As clichéd as the phrase is, I really feel as if it was yesterday that I just arrived in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States.

I can remember exactly the trepidation and anticipation I felt when the plane touched down in Beantown, knowing naught of Americanisms but for the information I garnered from watching television and books and films.

It was snowing that day, and the roads were covered with slush. The taxi driver who took my friend and I to the hotel looked all sorts of menacing, and I remember being worried about guns and kidnappings during my first trip into the city.

How sad that this particular stereotype of the US robbed me of my fascination of traveling into the city that I will call my home for the next four years.

Spring in Boston Common!

That first week I arrived in Emerson College as a Writing, Literature and Publishing freshman, I was painfully self-conscious about the fact that I stood out like a sore thumb from the Boston community.

My yellow skin contrasted with the whites, blacks and browns; my accent was unplaceable as it fit into neither classification; everyone I saw on the street seemed to stare at me unwelcomingly.

As I recall it now, I must have been such an awkward person during orientation! I think I was exceedingly shy as everyone’s seemingly perfect English was a huge intimidation. For some reason, my grip on the spoken language was not very firm the first few weeks I arrived – a problem I never encountered before when I was in Malaysia.

My speech was halting as I hesitated a lot while speaking, I tried to speak with a slight accent thinking that they will understand me better (I know I sounded the weirdest during this period), and I just seemed to keep saying and doing the wrong things.

But now here I am, sitting in the airport waiting on a flight with some slight reluctance. After enduring 4 months of cruel Boston winter, Boston was no longer coated in white but was a beautiful wash of colour.

People were beginning to lounge and tan (amongst other interesting activities) in the Boston Common, and I was just beginning to wear my spring clothes when I already have to leave.

I fell in love with the beautiful New England architecture – brick walls and quaint houses and preserved churches and modern glass structures – and have gotten used to the various quirks of American English. B

efore I came I thought I had a tremendous amount of adjusting and changing to do before I could assimilate myself into my new college community. But perhaps due to the influence of American tv drama, fitting in for me was just a matter of remembering to say ‘elevator’ instead of ‘lift’, ‘washroom’ instead of ‘toilet’, ‘broken’ instead of ‘spoilt’.

One quickly realizes that being a student here is really not that different or that difficult. Like any social environment, one just has to get to know the people and the place. One day soon, without even realizing it, you’ll already be one of them.

Emerson Tradition: Pre-exam Late Night Buffet!

The grass in Boston is not really greener, just of a different kind. The people in Boston rush from destination to destination, as I’ve noticed that I unconsciously now do unless I remind myself to slow down. Boston drivers are crazy.

Boston is ________. Of course experiencing a city cannot be explained so simply, or even be described at all, but I’m trying to continue to know and feel more while I’m here to fill in more descriptions into that little line.

It’s little geographical quirks like these that I love to find out when traversing borders. And I can’t wait to find out more in the next three years I will be here.