My Turkish pen pal and Gospel Night

Looking over my blog, I realized that I've missed talking about these events of the past few months because the timing wasn't right or (more likely) I hadn't downloaded the photos.

So, let's begin. Back on 18 May (!), I met for the first time my Turkish pen-pal, Tulay, who came all the way out from Istanbul to see me. She came up from New York by bus, so we lunched at Penang, in nearby Chinatown. She showed me letters that I had written years ago, including the very first letter I wrote her - back when I was 15! I could've been younger; May is already a distant memory.

After lunch, we toured the Harvard campus (because MIT's is not very picturesque), and I took this shot of her with the John Harvard statue, after she rubbed his shoe for good luck. The statue, whose inscription says John Harvard, founder, 1938, is known as the Statue of the Three Lies because of the following:

• The statue doesn't depict John Harvard, but a 19th-century student.
• John Harvard wasn't the founder, but an early financial contributor.
• Harvard was founded in 1636.

Despite the gloomy weather, we had ice cream at Herrell's before I took her back to the bus station. It was so wonderful to meet her after all these years of writing to each other. It was just too bad that Nikita was sick at the time, because she would have loved meeting him. Next time...perhaps when I finally get to go to Turkey.

The other item on my list is Gospel Night from 26 June. I discussed the rehearsals on a number of posts, but never talked about the actual event! Suffice to say it was fantastic. It was so great to sing gospel again to an audience. I was reminded of how fleeting the moment is after so much work: I couldn't believe it when halfway through the first song, "I Am Healed", I realized that I had already sung my favorite part of the whole concert!

After the concert, there was a reception where I met up with two of my friends (who thoroughly enjoyed the performance) and caught up with a lot of people from my days with the Boston Community Choir. I had come prepared with photos of Nikita! It was also neat to see at the reception Jennifer Holiday, the guest performer of the evening. We actually sang a song with her (the first time the choir had sung with any soloist), and I caved in to having her sign my program.

I'll finish this catch-up post with a quote from Sharon Malden. Even though she said this when she led a prayer before our dress rehearsal, it is appropriate for today's hot weather:

It may be hot today,
but be thankful that this isn't your eternity.

Amen!