Human Echolocation

"The Boy Who Sees Without Eyes"

Goodbye, Friends

Today is July 28th.

My entire summer slipped away right before my eyes. I only have three more days left in my home town before my family departs for vacation in Kauai. Once we arrive home from our trip, I fly out the very next morning for Houston, so these three days will be the last three to see several of my friends before we leave for school.

It still has not truly hit me that I will be done saying good-bye to the friends I have made over the last 18 years in a couple of days. I have been friends with some of these wonderful people since near birth. I have been blessed to have been able to maintain many old friendships as well as develop several more new ones over the last few years in high school. I'll dearly miss them all when we are all miles apart.

Just yesterday I said goodbye to my good friend of a number of years, Naba. Her family has just moved to Saudi Arabia, and she's leaving to spend the rest of summer there before college. She's only one of many of my close friends whose family has moved away from our hometown... It sure is strange driving through the neighborhood and seeing other people's cars parked in my friends' old houses. My whole town is changing before my eyes. I know it's crazy to hope that everything will freeze in time and stay the way I remember it all looked in the past, but I secretly wish for that. Instead, old buildings are being torn down and completely unrecognizable buildings are being constructed in their place. When I return for winter break, I have a feeling I won't be able to recognize my high school due to the major construction that has been/is still going on. Roads are being repaved. The tree outside my house was recently cut down.. my elementary school was just re-painted.. the city's newly revamped library will be done with construction in a few months.. the dirt field on the other side of town will soon be transformed into a bustling shopping center.. half of the stores in the mall by my house will be torn down to make room for new ones.. my acupuncturist will be getting a new office.

One of my closest friends, Annette, is currently doing intense summer physical training at the Westpoint Military Academy in NY. I currently cannot communicate with her via Internet nor phone. I need to send her something via snail mail soon. I don't know when I'll see her next.

Still more friends are spreading all across the country. We are all going our separate ways... following different paths... discovering and carving our own definitions of success..Everyone and everything is changing and moving on. My town. My friends. My family. Me. It's all exciting and frightening at the same time.

I have heard several warning stories from people who say that it is only natural to lose contact/break off with high school friends after college. Some others re-assure me that it is definitely possible to maintain high school friendships and tell me about that their high school friends are some still some of their closest friends even several decades after graduation. I don't know what will happen. I don't know how the natural course of time will change each one of us. I sure hope that I will maintain contact and meet-up with several friends during breaks. Still yet, I hope to embark on insane adventures and exotic trips with a few, fulfilling all the life plans we painted for ourselves during high school (Helena.. Zion spring break, Vietnam next summer, yes. Ahhhh.... oh yes and all of the people I mentioned Forrest Fenn's treasure to..). As much as I hope to have things go according to current plans, I understand that life doesn't work like that. People get busy. People move away. People make new social networks. I understand.

The only promise I can make to others and myself is that I'll always cherish and be thankful for the great memories I've made with friends & family over the past 18 years. Thanks for all of the relationships and great times, everyone. You've all touched my life in some way or another and made my life worth living. When I think of the most rewarding times over the past 18 years, money and red marks on paper don't come to mind. Instead, I think of... cheering on my sister proudly finishing her first lap of freestyle by herself at the other end of the pool.. finding the bottle cap in the preschool sandbox while digging to China with Marissa .. watching my parents laugh and drink from each others' strawberry lemonade glasses during their 25th anniversary dinner.. carelessly jumping from rock to rock on the jetty with Anna after biking back from Santa Monica for the first time.. getting all my friend's college acceptance news via group iMessage.. taking pictures of Annie hugging her teeny puppy (now very large) for the very first time.. running for a high-five with doubles partner Cody during freshman year after a long point.. finishing my butterfly race and seeing Taylin going absolutely crazy freaking out and cheering for me at Bay League Finals... finishing my first lap driving in the parking lot with my dad for the first time...celebrating my grandmother's 80th birthday in the Yosemite National Park, one of her favorite places in the world.. throwing off my graduation cap (symbolically) alongside my classmates.. counting up the $40 third-grade Janet and I (and siblings) made after a long-day's hard work at our lemonade stand.. Nicole and I finally somehow managing to lug a huge tub of sand up from the beach to my car without dying of rib-shattering laughter.. frantically but victoriously running down hotel stairs in Xuzhou with Helena.. finishing another day at the hospital with Naba.. freaking out over our amazing guess of the temperature of the SciOly thermo container with Lauren.. seeing my friends' attempts at cheering me up whenever I was down.. Kellie taking me on a nice walk at the beach on the day I really needed some distraction.. reading Leah's yearbook message about how we both fulfilled a goal during senior year that I predicted we would in her yearbook the previous year ;)... successfully squeezing 6 people into 2 beds during sophomore year... and discreetly and silently getting 6 people out of one window onto the hotel roof.. successfully making it through a long summer of Elite with Annette.. making Sarah happy by taking her to Chipotle on her b-day during a Peter Pan rehearsal break.. finally getting my backhand over the net after a quick badminton lesson with Shawn.. assembling a functioning mini roller coaster model with Annette & Carina for Euro ..Ashley and I putting our hearts and souls into our first Fauver debate.. getting our tennis senior gifts.. standing up onstage amongst classmates/friends at our last China tour concert in Shanghai for our final bow.. getting excited with my boss about another last-minute discovery to add to my research poster the day before my presentation.. harvesting the elementary school garden with Growing Great.. and so, so, SO much more.

Thanks for the memories, everyone. I'll never forget you all. Thanks to modern-day technology-- namely Facebook-- I really won't. I might never see some of you again. But I don't need to see you again to happily reflect on happy shared times of the past. :)

I never got the chance to say my proper good-bye's to many of you, so good-bye.

However, I think it is more much necessary for me to say my proper "thank you"'s. So thank you, all, for making my 18 years of life full of happy moments and learning experiences.

I'll end this post with a couple nice group pictures/ summer highlights.

Hiking in Topanga Canyon (Santa Ynez trial)
Me, Shawn, Kimi, Will, Helena, Naba

Surprising me on my 18th with dim sum.
Kellie, Marissa, Annie, Me, Abby, Leah, Anna

The Bund in Shanghai. The final stop of our China tour.
Annie, Marissa, Taylin, Taryn, Kellie, Anna, Me, Helena

Tl;dr I love you all. Goodbye.

The Collaborative Creativity Project

My good friend, Helena, and I have started this poetry/visual arts blog to exercise the right hemispheres of our brains and laugh our hearts out at the same time.

Please check it out if you have the time :)


http://thecollaborativecreativityproject.blogspot.com/

China Trip: Days 6 - 12 ( A Reflection)

As you probably could have guessed, I got increasingly busy over the second half of the trip.

This post, almost a month later, will be more of a short reflection about the trip rather than a detailed summary of everything that happened.


I had an absolutely AMAZING time. The trip was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It was my first time in China, let alone the continent of Asia, and the cultural experience was wonderful. Even though, we did not have much time to truly immerse ourselves in the culture of the country because we were on tour, I felt like I got a good feel of what life is like during my short time there. All the cities we visited were rich, so I did not have many encounters with more poor urban and rural lifestyles, but I did observe some from far away.

It was an interesting experience... looking around and feeling like I fit in with everyone else. Unlike the Caucasians on the trip, I didn't blatantly stand out in crowds. Being outside was definitely different in that regard. It was a welcomed change.

My favorite parts of the trip were definitely the performances, the visits to the more rural, mountainous regions, and the food.

The performances..

The Chinese audience members behaved very differently than Western audiences. They were never able to keep completely silent. If I looked out during the middle of a piece, I would most likely see family members turning to each other and pointing at certain instruments or young children bouncing and clapping their hands or conducting in their seats. Often times, people would switch seats or walk up and down the aisles as well. Mr. Park said their behavior revealed that they were enjoying our concert. They were just enjoying our music in a different way than those in the Western hemisphere. It took a while to get used to, but I completely understand. Their movements and chatting was their way of interacting with the performers onstage, and this interaction was pretty cool. Though back at home, people would take their talking as their lack of attention to what was going on in front of them, I felt as if it revealed their close attention even more.

The meet-and-greets at the end of each concert were great experiences as well. Although most rushed towards the blonde musicians to take pictures with, many were interested in talking with us to learn more about our culture/ language and ourselves as unique individuals. At our last concert at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, I met my favorite audience member, an elderly Chinese lady who excitedly came up to me, shook me, and talked to me in Mandarin. Not understanding one word, I kept on repeating " Sorry, I am an American" in Chinese. She finally understood and talked with her friend who tried translating her praise for me. Finally the lady tried speaking one English phrase she had apparently learned in the past "I love you!". It was very cute, and I was so happy that she enjoyed our performance so much. I was happy that an audience member made a bond with me while watching. Usually when playing in an orchestra you don't get that 1-1 performer-audience bonding. But apparently I finally made a lasting bond during that last concert. I took a picture with her while she attempted to speak some more Chinese to me.

The young audience members were especially cute. After the same concert, I was standing next to Helena. Oh my! We got bombarded with people coming up to take pictures with us. Helena's blonde hair and talented harp skills kept them rushing at us. LOL. One family came up to us and spoke very good English. The father showed Helena an iPhone video that he took during the concert. While Helena was playing her harp solo at the beginning of the Across the Stars piece, his little daughter put on her serious performer face and played an air harp in her seat, intently trying to copy Helena. It was the cutest thing ever!

Performing for the Chinese was just another reminder that music trumps so many differences that plague society. Our orchestra was able to overcome the language barriers and interact with the audience the same way we are able to communicate with our audiences at home.

The venues were all very modern and impressive. It was an honor playing in all of them, especially the last concert hall in Shanghai, which was architecturally amazing in the exterior and interior.

The visits to the more rural parts..

I especially enjoyed our time in Hangzhou which included the visit to the tea house and Westlake. My grandmother was born in Hangzhou by the lake, at a time when the city was much less industrialized and full of construction and overwhelmed with the busy urban lifestyle found in Shanghai. The scenery was gorgeous and looking out into the little boats on the water helped me imagine how simple life was in the past when residents were more in-tune and connected with their natural surroundings.

Suzhou was also gorgeous..

The food..

OH Gosh. I legitimately gained weight on this trip. I ate too much at EVERY single meal. Each hotel breakfast had a very nice selection of dim sum dishes as well as soups, porridges, and noodles... And each lunch and dinner (minus the fast food quick performance dinners) oh my. Family style with SO SO MANY dishes and options. I scarfed down each meal as if I hadn't eaten in days. 

I almost forgot. I loved the people too!!!

I am so happy I got to experience this trip with some of my closest friends. The trip would have not been the same without them. This trip was an amazing way to celebrate the end of a great four years of high school with some of the greatest people I have hung around with over those four years. 

I didn't have the chance to make any lasting friendships with the locals, but I did befriend our tour guide, Leon (his English name)! His English was fantastic. I was able to ask him questions about Chinese life, especially over the second half of the trip and shared my American experiences as well. He had never left mainland China and was curious about Western life. On the last day he asked for my WeChat, so now we are WeChat buds and have chatted a few times about China and cultural differences.

From left to right: Me, Leon, Helena, and Taylin

There were so many more amazing aspects about the trip, but for the purpose of keeping this post short and reflective, I will have to save them to explain another time.

I'll end with a hearty THANK YOU to everyone involved on the trip. The parent chaperones, the siblings who accompanied the musician students, Mr. Park, the other teachers who came, the tour organizers.. we were definitely a large, tough group to keep in line 24/7. Thanks for everyone's full constant attention to us students. I had the time of my life thanks to the help of all the organizers. All the parents were so attentive to my bug bite/ allergy issues and kept on checking up on how I was doing at every moment of the day. It was nice knowing that they genuinely cared about protecting all of our well-beings, and it was really amazing how they put our needs in front of theirs all the time. I am so thankful for them for creating such a wonderful experience for me and the rest of the students.

I lied. I'm not quite ready to end this post. This trip helped me realize how much I enjoy international traveling and learning more about more cultures... especially my cultural roots (Vietnamese and Chinese). I really hope I can do international service in Vietnam next summer. I hope to also continue learning more languages and improve my Mandarin... I have found out that my suitemates at Rice University are from Nanjing and speak Mandarin, so hopefully I'll learn some more from them! Traveling is a wonderful way to not only learn more about the rest of the world, but more about my own self as well. By traveling, you put yourself in positions that you would never experience in your comfort bubble at home. One of my greatest goals is to travel more.

Until next time, China!

China Trip: Day 5

My streak of no bug bites officially ended! Though the hotel had impressive layout and decor compared to the last, it was not well maintained. Last night, I heard bugs buzzing in my ear around 11 times. I couldn't see a thing however because the bugs were so tiny. I woke up with 9 bug bites.. With 6 just on my face. Yup! I covered up everything except for my face which I sprayed a million times along with my pillow and bed in general, but I guess it didn't work. How wonderful. Just in time for today's concert. They are not all TOO noticeable though thankfully. The one on my foot is the most irritating one because it bothers me when I walk, but the others are okay.

We went to a mausoleum today to see the Mausoleum of the Chu Prince of the Western Han dynasty. The site was located where a brick and tile factory used to be. Some workers found terra cotta soldiers while digging pits. These terra-cotta soldiers were very tiny. We descended into the actual space where the prince's bones were stored. It was a complex underground area with multiple rooms including a kitchen, music chamber, weapon storage place, etc. After browsing, we listened to a performance of ancient Chinese instruments-- chimes and a stringed instrument. Our large group filled up the site, which was not used to large groups like ours!

For lunch, everyone had pizza except for Ryan C. and I. We ate the hotel lunch buffet instead. We both tried a young snail dish, which was surprisingly quite tasty. Everyone went to the pool afterwards before going to the concert hall.

Everyone had KFC for dinner, but Ryan and I had separate meals. I had a Pizza Hut Salad and some fried.. I disliked it and would have rather had Chinese food, but we didn't have time to leave and re-enter the hall.


Mother riding with her cute little daughter.


Walking to the mausoleum


Terra cotta soldiers






Performance




Concert Hall


In front of the hall with friends


Backstage


Eating dinner


Stage


Onstage

China Trip: Day 4

Today was hands-down the best day of the trip so far! Hopefully I will think of memories from today when I think of China.

My day began when I woke up at 5AM to write two blog posts-- one for yesterday's activities and one for a laser tattoo removal scholarship. By the way, I would really appreciate if you could take a look at the laser tattoo removal scholarship post and like/comment/follow the link if you have the chance.

I had a nice breakfast again and finally had the chance to talk to some of the students from the school in Ohio. They are very nice and complimented us on our playing. They said that basically their entire first-violin section didn't come on the trip because it consisted of many graduating seniors as well as top super performers who were unable to come. I didn't hear them last night, but I was told that they are super impressive. They are an 18-member strings only group.

Before leaving we explored the hotel a bit, and because I have not yet posted any pics of it, here is one.. No match for the second hotel I am at right now...


Upstairs view of hotel restaurant


Waiting for the bus


Riding the bus with Helena!


Driving to the City


We departed for the Forbidden City at around 9AM. It is located across from Tian'anmen Square, the location we visited on Day 2. The Forbidden City is 960x760 meters with 8475 rooms and 90 courtyards. It was CROWDED. Apparently 20-30K travel through the city each day.. And even more during holidays. It finally opened to the public in 1925. The palace itself was originally open for the public as well until it became restricted due to the sheet number of daily visitors.

Today was one of the hotter days of the trip. We were all required to wear our blue orchestra shirts, so we were dying of the heat!


Walking to the site. The surrounding water was intended for good feng shui (I think I spelled that wrong and I don't have google to do a quick-check, so sorry for now).


Helena, the harpist. Walkin


Me, Tay, and Helena in front of the South entrance of the City


Audrey, Kara, & Jessica


Morgan, Bella, Sabrina, Allison, & Danica


In one of many similar looking courtyards



In the square garden


Returning to the bus



Lunch at the dumpling house. The dumplings were mediocre, but the other dishes were tasty.

After lunch we went to the train station, which was large and almost like an airport.. With high security and all.


Selfie with the train station guards who were armed with military-grade guns :0.


At the train center. There were lots and lots of people. Again, several people took video footage and photos of us.


Selfie on the train.

I used the squatter toilet for the first time at the train station. It wasn't bad, but I feel like I need to wash the bottom of my shoes from the stall if you know what I mean..

The train ride was picturesque. It was nice seeing the greenery contrasted with compacted crowded bunch of tall apartment buildings and government buildings and roads in Beijing. We passed by some pretty mountains. The train ride was 3 hrs long. We traveled half the distance spanning from Beijing to Shanghai.




Playing card games and mafia with Matt, Helena, Taylin, Taryn, Yen, Adrian, and Annie


Arrived at our destination!!!! Suzhou!!

Suzhou is gorgeous! At least in parts of it. Helena and I love it, and Helena and Taylin said it reminded them of a Japanese city they visited. It's so clean and lush in parts. It was a Saturday evening when we rode our bus to the hotel, and everyone was out and about-- children, mothers, fathers, elders.. They were colorful, fashionable and clean. Many were riding 2-person mopeds and bicycles. Women were wearing bright-colored dresses and high heels. The streets were in general quite clean. And the buildings were new/under construction in several sections. The waterways and plant life made the city my favorite. My pictures don't do it justice.

Xuzhou is much smaller than Beijing with a population of 8.6 million rather than 27 million. It still is quite populous however. All these cities consist of stores, govt buildings, and high rise apartment structures.

I like Xuzhou more than Beijing so far. There is more active bug life, however, so I must be more careful when outside. I loved how everyone was outside yesterday afternoon.. Walking around, biking, flooding the streets with color.. We passed by our concert venue which is AMAZING looking. It was designed to model a Myrtle flower and it was right by the water line. (Xuzhou is by the water and came about really due to transportation of goods and such.)

On the bus ride, McLane pointed out a quite elderly lady on the side of a busy road who was picking up minuscule pieces of trash!!! We hoped it wasn't voluntary.

I very much enjoyed the bus ride and observing the city of Xuzhou and it's people. If I return to China, I would like to visit here again and take a moped through the streets on a Saturday afternoon/evening.

We stopped for lunch at a nice restaurant in Xuzhou. Dinner was interesting. I couldn't stop laughing. There were about 10 workers staring at our table and observing our strange American eating habits. Helena felt self-conscious and couldn't swallow due to the flourescent lighting. She was making me crack up because she couldn't find her sunglasses. I gave her mine.. But died when Taylin pointed out that Helena was hanging her RayBans on her shirt collar!!! I was trying to use the back of my chopsticks to get some rice, but I failed and dropped some in a different dish. Lone behold, a quick 1 minute later, a lady comes out with an embarrassingly large soup ladle and puts it in the rice dish for me. They must have thought we were so strange! They were pointing and giggling a bit at people. Very curious people. I think it may be less common for people in Xuzhou rather than Beijing to encounter foreigners.

Dinner was very spicy. I spent what seemed like half an hour trying to cool down my tongue. I ran out of water and other drinks so I drank a lot of tofu soup broth. The meal was unique and the dishes looked artsy.

I tried out my Chinese.. And failed. I attempted to ask "Where is the bathroom?", but the restaurant worker did not understand me. He brought the translator over. I was bummed. I am keeping on practicing.

The night life in Xuzhou is nice. The city was bustling. Helena and I walked by a karaoke bar and got super excited.

We then stopped at the hotel which is definitely my favorite. It is HUGE and gorgeous. The hotel room is spacious and modern looking. We have our own balconies. The pool is large.. There's a spa, a gym, and multiple multiple parts.

When we first arrived, there were insane fireworks going off in the parking lot. I got some video footage. The Chinese invented fireworks and they definitely beat us in the sheer awesomeness of their fireworks.

I got my luggage back and they took a chunk out of my wheel during transit so now when I roll my luggage it is very noisy. I feel my suitcase is falling apart.

I tried asking where the bathroom was again in the front lobby but the lady working there replied, offended in perfect English.. "What did you say?" It was awkward and I tried to explain I was practicing my Mandarin.

I had so much energy when we got to the hotel. When we first had to find our rooms.. Which are in the farthest possible section of the hotel... Anna accidentally took us to the 4th floor not the 3rd. We got off and I was getting annoyed cause there were no windows and I heard the fireworks, but there was a door by the elevator and curious, Anna wanted to see if it opened and it did! To an amazing large roof top.. With a wonderful full view of the waterline and the many fireworks and lights in the city and across the ways. We could see the concert venue.. A glittering flower along the water. The view was breathtaking. I got crazy footage of fireworks from the roof. I'll post some when I upload to YouTube later.


The majestic view

We brought our luggage to our room afterwards and before we could set our stuff down in our room fully, I rushed over to the only other orchestra people I heard in our section, Shawn and McLane and we went back up to the roof. McLane was super excited to take pics because the view was crazy. Some people from the other high school noticed us on the balcony and decided to come down. After we went back to the room, Mar, Annie, and Kellie met up and we went back up there to find some Ohio kids there. One snapped a pic of us all.



Here is our room. I couldn't get very decent photos

After the roof we walked around to the lobby and the second floor of the lobby. We visited the pool which is gorgeous.. As well as the gym. Anna and I checked out the "haunted floor" and Anna freaked!!!!!!!! I wasn't bothered. She didn't want to get out of the elevator lol.

After looking at the pool I wanted to go in. There were already costa kids swimming there, so I ran up and got changed and came down and had a refreshing swim.

Then I ran into friends playing cards and took some of them up to the haunted floor, which wasn't very haunted.

Then I re-entered the pool and came back to the room at 11PM for room check.