Yiqi is a delightful Singaporean Chinese young woman who is clever, lively and outgoing and she has had plenty of international experience, including a brief work-exchange trip to the U.S. However, after moving to Chicago with her husband, she discovered that making friends with Americans living behind the closed doors of their apartments is not as easy as she imagined it might be.  Marcia and Lisle reflect on the implications of this, as well as cross-cultural confusion about American habits of volunteering, personal privacy, and when it’s OK for someone to be loud.