Recap of 7926 Las Vegas Reunion 9/10 - 9/12/99
** Lian Hui **
First Day Reunion 9/10/99
Walking out of the gate in the Maclarren Airport, I saw Jesse standing
three yards away waving to me. Steve (Shi) stood up shouting: "Are you Lian Hui?"
Three of us hugged each other, saying almost simultaneously: "How nice to see you again
after so many years." I noticed that Steve had a little bit less hair on his head but
his eyes were as glistening as ever. Jesse's look hasn't changed much.
Although after a whole day's work and waiting for one hour to meet me,
both of them seemed to be still well spirited. My reunion started at that point.
Wasting no time, we joked about the stories of the old time and inquired each other's
going-on on the way to the hotel.
After check-in, we went to Little Deer's (Xiao Lu) room.
Zelin and Little Deer were both there. Zelin hasn't changed much
since I saw him the last time while Xiao Lu seemed to look fancier
wearing a navy blue Bernini shirt with red floral pattern on his sleeves.
One more round of greetings and jokes, it was time for Jesse and Zelin to
leave for the airport to pick up Weihua.
The rest of us were migrating to my room where Steve was flipping through
my graduation book. Moments later Guang Hua and Xing Cai came in.
Wearing red T-shirt for good luck, Xing Cai had spent hours in the MGM casino
since his arrival in the afternoon. The Goddess of Gambling didn't seem to like the red,
Tim lost $300 at that point. Guang Hua was amazingly well preserved.
The same build, the same tone of the voice, the same Bai Bai Pang Pang,
he was just like 16 years ago. Given his achievement as a father of two sons, one of
them a teenager, and as a son of aging parents, Guang Hua's youth-keeping method is
world class.
The room got noisier when Little Deer joined us after he finished one more round of
money killing. Our talking circle was split into two subgroups. On the one side,
Steve and Xing Cai were engaged in a heated technical talk, of which only people who
know Linux can understand. The other side was more on the layman's term. Xiao Lu,
Guang Hua and I were talking about investing in stocks.
Xiao Lu said:" I picked up a stock called Brazil Telecom. It was worth about
$127 a year ago. Guess how much was it dropped?"
Steve and Xing Cai stopped their talking, and we all looked at each other.
We had no idea.
"It was dropped to six cents." Xiao Lu said calmly.
"Wow!" We were all shocked.
"I bought 200000 shares." Xiao Lu said. "And guess how much was it increased the next day?"
We all shook our heads.
"It jumped to $40."
After another "Wow" throughout the room, Xiao Lu continued. "I spent about $10000 on it.
It was the money from winning the gambling. I figured out I was going to gamble away that
money any way, then why not try my luck on this stock? Now with 200000 shares, my holding
was worth $8 million. Using that money, I can start a new magazine, send my kids to private
schools and have my early retirement."
Stunned by his windfall, we were speechless. There was a moment of pause in the room.
Finally, speaking slowly, Guang Hua asked: "Have you sold it?"
"Of course not. It was my dream that night that the stock rose to $40.
The stock is really only worth 25 cents now." Xiao Lu raised his voice starting to laugh.
This was followed by a storm of loud laughs, which overwhelmed any other sound around.
At the other side of the door, Jesse's gentlemanly knocking on the door was completely
ignored. Zelin, Jesse and Weihua waited patiently but the folks inside didn't seem to have
any intention to stop making noise. Finally, Weihua encouraged the two gentlemen to knock
loudly. This time I answered the door.
Weihua's arrival brought us with a new wave of hugging and greeting.
Weihua looked extremely well, healthy, fit and happy.
It was 1:30 AM Las Vegas time. The East Coast folks looked like starting to fade into
the night scene. Our team leader Jesse called the night off.
Little Deer and Xing Cai continued to march on to the casino while Weihua and I went to
look for food. The rest of the crowds went back to their rooms.
Weihua and I ate and chatted until the morning.
Second Day Reunion 9/11/99
Sleeping for two hours, here I woke up in the morning of September 11 for about one hour,
lying in bed wondering what to do with myself. Then the phone rang.
It was Jesse who was asking whether we wanted to join him and Zelin for breakfast.
The invitation was timely because I was bored with doing nothing.
Weihua wanted to continue her "journey to Soozhow." Three of us ate our breakfast in the
Rainforest Café. Steve and others got up earlier than us. At this time they had done
their eating.
The group convened again in my room. We spent most of our time teasing each other's past,
particularly with regard to who admired whom in school. The primary target was Steve since
he was the most candid one to admit whom he admired.
When we challenged him about his courage to make an expression such as hugging and kissing,
he stood up, straightening his back, speaking loudly in front all of us: "Who is afraid?"
From that point on, Zelin nicknamed Steve as "Who Pa Who."
Then it was time for photo. Steve was carrying a classy digital camera with him so that he
can post pictures directly into the web. We assigned him an impossible task:
post only these pictures where each of us looks the best. Overall after parting 16 years,
we all want to show the world with our best images. Steve was trying to be accommodating
as much as possible while sacrificing his own photo opportunity.
We spent the rest of the morning roaming along the Las Vegas Blvd,
leaving our footprints in the Paris, Bellagio and Bally's.
The fountains and the fake Arc de Triumph in front of Paris,
the colorful steeples of the New Yorker, New Yorker, the white boxy looking Monte Carlo
and many others formed the backgrounds of our pictures.
Las Vegas' sun in September was all but subtle.
The heat was merciless. We managed to take a tram back to MGM to meet Zhan Shu Hui
and the "lost angles" (people from LA).
At 12:30, we had no trouble to find Shu Hui in the lobby of MGM.
Unlike most of us, who were more or less red-eyed due to lack of sleeping,
Shu Hui looked well rested, almost radiant. Along with her were her husband Mr. Young and
her brother-in-law. While Jesse was running around figuring out issues like what, how,
when and where, Steve wasted no time to take pictures for us.
Xiao Lu suggested that we went to China Town for lunch.
We all liked the idea and headed to that direction.
From LA, Qi Qi was driving 90 mph toward Las Vegas. Along with him were James (Wang),
Jason and Herman. MGM was about to be in sight the phone rang.
Qi Qi was told to redirect the vehicle toward the China Town.
Exhausted from the client meeting early in the morning and long driving,
Qi Qi put his irritation aside, zipped into the China Town.
Inside the restaurant, we were sitting in a room where there were two round tables.
Obviously one table wouldn't be enough for 14 people.
Xiao Lu came in with a bottle of Chevaz Regal, threatening to make me drunk again,
because he wanted to see the drunken scene during the graduation lunch 16 years ago
to resurface. Lightening up a cigarette, he sat in between the two round tables;
ordered waiters to bring in buckets of ice for the liquor.
We each had a small glass of the liquor with a lot of ice in it.
We talked about the graduation drunk scene; "blamed" each other for "conspiracy or
wrong doings." I tried my best self-control to ensure the drunkenness would never
happen again on me. Jesse felt that he missed a great deal by not attending the graduation
lunch. Weihua was teased as well for not being appreciative enough to a lunch she was
treated by an old friend.
Moments later the "lost angles" showed up. Qi Qi looked tired but still happy to see
all of us. Jason was still as fit as in his school years.
His son Herman was the best well-behaved boy I have ever seen.
He sat in his seat playing a game machine for the entire lunch period.
He self-introduced him as Her Man. Guang Hua watched Herman with a deep sigh:
"If my younger son can sit like Herman for more than ten minutes,
my life would be a lot easier."
As the last one to enter the room, James was a little bit heavier than before but still
within the reasonable bound. James was in a very good spirit. We started to tease him about
Who Pa Who type of issues. He was quite gracious and sincere, almost defenseless.
While our side of the table was full of big laughs, the other side of the table was quieter.
Steve, Jason, QiQi, Shu Hui and Misters Young were engaging some types of conversation I
couldn't hear.
During the lunch, Jesse asked head counts for the white tiger show at night.
The response was lukewarm. People seemed to be much more interested in finding out how
Guang Hua managed to keep him so unchanged. As his former roommate,
Xiao Lu volunteered some Guang Hua's secret formula.
"There are two secrets. " Xiao Lu said, " First thing first, getting up in the morning,
peel off an apple before doing anything and eat it. That's number one secret."
"What about the number two?" I was quite anxious to get the know-how.
"Ha, ha, ha, I can't reveal that one." Xiao Lu put a naughty smile on his face.
I knew it was time to quit the subject. I wasn't "drunk" enough to lose the wisdom of
quitting.
Misters Young left the scene after the lunch. We stayed a little longer,
mainly for the sake of taking photos. We managed to have Who Pa Who, Shu Hui and QiQi
(as background music) taking a picture together. By the time the whole group was ready
to post for a picture, the light in the room was off. Little Deer had to get guys to
turn on them again. A waiter came in to help take pictures. We all handed our cameras out.
The poor waiter kept taking the same photo again and again until he finished half dozen
cameras. At the meantime, we had to smile again and again until our cheek got stiff.
After the Chinese meal, we wanted something French. The group roamed around the ornate
lobby of the Bellegio. There was an impressionist art gallery in the hotel.
The exhibition covers Van Gogh, Cezanne, Degas, Monet, Manet, Picasso,
Morisot and a few Flemish painters such as Rambrandt. QiQi, Weihua, Jesse, Guang Hua, J
ames, Steve and I went to see the exhibition while the rest people had their own programs
in the hotel.
After finishing the exhibition, we went to play the slot machine. Jesse put in a $10 bill.
From that moment on, money never stopped dropping in until the machine ran out of coins.
The casino guy had to put more coins into the machine so that Jesse could continue his
collection. Final count: $500. Meanwhile, Weihua put $10 bill into the machine next to
Jesse's, and was out of the game in 3 minutes. My fate was more or less the same.
It was really a pain to hear Jesse's machine still running the coins while my dollars
got dried in only a few minutes. Guang Hua watched this and apparently was encouraged by
Jesse's luck. He found a game for himself and won $50. QiQi wanted to play black jackpot
because he wanted to use his brain a little bit more. He managed to breakeven.
Somewhere or elsewhere, Little Deer managed to lose another $3000, and Xing Cai
lost another $200. Casualty for James was in the neiborhood of $60. Someone's
gain was other's loss. How true. We attributed Jesse's gain as the reward from
the casino for bringing all of us to the place. Xing Cai was dozing off for the
rest period.
The dinner plan had to be altered because the line for the seafood buffet was impossibly
long. Instead we all went to the Chinese noodle restaurant.
After dinner, we said goodbye to Shu Hui while Steve, Jason and Herman stayed with her
until she safely reached her hotel.
Outside Bellegio, we stood on a bridge watching the electrically pumped fountain show.
The breeze from the wave brought some cool air on our face.
It was almost romantic except that the sky was too bright.
Among us several subgroups were formed. There were private catch-up or bonding talks along
the way. Looking at the flashing neon in distance, watching the flowing water jumping to
the sky with various formations, hearing the familiar voices next to me from the Fudan
era, I felt as if I was in a dream. It feels like a home away from home. What a difference
20 years can make to one's life.
The next stop was the old town of Las Vegas. We were there for the light show.
Thousands of lights cover the enclosed top of a mile-long corridor.
At 10:00 PM, all the lights were turned on. Computerized images flew through the whole
corridor. I had an euphoric feeling as if the brightness lightened up all the light bulbs
in my heart. The show lasted only 15 minutes.
Back to our hotel room, we started to brainstorm for the next reunion.
Folks from the West Coast graciously recommended East Coast as the next reunion location.
Under our big sister Weihua's guidance, we identified the radius between Boston and
Lake George area in up state New York as our next reunion location.
As we talked, Steve, Jason and Herman came back.
This time the mission was accomplished for Who Pa Who.
Thumb up, we all gave him a rave review.
The next mission was to find Zhang Xiao Qing's whereabouts.
Since Xing Cai expressed in an earlier email that he missed her,
we thought he would be a great candidate to take on this task.
It was about 0:30 AM, time to say goodbye to Weihua. Her plane was scheduled to depart at
1:30 AM. Everyone was sorry to see her leaving. It was such a short trip for her.
We all appreciated her effort to come. Yawning constantly, Xiao Lu wanted to hit the road
to LA. Someone suggested that he went home the next day but others thought it would be in
his best interest to leave the gambling site that night. The savings could buy another
100000 shares of Brazil Telecom. Xing Cai, Zelin, Xiao Lu dropped Weihua off in the airport.
The group dissolved. Xing Cai and James surfed the casino again for some time.
I don't know the result of their gaming luck. However, Xing Cai spent enough money so
that he was qualified as a VIP guest to get his room free.
Third Day Reunion 9/12/99
Next morning, September 12, 1999, walking into Jesse and Zelin's room I saw Qi Qi,
Xing Cai, James and Zelin there. The crowds were soon joined by Steve, Jason,
Herman and Jesse. Everyone was red-eyed, kept saying things different from what they
really meant to say (Yu3 Wu2 Lun2 Ci4). Steve was teasing me about losing another
night's sleep due to missing someone, perhaps my husband. He must have resented my
role in the Who Pa Who talk.
We revisited the issue of the next reunion. Qi Qi mentioned the concern about whether
or not we should have families with us for the next reunion. Someone suggested that the
best way to handle this is to arrange programs for the families while we can still stick
together as a group. Orlando, FL popped up as an alternative location for the next reunion.
Going there will allow the families to have fun in theme parks while we can talk about
things only interesting to us. James tried to convince our richest man, QiQi,
to financially sponsor the next reunion but couldn't overcome QiQi's executive
power and negotiation skills.
From the imagination of the next reunion, inspired by James, the guys'
interests suddenly took a sharp detour. They started to talk about the
issues typical to mid-aged or quasi mid-aged men, such as the analogy of
having the right hand holding the left. Sorry, guys, I have to report the truth.
I tried to call Shu Hui to say goodbye but no one answered the phone.
We then went to the buffet brunch. James piled his plate up with all kinds of desserts,
saying that he couldn't let this golden opportunity slip through his hands since his wife
was not around to watch him. Jason was also in a great spirit. We were all very happy to
see him doing well and were touched by his devotion to Herman.
Around 11:00, Zelin and Xing Cai were leaving. Soon after, the "lost angels"
were about to leave as well. Walking out of the restaurant with them, we saw a huge
electronic alligator model. People were tossing the coins around it with a wish.
If the coin is landed on top of the alligator's back, the wish will come true.
I made a very vague wish with no special purpose and tossed the first coin out.
It landed right on the top of the alligator's back. Then it occurred to me that
I should make a wish to win big bucks. I tossed coins again and again but none was
landed on the top.
Disappointed, we left the alligator. Passing a big crowd, we saw a roaring lion jumping
around behind the glass, which separates the lobby from the lion. Herman enjoyed watching
it while QiQi was getting his car. Then came the farewell to QiQi, Jason,
James and Herman.
The remaining four of us, Guang Hua, Jesse, Steve and I went to the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Since Guang Hua would be the last one leaving the Vegas, Jesse was telling him all kinds
of activities he could do during the evening before his departure. On the cab ride to
Paris, Steve made a final attempt to challenge me on Who Pa Who issue but in vein.
Finally he had to give up. He complained that I was taking too much airtime by being
too talkative. What the heck, I'll do exactly the same thing again next time. Too bad,
Steve.
On the top of the Eiffel Tower, the woman tour guide spoke a little French with a
funny accent. She was from the state of Iowa. I was amazed to find out that French
people do come here. It seems to me that people tend to ignore the best things
right in their own backyard. It takes someone in distance to appreciate the
beauty of the real fine things, such as the real Eiffel Tower in the authentic Paris.
In parallel, perhaps the reunion gave us time to reflect upon our past and allowed us
to develop a new perspective to discover the beautiful things in our life.
Soon came the time for me to say goodbye. The trio (Jesse, Guang Hua and Steve)
accompanied me to the cabstand. My journey was closed with a satisfactory note.
It was truly a bonding experience. I'll always miss this reunion.
* By Lian Hui 9/15/99 *
© Steve Shi - 9/16/1999