We have just completed our final week of classes for this academic year, and despite the heavy rain and thunderstorms, we are currently enjoying a weekend of reflective activities before events culminate with the Graduation Ceremony tomorrow evening – the first public event to be held in the new auditorium!

This is usually one the busiest weeks of the year for me, with meetings, speech writing, report writing, minutes writing, processing the overseas enrolments and finalising the Hong Kong offers (to be released in a couple of weeks), completing several documents for the UWC International Office, and so on.  The past week has been no exception.  Indeed this year, the week was even busier than normal due to a combination of factors – trying to catch up after attending Di’s mother’s funeral last week, conducting several overseas IQ student interviews (by Skype for some, but involving an overnight trip to Macau for others), short-listing the applicants for the Director of Studies position (from 82 applications received!), preparing advertising for two exciting new part-time positions that the Board has just approved, and working on some of the UWC/EDB review group reports in preparation for October’s visiting teams.  Oh yes, and spending quite a bit of time on Thursday meeting with the three short-listed applicants for the College’s headship next year; they were visiting the campus for a tour and to meet with a selection of staff and students.

Like all the staff, I have felt I have been running on empty this week, trying to get through on just a few hours of sleep each night.  Our students, on the other hand, seem to have been running on adrenaline for much of the week, and this was demonstrated during the excellent 90-minute long CAS reflection yesterday afternoon and the wonderful two-and-a-half hour long show that the IB1 students prepared and performed for the departing IB2 students last night.

Amidst all the busy-ness of the week, I had to walk from my office back to my home on Friday morning to get a file from my home computer that I needed in my office.  As I walked along our driveway during a rare moment of sunshine amidst the week’s heavy rain, the brilliant colour on the red flowering tree outside Block 4 caught my attention – a rare aesthetic moment in a week of bureaucracy.

I didn’t know the name of the type of tree until I checked the internet.  Most websites simply describe it as a ‘red flowering tree typical of tropical areas’, or sometimes a ‘flame tree’.  One website identified it as a ‘Royal Poinciana’, but that label might need to be confirmed by a horticulturalist.  Anyway, this ‘red flowering tree typical of tropical areas’ gave my heart the lift that it needed this week amidst all the work, the tensions and the exhaustion.  That is why I have given it the honour of my photo of the week.

The colour red has different symbolism from culture to culture.  In western societies, red tends to represent passion, blood, anger, pain and sacrifice – many of the emotions that approached some of my feelings as I tried to catch up with all the paperwork this week.  Here in China, on the other hand, red (红: hóng) carries positive connotations of courage, loyalty, honour, success, fortune, fertility, happiness, passion - and summer.  Perhaps the promise of all these positives was one of the reasons that the Chinese Communist Party (the ‘Reds’) gained so much popularity during the Chinese Civil War, and perhaps it is why the bright red of the flame tree also lifted my spirits so much this week.

Our weekend finished with a lovely surprise on Sunday evening when a group of students came around to our home to share a gluten-free ‘farewell cake’ that they had baked.  Lovingly prepared this afternoon by Samsuda and Michelle in the student kitchen, the cake was still warm when the group of students arrived.  During the time they were with us, some students had to leave and others arrived (typical of LPC’s hectic multi-tasking lifestyle), but we had a great time relaxing and chatting with the students - a prefect and much appreciated end to a far too hectic week.

As Di and I often say to each other, we will REALLY miss the students when we leave LPC!