Class Reunion

Class Reunion 同学聚会

October 31, Sunny and warm

10月31日，阳光明媚，天气温暖 

Never before have I overslept, but thismorning I did sleep in. I still had a terrible hangover after getting out ofbed at 8:00. About half an hour later, I found myself a little bit sobered up.Everything at yesterday’s class reunion was fresh in my mind.

我从来没有睡过头，但今天早上确实睡过头。8点起床后我依然醉意浓浓。大约半小时后，我才觉得清醒一些。昨天同学聚会上的一切我都记忆犹新。

At about 8:30, Shulin, my former classmate,rang me up, asking if I could come over for a get-together with some otherformer classmates. I gave him an affirmative reply without a second thought. Itwasn’t long before we came over to visit another classmate, Zong Ze, agovernment clerk, who was too busy to attend the dinner party. At noon Shulingave a hearty lunch in favor of six other classmates, Yu Jun, Hao Zanwei, YangQuanzhong, Xu Jing, Wang Kai and me, all of whom exchanged greetings andchatted leisurely.  (What a shame! Ididn’t have the group photo at table.) We were greatly overjoyed at thisget-together, drank and laughed to our hearts’ contents. It’s really a hard-wonoccasion for us to gather together just like brothers and sisters in a bigfamily, recalling the old memories and sharing anecdotes and happy events. 

8点半左右，老同学书林给我打来电话，问我能不能过来和其他一些老同学聚一聚。我毫不犹豫就应承了。没过一会儿，我们就去看望了另一位同学（宗泽，公务员, 他太忙不能参加任何应酬）。中午，书林宴请其他几位同学（俞军、郝占慰、杨全忠、徐静、王凯和我），共享丰盛午餐，他们互相问候，彼此闲聊。（真可惜！我没有吃饭时的合影。）这次聚会，我们非常高兴，畅饮美酒，欢声笑语，好不快哉。这对我们来说真是一个来之不易的机会，大家相聚就像一个大家庭中的兄弟姐妹一样，回忆往事，分享趣闻乐事。

We were all seated, and started to catch upon past things back at school over the lunch. Everybody was in a jubilant mood.Sure, we drank a toast to each other for great fun. We all were much toopleased with this get-together and couldn’t enjoy ourselves too much. It is apity that most of our former classmates missed the chance, and sure we missedthem not a little.

我们围桌而坐，一边品尝美味午餐，一边叙旧，追忆早年学校的往事。大家都兴高采烈。当然，我们互相敬酒，玩得很开心。大家都对这次聚会很满意了，都有意犹未尽之感。很遗憾，我们大多数老同学都没有赶上这个机会，当然我们都十分想念他们。

We drank two bottles of liquor and I gotloaded. But it seemed that we didn’t enjoy ourselves to the full. Hao Zanweimade a proposal that we just stayed on for a dinner at night. Yeah! That soundsmore like it!

喝了两瓶酒，我算是喝高了。但好像大家兴致正浓。郝占慰提议我们晚上留下来继续战斗。对呀！正合我意！

At about 4:00 p.m., Hao packed us into twocars to Nanwan Lake, and Xi Xiaolin joined in the dinner party, so 8 formerclassmates got reunited for the great celebration after our graduation 40 yearsago. Some are government clerks, and all others are teachers at differentlevels of schools, including me. Actually I felt greatly ashamed of myself forhaving quitted my high-paid job in a bank. After having translated on line forabout twenty years, I now work for a training center, just earning a livingfrom hand to mouth. I really have nothing to show off at the reunion. However,I should keep a mental balance: Try not to keep up with the Joneses. Now I haveto push myself forward to pursue a higher life goal by popularizing AmericanEnglish here in Xinyang. So I need my former classmates to cheer me up andcheer me on for this very goal.

下午4点左右，郝同学把我们塞进两辆车里，直奔南湾湖，席晓琳也参加了晚宴，8位老同学在我们毕业40年后重聚一堂，共享欢乐。有的是公务员，有的是各级学校的老师（也包括我）。实际上，我辞去了在银行的高薪工作，现在感到非常羞愧。我做网上翻译大约二十年了，现在在一家培训中心工作，只是勉强糊口。聚会上，我真的没有什么可以炫耀的。不过，我应保持心理平衡：尽量不要跟比人攀比。现在我要在信阳推广美式英语，以实现追求更好的人生目标。所以我需要老同学们给我加油打气，以实现这个目标。

Hopefully, we, old guys, can have morechances to get together for fun!

希望我们这些老家伙能有更多的机会聚在一起，玩得开心！