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Yesterday I enjoyed a delightful lunch with fellow alumni from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The director of the alumni association was in town and brought us all a package of these beautiful postcards.

Twenty years ago this summer I flew off to Hong Kong to start my first year at the Chinese University.

Every day after three hours of morning Mandarin classes, I hiked up a fraction of the campus’s mountain to eat lunch with my classmates at Chung Chi College (postcard on left). The top of the cafeteria (we called them canteens) building is poking out of the trees.

But my other classes and dorm (we called those hostels) sat on the top of the mountain. If I didn’t have Mandarin class, I’d sometimes sneak food into the United College library (postcard on the right). Or I’d boil up some water in my hostel kitchen for instant noodles if I couldn’t find anyone to join me for lunch.

At our lunch yesterday, we reminisced about our time on campus all those years ago, including our innovative ways of eating lunch and dinner.

I wasn’t the only one.