Welcome to the real world...well, not yet

The price for leaving high school is having to listen to people telling you the future is yours 

After attending 9 schools in 5 countries over the course of nearly 15 years I'm proud to declare to the world that my daughter has successfully completed her K-12 education!:

This past weekend saw Amber and the rest of her senior class take part in an American-style graduation ceremony, though with a few Chinese touches (the proceedings were originally intended to be staged outdoors, but heavy rain necessitated moving the event into a gymnasium). Because her class was small (fewer than 90 graduates), each student was introduced with a brief summary of what said pupil was going to do in the near future as they lined up to receive their diploma - in our daughter's case, it was noted that she was going to study chemistry in the fall at a university in the U.S. For me, at least, it was an emotional occasion, with the tears welling up a couple of times, both out of pride in what Amber has accomplished, and in the knowledge that in a matter of only a few months she will leave behind an empty nest here in Beijing 北京:

The ceremony took place in the morning. That evening, the school held a celebratory banquet for the students at a ritzy hotel that fortunately was only a short walk from our home. The girls successfully evaded all the puddles placed in their way to and from the venue:

Though I do get drowsy more often these days, I was most certainly not asleep in this photo, instead checking my phone like a millennial:

The proceedings ended before 2200 hours, but we remained in the ballroom until 2330 while the students signed each others' yearbooks and, in many cases, probably said their goodbyes. So I killed the time with some champagne:

 

Despite the graduation ceremony and banquet on Saturday the students were still not free. The final act took place this morning, which fortunately for me coincided with Memorial Day, meaning I had the Monday off anyway and didn't need to sacrifice any leave time to attend the last assembly. In an indication of how well-endowed Amber's school is, the event was held at Beijing's Confucius Temple 孔庙, even though the temple is usually closed on Mondays. The approach to the temple's exit (which served as our entrance this morning):

Dating from the Yuan dynasty 元朝, the second-largest Confucian temple in China (the largest being in the great sage's hometown) served as an appropriate locale to honor a graduating class of future scholars:

The ceremony was held in front of the Gate of Great Success 大成门:

While waiting for final preparations to be completed (some families were running late due to rush-hour traffic), I took a walk around the expansive courtyard, home to 118 steles engraved with the names of those successful candidates 进士 who passed the civil service examinations 科举 from 1646 to 1904:

There were other steles as well, such as this one erected in 1776 to mark the successful suppression of some riots:

The ceremony began with a student procession, with Amber giving us a sideway glance as she passed by:

There were of course several speeches, all mercifully short. Here, Mr. Wu, the director of the Confucius Temple and executive vice-president of the China Confucius Temple Preservation Association, pointed out an old tree planted several hundred years ago by a noted scholar:

Near the end of the ceremony each student was told to look under their chairs Oprah-style to find a gift of a book related to their immediate futures. Our daughter intends to study chemistry, with the eventual goal of going to pharmacy school after her undergraduate studies:

Once the proceedings were concluded it was time for some photo ops:

And with that, we were done, passing by an ornate furnace where joss paper 纸钱 was (is?) burned on our way out: 

Before returning home the three of us strolled from the Confucius Temple to one of Beijing's remaining hutong 胡同 neighborhoods, Wudaoying 五道营:

This one felt more hipsterish than most, as we first stopped in a cafe, where I had a brown sugar cinnamon latte:

We followed that up with lunch at a Western-style eatery, where I toasted Amber's success with an amber ale (would I have any other?) and an English-style breakfast:

And so my little girl isn't so little anymore. There's a part of me that wishes she could remain my little one forever more, but time won't allow that to happen. And even if it were possible, it wouldn't be right. Amber has a right to a future, and the opportunity to begin charting her own course in life, and my role is to provide her with all the love and support she will need on that journey. That doesn't stop the tears from welling up again, but these are tinged with a combination of joy and sadness. 

In the week between finishing her final exams and graduating from high school, Amber took part in the school's annual China Studies trip. Last year, as a junior, she and her classmates spent a week in Inner Mongolia 内蒙古. The year, once the tests were over and done with, the seniors embarked on a four-day, three-night excursion to Anhui Province 安徽省, where the emphasis was on activities such as rafting, biking, boating and hiking, as opposed to learning about Chinese culture. The following photos come courtesy of our daughter and one of the teachers who chaperoned the trip:

Rafting in Huangshan City 黄山市:

The view from the hotel where Amber stayed:

Qiandao Lake 千岛湖: 

This photo was taken in the old town section of Tunxi 屯溪, where we stayed a night nearly ten years ago on our way back to Shanghai 上海 from Huangshan. My daughter claims not to have remembered that evening in early October 2014:

A brief glimpse of Amber and a "friend" was captured in this short video. For the most part, my daughter had an uncanny ability not to be in most of the teacher's photographs and videos:

The students did some tea picking and processing, a clever way to utilize child labor:

Now that Amber is done with high school, what lies ahead between now and uni? Next week she and a few of her friends from school will travel to Japan for a holiday (Mum and Dad paid for the airfare and the Air B&B's as a graduation gift). Our jet setter will then return to China long enough to celebrate her old man's birthday as well as the American Father's Day before heading off to Taiwan with Shu-E to see her relatives. She'll be back at the end of June and remain here until late August before crossing the Pacific at the outset of a new stage of her life. Time is becoming very precious these days, indeed.

Congratulations to my 波ちゃん on a job well done. The best is yet to come! 

Would you like fries with your wetlands?

To go under the knife or not? is a question that will be answered sometime in the middle of next week, so opportunities to give the knee are workout appear to be rapidly diminishing. With beautifully clear skies today (and rain in the forecast for tomorrow), the choice of whether (no pun intended) or not to go out for a walk with my daughter was a no-brainer. The two of us thus headed out to Huntley Meadows Park in Hybla Valley, Virginia, in the suburbs of Alexandria, fighting the weekend tourist traffic through Alexandria's Old Town district and the congestion along US 1. It was worth the trouble, for despite being only 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) in length, the trails we traversed this afternoon took in some nice scenery as we made our way through a 500-acre (202 hectares) freshwater marsh. My knee was thankful for the short distance and level ground.

First things first: fueling up with a bacon cheeseburger, little hamburger, small order of fries, a Root Beer and a strawberry punch at Five Guys.

Amber uses my binoculars to scope out a possible squirrel nest sighting

Wherever there is a fallen tree that needs to be walked on, my daughter will be there

After a short walk through the forest, the wetlands make their first appearance

Turtles were taking advantage of the relatively warm weather

Behind Amber you can see the results of the hard work done by beavers. Although it's difficult to make out from this angle, the small tree to the upper right of my daughter that appears to have been almost completely snapped in two has been neatly gnawed on by a beaver.

More views of the wetlands. There were plenty of ducks and geese making their presences felt this afternoon, joining the gentle cacophony of croaking frogs. Spring is almost upon us.

Another view of the wetlands, from a two-story observation tower. A volunteer guide had set up a telescope for visitors to look at the various fowl in the water.

Following our short jaunt through the wetlands, we visited the nearby Historic Huntley, a secondary residence and summer retreat built in 1825 by a grandson of George Mason, one of the creators of the Bill of Rights. We missed the last tour of the day by about an hour, so we couldn't go inside, but we were able to walk around the grounds.