30 November 2003 I finally obtained my car back, and it drives nicely... Sara and I visited my parents for Thanksgiving, and while we were there I remembered some books that I wanted to read, mostly old English books from my classes, but also a nice book that explains how to tell a Chinese person about God, except that it gives the lessons in Chinese, with translations of certain parts at the end. I also took a tape of a LU Concert Band concert from 2001, in which I played clarinet. I was a 1st clarinet, or 2nd chair, and even though I was an English Major probably my favourite part of university (and high school too, for that matter) was playing in band. The music was wonderful and exhilerating to play; it is a very different feeling that one has when one listens to music that one performed as part of an ensemble. It made me quite sad for a while, because it is a very nice memory that is gone now, that I shall never play in that band again... I only played clarinet in it for two years, and then I played bassoon during my third year. I was very sad about that, for a while, because I loved playing clarinet. Actually during almost the whole season I felt a bit sad and missed playing clarinet, even though I had a few bassoon solos (which I had to practise a lot, because they were solos, after all, and I had just begun to play the instrument), and I was also a bit nervous, again, because of the solos... I also played tenor saxophone in the jazz band that year, which was very enjoyable. So I was quite ambivalent during that concert season. I found some pictures of that season in which I can be seen (barely: my head sticks out just a little, but usually one sees my bassoon sticking out above my head. In picture it sticks out to the side, and I found that I could tap the head of the oboe player who sat beside me to her and my amusement, block her view of her music by discreetly laying the bassoon over my lap, et cetera (only when neither of us was playing, of course)). :) So I feel exhilerated and joyful and yet very sad and miscontent listening to the music...