I’ve been recommended to go see the play Chinglish by three people during the short amount of time I’ve been home. I finally saw it last Thursday and I loved it! I was either smiling or laughing throughout the entire play. It’s truly one of the funniest, cleverest things I’ve ever seen. So much of the nuances of Chinese culture (and how it is typically misunderstood by Westerners) was spot-on. At first I was a little worried that I wouldn’t find the play as funny as someone who didn’t understand Mandarin, but that fear was unfounded. I actually found that because I understood both the Mandarin and English, it was even funnier, because the (mis)translations were that much more hysterical. All in all, I definitely recommend this play to anyone that has the chance to see it. It’s already sold out in Chicago (the Chicago run ends on July 31) but Chinglish is going to Broadway this fall, so if you’re in the NYC area, definitely go see it.

In completely unrelated news, I made cupcakes the other day:

The photo doesn’t have the best lighting, but I assure you the cupcakes were delicious. They were coconut-grapefruit cupcakes with matcha (green tea) frosting. It’s definitely a combination of flavors I never would’ve thought worked, but when I saw the recipe I just knew I had to try making them. They turned out to be pretty great.

And in further completely unrelated news, it’s funny how things work out. And by “funny” I mean sometimes, things can turn out just how you’ve wished for them to turn out when you least expect it.

Adjusting to the US has been easier during my second week at home. There are still moments of reverse culture shock and flashes of missing China like crazy, but I’m handling it better. That isn’t to say that I’ve already begun to lose my Chinese language skills though (thank God). Yesterday I had to take a test administered by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages to test my speaking proficiency as one of the caveats of receiving the Boren Scholarship. Now, when people ask me, “Oh, so you’re practically fluent in Chinese now, right?” I can answer “No, not fluent, but I have an advanced proficiency.” I even have the certificate to prove it

I’ve spent most of this week starting to organize my things for my upcoming move to DC. I’ve been sorting out what to keep, what to donate, and what to throw away. With some things, it’s been easy to decide (clothes that no longer fit go to the donation pile, for example.) But with others, it’s hard. I threw out a small collection of my favorite/best essays from high school, and it took me a long time to decide whether I should chuck it or keep it. In the end, I chucked it because I do have copies of the essays on my computer. And my book collection… I donated all but perhaps eight books. That’s an entire full bookshelf of books, gone. Surprisingly, it’s been harder to part with my books than it has been to part with some pairs of shoes. A sentimental thing, perhaps?

I haven’t only been packing this week. I had lunch with one of my high school advisors; it was lovely seeing her and catching up. We spoke of people and memories from high school, which made me feel like high school was eons ago (but it’s only been three!). Time flies, and we grow up faster than expected, I guess. I haven’t done the best of job at keeping in touch with my old high school crowd, and oftentimes I wonder how so-and-so has been, or what so-and-so has been up to lately. Then I wonder if anyone ever thinks about me from time to time, but usually my conclusion is no as I was a bit reclusive in high school. Ah, well.