On The Move…

That’s all folks – the Harvard Din & Tonics World Tour 2006 is officially over. In less than three hours I will be headed to the airport for my second trans-Pacific flight in four days. Which means another day in transit, a day lost to the time-difference and a day lost to jetlag. Nonetheless I’m excited to be home again soon.

Tonight I’ve come away with an overwhelming sense of closure and completion, 11 weeks after we first left Boston at the start of tour. We’ve all come a long way since then: as a group, as individuals, and certainly for me, as an individual within the group. As many people will attest, tour has done wonders for my standing within the group and with the other Dins. Given that I’d never really had time to hang out or get to know these guys really well during the past year (or two years, even), it’s such a joy for me now to look around at what truly are my best friends in the world and know that I have never felt so loved, accepted, appreciated and connected with any other group of people at Harvard. No doubt about it. This is everything I ever dreamed of way back in the day six years ago when I dreamed of having a group of college buddies and dreamed of being a Din. It’s been everything I’d ever dreamed of and hoped for and then so much more.

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Jeff made me cry, which really surprised and moved me. I will miss him so much as he moves away to begin his vetenarian training.

I’m so happy for Sam, who got to have the same wonderful homecoming experience here in San Francisco that I had in Singapore.

Jon said some really lovely things, and that meant a lot to me, to feel like we’ve moved past and beyond our relationship before tour.

I’m not going to mention everyone by name, but I’m thinking fondly of you guys, all of you. Tonight I said just about all of what I wanted to say to each of you, so you should all know how special you are to me. I love you all so, so much!

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It was so great to be able to spend time today with Uncle Kwong, Aunt Jenny, Malcolm and Forrest today, and so exciting to see them at the concert last night, right in the first row! *waves* Hi guys!! Thanks for coming! I’ll see you all again soon in Cambridge and/or Singapore!

And Lu-en! It was really lovely of you to drive for an hour from Stanford through rush-hour traffic to meet me in the city. It meant a lot for me to be able to chat with you and catch up on what you’re doing and hear about the life you’ve made for yourself here in California. Thank you also for the impromptu grad-school advising – I’m definitely going to start getting my act together… soon! 🙂 I can only hope it is not another two years before I see you again… Keep in touch!

Sydney is such a gorgeous city, I almost feel guilty that I’ve done nothing touristy, nor have I really ventured out of the house on my own.  I’ve been put on my own at a lovely homestay, successful American expatriates (Wharton and HBS grads) who left on vacation the day after I arrived, leaving me with the run of their tastefully devorated home, their aging golden retriever, Trooper, and their almost-six daughter, Eloise.  I’ve been getting on great with Claire, the English nanny/PA at my homestay, and I’m perfectly content to laze around reading my book and watching FTV on the plasma-screen in the den.  In many ways it’s been like being on retreat by myself at a spa – I’ve been up before 8am each day, I’ve been to the gym twice with Claire and despite the *huge* Australian servings at restaurants I’ve been eating fairly moderately and healthily.  Fairly.

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It’s surreal how much happens in the world when you’re travelling for over two months and fall out of the loop with the news, your friends and family.  In that time Indonesia has had an earthquake, a tsunami, a volcano eruption, and the world’s worst human death toll from bird flu.  Bombs went off in Mumbai.  A massive terrorist plot was revealed at Heathrow.  America experienced her hottest months and days on record (and suffered a spate of power outages).  Lebanon and Israel went to war, and reached a fragile UN-brokered ceasefire.

And then there are all the personal developments closer to home.  Someone’s changed jobs, others have graduated or begun new courses, new couples have been formed or are coalescing.

All while I wasn’t looking, or paying attention.

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I *am* excited to be starting school again soon.  If only I could scrape together the time to get a whole bunch of different things done…  the stuff for Amy, the stuff for Rebecca.  Looks like the work is all cut out to be done.  Guess I should get a move on…

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PS:  Bali was beautiful, Jakarta managed to turn into a Jon-style Choshi City for me, and Singapore was everything I hoped it would be, and more.  I couldn’t have asked for more.  Thank you, God!  (And Mother, and Janine!)

I’m home!  Actually, truly, physically home!!  It’s a wonderful feeling, and so far the rest of the group really likes the city too, which makes me all warm and fuzzy inside 😀

I know have a Singapore hp number: 8132 8422, so call me 🙂

Come see me sing with the Dins at the Esplanade Recital Studio on 8 Aug at either 7pm or 9pm – tickets are available through Sistic at: http://www.sistic.com.sg/cms/events/index.html?content=392

More updates when I’m not rushing around leading the group etc. etc.

I still *love* tour.