Last night was the Moon Festival, and my parents and I celebrated it with my Great Uncle from my dad’s side. Members of my Great Uncle’s family came, too, including Hannah (or Aunt Hannah, I should say), and my Great Uncle’s two beloved nieces.
We all ate at a restaurant that specialized in dumplings. The serving style was a la carte, like dim sum. What’s odd about these dumplings is that they have soup in them. Yep… soup. Apparently, they accomplish this by wrapping the dumpling with a “ice cube soup”. The cube would melt when the dumpling is cooked in the steamer. They’re not bad, considering the variety: crab, pork, shrimp, vegetarian, and beef.
Dinner conversation at the restaurant was lost to me since I was too engaged talking to Aunt Hannah. I haven’t seen her in several years. The last I heard she was getting her graduate degree in social work. For the past three years she’s been working at a high school in a poor neighborhood. Being a counselor for 250 students, facing performance anxiety and working for unappreciative students have taken a toll on her health. She now suffers from Type-II diabetes. And, she’s only 29-years old.
After dinner, we went to my Great Uncle’s apartment for mooncakes. Conversation turned to whether I will try to go to China despite the Peace Corps canceling its program there. That got me thinking about getting an MBA at the Monterery Institute, again. I get impatient. Yet, I can’t go for an advanced degree without work experience. Two years at one job would be nice. Can I last that long here as a loan officer? Can I manage to make a living and excel as a loan officer until July 17th, 2005?
I don’t know.