Sang Lan's room looks like the classic bedroom of any American teenage girl. The walls are adorned with pictures of the Spice Girls, Leonardo DiCaprio and Celine Dion, and there is standing room only on the bed and window sills for the scores of stuffed animals.
Even the squeeze ball Sang is constantly moving between her fingers, bearing a New York Giants' logo, is pure Americana.
But although the room's adornments say much about the occupant's regular teenage tastes, they say even more about her own, tragic position. The photos lovingly pinned to the wall are not standard teen magazine posters, but personal photographs in which Sang herself stars.
There she is, smiling bravely at the camera with Dion, DiCaprio and Jackie Chan; and those two cuddly toys by the window - an elephant and a bear - are gifts from, of all people, two former presidents, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
The 17-year-old Sang has also received signed letters from President Bill Clinton and vice-president Al Gore - mementoes to treasure all one's life.
But perhaps the most meaningful letter in her possession has come from Christopher Reeve, the actor paralysed in his prime by a riding accident.
'I would like to take this opportunity to offer you all of my best wishes and to congratulate you on your courage and heroism,' Reeve writes.