Not really, actually.

Running son drops my car off at school. At the curb:

Running son: Creo que tu choche necesita un poco de gasolina. [The gas gauge is flirting with the red dot that signifies "running on fumes."]

Me: [Shoulders sag with the weary weariness of disappointment and weariness. And disappointment. I have exactly one dollar, which will buy, like, a cubic centimeter of gasolina.]

Running son: ...I thought it wouldn't be as disappointing if I said it in Spanish.

Ch-ch-ch-china.

Running son is taking off to Beijing tomorrow. He's been home just over two months, and off he goes again. Who thinks going off to Beijing for five months, after having been home for just over two months, sounds like a grand adventure? Raise your hands!

That's right, it is a grand adventure. Full of Mandarin and noodles and a foreign land, and right now, after midnight, we, the people, are both trepidatious and really excited about it.

If I were a 21-year-old and I were going off to Beijing to learn to read, write, speak, and understand Mandarin even more than I already did, I would have the following as my priorities:

1. Do not get kidnapped.

2. Do not have my money or credit cards stolen.

3. Do not get lost or have anything patently unsafe (aka, "dangerous") happen to me.

4. Blog religiously and truthfully about the safe (aka, "not dangerous") and wonderful things happening to me. Post many pictures of myself, safe and sound, in China.

5. Call home and e-mail at sufficient frequency that my mom wouldn't freak.

Yes, that's certainly what I would do. But that's me.

tags: China, adventure, safe

Singing son graduates.