Well, it turns out i am not the last one posting..

Hello Mr. Branch and class,

Finally, I am able to launch my very first entry to this blog. It usually takes me much longer time to do something like this than anything else.
As you guys may be able to guess, I am from Viet Nam, which is 27-hour-flight away from US. I will be twenty-two in April. I cannot imagine i am twenty something now! My first semester went pretty well, I hope this second would go smoothly as well. The compelling reason that drives me to take this class is that I want myself to be exposed to its policies of being proactive and creative. It should be so nervous for a kind of person who would rather be "backstage" like me! I am adjusting... And, I hope I will find out more what to love about Memphis after graduating from this class.
Having been living Memphis for 20 months, I don't think I have spent much enough time in Memphis to have a fairly good understanding about it. The City is very much a new “book” for me. I still don't know where Beale street is, or Fedex Forum....I have not ever participated in any downtown activities; more accurate, I have not really been there. It is funny that I keep telling my friends about my living at Elvis Presley's hometown while I have never been to Graceland once. The most tolerable reason for that is: I did not drive until last fall, my first semester. I was, occasionally, taken to some rare places for recreation by my uncles and grandparents during my non-driving life. My uncle used to love the buffet at Casino's very much. I ended up having quite a lot free meals joining him. Another funny thing is I really know quite a bit about Casino's, better than telling something about Brook museum, which is very close to my house! I must confess that I don't know the City very well. So, it is going to be either a huge challenge or big fun for me to conduct the assigned project!!!
On the first day when I was actually here, what I heard on radio, 104.5 the River, was Memphis came in second 2008's ranking of metro area by rate of violent crime. It was not something anybody, as a newcomer, would like to hear about their hometown-to-be. The next year, Memphis topped the ranking. I had never heard something like this about Memphis before when I was in Viet Nam. At first, I was slightly shocked and frightened. Everyday, news on TV is all about deaths, shooting, assaults, domestic violence…I gradually got into the habit of counting how many deaths on news each day! Things go easier when I get used to it. In fact, you would, eventually, become not too terribly worried as you are being in the heart of dangerous zone. That is the thing I don't like most about Memphis.
Excitingly enough, I just recently find out one place that I feel peaceful when going there. That is the Memphis Public Library on Poplar, which i was once recommended by a good friend, wonderful place to read, to study and to meditate.

I think it might be enough for a first entry. Apparently, not anything interesting was mentioned in my entry. At least, I did respond to some questions by Mr. Branch.