Sitting at serene centre macs. Gus is beside me but we're seprated by a pane of glass. It was too cold inside so I came out. He's having tuition soon, and I'm here to do some readings while waiting for him. This morning I had tuition and it was a chore as usual: "what do you think this should be? What is this answer? What is another word?" closer to stabbing myself with every lesson. Yet the point of it came to fruition today, crisp notes in a brown envelope. For this, people everywhere slog their guts out doing things they hate. We must treasure these last few days of schooling. Soon they will be gone and we're left reminiscing about things we loved but no longer have.

Tonight Whang is heading off to join Fudan university's branch of Mao's red army. Hehe. No facebook in China, how will we keep in touch? Maybe I will force her to write all of us here with an old-fashioned letter in perfect Chinese, complete with right-to-left reading. I will miss her.

Last night we had a farewell dinner for her at PS Cafe. It was fun and funny and enjoyable and light-hearted and jovial and familiar. I laughed till my sides hurt and my cheeks ached from smiling. Tonight we'll have dinner again before she leaves.