The Same... but Different

I've been back in Boston for about a day now, and I've been in the US for about 10 days (5 in Santa Rosa, 2 in DC and 2 in NY). While I've come back to the same place life just seems different. These differences have slowly been occurring to me.

School started after labor day, and I didn't have to be there. This occurred to me as I was riding through San Francisco between Ghiradelli way to the Coastal Trail in San Francisco. My aunt had made the observation that there was surprisingly little traffic in the city and I suggested that it was because school had started... she looked at me and laughed because she could see the strange look on my face... then I said, "School start... I'm not there... I'm not there! That's pretty cool."

I came back to my apartment last night, and it was clean... pretty much the way I left it. Not that I expected my sublet to make it or leave it dirty. It's just that the day I left, my apartment was clean for the first time in a long time because my life to busy to put away those clothes into a closet that was stuffed with clothes I didn't even wear most of the time. I had a lot of junk that I gave to the good will before I left, and less stuff = easier to keep a space neat. I was bummed when my space became clean and I wasn't the one it was cleaned for. Living out of a backpack for 2 months made me realize I didn't really need a lot of the stuff I have... otherwise I'd actually miss having it. There's some stuff here that I miss having, like a stove and a refrigerator and a bed of my own complete with my Teddy Bears . But, I really don't miss my ugly futon frame or all of those novelty T-shirts. It's left me with an incredible urge to throw out more stuff.

Speaking of stuff I missed... Anyone hear that Brett Favre came out of retirement to play for the Jets? THE JETS! This actually made international news, so I'd have to lie if I said I wasn't prepared for this on my way back to the US. I think I read it in some newspaper in the Singapore or Istanbul Airport. I had about a month for it to actually sink in... What I wasn't really prepared for was the enjoyment I experience while watching the Jets (really master Favre) play from a sports bar in Ashburn, VA, home of the Redskins practice fields (and my parents), on opening day... I hate NY sports! I was raised in DC and I've spent my entire adult life living in Boston. I'm extraordinarily confused... and disoriented...

At the same time Farve was throwing touchdowns for NY, Tom Brady was busy busting his ACL. Football's just not going to be as fun without Brady. It makes things a little more interesting, but I do enjoy watching a master perform his craft... and now I have to wait an extra year. Mega bummer.

And then there's the Tampa Bay Devil Rays... I know... the Tampa Bay who? Where did they come from... As I'm writing, I'm watching the Red Sox vs. the Devil Rays in extra innings battling it out to get to the top of the AL East. And where did the Yankees go, not to say I'm all that sorry to see them in the middle of the pack... I'm sure Jets fans are thinking the same about Patriots.

Anyway all this sports stuff is small beans in the grand scheme of life, but a lot of small beans can add up (sometimes to a nice pot of chili if you put a little extra effort into it). Seriously, right now, I kind of holding a bunch of slightly bland beans because I'm back where I really like to be, but I'm not quite into the swing of life here yet. I'm about to be a working woman on Monday, and all I can think about is "do I really have enough clothes that will be appropriate for my job? I've been wearing t-shirts and jeans for the past 5 years and my wardrobe really needs help. My apartment looks like a student's apartment, can I make it look adult? Do I have to make it look adult? Wouldn't it be nice to have an apartment where the refrigerator isn't in the same room as my bed?"

Honestly, I love where I live. I can bike anywhere, I did today. I love having trees and fresh air, and access to my favorite city without driving. I over indulged today by going to by going to BOTH the Davis Square and Arlington Center Farmer's markets. I cooked myself pancakes for breakfast and pasta with roasted eggplant and fresh tomato sauce I made from farmer's market tomatoes.

Speaking of beans, big and small, here's a big bean in a small package. (btw, the clock is wrong - baby tries to go to sleep around 9PM, but apparently time means very little to new parents because they're away every few hours anyway - funny I got the same feeling while switching time zones so often). This is Gabriel William Clay, born July 27, 2008. This is my 3rd nephew I've acquired by staying in touch with old friends (there's also Vered's son, Joseph Ari - 2.5 years, and Marisa's son, Punn Punn, 8.5 months). OK boys... auntie Cappy will teach you the ways of soccer and show you how to make funny noises by slapping yourselves on you own cheeks, and we shall build forts both inside and outside the house whether mommy wants us to or not... This will be fun! I get all the cuteness without the diapers. Thanks gals! I've enjoyed visiting. =)

Whining about wine

I completed the last leg of my "around the world" airline ticket today, which means I left Santa Rosa, CA, this morning and flew to Washington Dulles Airport to pick up my car from my parents then head up the coast back to Boston (by way of New York, of course). I do have some fun stories from Santa Rosa that I'll share in a different blog, but I had to write this one first because something happened today that really struck a nerve with me and I think people should know about it.

I'm a pretty easy going traveler. With the number of airline flights and the different places I've been staying every night, I kind of resigned myself at the beginning of the trip to face the fact that I was going to lose an item here or there... or even damage something beyond repair. I did - I lost my wash cloth and toothbrush on the way to Athens, along with my cell phone charger somewhere in Italy, on to follow that by ditching my cell phone in Rhodes then throwing my digital camera in a pond in Sydney. None of this really phased me. I've been feeling more relaxed over the past month than I think I've ever felt in my life. To borrow one of my favorite quotes from a friend of mine after he'd gotten back from boot camp "Some old lady could throw a watermelon at my head in the grocery store, and I wouldn't care."

But I did find myself caring today, and quite angry and frustrated with society in my homeland. I've had a wonderful time and part of me wants to keep traveling, but I miss home and I'm happy I'll be back in Boston in a few of days.

So what was it that tipped off my anger at the current state of my world... it was 3 bottles of wine. Yah, I'm whining about 3 bottles of wine. My Aunt and Uncle live in wine making capitol of the US. To me, tasting wine is like appreciating a fine art and there is no better place in the US to do this than Sonoma county. We visited 2 wineries on the way to picking my grandmother up for dinner because we had an hour to spare and the wineries were just around the corner from where she lives. The next day we stopped in Calistoga for lunch on the way to visiting the Petrified Forrest (very cool) and the Old Faithful Geyser. We stepped into a little gift store that happened to have beehive inside. There also happened to be some wines for tasting from a small Napa vineyard, so of course we had to taste those. At these 3 stops, we managed to collect 3 very yummy wines (we probably tasted about 18 total) that I wanted to take home.

Knowing that the federal aviation regulations stipulate that I cannot carry on more than 3 oz containers of fluid, we all knew that I'd have to check my 3 bottles of wine through to Dulles Airport. My aunt and I spent a good amount of time packaging the wines for travel, and the good packaging more than paid off. I got to the airport expecting that I could ask the bag agent to place one of those nifty red "fragile" stickers on my wine, but my wine was tagged and haphazardly thrown onto the baggage belt before I could say anything. I asked the baggage agent to remove my bag from the belt because I was going to request a "fragile" sticker. The agent said, "I'm sorry maam, but we don't give those out anymore, and even if we did, it's too late to retrieve your bag."

The questions started swirling in my head and the first question that I managed to get out of my mouth was, "Why don't you give out fragile stickers?" Apparently, American Airlines has been sued up the wazoo because things with "fragile" stickers were still broken in transit. I asked if someone could please retrieve my bag so I could take a sharpie and write fragile on it, but by then, it would have delayed my plane. I asked another agent, who seemed more interested in actually listening to me if he could find my wine and write "fragile" on it for me, and miss evil came over and told him not to because they were worried about me suing them. I then asked if I could purchase some travel insurance for that case. Again, the answer was an adamant "no". Apparently AA took this issue to courts ruled that the airline has no liability whatsoever and cannot be held accountable for damage to checked personal items and therefore they cannot warn their baggage handlers that they are throwing around 3 full glass containers.

It wasn't so much the wine that I was upset about. It more the ridiculousness of the whole situation. I started trying to assign blame to large corporations bullying people in court because they are able to hire better lawyers, but then I thought about all the stupid people out there who sue the city because the tripped and scraped their knee on the sidewalk. Then I thought about how American Airlines isn't really doing all that well, and how they're trying to save a penny any way they can. Then there's the FAA regulations preventing me from protecting my wine that's sort of a paranoid regulation and I more than understand how it evolved, but it shouldn't apply to me or the majority of other Americans. I didn't want to give the AA employees a hard time because they're paid to follow rules, but I've always had a problem with people who mindlessly follow rules.

I just got really frustrated with the state of our society. The rules are basically in place because of paranoia and the need for accountability to be held by anyone but oneself. I didn't experience anything like this while I was outside the country, so I was bit surprised at the intense emotions I was feeling. For a country that was founded on the principle that everyone has their own mind and their own say, I'm frustrated that so many people act like drones because they are scared to take any other action.

(The pictures were advertisements I saw in the Dallas Ft. Worth Airport, where I had a 2 hour layover, and had nothing better to do than scout adds... these were funny and quite appropriate. The wine did make it, but the styrofoam inside the cardboard box was completely destroyed. I do have a happier Santa Rosa blog, which will probably come out soon.)

The Longest Day of My Life

I was able to squeeze a second night out of Hong Kong. Hong Kong is another one of those places that's hard to get to know after only 48 hours and it would have been really impossible for me to get a feel of the place after only 24 hours... what was I thinking? I kind of remember - I wanted more time in Thailand, and San Francisco, and I wanted to get back to Boston in time to get myself organized before starting work. Hong Kong got squished in the process.

So in Hong Kong, I met up with cousin Amber (who I'd met up with in Liverpool earlier on the trip), her husband Ian, and 3 kids, Zach, Jasmine, and Zabrina. Ian is a police officer in Hong Kong and the whole family lives in a government flat on the outskirts of the city on Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong Island is a big mountain, and being on the 11th floor of a sky scraper on a mountain means you have views out your balcony like this:Not bad for a government flat.

I actually wasn't able to change my flight until the day of my flight. I think the airline was trying to sell the extra seats for a really high price. They kept telling me that the flight I wanted wasn't available, then suddenly it was. Anyway, we thought I only had one night in Hong Kong, Amber and Ian wanted to make sure I had a good 1 night, so we went out.

On day 2, since I had time to explore, I decided to get lost in Kowloon. It was fun. I found the flower market, the bird market, the fish market, the market market...

I ended up getting a little sick of markets, even though they weren't like markets I'd find back home, I wasn't going to buy anything. They flowers would have rotted, the birds would be a poopy mess, I would have committed cruelty to fish because the bag would have popped and the fish would have died a slow painful death by suffocation in a non-liquid atmosphere.

I ended up walking around the Nan Lian Garden, then having traditional Chinese tea in the tea house. Then I trekked back up the hill to find Amber for our 2nd night out.

The next day was the longest day of my life (so far). Litterally, it lasted 39 hours. Hong Kong is 15 hours ahead of San Francisco, and I got to cross the International Date Line (no, I did not feel a bump), but this is as close to time travel as I think I'll ever get.

I woke up at about 8:30AM, and Amber and I took the dog (Pudding) for a nice 2 hour walk through up on the mountain. Then we came back for lunch and I left for the airport. I got on the plane (or time machine) at about 4:25PM on August 30. I spent the next 13 hours in a place where time has no meaning. Ironically, I started my trip by watching the 4th Indianna Jones, which was the bridge between archeological myth and science fiction. I think George Lucas got this series confused a bit with Star Wars, but I'm not picky. I still found it entertaining, although I can see why some people really didn't like it. I stepped off the plane in San Francisco at 2:30PM on August 30, about 2 hours before I took off. I met up with my aunt and uncle and we went for Mexican food in Santa Rosa, and said hello to Snoopy (Charles Schultz is from Santa Rosa). I managed to stay awake until at least 9PM... not bad. I at 5 meals on August 30, which seemed about right. I at 4 meals on the 31st, and I'm shooting for 3 meals today... that should put me back into reality. I think the sci fi writers got it right when they say that time travelling takes it's toll on your body, but I'm feeling like going on a couple more adventures before coming home.