Confessions of a Cat-holic (145)

Joyce knew I was going to start school at Columbia soon after, so she told me about Jason Chen. She said they went to Tafts together. She also added that Malcum Mui from Harvard was her ex. But she was going out with Ryan Cheung from Wisconsin at the time. At that time, I still didn't realize that Jason whom Joyce was talking about was that Jason I saw on Iris's xanga.

I was asked to drop by some new student orientation party organized by Imperial College's HK student organization at Lan Kwai Fong that summer, invited by Gavy Lau, the ex boyfriend of Cindy Wong who was the kin sister of JW (yeah, that singer and actress). And someone told me that Jason was also around that night. Jason from Columbia, but still I didn't realize that Jason was Iris's boyfriend.

Talking of Gavy, he was the point of contact for all the UK Hong Kong students in London. He introduced me to Gary Choy from Monash University, and his friend Cyrus Wong from York University in Toronto, also from La Salle. They were the athletes of La Salle's football team and Gary had actually recently bought out the Tai Po Football Club which had created the legendary figure, Tai Po Lulu. Gary was also the ex boyfriend of celebrity Stephanie Cheng from Good Hope, who was (my good friend from LPCUWC) Mandy Ho's buddy. Mandy was a volleyball team athlete at Maryknoll and LPCUWC who used to represent Hong Kong in competing internationally. Mandy and I were the tallest girls among my co-years at LPCUWC, but I was still a head shorter than her. Mandy had introduced me to Stephanie Cheng when we were sitting for SAT in 2002 at HKIS. I was very impressed by Stephanie's bare skin charm and appearances as she told me that she would be debuting in the entertainment industry that year. Stephanie almost joined my Thailand community service trip in my final year at LPCUWC, as invited by my friend Mandy Ho and Kenneth Wong from Tang King Po.

Gary was one of the most connected persons I knew, who had set foot in the entertainment industry by investing in and producing movies such as Truth or Dare : 6th Floor Rear Flat and Husband Killers, which I was gratefully invited to attend its premiere in 2017, starring Gaile Le, Chrissie Chau and Stephy Tang. Gary was an indigenous inhabitant of Tai Po, New Territories, who had the power to draw a fortune stick on behalf of Hong Kong and New Territories every Chinese New Year, reported by every press and media channel in town. He was actively involved in the community affairs of Hong Kong, and had therefore introduced to me his friends from Yan Oi Tong and Yuen Yuen Institute. Most notably, it would be James Hui from SOAS and La Salle, the former boyfriend of former Miss Hong Kong, Whitney Hui. Another friend of mine whom Gary introduced me to would be Chan Shing Bong, who regularly appeared at the TV charity shows with his father and brothers. Gary, Chan Shing Bong and James Hui had consecutively invited me to attend the Charity Ball by Yan Oi Tong for a few years, where I was persuaded to try out for Miss Hong Kong, while at the same time hearing what happened to those who couldn't make it to the top 3. That summer before college, I was also repeatedly invited to paintball in war games（打野戰）with Douglas Wu and Chan Shing Bong. Douglas from Stanford and Chan Shing Bong were elementary school friends at SPCC.

But Ed was very annoying because he talked to me like I was a retard. I sometimes thought to myself, was there something wrong in the way I carried myself? Why did he talk to me like I was a blonde bimbo going to a school like De Anza or Foothill Community College? Even though I did think about attending there, but hey, I went to Columbia too, also an Ivy League school. One thing that I really hated about Ed was that he thought that all Columbia students were Yale rejects. Yes, maybe I was a Yale reject and I ended up at Columbia. But not everyone at Columbia was a Yale reject. And he liked to talk to me in very condescending manners by bragging about their rivalry with Harvard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72s53SlkSPA