oliviatamccue

Travel is like an interlude on a different life trajectory before returning to the familiar orbit. The different perspective brings sharper focus how routines have changed over time.

It starts with packing the luggage.  Years ago, when commodities are not as globalized, we pack in stuff that may not be readily available in the arriving cities; not any more, it is more that we need to bring money in case we miss something these days.  Wait a minute, we don’t need to bring money or travelers’ checks neither, we bring “global” cards and the ATM machine would flush out the right currencies. Globalization and technology deserve credits for these conveniences.  At the same time, technology occupies the luggage with more electronic devices and their accessories than ever before.  It has not been long when bringing a laptop has been a practice more for the computer professionals on business trips.  These days everyone is bringing some sorts of computer devices.  For my household of 4, in our 2014 trip to Hong Kong, there are 1 Kindle Fire, 1 laptop/tablet, 1 laptop, 3 smart phones, 1 Nintendo, 1 iPad; a total of 8 devices, an average of 2 per person; and not to mention the 2 local phones that have been arranged.  And these devices have their own “friends” as a big bag of adapters, power plugs, and bundles of cables in the luggage.

In recent years, airline check-in could be done online in advance with seat selection and boarding passes – another technology enabler. When we get on the plane, the most frequently asked question is not the flight time, but whether the plane offers Wi-Fi, power supply or personal in-flight entertainment.  Not that many years ago, people bring books or magazines; now hours can be killed with an electronic device.  Food quality has improved but it is still intriguing why it remains so hard to make the food taste as good as at the ground level.  Maybe technology could get us there too.

Fast-paced cities, like Hong Kong, bring home the influences of cell phones.  Cell phone used to be of the size of water bottle and can be used as a defensive weapon when needed.  Now it is more of a personal choice with size to fit in the pants’ pocket or with size more pleasing to the eye; the cell phone at times become more of an essential than the wallet used to be. On the subway, three quarters of folks, regardless of their ages, are busy on their phones – games, text, videos, movies and only once-in-a-while that they are talking on the phone.  And in the subway, there is a frequent announcement to remind folks to not only pay attention to their cell phone while riding on an elevator.  Is the phone (aka telephone) still being used the same as what the dictionary has defined it to be – an apparatus, system or process for transmission of sound or speech to a distant point, especially by an electronic device?

Have the conveniences brought by these smart devices also stealing time to do other stuff that does not rely on the smart computer?

Over recent years, weekend is gradually turning into the needed break and get ready for another week.   For this special Friday to Sunday, I need rest more from the weekdays that follow.

On Friday May 30, the Chinese evening school, I am serving on the board, has its graduation ceremony at the age of 50. This is a graduation with celebrities attending, graduate students speaking, video showing of history, and students performance. The celebrities were not famous movie stars or household names; they are mayors or school administrators. The speech of the graduate students is refreshing and original, in their confession of not paying attention to teachers’ lectures, or in their humor of the language helping them to meet new (girl) friends in China, or in their gratitude to the teachers and school.  There are more interesting things to do on Friday evenings; the graduate students (and their family) are those coming to the school on Friday evening consistently for over 10 years. The video is produced by my daughter and it feels magical when the 3-minute clip gets the full attention of these hundreds of parents and students.  Classes of all grades put up performance from singing songs, reciting poems, magic show, drama, or group aerobics. Preparing kindergarten or elementary grade students to perform requires lots of energy and crowd management skills as these cuties have different priorities and worlds of view from adults.  Motivating the upper grade students is a more strenuous mental challenge for the teachers and students.  The effort really shows in turning each of the performances into entertaining, unique and very special moments.   The 2 hour+ ceremony concludes with parents joining the students in singing gratitude to their parents and cake cutting – how fitting with piety and food such a central theme for Chinese heritage.

Could there be a bigger change in gear from a graduation to an outdoor concert of Barry Gibb the next evening?  It was after midnight when we arrived home after the concert.

Sunday was the 50th anniversary dinner for the school.  We start out planning it in a small scale, and 15 tables of reservation sound optimistic.  Over 200 guests show up, taking up 24 tables.  As we plans for the flavors, the menu, the decoration and the event rundown, it feels like a wedding banquet. The effort is all the worthwhile to see the guests relish the past years, enjoy old friends’ reunion, becoming silent as they watch videos of school history, and lively in games and pictures.  50 years for any establishment are not easy. In my assistance to create video clips to represent the school years, I spend hours and hours of time walking down the memory lane of the school, through the audio clips of past principals, and through the pictures over the year.  I stand in gratitude of the adaptations, changes and dedications of so many over the years, to get us to this special evening.

Graduation marks the beginning of summer holiday for many 8^th graders. I did not have my own middle school graduation.  I did not remember any speeches in the middle school graduation of my daughter; attending my son’s at the same school, three years later, bring some moments back.

On a mild summer day, it has the same outdoor setting as before – a stage under a green tent on the school lawn, and the natural linings of tall trees in different shade of green at the back, coupled with the audio content from the band team of the 7th grader.  It is simple and beautiful.  I arrive half an hour early, and end up in the third last row of the seating area; it was a lesson learned to arrive early, yet it is still not enough. The ceremony begins officially with the students walking from the back to the front rows, in their dress code from formal suite to more casual pants, all respectful.  In an aisle seat, I have a close look of everyone, and the accompanying thrill that these hundreds of

students would shape our future.  A few graduate students deliver their speeches; I like how one student says that his generation needs to solve the problems created by this and past generations; and how another student shares his learning from the movie of Star War. Their air of confidence impresses the most.  Kids in United States are not seasoned with much hardship in their first many years, they have a rosy picture of what the future can offer them, and serve as reminders life is more worthwhile with passion, with contribution and with joy.  Certificate presentation came after the speeches.  Every audience waits for the few seconds of his/her loved one to walk up and down the stage.  Most families put their hands together for each student. It is a lengthy session with some intermittent shouts from the audience for their own favorite friends and families.  The principal concludes nicely with a short quote.

I always enjoy the present moments at the graduation, the emotions, and the refresher of the life journey from the eyes of the youth.  It would take another graduation to realize again that I don’t remember much of the speeches.

In March, just the time to admire the beautiful and flowery spring, I got a sore throat and a cough. That could not be serious though it turned out to be much worse.   First week, the sore throat hit hard, the voice was gone and it was total tiredness regardless the hours of sleep; to make it worse, the cough was such that it was hard to lie down, hard to sleep well. Within a week, it was not just physically tired, but mentally exhausted. It was not possible to have fresh ideas or energy for anything. After three complete weeks, my body was 95%+ recovered. Thanks to the inhaler that helps to get my coughing under control, and even more to a Chinese prescription – Chuanbei + Honey (川貝+蜜糖) that finally took care of the cough.  After discounting the three weeks of recovering, March became a very short month.

What is the silver lining? As the diet was light and plain while fighting the symptoms, my stomach got a well deserved rest.

Spring continues to April.

During the school spring break, my son went to Washington DC with another 90 plus of his school mates. It is a 5-day 4-night trip where 3 to 4 boys shared a hotel room. It is a mystery “what hotel managers would like to accommodate a crowd of teenagers?” How was the trip rated then? Bad food, ok hotel, not much to remember about sight-seeing, out late and woke up early every day; and not to mention that the trip was expensive.   Against these odds, he likes it. Maybe just the experience of “away from home”, together with a nice comedy show and the freedom to stay late are priceless.

Within 10 hours of picking up my son from the airport, the whole family was on the road to south California. It was a 4-day 3-night trip.   My older child is 16 months before college years, about the time that join the crowd to do college tour – UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego and UC Irvine, with campus walking tour from an hour to 90 minutes. We visited UC Diego and UC Irvine on the same day, so it was a LOT of walking. There is much to be told about a school from the tour, the student as tour guide, the campus landscape, the dining areas, the student demography and the students on the campus.

What can beat the scenic Pacific Ocean view from Santa Barbara campus? You can see dolphins and whales, according to the students. Just watch out for the bikers who have the right of way and absolutely no slow down at any crosswalk. “Fun” and “self-motivating” seems to be the theme in this campus.

How many times has the admission officer mentioned the word “competitive” at UC San Diego? San Diego gave that lovely international atmosphere with a beautiful weather and landscape. Together with a very good campus tour guide and a decent neighborhood, the whole family unanimously likes UC San Diego.

Irvine makes us forget that we are in United States. It feels like 90% of students are with Asian heritage, and to emphasize it more, there is a good array of restaurants on campus, including Starbuck Coffee. I bet the students do well in academics.

There is so much competition among California students. Good GPA and SAT are not enough; they need to be great plus impressive non-academic activities to be considered. Not to mention the competition at the more famous UCs like UC Berkeley, UCLA or Ivy League.

Isn’t this a bit like the US job market where the job seekers outnumber the job positions?

With the same high school results, most parents would not have been accepted by the same college where they graduated years ago.