Alumni weekend

It has certainly been a weekend not to be forgotten. Last night there was roundsinging in the belltower in a driving thunderstorm with wind so hard we were drenched standing inside. There was Mozart Requiem today with me somehow ending up as the bass soloist and sight-reading half of the solos on stage -- I'll tell that more thoroughly later. There was another roundsing... we went on until our voices were hoarse. We played Name Game and Peter Wong and I caused Noda to fall out of his chair and almost die laughing. There has been much wonderful hanging out with people, spending time with areyououtthere, and happiness. Yet while these few days have been carefree, they've signified the end of college much more than Senior Week, and almost as much as Baccalaureate and Commencement. As I stood in the belltower tonight, I wondered how often I'd get to do this again.

Going back to Greylock and getting some sleep would probably be good.

Going Away

I may or may not have mentioned this to you, but I am leaving this Thursday and going out of the country. My parents have long wanted to go back to Hong Kong, and my mother especially feels that this is our last chance to do so as a family. My father is also very interested in visiting mainland China, to which he has never been. Neither he nor my mother has gone back to HK in years -- certainly not since the British repatriated it to China. We will also be dropping off my brother in Beijing as he will be starting a Dartmouth study abroad program at Beijing Normal University.

So we leave this Thursday and will be gone for about three weeks. We will be going to a few places in China: Hangzhou, Beijing, and Guilin. Unfortunately, due to my father's propensity for booking ridiculously hectic trips, we will not have more than a few days in Hong Kong, and much of that is likely to be occupied by obligatory visits to relatives. The tours to China are run by Hong Kong-based companies, and thus will probably be entirely in Chinese. My spoken Cantonese is alright for getting around, but not good enough to have a deep conversation, I speak just a little Mandarin, and I am for all intents and purposes illiterate in Chinese. So, this may be an interesting experience, to say the least.

Even so, I'm hopeful that there will be many wonderful places to visit and that it'll be an enjoyable trip. Please comment (all comments are screened) if you would like a postcard from my travels. I have addresses for a handful of people, including areyououtthere and lywen, but I tend to be very, very bad about losing addresses and phone numbers, especially for people's summer plans. So, even if you think I have your contact information, please comment with the address at which you'd like to receive mail from mid-June to early July. I look forward to being able to at least write in English from time to time :)

Also... I am definitely planning a tea shopping trip while I'm in Hong Kong. Fook Ming Tong is one of the best-known Chinese tea stores in Hong Kong. Given how tight our time in Hong Kong is, I can't promise anything, but visiting it is near the top of my list of things to do there. If anyone has any requests for teas they would like, especially for things that might not be easily available in the US, please let me know by comment.

celloxena... doesn't your family go to Hong Kong fairly regularly? Any recommendations on things to do, especially if I need to get away from my family for a little bit?