Ahhh. I love the humidity. It's almost an obsession, but that feeling walking off the plane, hitting that thick, warm air is probably one of the best feelings ever.Don't judge...I know some of you like the smell of gasoline, and that's SO much worse than the near-suffocating delightfulness of extreme moisture.
Look! It's Annamarie and Sarah wishing me luck on my adventures. :)
On May30th, I began this party with a flight from Denver to LA, and then a long haul from LA to Hong Kong. Lucky me, though, as I was placed next to a couple of super awesome people from Fort Collins (shoutout to Jason and Abby!)...and even before takeoff, we'd already gotten into some great conversations about God and free will (my topic of choice, of course). Both of them studied youth leadership at a Christian college in CA, thus providing me 13+ hours of insightful, honest, and just plain hilarious chatting. I love strangers. :)Long flight, but I made it with the help of the afore mentioned, and also several movies, which I will now rank on a scale of 0-10:
1. Music and Lyrics: 6. Eh. Funny parts, and Drew Barrymore was pretty lovable, but it was a little cliche for my taste (and you know I like my cliche). Argh, and I HATE that the main song got stuck in my head, even though it's not that amazing.
2. The Holiday: 8.5. I liked it...a lot. People are funny. As are relationships...?
3. Aladdin: 10. Need I say more? No.
4. The Freedom Writers: 10. EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH THIS MOVIE. It made me cry, several times. And, no, that wasn't just because I was tired. It was pretty inspirational. Especially the "home" part.
And thus we arrived at the Hong Kong Airport, which is the shiniest and cleanest place imaginable(Go Tasha?). I settled into an extremely large, red couch-thing with my new-found friends and passed away another couple hours. The flight to Taiwan was not as much fun, as there was no one sitting next to me. :( Sad day...However, it was then that I realized I am perceived as an American. The stewardesses spoke to me in English without prompting or anything, which led to some deep, heavy thoughts (and questioning of apparel?). But have no fear! The pensiveness wore away because...
THEY SERVED DIM SUM ON THE AIRPLANE!*
*airplane is spelled 'aeroplane' in the title due to artistic license
*airplane is spelled 'aeroplane' in the title due to artistic license
I arrived in Taiwan, and definitely felt a wave of emotions...it's foreign, yet familiar, old yet new, exciting yet unbelievably calming. For the first time in a long while, it feels OK to just let time pass, and not do anything specific to guide that process. Family, wandering, relaxing, eating good food...check, check, check and check (the mango was divine).
I love seeing my mom and grandma after many months, and the rest of the family. I am awestruck by the view (which will be documented soon), the lushness of the forest that rests by my uncle's place. I love that speaking Chinese is part necessity, part challenge, part shame at now knowing, but part pride as well. It is a whole other world here in every way. Every single way.
In an attempt to fight jet lag, I am extremely sleep-deprived right now...so sleep is tugging away at me. Tomorrow potentially includes church flower arranging and fishing. And I'm not even kidding.
P.S.
5 comments:
Ah, a fellow lover of humidity. You must be the only American who likes it =)
Also, I like the last photo, because it could be interpreted slightly differently in Chinese. Oppositely, in fact. Coming from a country that's a veritable babel of languages, I find translating things to get unintentional meanings is always funny =).
1) How the hell does the blog thingie know that my name is Emma when I haven't logged in anywhere?! Technology is creepy.
2) Your beautiful camera takes very, very nice pictures.
3) I have noted your movies of choice for the flight to Germany.
4) I laughed quietly to my computer when I saw that you took a picture of your food. And you wonder why people assume you are American.
5) I'm going to start a list of questions I have for you. If you're lucky, I'll lose it by August, but chances are you will be cornered. :-)
6) I miss you. AND IT'S ONLY BEEN TWO WEEKS WHATTTTTTTTTTTT?!
Nevermind, I figured it out... gmail.
I too would give Aladdin a 10...and for the record i started singing "a whole new world" in my seat reading your post. i kind of couldn't help myself. oh and i love how i totally read your blog as if you were saying it. the parentheses def help ;)
love you, miss you, and i can't wait to read more about your adventures!
:) heh, not used to u being so "ostentatious" (cuz it's not exactly the right word, u'll live).
I very much agreed with ur movie ratings for the two out of four I did see.
I think it's not the camera, it's u, but yes, nice quality :) if u really wanted to rock u'd make the pictures links to the original picture so we could see it BIG. (u'd have to upload the original picture to somewhere like http://picasaweb.google.com/home?tab=mq&pli=1 or what not).
Hey it's the fruit! We should just find a nickname for it in English, something Chinesey, like... poi poi or... u think of it and I'll just mock u. What's the name in Mandarin?
Had enough high end stores visits yet?
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