I can always tell when I’m going into a slump. I’ll stop reading books, my emails will go ignored, maybe even my hair will go unwashed. Instead, I’ll spend a little more time playing games, too many hours watching mindless shows, and days thinking about writing instead of writing. Lately, I’ve been in a slump. And hence the lack of regular posts. I have so, so many things I want to share, but instead of the beautiful fluid sentences in…
Where I come from
In a red building, on the 4th floor, behind a wooden door plastered with red “good luck” banners, is a small apartment unit. It’s old, not often tidy, a little cramped, but is always filled with warmth and love. This is where I come from. I was born in Beijing, China, and had a, shall we say, quite an unusual childhood. Shortly after my birth, my father left to attend graduate school in the US, leaving my mom with two-months…
A mother’s support
I rarely ever get to spend Mother’s Day with my mom anymore (as she’s been in China around the holiday for the past few years). As I grow older, any quality time spent with my mom is harder and harder to come by. Suddenly, it’s more preferred to celebrate birthdays and New Years with friends, weekends are spent doing whatever it is that twenty-something girls do, and family vacations become a thing of the past. I lived about an hour’s drive away but I didn’t…
What’s in a name?
Recently, I read the book The Namesake. I adored it. It’s almost 300 pages of about absolutely nothing, and yet, of about an entire life. It starts off with the story of two young Indian immigrant parents trying to navigate life in foreign America while still holding onto their Bengali traditions. This becomes troublesome when they give birth to a son and must name him. But they can’t; they’re waiting on a letter from India containing the baby’s chosen name. The…
Finding romance in little gestures
I met D on the beach next to where I lived. It was on my turf. It was with my group of friends whom I played beach volleyball with every weekend. He was a guest of a friend. And it was that friend with whom I flirted with all day. But at the end of the day, it was D who asked me out. Before I could think of a suitable reply, I had said maybe and given him my…
On purpose: when travel ceases to fulfill
Whenever we meet new people on the road, inevitably the conversation comes around to how long we’ve been traveling, how long do we plan to do it, and how are we supporting this lifestyle. For D, this is easy to answer: I own an online business. For me, I fumble around with variations of “oh, I saved up and quit my job to travel.” I guess even in these fleeting moments with strangers, I don’t want to come across as…
Lessons from a few scribbled characters
From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank everyone for your support and encouragement on my last post. I feel so loved! And I want to share this little story today for all of you who also have the same struggles and feelings of despondency (thanks for this new word, Bonnie!) This story starts with a fall. It happened on a cold Beijing early-spring morning, when the snow on the ground had just barely melted from that winter. My grandfather was…
Blogging, struggles, and resolutions
Things are getting personal again today. I keep this blog not only as a memoir of our travels, but also as a place for personal reflection and an outlet for the jumbled thoughts in my brain. I feel like I used to write a lot of deeply personal posts back when nobody read, and I see no reason to stop now. :) A while back, a certain someone close to me* told me that I’m not a good writer and that…
Vignettes from two red stockings
I have a very special post today! The following is an article written by my mother, recounting the Christmases of our childhood. The article was written in Chinese, and I (polishing up my rusty Mandarin) slowly read it character by character. By the time I finished, I had a headache from concentrating so hard, but also a smile on my lips and a warm glow of nostalgia for those magical childhood moments. My memories of my childhood Christmases have always been some…
A Thailand Thanksgiving (2014)
Thanksgiving really quietly snuck up this year, didn’t it? This is our first Thanksgiving abroad (from Thailand!) and it just isn’t the same. Whereas everyone back home is basking in the aroma of a golden roasted turkey and laughter of family and friends, here it’s just another hot & muggy Thursday. We spent the day visiting a hospital (story another day!) and grabbing take-out from the grocery store (that’s right, we didn’t even go out to eat), followed by a couple of Netflix movies….