I sang it in Girl Scouts, and it still rings true:
“Make new friends, but keep the old.
One is silver, the other is gold.”
Some of our favorite people from the Shanghai days swept through New Delhi last week, and I am still feeling the glow. Tim, Jen and Sydney Munnerlyn were our downstairs neighbors at Green Court in Shanghai. They left China the year before we did and now live in Abu Dhabi. Sydney, a wee 4-year-old when we met her, is now a sensitive, beautiful, fifth-grade blogger, horsewoman, actress, swimmer, traveler, storyteller. How special to be part of her life experience!
The Gandhi Smriti affected me so deeply that I wanted to share it with the Munnos.
Saturday evening, our school held its big Fall Fiesta, a Halloween party/fund-raiser for high school service clubs. Tony volunteered for the dunk tank, but got reassigned to the pie-in-the-face booth. Turns out Sydney has a good arm.
I had planned Sunday breakfast with a group of former Shanghai American School teachers who now work here at AES, but only Cheryl Perkins was able to make it.
Syd bought a leather-bound journal and a pack of jewel-encrusted pens at Dilli Haat, a local handicrafts market. She couldn’t wait to start writing.
Zangoora, which bills itself as the “only Bollywood stage musical,” took place at a Vegas-y venue called Kingdom of Dreams. It featured horrifically loud music and hilariously bad English dubbing (piped into our headsets), but also outrageous special effects and brilliant dancing. A definite Delhi “don’t miss”!
Still new to India, Tony and I were not the best tour guides. We hauled them to a few places in town, dragged them to school and then sent them off to Rajasthan for a few days. The best part of their visit for me, though, was the seamless simple process of reconnecting.
(The photos at the Fall Fiesta, Dilli Haat and Zangoora are stolen from Jen’s Facebook page.)
Old friends are my favorites too.
Miss you Shazzy.
Miss you Tones.
Miss you Munnos.
I love you heaps and heaps and I always will.
xoxoxoxo