"You Americans don't even realize it because it's just part of your lives. But we feel so free here, and we have peace of mind," says Dang Thuy Nguyen, TIME's former office manager in Saigon, who is now one of our telex operators in New York. Dang is one of TIME's four Vietnamese employees who were evacuated with their families during the last days of the Indochina war. All together, 37 Vietnamese sponsored by TIME have come to the U.S. Now living in Connecticut, New Jersey and California, they are learning to cope with such all-American problems as commuting, job hunting and matching budgets with sales at the supermarket. Budgets are second nature to Mme. Nga Thi Tran, who had handled finances for our Saigon bureau since 1968. Employed in our New York accounting office, she is hopefully looking at houses for her family of six in the Connecticut suburbs.

Dang also finds suburban life in Morristown, N.J., congenial. "The schools are good, and last week my boy went out with friends and came home with five pounds of fish."

Dang's new neighbors welcomed him, his wife and their six children warmly. "The local paper wrote about us," he reports, "and townspeople came to give us furniture and kitchen utensils--all that we needed. We were very moved."

Long Xich Luong, father of ten, mans the telex in our San Francisco bureau. "I just dial New York, the light comes on, and I send traffic. In Saigon I often had to wait two or three hours." Long is eager to learn better English. Indeed, the language barrier is the worst problem for the entire family, though American customs are as unfamiliar as the idiom. Accustomed to Saigon's strictly military parades, the Longs were surprised to find not only firemen and politicians but also schoolchildren marching in Corte Madera, Calif., on the Fourth of July. After seeing a drive-in movie theater and hearing about drive-in churches and banks, Long kept repeating with amused wonder, "America is very convenient."

Perhaps the least surprised by America's folkways has been Photographer Le Minh, now in the Los Angeles bureau. "Actually, everything is pretty much as we expected," he says. "I've been working for TIME since 1963. When you read the magazine for over a decade, you have a pretty good idea of what America is about."

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