The Hong Kong Squeeze Play

Ok, we left Boston on Tuesday, flew all day, and landed in Hong Kong Wednesday night.  Don't forget when you go west, you are actually flying through the dateline and into the next day.  So, for those of  you on the east coast of the U.S., you are actually13 hours behind us.  What it comes down to is that we have already lived through the day you are just starting to experience.  It is 11:00 a.m. Monday morning, while it is just 10:00 p.m. Sunday night back home.  Try to catch us if you can!  Since we are living in your future, we can tell you, "no worries for the next 13 hours heading your way.

If Thursday was our day of acclamation, Friday was our day for moving fast and furiously.  A bit of background is needed.  The whole purpose of this trip is to visit parents of our Asian students and a number of our alumni from and living in Asia.  Friday found us meeting with a number of parents and one of our American alumnus now living in Hong Kong.

Mike Tan's father along with Ann & me

We arranged to start the day off with lunch with the father of Mike Tan, a new sophomore from Shenzhen, China.  Mr. Tan was gracious enough to come to Hong Kong to host us for lunch.  It was a wonderful opportunity to share with Mr. Tan how his son was doing at Brewster (he is doing very well).  It is always good to meet the parents of our students, only this time they are parents living in Asia.  If Mr. Tan had to cross the boarder from Shenzhen to Hong Kong, we were taxied back over the harbor into Kowloon for the lunch date.  Then after lunch, Mr. Tan was kind enough to drive us back over the harbor for our next meeting.

Sam Xia's father and me

Once back at the hotel, we met with Yuting "Sam" Xia's father who also made the journey down to Hong Kong from Zhuhai City which is near Shenzhen.  Sam is a new freshman at Brewster.  He was also on the recreational golf team I coached this fall.  Mr. Xia was anxious to discuss his son's early months at Brewster as well as his progress in the classroom.  As with Mr. Tan, this meeting gave us a chance to exchange information that allowed us to get to know each other.  This is always good for future communications.   Sam is also doing well in his first year at Brewster, and I conveyed that to Mr. Xia.

After our meeting with Sam's father, Ann and I jumped into a taxi and headed for the Central part of Hong Kong which also is the financial center for this region of the world.  We met with Lois Zaprzalka Sherr '74 originally from New Hampshire and now living in Hong Kong with her husband and son.  It was a great opportunity to meet Lois for the first time.  Her recounting her senior year at Brewster was fun and informative.  Lois is extremely grateful to Brewster Academy for all that she experienced and especially appreciated what David Smith did for her.

So there you have it.  A very busy and informative day.