Li, Gang

It is now 9:00pm on Dec.24th, 1998. X’mas is coming, and so is the dreaming…

Time went back to four years ago when I just arrived at JFK… Luo Camel and Tang girl were waiting there, waving their hands and I rushed to them… Although only been to States for four months, T-girl and L-camel have already learned how to effectively hug you… I wondered they must have practiced it many times, but with who… ???

I have never told anybody, at least till today, the plane I was taking almost crashed in Ankradge, Alaska. We tried to land at Ankradge airport for two hours… Fortunately we did it. Now Air China does not stop at Ankradge in winter anymore, maybe that was part of the reason!?? After such experiences, Yang Jie’s driving makes me feel so comfortable, although that was probably their first long-distance drive and Ding XiaoJun, who is Yang Jie’s (who is Cao Mark’s classmates in Middle school) wife keep on saying, “Woops, we missed an exit again.” We stopped at a McDonalds after one hour’s driving. There I made every one laughing but me by asking a cheese-burg and French fry in Chinese to that big black gal. She must think I was teasing her because I got twice as much French fry as T-girl has, and her smile to me meaned a lot if thinking carefully today… We safely arrived at L-Camel’s home… so exhausted, I thought I could fall in sleep very quickly, but I was wrong. Time zone (I forgot the correctly English expression) effect kept my thought active although not meaningful. T-girl and L-camel are excited too, but in about 10 minutes, I discovered the real reason. They just borrowed several videotapes. After Ding XiaoJun left, they turned on the TV…

The next day, I suggested staying at home because I wanna to have a sleep. We ended up eating in a nice Chinese restaurant. I did not agree with them that was very good Chinese food, however, exactly four months later, I realized I was wrong. After the meal, we had a walk around L-camel’s house. Accidentally, we arrived at the video-shop. I can not help but recalling, “eating and … person’s desires.”

I spent about four days in L-camel’s home. On New Year’s day, I aimed to Bloomington, Indiana by a greyhound just after T-girl left for Boston. It was so nice to meet L-camel and T-girl there. And thanks to them, I experienced no shock at all except during nights. I had a picture where three of us were celebrating reunion at States. I sent a copy to both of them. We all leaned back on L-camel’s a big mattress facing the camera placed on top of the TV. Whenever I look at this picture, I recall that TV and I bet they can recall more.