Dear Friend Come And Gone

Celine and I haven't seen each other for nearly 7 years. Last time was in September 1997. I took John home for 2 months. Of course, I hung out with her a few times.

Since then, I have been living in US. She changed jobs a couple of times in Taipei and then was recruited to work in China for the past 3 years. She holds a high management position in marketing, naturally an extremely demanding job. She travels a lot and is given only 40 days off year, which includes sick leave, national and culture holidays, plus some Sundays. In other words, she doesn't get every Sunday off and has to work every Saturday, all day.

Basically, she works, works, and works. Fortunately, she travels a lot for the job and she could have a little fun out side of office. I always wondered how she could take the work condition. She told me most of the Taiwanese employed in China were in similar conditions. Good money and work all the time.

I'm glad she has time to take vacation, visiting her sister in NYC and me in San Diego. Finally she could finally relax a little bit.

Celine and I met in college. We were both transfer students. Most transfers couldn't break in the crowds met in freshmen year. We instantly hit it off and were the most talkative people in English conversation classes. Well, she's the talkative one, hahaha...

It's hard to re-cap the past 7 years in 2.5 days. Over the years we kept contact but she's busy most of the time. And I, moved every year. Thank heavens that we didn't lose faith in 3-letters-a-year type of friendship. When I first came to US 10 years ago, she went to France for school. During those 3 years, we only exchanged correspondences no more than 3 times a year.

We did the best we could. I haven't laughed so heartily for a long long time. Certain cultural bond John would never understand. At times we might make jokes with politically incorrect or possibly racial sensitive remarks, only for good humor but not to harm anyone. Plus we wouldn't let anything we had said left the room. We could say anything to each other without judging. She had caught me a few times using incorrect or semi-comprehensive Chinese and cracked up.

John and I took her for Mexican food during the 3 nights she's here since it's the local specialty and also because China hadn't caught on the Mexican craze yet. We took her to the mountains and the beaches. But it didn't seem enough...

When will I see her again?