A day with Pat Wynne, finally, cuz I know y’all still have no idea who she is!
Pat Wynne went to high school with my mommy. Back in the day when ol’ Patty Newman was young on the scene. Pat didn’t give me anything too joocy about Patty way back when, except to say that they did party some, there was some craziness going on… which is good to hear. Said she was an alright girl, that momma of mine, sounds a bit like me in high school, ran with a chill crowd, knew the ‘cool’ kids but didn’t really want to be friends with them [because they mostly suck, and at least those kids from GHS now are recovering drug addicts, have babies, etc, whereas my friends are creating, doing, living in China, etc].
It was fun to take Pat Wynne around, show her my town. She was so appreciative of my touring with her, thinking it is mafan [difficulty or something] in my life, when really, any excuse to tell someone All Day about my favorite city, my life, etc, is a good time to me. Turns out I love to talk about China. And Pat was very interested. ‘
We started the day with a loop around Tiananmen Square, not much going there, walked straight through the Forbidden City, again not much going on there, so I took her to a place I once knew… we wandered down a windy hutong [alley] and I swear this woman had no confidence that I knew anywhere where I was [at this point she was asking me if I traveled with a map, I goffed at that one!] and we peaked in the first courtyard entrance door that was open, to speak to a young woman who had a badge with a familiar logo on it: ah, well if it isn’t the school I used to volunteer for when I was here in 2001.
Back at Hui Ling. It is not really a school so much as an organization for young adults with developmental disabilities, teaching them basic life necessities, giving them the confidence to ride the bus, go to the library, etc, it is more of a community. We sat down and had tea with Ms Meng, the Guangzhou woman who founded this school, who told me that since I left, the school had expanded greatly. In 2001, there was one school in Beijing and one in Guangzhou, now there are 7 more branches of the school in Beijing as well as in many cities around China. The English co-founder had since squeezed out some puppies and brought them back to England to raise them. So, they have little contact with the foreign community. Enter my white shining big nose face, and Ms Meng is trying to convince me to come back and work with them, not so much with the kids because we all know that was not my strong suit, but with connecting them with the foreign community, help raise some funds. Sounds like a good project to me, and it is true the my large nose and round eyes do now have quite a few contacts that could bring the big bucks in.
Pat and I continued our walking, got her on a barely crowded by Beijing standards bus, ate some typical Chinese food, wound through some alleys, rode the subway, rested briefly at my home where we met up with Won Park, my favorite Korean-American, who persuaded us to eat swanky Chinese food at a fabulous restaurant called South Beauty. The wine and Evian alone was $50! Ah, the food is good in this country.
Overall had a great day with Pat. If she comes to your town I highly recommend chillin with her. She is now off to live in Sydney, Australia, for a couple months, such an adventure. Pat, let me know how Sydney life is treating you!
It was fun to take Pat Wynne around, show her my town. She was so appreciative of my touring with her, thinking it is mafan [difficulty or something] in my life, when really, any excuse to tell someone All Day about my favorite city, my life, etc, is a good time to me. Turns out I love to talk about China. And Pat was very interested. ‘
We started the day with a loop around Tiananmen Square, not much going there, walked straight through the Forbidden City, again not much going on there, so I took her to a place I once knew… we wandered down a windy hutong [alley] and I swear this woman had no confidence that I knew anywhere where I was [at this point she was asking me if I traveled with a map, I goffed at that one!] and we peaked in the first courtyard entrance door that was open, to speak to a young woman who had a badge with a familiar logo on it: ah, well if it isn’t the school I used to volunteer for when I was here in 2001.
Back at Hui Ling. It is not really a school so much as an organization for young adults with developmental disabilities, teaching them basic life necessities, giving them the confidence to ride the bus, go to the library, etc, it is more of a community. We sat down and had tea with Ms Meng, the Guangzhou woman who founded this school, who told me that since I left, the school had expanded greatly. In 2001, there was one school in Beijing and one in Guangzhou, now there are 7 more branches of the school in Beijing as well as in many cities around China. The English co-founder had since squeezed out some puppies and brought them back to England to raise them. So, they have little contact with the foreign community. Enter my white shining big nose face, and Ms Meng is trying to convince me to come back and work with them, not so much with the kids because we all know that was not my strong suit, but with connecting them with the foreign community, help raise some funds. Sounds like a good project to me, and it is true the my large nose and round eyes do now have quite a few contacts that could bring the big bucks in.
Pat and I continued our walking, got her on a barely crowded by Beijing standards bus, ate some typical Chinese food, wound through some alleys, rode the subway, rested briefly at my home where we met up with Won Park, my favorite Korean-American, who persuaded us to eat swanky Chinese food at a fabulous restaurant called South Beauty. The wine and Evian alone was $50! Ah, the food is good in this country.
Overall had a great day with Pat. If she comes to your town I highly recommend chillin with her. She is now off to live in Sydney, Australia, for a couple months, such an adventure. Pat, let me know how Sydney life is treating you!
posted by Claire at 2:09 AM
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