Happy New Year

This past weekend, I was in my first stage production in years since our med school spoof, "Sleeping with the Enema". That's me behind Connor in my groovy pants in the annual Chinese New Year variety show put on by the Howard Community College Chinese School. As amateur and brief as our little dance number was, all of us in the bilingual class had nervous butterflies waiting backstage for our time in the spotlight in front of hundreds of people, oddly including some non-Asian faculty members from our neurology department. But all the practice, despite ice and snow, paid off, and we had a great time, including the kiddees. Afterwards, I asked Connor how he managed his stage nerves and he said very maturely, "I tried not to think about it."
We'll be capping-off our week-long celebration of the new year of the pig this weekend over dim sum with a festive serenade of drums and a lion dance. So for all you Mandarin speakers out there happy eating, XIN NIAN KUAI LE, GOONG SHEE FAH TSAI!!!