Southern Illinois University

In September 1970 Yen-Sheng, following through on a long-held personal aspiration, ventured overseas to study chemistry and biochemistry at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale, IL. She lived with several flatmates in a house on Walkup Street and managed her daily routine without a car. On this, her first time away from home, she had traveled halfway around the world, at a tremendous remove from her family and loved ones. She worked diligently at her studies and recognized that a dreamed-of opportunity was coming to pass, but found the challenge of living on her own in entirely new surroundings immense at first.

Around this time, Chen-Pei was fulfilling his military service in Taiwan. Because long-distance phone calls were expensive, the two of them frequently exchanged letters by air mail until Chen-Pei completed his service in July 1971. During holidays, Yen-Sheng would sometimes accompany friends or roommates to their family celebrations at home. Chen-Pei flew to Carbondale to visit Yen-Sheng before starting his graduate studies at Cornell in August 1971. They spent time in some of Yen-Sheng’s favorite spots on campus, such as around Thompson Lake. Around Christmas time of that same year, the pair took a bus trip to Lincoln, Nebraska, to attend the wedding of Chen-Pei’s cousin.

Among the novel features of her new home country was the abundance and ready availability of apples, a fruit not easy to come by in sub-tropical Taiwan during her childhood. At the time, a McDonald’s hamburger cost 15¢ and first class postage was 5¢.

Yen-Sheng completed her masters thesis research in August 1972 and subsequently joined Chen-Pei in Ithaca, New York.