After the decisions were reached, we five met for the first time in the lounge of the Political Science department. Prof. Joseph presided over the planning and plotting, and we all glutted ourselves on pizza. [The first in what was to become a grand tradition of enthusiastic eating together.]

I was surprised to discover that I knew one of my fellows: Meara Androphy, a Chinese major, class of '01, who often appeared at Wellesley Anime showings. [I recognized her as a frequent attendee, but hadn't known her by name.] She was from Natick, but had already spent time in Vietnam, and therefore I counted her my senior in the realm of travels to Asia. Her internship would be at Orbis, a non-profit organization dedicated to the elimination of preventable blindness in developing countries.

The others were initially strangers to me, but didn't remain so for long.

Ting Ni, '00, was a Poli Sci major and apparently renowned on campus as a Person Who Did Too Much. She would be working on exhibits at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, including a photography exhibit focusing on the events of June 4, 1989 in Tiannamen Square, and its aftermath, in China and in Hong Kong.

Malinda Lee, '01, was also Poli Sci, and though she was from L.A., she had family in Hong Kong and was the only one of us who had spent any length of time there. Her internship was to be in the office of Christine Loh, a mover and shaker among HK legislators.

Our token Canadian, Cynthia Eldridge, '00, was double majoring, much to my bemusement, in Biology and Art History. In Hong Kong she would be pursuing the former at the new HK University of Science and Technology, working in a microbiology lab on projects related to local water pollution issues.

It was evident that Prof. Joseph and the selection committee had done their best to cram as much diversity into a group of 5 as was reasonable, but in spite of that, I felt right away that these were people with whom I could get along. The summer would prove that supposition right.

Through email and phone calls, we also soon came to know the person who had helped select us, find internship positions suited to our hopes, and would become an invaluable friend and guide as we were turned loose in an unknown city: Rachel Wang, herself a Wellesley grad, and current resident of Hong Kong.