my father and our relative dropped by my place for a visit. not only was it his first time seeing my house, but it was his first time in boston. my father told me their plan of returning to western long island tomorrow and picking up the daughter for a weekend back in boston before returning her to school and her father returning to china. a next door neighbor had thrown out a little cubic mini-fridge; my father picked it up, figuring the daughter could use in her dorm (provided that it was still working, which it was). later they drove to northeastern university to check out the campus (with the help of some maps i printed out for them).
my roommate came home around 6:30. i hadn't seen her since sunday night, before i left for new york on monday morning. she told me about the different classes she had to take growing up under a communist chinese educational system: classes on marxism, mao's poetries, and confucian ethics. even into graduate school, they're required to take a communism course. primary school has a secondary function as daycare and children stay until 6:00, when their parents can pick them up from work.