With my crazy fall schedule I’ve been bad about actually sharing many of the photos and stories I collected while at BFX. I was lucky enough to meet the parents of two of my 2016 Fall Interns – a first for me as usually parents have traditionally come at the end of the internships to join their offspring in traveling around China. I’m SO happy Mary (Celina’s mom) and Ron (Scout’s dad) joined us for the first couple of days of the internship! Not only did their children’s transitions go smoothly, but the parents were a joy to have around! We had dinners and lunches and hung out in the apartment while everyone settled in.
Mary is a native of Taiwan and speaks fluent Chinese which ended up helping immensely during our shopping trips. . . since my Chinese is not even kindergarten level! Ron just retired (congrats) from Intel and took this opportunity to visit China and some old friends.
We all tried the fish foot spa near the apartment! Mary and Ron are on the left.
PDXWildlife finally had a little cash to invest in . . . (Bryan, Hailey, Doireann, and Nicole should probably stop reading here) an air-conditioner this fall!! So we decided the wisest investment would be a unit for the living room and headed out to shop for one. In the store, Mary surprised me and said, “Meghan don’t you think they need one in each room? I’d love to buy them each one”.
Mary with the receipts for the air conditioners! Everyone was ecstatic.
Getting the air conditioners installed into the apartment was definitely harder than purchasing them. Let’s all take a moment to notice the super safe “ladder” that’s being used.
Do you think they install them this way in America??!! We were all terrified for the little guy hanging off the outside unit!
Can you believe it??!! So generous – I literally teared up. And to top it off, Ron bought a brand new refrigerator for the office at the base!!
Ron showing off his new purchase once it was delivered.
These two were just so generous and I can honestly say all of our interns will be spoiled due to their generosity. So let’s all give a big “Thank you” to Ron and Mary!
Parent Power!!
Here are some pictures of the pictures we took while the parents were in town:
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- Our “traditional” intern photos, Scout Clair . . .
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- Sofany Montoya
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- Celina Tu
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- The girls walking around the base during training
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- Watching Wu Jun sleep.
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- Training with the behavior app during a lovely summer day.
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- More training . . .
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- more walking . . .
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- More training . . .
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- I wore them out with the constant training
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- So we took a “girls night out” by trying to find a dancing bar in Ya’an. It was a flop but we ended up having some great cocktails!
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- And with all the walking we all tried the fish foot spa near the apartment! Mary and Ron are on the left.
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- Celina was so excited about the fish and squealed so much the owner took video (I’m sure it’s posted all over social media by now!)
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- Ron and Scout in front of Wu Gang
So now I need to make up little plaques for the air conditioners and refrigerator that say “Made possible by a generous gift from Mary Tu and Ron Gallahan”!
I should have been inviting parents a long time ago 😉
-Meg
Thanks, Mary and Ron! I’m sure these gifts will make life a little easier for this generation and the coming generations of new interns so we can have the benefit of their continuing insight into pandas unfiltered by heat and hunger! Did you happen to find any Cheetos while you were out?! Thanks again!
I love this so much <3