And I want you to come down for lunch by twelve o’clock sharp.”
I nodded. “Okay, Susan, twelve o’clock sharp.”

She gave me another cozy smile, before closing the door.

I’d already kept all my cloths in the plastic wardrobe. I sat down on the bed, having a rest.
I looked out of the window. I was now in the U.S., and I was going to be here for one whole year; it meant that I wouldn’t have a chance to see anyone in my family for one long year; I wouldn’t have a chance to hug my dad, kiss my mom, or play with my little dog, Buddy.
I shook my head vigorously, trying to push those pictures away from my mind. It really helped nothing but making me feel even worse. Staying in this country was cool, but I just needed some times to make myself used to it.

“I just wish I could get used to it soon,” I murmured to myself. But this was only the first day, though. It was still quite a long way to go.

“Are you sure you don’t want anything else?”
Susan broke the silence, looking at my dish. “You’ve only eaten a few pieces of chickens, and half of a burger.”
“I’m really full,” I said the truth. I admitted that I only ate a little, but my stomach was stubborn today. It seemed to have stopped producing enzyme. I didn’t feel hungry at all.
“You don’t like the food?” she asked anxiously.
“No, Susan,” I abruptly replied. “The food was really perfect, but I just used to eat rice and spicy soup for lunch, so I needed some times for my body to adapt to this new kind of meal.”
Susan nodded her head. “I understand,” she said and went on with her lunch.
There was a long silence.
“You are quite a humble girl, Xin,” Susan spoke at last.
I smiled a bit. “Well, I’m not that humble, Susan. Speaking English is a hard task for me.”
“So, you still don’t feel very comfortable speaking English?”
“Not exactly,” I said. “I like the English language very much, but I just feel a bit of pressure speaking it all the time.”
Susan laughed, creating better environment. “That’s called UNCOMFORTABLE, dear.”
I opened my mouth in order to say something, but my brain was lack of appropriate English words. I sorrily closed my mouth, and used the international language, smile.
Maybe, Susan was right. I really felt uncomfortable speaking English.
“But I want you to keep talking,” she said, looking at my gloomy face. “Don’t worry about grammar or anything! Just speak it out, and I’ll help you speak the right way.”
I nodded. “Thank you very much, Susan. You know, you really make me feel much better.”
Susan giggled in her young-lady style. It was amusing seeing an old lady laughing this way, but I decided not to show it out. I knew that she wouldn’t like it, and it’s really going to be terrible if I made my host-mother feel bad on the first day I stayed under her roof.
“Oh, yeah! I almost have forgotten about that,” Susan exclaimed out loud.
“About what?”
Susan stood up, and walked to her drawers in the corner of the dining room. She opened the top drawer, and took out one big plastic bag. The way she carried it, and her crimpled face clearly showed the heaviness of the bag. It must be really very heavy.
She placed it down on the table, gasping.
“May I know what it is?” I looked through the transparent bag, and saw a big set of thick books lying tidily inside.
“All the additional books you need for your grade,” she replied. “I’ve already got all of them for you.”
“Wow!” I exclaimed. “Thanks a lot!”
Indeed, I was very scared of school. I had been studying in Thai school for about 14 years, from kindergarten to grade 10, and was really afraid that I might not understand American lecturers. Having all those books with me would really help me get myself more prepared. At least, I could use my talking-dictionary in my bag pack to learn all the academic words I didn’t know before going to real classes.
“Are you gonna read them?” Susan asked. Her eyes showed a vivid sign of encouragement.
“Sure,”
She seemed to be very satisfied by my answer.
“Good!” she gave me a big approving grin. “I like hard-working students. You know, I was a high school teacher. If you find any problem studying, just let me know. I’ll help you.”

I remembered this was approximately the third time she offered me her nice help. It was good, really good. I needed lots of helps.

I was sitting inside my room with a thick book opened on the table right in front of me. It wasn’t as hard as I thought. I rarely used my talking-dictionary. I understood most of the academic words appeared in the book.
I was reading history, my favorite subject. I had not learned much about American history at school. But it wasn’t very complicating. I still considered it as understandable.
My eyes started to feel inching with sleepiness. I rubbed them, and yawned.
“I’m so sleepy,” I whispered as I closed the book, and switched off the light.

I’d already finished brushing my teeth, and taking a shower. So, I was now in the pajamas, ready to go to bed.

I’d been turning myself left and right and left and right for hundreds of times, but I still couldn’t force myself to fall asleep. It was really weird. I felt sleepy, but I couldn’t do anything else but lying on the bed with the eyelids shut. My consciousness was still active. I heard the sound of wind, which was now blowing through the open window to touch my skin. I could taste an unfamiliar taste of my new toothpaste, which was hastily and carelessly purchased at the International Airport in Thailand.
The only sense that wasn’t used right now was my optical nerve, as my eyes were tightly closed. I could see nothing else but darkness. I think the reason why I couldn’t fall asleep was because of the picture of my beloved family that was fixed in my mind. This was only the first day I was away from home, but I couldn’t resist the force to think of them.
I tried every way to make my mind fall into unconsciousness. And at last, I decided to give up.

“Oh, dear!” I exclaimed, sitting up. I walked back to the desk, and turned the light on. I opened the book, and continued to read.

BANG! BANG! BANG! The thundering sound came into my ears. I jerked awake, and found myself still sitting in front of the table with my head leaning on it. The book was not yet closed. I couldn’t remember when I fell asleep. I shook my head a bit in order to get rid of the dizziness.
BANG! BANG! BANG! The sound continued to thunder. It took me a short moment to realize where the sound was from.
I immediately ran to the pink door, and swung it open.
“Good morning, Xin,” Susan’s smile was just like a shiny sun.
I put my hand up to block my mouth as I greeted her back. “Good morning, Susan,” I still hadn’t brushed my teeth yet, so I wasn’t confident enough to talk to anyone.
Susan seemed to notice that. “Still haven’t brushed your teeth?” she jeered playfully.
“Yep,” I nodded.
“I just wanna tell you that we’re not gonna have breakfast at home,” she said.
I blinked in astonishment. “Why?”
“Because,” her smile was widened, “We’re gonna have something delicious at the breakfast shop near here before…going to have a nice tour around Washington, D.C.!”
“Really!?” My hand suddenly dropped. I was very happy.
Susan pointed at my dropped hand. I quickly put it at the same place, looking at her shamefully.
“Yeah,” she replied and looked at her silver watch. “I give you fifteen minutes to dress up. Don’t be late, okay?”
I nodded enthusiastically. Having a tour around Washington, D.C. was something I’d been dreaming of for a long time, and I was going to have a chance to do so today, just less than an hour from now.
“Good,” Susan said before closing the door for me.

“Yes!” I shouted happily, and ran into the bathroom at once.

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