have you seen Mike?

"Say, have you seen Mike?"

"Um, no... is it my week or something?"

"No but, well I was just over at his cube and he isn't there. His clothes are there, but he isn't."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, his pants are just draped over his chair with the belt still attached. His shirt is there too. So I was just wondering if you had seen him and, you know, maybe taken note of what he had on."

"Maybe he's gone native. I can just imagine him hunting for antelope among the cubicles. It may also be that he has regressed to some more primitive version of himself -all covered with fur, trying to make fire in a conference room. Then again, maybe he turned invisble. Did you ever think of that?"

"Or... maybe he just thinks he's invisible."

cubicle orchid

cubicle orchid
Originally uploaded by Tygh.

While I was in China, I asked a coworker to water my plants while I was gone. I expected them to survive the duration, but I was shocked when I returned. My plants were thriving. They had clearly done much better than they had under my responsibility.

I enjoy caring for things. I have kept fish in the past and have had other pets. I have done some gardening as well. There are a number of other activities I also enjoy that are centered around creating a hospitable environment for something to grow. Brewing beer is another example. Beer happens almost by itself if you create the right environment.

So my pride was not really injured. My coworker probably did pretty much what I asked her to do. The difference is that she must have done it consistently and to spec where I probably take shortcuts anymore.

Friends having dinner

David (to my right) Angel, Maria, Muscle, Rex, someone in a yellow shirt, Russel, someone in a white shirt and Tim.

It was a Thursday at the end of my third week and it was raining that day. We barely made it into the restaurant before a heavy downpour. Russel, in blue, came a few minutes later and you can see he got a little wet. It was raining, but it was also hot outside. We all went to dinner and had spicy Chinese food. I can still remember the mouth-numbing fish-head from that night and quite a number of other little treasures.

It was that evening that I first learned of the serial killer that had recently been active in Zhuhai. I heard from the others that he had killed several young women - maybe five or six of them. I also heard that the victims were wearing red. In the evenings, I had noticed that many young ladies, walked arm-in-arm and stuck together. It didn't occur to me that there might be some current events behind this apparent cultural difference.

One of my task these days is to try to organize the e-mail addresses, phone numbers and other assorted contacts I have collected and make sure that I keep lines of communication open with my new friends and former classmates. I met so many people that it may be impossible to keep in touch regularly with all of them. But I do want to check in once in a while.

David has written to me already. He, Sam and Molly were some of the first people who befriended me in Zhuhai. I am looking forward to hearing from these folks from time to time. 

Sam

My Friend Sam from Zhuhai sent me e-mail today. I thought I would share a part of what he wrote:

Here are no sorry and thanks , only friends , we are friends , you are happy , I am happy , you are sad, you tell me what happened, I like to listen and read it , but I hope you will be happy day by day, you have a good family.

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Thank you Sam. I will definitely stay in touch.

Reflections

It looks like I am pretty much back to my life already. There are still many things that happened to me in China that I haven't recorded here. It was hard to find the time to write about the things that were going on around me while they were happening. Fortunately, I have all these photos that sketch out my path and remind me of what I was doing and where I was.

The realities of a busy job and a rich family life are already crowding out this loop of time where I stepped outside of those normal daily activities. It is hard to think of it as more than a dream that I woke from a few days ago. The few artifacts I brought back, a vague sense that my Chinese has improved and the rapidly fading and unreliable memories of this last month serve as evidence that I was really there and experiencing something completely different.

It might sound like I prefer my time away to my so-called normal life, but that isn't the case at all. I missed my family constantly despite the fact that I met many new friends and experienced a lot of new things. At times, I felt isolated especially during those periods when I was travelling by myself. My family endured their own difficulties without me as well. I am grateful to them for letting me go on this adventure without making me feel as selfish and unreasonable as I certainly deserved.

Hong Kong Saturday and Sunday

Saturday, I left Zhuhai for Hong Kong. Gareth, one of the people who went with me to take the ferry wound up being detained at the port. He apparently did not have his paperwork in order.

On the day he was originally headed to HK in September, his flight was rerouted because of a hurricane. This would have been ok, but apparently they stamped his passport with some sort of temporary stamp and when he left Shanghai he was... an illegal.

In HK, I saw the peak (see photo), Hong Kong Park including the aviary and the tea museum. I took the central escalators to Hollywood and Soho. Later, I saw Men's / Women's streets and the street of the stars where I saw the light show from across the water to the Island. It was a very cool experience and didn't really cost any money. Though I confess that I did a little shopping later and dinner cost me something like $95.00 (HK)

I also found a tea shop there and had an opportunity to pick up a tiny bit more tea before heading home.