The semester is more than half-over, and I’m getting more and more used to everything here. A telling sign: A routine phone call home that used to last 30 minutes has devolved to short sentences: “Yes, Mom, I’m fine. Everything’s good! I’m so busy! Listen, I have to go now, bye!” Life is easier, but school is not.

My friends sometimes call me asking if I have fun here in Boston. Of course I do not. There’s plenty of fun to explore, only I don’t have time. My program is one year, needless to say, it’s very intensive. Sometimes I regret taking four courses this semester.

There is one course in particular that has been a nightmare for the last two months: Foreign Reporting. It’s an interesting course, but fun it’s not. Not for me, at least. The cost is incredible: nearly 20 books to read (excluding newspaper and periodicals). The workload is heavy: memorize the world map (including the Antarctic), seemingly endless writing assignments and two main writing projects. Every time I walk into class I feel my brain on the verge of exploding.

If to memorize nearly 200 country names and to read books on topics ranging from Middle East war fields to South American jungles has not killed me yet, the immigrant story might be the last straw. I can stay up all night to read, but I can’t find someone who is an ideal subject for an immigrant story — considering that I’m here just 60 days and most of the time I’m confined to either classroom or home. Where can I find this newsworthy immigrant who is also willing to share a personal story with me in order to finish this 2,500-word feature story, which also should be able to reflect my empathy toward another culture? To understand America is already a journey of exploring empathy for me. Now I have to examine the immigrant’s experience under the lens of American culture upon my interpretation.

It’s not easy to approach immigrants. There are a lot of immigrants in this area, but to find a subject for your reporting is a completely different thing. My boldest attempt has been to wait outside the Social Security Administration office and to approach people on their way out.

Sometimes I feel that I can spend the whole semester taking just this course, so that I can spend more time on interviewing, detail checking, reference searching, and do a better job on reading assignment quizzes (which I usually mess up) and map quizzes.

After the mid-term of Media Law, I was hoping to take a break and have some fun. Unfortunately, most of my final papers are due in three weeks. Apart from the immigrant story (which is still in the air) and a media law paper, I also have to prepare for the photography final project. STORY! STORY! STORY!  I’m thirsty for story ideas and subjects everyday.

The thing is, it takes time to approach people before they feel comfortable enough to reveal themselves; but my overloaded schedule tends to sap the energy out of my news-gathering. C’est la vie.

Have I learned? Yes, it’s been an eye-opening experience over the past two months, but the pressure is real. My host family once joked with me saying that I picked a very interesting year to come to the United States: the presidential campaign, the economic crisis, etc. That’s true. If given another chance, I would still choose to come. But right now, I’m still plodding at the endless assignments and dreaming of a long, long winter holiday without deadline pressure.