Living in the Maelstrom of Existence

Went up to Cttb again for Master Hsuan Hua's Nirvana Memorial. The moment I stepped into the Dining hall, Tommy spotted me and his face immediately lighted up and broke into a wide smile as he waved to me. Then Charlie saw me, then Jim, then Jackie, then the rest of the boys school... and one by one, their faces all lit up with a glow and broke into smiles! Then of course there's all the usual hugs and all that... this is the real reason why it gives me so much joy to be in cttb all the time. Its the people there. Its the spirit of welcome and joy whenever you go up there.

And I even got a new nickname this time - Jonfen... Coz the boys school was watching a movie the night before and the main character's name was also Jonathan but kept getting mispronounced in the movie as Jonfen... then the 1st person that came to their minds was... Me... =.=... So for the entire 2 days I was up there, I kept hearing "Hey JOnfen! Jonfen!"... but I guess I should be thankful that they even thought of me during the movie... oh wellz...

The night before the ceremony, we helped in the kitchen doing major cooking of the desserts:


Pic 1: Sugar High!
Pic 2: Double Double Toil and Trouble...
Pic 3: Our artists


The Master Pieces by Aunt Guo Juan

It was an entire night's work. Finally finished at about 9pm. After my shower, went to hang around with the students for a while till it was 11:00pm and Mr K shooed us to bed. Lolz. As it was a big event all the boarding rooms were taken up, so after getting permission from Mr K, I was allowed to sleep in the dorms! Cool! hahaz... He also suggested that I become a Dorm Teacher... hmmz... that'll be difficult thou. But yah, went to crash in my brother Andrew's room! Hahz.

Sunday Morning the Ceremony begins:



During the ceremony, I saw Eric too! This time, it was my turn to break into smiles! Lolz... Really missed this guy, last time i saw him was 2 months ago! And that time, he even wanted to skip school so that we could hang out more but I told him not to.. and who knows... it'll be another 2 months before we met again.. sigh... but i guess that was the right thing to do. Too bad I didn't get to even say hi though... was too busy helping out with trash, recycling, cleaning up and all. But I guess that smile exchange was better than nothing! =)

Thousands of people showed up for the ceremony. This is probably the biggest event every year as all these people show up remembering the kindness that they have been shown by the Founder when he was alive and even after. For me, I'm just thankful that he created this paradise on earth, for this is the place where I made many many true and wonderful friends...