Unexpected excitement

The title of this article is dubious. Maybe I shouldn’t have written my first blog at such a ridiculously busy moment.

However, this Tuesday, April 22, was really unforgettable to me. As usual, I overslept and got up a little bit late, grabbing my laptop bag and running out to catch the bus to school. As I walked down Murray towards Forbes Ave, I felt tons of weight on my feet and drowsiness started to steal upon my eyelids. When I hit Darlington, waiting for the light to turn green, a senior citizen came over and told me that President Bill Clinton would be arriving at the Jewish Community Center in 10 minutes. Looking to the left instantly, I saw campaigning flags waving in the air 100 feet away, and with no hesitation, I ran to the gradually-gathering crowd and found myself one of them in one minute.

Finally he came, as expected, eloquent as usual. Although he was not my president and he came from a land full of controversy, suspicion, disparagement, criticism, vituperation and smear on China, it was still very exciting to see a person that I always looked up to. An interesting moment came when he was preaching to the crowd on Hillary’s behalf on the issue of trade between US and China. At that moment, he saw me looking at him. Obviously, he realized immediately that one of his audience was probably a Chinese, but he didn’t avoid my eye contact, and instead stared at me for as long as he talked. Being surprised yet admiring his poise, I murmured to myself, ‘alright, you win’.  Actually I was still drowsy and did not remember what he said anyway,

During that short period, we hugged once and shaked hands twice, I reaching out to him once and he to me once. One thing that still haunted me even now was that I really should have gone home to take my camera before he appeared on Darlington, so that I could put every moment down permanently on pictures. Fortunately, a girl, who was a CMU alumna, did me a favor by taking a picture of me and President Clinton, while unfortunately, I am still waiting for the picture from her now. Where are you, Susanna?

I found a link on the web just now recording his visiting JCC on the PA primary day, and you can see me in the video clip at around 58 seconds after the preceding ad if there were any. http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/video/15960758/index.html

Having been in US for a while, I am really no longer used to winters. When thunders and storms abate, the upcoming spring is gonna be more splendid, isn’t it?

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