Alchemy

(This photo is from last week and is dedicated to Jen Witeck: I brought the Side Kick to Australia and the diveboat.) :-)

I'm in Hong Kong!

Have you ever felt that 6 days were actually like 12, the same way you might feel a week has only lasted a day or two at times when you’re really busy? I am baffled by how time gets defined by our internal attitude, external responsibilities, how late or early we sleep…in any case, I’m now on Week 4 of this trip (of 8), and it seems as if I’ve been gone either no time, several weeks, or a few months.
I need to write Australia a thank-you note….I love her.

My last week there was one magical moment after another. Some stats:

Walks and runs through the Botanic Gardens: four
Trips to Bondi: two
Drinking games played: three (who says you have to be in college?)

Family sightings: this is possibly the best part of the week. Aunt Liz flew into Sydney on Friday. I ran to meet her at her hotel, and found her on her floor going down in the elevator across from mine the moment I arrived. [A really cool side-note: She is reading The Alchemist, which is a book that Claire searched for in four bookshops in Fremantle. It popped off an airport bookstore shelf for me last night and I am now reading it too. In college, I had a copy that got passed around and signed by everyone who read it for years. I actually got it back years later – what a treasure. I am thankful to Claire and Aunt Liz for bringing it back to me again!]

I digress (of course. It’s a blog. Who could possibly be interested in all this detail? You'll skim as you need :-)).

So Aunt Liz and I, delightfully reunited, start to stroll down the street. About five minutes later I feel a big hand tap me on the shoulder. Startled, I turn to my left, and there is Uncle Brady!! I don’t know many other cooler people than the Cotters. Wow! We strolled and had beers that afternoon, and spent a lovely day together the next day at the Botanic Gardens, Opera House and Darling Harbour. The surprise they cooked up to surprise Claire with her dad that next evening was so clever and thoughtful. Claire was still shaking when I met them all at the restaurant after the Big Reveal at the Fortune of War. She was having a hard enough time processing that her mom was there and her semester abroad was ending, much less that her dad had flown all the way to Oz for five days to surprise her! What an awesome memory. The four of us went to a couple more bars for more schooners, chats, story-telling and bursts of emotion.

Heartstrings pulled: all week

Weeks more needed in Oz: 52. Next time – Blue Mountains and high tea; wineries; more of Western Australia; Northern Territory; Catherine; Cape York; Noosa. New Zealand, too!

English dialects heard: too many to count (ever-fascinating to me). I learned that I can understand about 12% of a Newcastle accent, and delight more than ever in an Irish one.

What you are looking for: right in front of you. Today can be as bleak or brilliant as we choose it to be. We are only what our last thought was. My last thought was “wise up, silly rabbit” and an admonishment: “Remember that change is the only constant. Remember that you chose this. Remember that your whole 'personal legend' is happening, that all is meant, that this moment is perfect. It’s okay that to feel alone, to feel sad for a moment, to recognize this (big) transition not only from a 3-week working vacation to now a 3-week work trip but a whole new culture, language, set of challenges=adventures=growth opportunities." This is true for all of us.  I looked up at the Hong Kong sky this morning and burst into tears. I know that I am a good mimic, accent-wise, but didn’t know I could also be a fall raincloud in China. The sun just peeped through; my squall has also ended.

What I love is that a nine-hour flight is now kind of no big deal. It was exciting last night to realize, more than once, that I was flying from Australia to Hong Kong. The massive south land to Hong Kong! How craaaazy is that, that we can fly? And watch movies in the sky? And eat mango popsicles and chicken noodles and sip on a really good French wine?

I remember Hong Kong to be a vast and colorful and exciting web of marketplaces, sky rises, beautiful views of the Causeway, better exchange rates/prices, and a different, quiet, kind of friendliness. While in Australia at the airport someone would actually come up to and say, “G’day! Could I help you get sorted? You look a little lost!” and chuckle and “take the piss” out of you without even knowing you and then you feel as if you could sit down with that person and have a cup of tea and hear about the kids’ marks in school. Here I landed at 9:30 (but 12:30am in my body) and in my fog realized how large the HK airport is and how of the 30 bays for shuttle buses I had no idea which one might take me to Kowloon. All of this was with no “oh, god” or fear…it was just time for bed. So, re-framed it and made it the most recent adventure. I guess my point is that I felt very much on my own when I landed; everyone going purposefully her own way and getting on shuttle buses. I figured it out, no big whoop, and slept in a luscious bed in Kowloon overlooking a long street market. Breakfast was huge and $6 (a nice change from $12 for an egg and toast.) I am going to make some work calls and go off to explore. I teach in Shenzhen on Wednesday! Time to move the bottom of my suitcase (work clothes) to the top. See ya in Thailand, tank tops and flip flops!

I have many photos to post and will do so soon. Have fun today!