Jasmine: What was your first day in America like?

Wai: I was very happy because it was the first time I traveled so far from Hong Kong. I was going on a vacation to Los Angeles in California and I’d never been to America before. It was a new experience for me so I was really eager to get off the plane and start exploring.

J: What year was this? How old were you?

W: It was 1987. I was 23 years old.

J: How did you feel when you arrived? What did you do?

W: I was really excited to explore such a new place. I was visiting my friends who had just moved to America. My friends picked me up at LAX and I remember on the drive from the airport I thought that everything was so different. Los Angeles was nothing like Hong Kong. The space was so open and the streets were less crowded compared to Hong Kong. There was so much space. My friends and I were broke at the time so I slept on their couch in their studio apartment. My first day was kind of boring because I was jet lagged from the flight so I just stayed at my friend’s house for the rest of the day, but I wanted to see everything and eat everything. The food was such a culture shock, like the hamburgers and hot dogs. Nothing like the food I was used to. The first day was boring but the most memorable part of that trip was when we drove to San Francisco and slept in the car.