我的心留在北京- 詹姆斯 黃

Gary, 
Could you please post the following write-up and attached photos on our blog to let all classmates share our joy on the recent Beijing trip?         Thank you so much!
James
 
Dear All,
     After a week in heaven, I am back home in one piece.  Still excited with vivid memories of the precious time we spent together and the warmth and the "Feeling" of friendship and caring.  We partied everyday and everyday the party got longer and the laughter got louder.  Too bad for those of you didn't hear our joyful songs (Peter, Ed and I) reminiscent our college days with Peter playing the guitar.  Fortunately, most of you didn't see me crawling down the Great Wall on all my fours (hands and legs) backwards!  If you did, I don't know how many more nick names Frank is going to come up for me.  He gave me at least two to three nick names everyday!  I gave up.  That seven days in Beijing made me feel like back in the 70's, spontaneous and up-beat all day long!  Although, probably none of us got enough sleep!
     I got to know the gang members quickly and discovered so many things I didn't know before.  It is like a "family" environment.  Without our gracious hosts (Peter, Frank, 小圓), we couldn't possibly explore Beijing the way we did.  秋鑾, 素菲, Xiao Mei and I stayed at Frank's house.  But later,  小圓 invited the three ladies to her house.  (I jokingly told her she took our women away!)     小圓  and Peter made all of us feel like home in their house.  We took advantage of that and partied in their house for several nights, eating, drinking, chatting, joking around, singing, etc.   By the way, 小圓 wanted to have dinner with us the day she arrived (in the afternoon!).  She hardly got any rest while we were in Beijing.  Several of us caught her sleepy eyes but she just hanged in there, charming and graceful.  Also, her husband Peter is now adopted to our class!  I bet this is the first case for the entire 18th Class!  Anyone who has met Peter couldn't help but liking him.
     We also had a financial manager 秋鑾. She counted the collected fund every five minutes to the cent, I for one might have gone broke if it wasn't for her!  素菲 shared with us lots of her personal experience in Russia.  Definitely a tough lady in order to get through that period of her life!  It got me thinking that I might need a tour guide like her to travel in Russia. Hsiao Mei described to me the wonderful surrounding she currently lives.  A must visit place when I go to Taiwan next year.   I can hardly believe how skillful and tough 小圓 is in the market place.  I bought two scarves and she negotiated for me from 200 Yuan a piece down to 140 Yuan (or 120 Yuan?) for two!  Peter is always so casual and comfortable to be around.  I don't remember seeing him wearing long pants!  (Peter:  Is it because of your good figure?) 秋鑾 is simply pleasant and witty.  Every time I picked on her she came right back at me with a punch of 10X fire power!  Good thing that none of you can see what my face looks like today.  But it did gain the sympathy of a lovely young lady sitting next to me on the flight back!   
     I was more than impressed by "Father Soong", a nick name for you-know-who from 秋鑾.  Frank was always the first one to get up and the last one to rest.  He cooked, prepared fruits, went out to get breakfast for us, made tea every time we turned around, and cleaned after us (especially me!).  But he got a good one from me when he asked me something one time and I told him "It is none of your business!".  I think he was stunned for a moment, then we all laughed.  He even talks like the locals!  I was actually a little worry about his one week trip to Oregon after we all left. Frank was obviously exhausted by Thursday, but he kept on telling us "no problem".  致理 gave me a tight embrace when we first saw each other in the restaurant on the date of his arrival.  He literally went through hell (due to visa issue) in order to make it.  But he always looked energetic and fresh.  致理 must travel well and is especially sharp when facing off with Frank.  Watching 致理 and Father Soong picked, challenged, and joked with each other definitely provided additional entertainment for the rest of us!
     We also went to numerous places, hiked the Great Wall, and ate in a number of good restaurants.  But tell you the truth, I don't remember those details.  What I went away with was this deep 灰阿令  (feeling) of happiness.  And that is going to stay with me for the rest of my life!
     Attached are a few pictures I took.  Stupid me accidentally deleted all pictures on the way back from the Great Wall to Beijing.  Then, the picture resolution was set too high.  Slight hand shaking or movement resulted in blurry image.  Sorry about that!
James, With My Heart Left in Beijing
P.S.  "7 Days in Beijing" sounds like a good movie tile, from uniformed police purposely mis-directing us to catch taxi (twice!) to drinking tea, coffee and eating snacks Frank bought while  enjoying the pouring rain outside in an art center.  (One of those DO-NOTHING activity!)
PS. 小圓, I am eating the snack you brought for us.  Peter, the sound comes to mind is "More More More".

版主 Gary 在此特別感謝與會的諸位童學