So somehow, at the moment I’m in Bryan, Texas. How did that happen?
When I was over in Hong Kong I’d often be asked where I was from. Or more specifically, where ‘home’ is. And I’d stare at people blankly, then muse on the question for a while. Home? What does that even mean? Then they’d ask where my parents lived. Oh. Bryan, Texas. But does that really count as home? It sometimes feels like it, as we’re drinking the fourth of fifth cup of tea of the day and sitting around the back garden in the spring sunshine with the dog. But then I go through the gate and find myself in a wholly foreign land. But this is East Texas! This place is in your bones!
Perhaps. But my soul is still winging it’s way around the world, million miles an hour, looking for a place to land.
The following was written during the journey between Hong Kong and the US last week. And then not sent. I don’t know, I just get distracted sometimes. Oh look, a butterfly…
I’m not gonna rewrite it though. You’ll just have to figure it out. Life moves this way sometimes. Sometimes forwards, sometimes backwards, and then yesterday turns into tomorrow and we look around wondering where today is hiding. It’s all cyclical anyway. Wait long enough and we’ll arrive back at exactly the same spot. Stick with me. We’ll get there.
Flash back.
For those of you out there keeping track of time based on my peregrinations around the globe, go ahead and check another six month block off the calendar. That’s right. I am leaving Hong Kong. Sitting in the airport right now typing this. Although I must confess. I’m not really sure why. Some irresistible urge to close a chapter. But then, I don’t really want to close this chapter. So let’s talk about other things instead. I’ve been traveling a bit. I know. You’re in some faraway place like Hong Kong, and after a few months it becomes home and normal and you have to go see something else out there. So I went to Taipei. That’s in Taiwan. Which is another place that, like Hong Kong, is supposedly a part of China, despite having their own immigration control, customs, currency, and an underlying dislike of the mainland. And yet it’s nominally one nation. How divisive! A setup kind of like America. Bloody Alabamans.
Taipei. It rained the entire time I was there, and I discovered a great coffee scene, so felt perfectly at home. Home in this instance being Seattle. And the food. Sigh… Some of the most amazing street food you could wish for, night markets filled with endless variety… and then you try the stinky tofu. And discover that the smell of sewage is actually emanating from that restaurant right over there on the corner. It’s almost like a self-imposed penance. All of the other food is so amazing, maybe they feel they have to balance it with the strangest, most awful food imaginable. Naturally, I ordered a whole bowl and held my breath while eating it.
I could live in Taipei.
Spent the three weeks surrounding that weekend trip working on the mainland, in the Shenzhen office, assigned to a project team as the token white guy. And no English speakers on the team, except one who worked part-time. Which allowed me to discover that my Mandarin is just good enough to not understand a thing going on. I would sit in on meetings, and be able to understand the framework of the conversation. As in: Architect A- ‘I like …’ Architect B- ‘But I think we should …’ Architect A- ‘Or we could …’ Architect B- ‘But… is better.’ And then I’d come out of the meetings without the foggiest idea of what I was supposed to be doing. I could talk to the servers in the coffee shop near the office though. That’s the important thing.
Iced latte, don’t froth the milk. Please. Xie xie.
I bailed on work three weeks ago. I mean, if you’re going to sign on for a six month contract, why not make it five and throw yourself on a plane flying somewhere far far away?
Good question. And so I went to Beijing and made a valiant effort to asphyxiate myself the first three days spent there, before it snowed and suddenly the world was made new and the sky, which I didn’t think existed in Beijing, turned out to be lovely and blue. Good day for a trip to the Great Wall. And you know something funny? It really is great. I set myself up to be underwhelmed and overtouristed, but, maybe due to visiting it midwinter, or maybe because we went to a section further from Beijing and the typical tourist trek, but it was a really powerful experience. Even if it’s unfathomable. Or maybe because it’s unfathomable. You stand on a segment of this immense wall, and look at it winding its way over hills and into valleys and around mountains, sometimes turning at right angles to itself. And you wonder, whose great idea was this? Of all the possible exercises in futility of the human existence, this one is undoubtedly the coolest.
But I couldn’t live in Beijing.
Followed that jaunt with a few days spent in Shanghai. I spent my time strolling along the river and tree lined avenues in perpetual rain, so felt perfectly at home. The reference to home being in this case Oxford. Keep up. I’m not entirely sure why, but I loved Shanghai. I didn’t do much there, besides meet with friends and stroll the streets and museums, nor did I get the impression there was as much to do as, say, Beijing. And it’s still not the most idyllic place in the world if you’re into the whole breathing thing. But still. It felt right.
I could live in Shanghai.
Oh look. An episode of How I Met Your Mother. And only five more hours to go on this flight. You know, stars viewed from 30,000 feet are right next door to spectacular. Time to shut off the netbook and fall asleep staring out the window. Maybe I’ll dream a dream for you. And then we’ll send this message from somewhere Stateside, seeing as I’m now finishing typing it somewhere over the North Pacific. These are transient times we live in.
Home tomorrow. Home in this case being Austin. But I don’t know what’s next. I know a lot of things that might be next, but I don’t know.
I kinda like it that way.
Flash forward.
And so we come full circle. Back in the present. And it’s time now to dash. I’m pretty sure the kettle is on. Anyone else for a cup of tea?
All my love,
Davey
