The Dharma Force

China stuff part 3

Shanghai is my birth place. I spent my first 18 years in the city.

The city had changed so much during the last 16 years, I had become a foreigner in the place.

The house which I was born and raised for 14 years was still there. I still had some relatives living there. But I never had gone back there once. It was partly because I did not have anything to say to my relatives there, and it was partly because I could not handle to have my childhood memories tainted by the reality.

The sunny little quiet walkway in a warm autumn afternoon. That was the memory I wanted to remember forever.

The streets were different. Sitting in a cab, with my wife calling out the familiar street names, I could not connect any of them with my memory.

Not until I was at the door, I realized I had come back to my high school. I spent 6 years there. (Well, I am slow, but it did not take 6 years for me to graduate high school. The school is a combo of middle school and high school.)

I made long lasting friends there, including my wife. I recognized the main building. The tracking field was new, so was everything else. I did not even remember which classrooms we had been in. Everything had changed.

Even the names. When we tried to ask several people where was the office for the third grade of the middle school department, they all stared blankly at us.

Then finally, a lady realized what we had been asking for, "You mean the 9th grade office? It is on the fourth floor, turn right."

So I guess there was no longer middle school department in this school, only the 7th to 9th grade offices.

Only one of our old teachers remained in the school, Ms. Lu, our math teacher. It did not matter actually. My wife and I were very close to Ms. Lu during our time in the school. She was so surprised to see us. Two snotty kids, all grew up, and with a 6 years old daughter, trailing shyly behind.

She looked so small and ... old. That was the reason I hated reunions. They destroy memories.

We talked about everything, from how we were doing to how she was doing ...

Well, that was it, actually. The visit was not long. The duration of our visit was dictated by my daughter's attention span. Besides, I think I am still too young to be visiting the past over and over again.