1) when i first arrived in US, which was of course many and many a year ago, i took a greyhound bus from San Francisco to a small mid-western college town. it was a two day ride.
for the first part of the trip, the person sitting next to me was a Chinese student who had migrated to US with his family from HK some years ago. he had just graduated from Berkerly that summer and was on his way to Wisconsin for graduate studies. a friendly guy. we talked.
can't recall everything we talked about. but i remember he said the high school math syllabus back in Asia was very much outdated compared to that of the US. he also told me he got a new car as a graduation gift from his uncle.
i asked why he wasn't driving to Wisconsin. he said he liked his brand new car too much to drive it across half the continent but would probably do it maybe a year later. quite understandable...