I still remember the first day I met Eva and Weixin––one of the first friends I made at Amherst. We were sitting at the lounge of Bank of America, waiting to open our bank accounts. I learned that Eva is an exchange student from Yonsei University and Weixin is from Japan.
That day was kinda hectic for me… Since it was the start of the semester, many students came to open their accounts. I had to wait for nearly an hour, so by the time I had my appointment, it clashed with my course selection period. Thus, I had to pick courses from my phone and unfortunately, I encountered a system error… After opening the account, I rushed out of the bank and didn’t have time to tell Eva and Weixin what happened. (Eva later told me that I looked very worried. I WAS INDEED.) Thankfully, the problem was resolved after I got back to my dorm.
In the evening, I met Eva and Weixin again and I began telling the story. They also shared their highlights of the day. I could not remember what we talked about exactly, but these incidences pulled us closer. In the following days of orientation, we began forming our first memories of Amherst, of studying in the U.S.: the weird tipping culture, the stiff white rice at Val, the crowded Uber…
As the semester began, our trio group expanded into a family. Together, we created more memories and many of them are my first time ever in life. The Fortune Cookie I got at Miss Saigon explained everything:
Our most frequent social event is cooking. I never thought I would cook this often in college. (Now I know nearly all the dorms that have kitchens and what kinds of pots and sauces they have lol.) And it turns out to be one of my favorite activities to spend time with friends.
Time went by so fast… It is the end of the year––the time for people to reunite with their families, but for us, it is also the time to part… We joked that next semester, we won’t be friends with exchange students because it is sad to part after a semester… 😉 (jk we will be very nice to all exchange students hhh) The day Eva left, some of us woke up early in the morning to see her away. It was freezing, but I felt warmer having these lovely people around me. Eva really wanted to see us cry, but none of us did hhh. I guessed it was because all our memories were too happy and we knew that we would see each other again someday.
Until we meet again…❤️
