Friendships. For me, they are so hard to come by. Like sifting through the multitudes of sands for that one precious shell. Maintaining friendships is like playing the xylophone, you grow close and you grow apart. A few weeks ago, in the three-hour long News Photography, I met the most delightful H. In my lazy afternoon imaginations, we are the bestest of friends, spending every single weekend together doing the most darndest of things. Not so is reality. Today A appeared. They had lots in common. She could speak putonghua, she has worked in Beijing, she liked H, she did not like to make conversation with me. My day, which started out with delightfully roaming the FCC with H, ended up sitting alone in the two-seater of a minibus, behind the two chattering away in front of me.

Please let my seat be free come Thursday.