On monday Virginia Tech, my alma mater, had to witness a horrific shooting that killed 32 people and injured scores others. My thoughts and prayers are with the students, faculty and families of the victims.
I arrived at Virginia Tech in 1980 on a cold September night following my first ever trip abroad. Earlier that night I had arrived at Roanoke airport on a flight from New York around 9pm with no friends and acquaintances at the University and worried about what was in store for me. The limousine drive from Roanoke to Blacksburg with a female driver on her walkie-talkie seems hazy now after almost 27 years but was instrumental in forming friendships with an Indian professor and a returning graduate chinese student from Hong Kong, Bosco.
Bosco was returning from his home in Hong Kong that night after the summer holidays. He had been a graduate student of computer science at VPI and SU (as Virginia Techwas known in those days) for about 3 years and he took one look at my "totally lost" look and wanted to help. He offered to have me stay that night in his apartment which I gladly accepted. All I remember that night is how I went and crashed on the floor of his living room with my 2 suit cases around me after a trip that took me around half the globe.
The next morning Bosco took me to the Burruss Hall where the foreign student offices were located. Norris Hall where more than 30 people died yesterday was next door. I was floored by the beautiful sight of this campus from Burruss Hall with the green oval drill field and all the gothic grey structures around this oval. The criss-crossing of students on the drill field was a great sight of an University in full flow even though classes had not started yet. You could see students carrying all kinds of things - TV, cupboards, books, boxes, etc - and trying to settle down in the dorms. During the summer months, you could hundred of students play frisbee. Yesterday, I was pained to see the drill field empty and the swat teams moving through it with their guns drawn taking cover behind trees and swat cars.
The foreign student advisor appreciated Bosco for his help to me and requested him to help me find an apartment that morning. We loaded all my belongings into his big american car and went around the town of Blacksburg. It didn't take long for one to go across the town (there is only main road in the town). The town is nestled in the Blue Ridge mountains on the border with West Virginia at an altitude of around 2000 ft. The town is in the midst of beautiful green rolling hills all around with duck ponds and lakes strewn all across the town.
It didn't take too long to find an apartment and a roommate. Thanks to Bosco and I had a pleasant experience being a FOB ("Fresh of the Boat") that day in 1980. Being in an alien country with very little money and no friends, the help from the Boscos of Virginia Tech have enabled people like me make the transition to live in this country in those initial days.
