Week 1 - Vacation Bible School in the Bronx, NYC
Week 2 - News Release Basketball Camp in Lorrach, GER
Week 3 - Black Forest Academy (southwestern Germany)
Week 4 - London, Oxford, Edinburgh, Scotland, Southern Europe
Week 5 - Southern Europe, Tokyo
Week 6 - Tokyo, Hong Kong
Week 7 - Los Angeles
Chapter 4.1
--Well I really hope that's not my appendix or anything serious.-- These are my thoughts at 35,000 feet in the air over the Pacific Ocean two hours from Los Angeles. Who knows, it could be the lack of sleep over the last four days, or the lemons in my black tea, or the pork sauce that has been the cause of a great deal of stomach gurgling, or perhaps something is pinched because of how I've been curled up. Whatever it is, my left side just below my rib cage to my waist has had a sharp pain emanating from it for the last 40 minutes and we still have a ways to go. Should I eat the breakfast and pray it goes away? I've tried to massage it out...gahhhh so this is my attempt to distract myself. (At the actual time of posting, I have since fully recovered. Was my dear mom and her medical advice my first call off the plane? Of course. Her explanation was simplified: Walk it out. Welcome home!)
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Tokyo was overwhelming in every way; Hong Kong was HUMID. I did not realize the jungle component to the city. In the initial brainstorming of these trips I had grand ideas of researching extensively each stop along the route so I could be prepared. At some point along the way, "extensive" research turned into asking Google for a few photos and relying on TripAdvisor.
Arriving in Hong Kong around 10am, I followed my host family's directions for catching a cab. Needing to pay in cash, I exchanged currency at the airport (often a more expensive site than places in town). Similar to the yen ¥ in Japan, Hong Kong Dollar amounts were much larger figures. I don't claim to understand currency at all, but two examples are: in Japan, 15000¥ meant around $145 USD. In Hong Kong, a $300 cab ride was about $40 USD. In other words, I had an extra difficult time comprehending exactly how much I was spending out of my actual account. Yikes.
A 30 minute cab ride later and I had arrived at the home of Mike and Susie, missionary friends to my BHOF friend Amanda. Mike does sports evangelism and Susie teaches English to all ages, although mostly youth. They have been missionaries in Hong Kong for 27 years while raising four children. They graciously allowed me to crash at their place for two nights. They live northwest of the city in a community called Fairview Park--a suburban area that has become increasingly popular as people from the city start to branch out.
The time difference as I mentioned before didn't work well for my mind and body, so leading up to my 3am wake up call in Tokyo to catch my taxi to the airport, I hadn't been able to sleep a wink. Thankfully on the four hour flight I slept off and on so that by the time I made it to their home I was functional enough to chat before taking a 20 minute lie flat and recharge moment. Then it was off to the races...
Map, directions, cash and water bottle on me, I headed off to the bus stop. To the subway station. To the Star Ferry. To the hike up Victoria Peak (which of course included a few wrong turns and a million stairs). To the 2km hike around the peak. Then down the tram, across on the ferry, and to the marketplace on the subway before calling it a night and retracing my steps to home base.
Now one would think sleep would come as a welcome relief after a nice recovery shower. Did I mention it was humid? Try heat index of 99. I sweat through EVERYTHING. Multiple times. My little hiking backpack that I have for day trips? Soaked through. Flat Stanley and the Quill? Wet from the sweat soaking through the backpack. Absolutely disgusting. But could I fall asleep? Showered and tucked in bed?
Of course not. By the time I saw 2am I was finally crashing...and next thing I knew it was 11am. The debate was real: go out on a steamy adventure and be gross or...call it good and stay in the air conditioning. A/C won. So I napped off and on and watched Flatirons Community Church's latest Sunday sermon series until 5pm. Then I made my way downstairs to see who these giggles and children's voices I was hearing belonged to since Will, the youngest son, is a senior in high school. Come to find out, Mike was teaching an art class to 2-4 year olds. I grabbed a little kids chair and joined the fun.
Heads up...this next paragraph is a little TMI potentially, but funny.
As I am sitting with my knees basically up to my chest, I accidentally bumped my knee into the elbow of the little boy beside me as I leaned over for a crayon. Now you see, showers on my travels have varied in shape, size, and water pressure. From tall and skinny, to no curtains, to short with only a shower hose but no overhead holder, all of which led to creative strategies for my tall frame. Add to that a vagabond attitude where no one sees my same outfits since I move around so often (I promise I always washed them each week!), and that carried over to I'm not standing still long enough to worry about shaving my legs more than absolutely necessary. So. Back to my knee. My spiky prickly knee. The little boy happened to be autistic. When my knee touched his elbow, the look of shock/horror/confusion was thankfully muted in volume but easily discerned. No one else notice, hallelujah, but the little boy looked at me then back at my knee and took his pencil and pointed the sharp end into his hand, followed by a look of "that was what that just felt like crazy lady!!" to me. Oh man. Redirect redirect. I said, "Sorry! Ohh cool look at your shark, does it have eyes??" and promptly pointed to his drawing while moving my knees in the opposite direction. Sorry kiddo! (I have since shaved...hello California beach time!)
Susie arrived home a little while later and soon a group of 11-12 year olds came in to go over their writing lesson. I joined in with them--now mind you I wasn't exactly helpful, more just joining the kids, but Mike and Susie were great about it. ((Oh man...45 minutes to go. Breakfast was rice and beef. Aka untouched by me. Even the apple juice on the first sip wasn't what I was looking for and I tried to calm myself down and breathe deeply while simultaneously searching for the barf bag and briefly wondering what my strategy should be if I all the sudden heaved. So far I think I'll make it, but yuck.)) After lessons, Mike had put together supper for us and Will came down to help out. Mike got a text inviting him to join some guys for swimming--one of the perks of being a sports evangelist!--so off he went. Susie, Will, and I enjoyed dinner and talked about his senior year. Next year he will be attending college at Asbury in Kentucky where his older brother graduated with a degree in media communications. His two sisters, twins, have both graduated college and are now in ballet groups in US cities. As Mike said though, when they speak about coming home for the summer, the kids mean Hong Kong. Such an interesting life!
Let me rewind a minute. The Hong Kong skyline at night from the ferry? UNREAL. So so soooo cool. Light shows all over the buildings, skyscrapers all along the water with their reflections, and something cool to see every direction you look. Definitely wins the skyline competition.
Any guesses on how I slept that night? Or by this time was it really day? I had been paying far too much attention to the world clock on my phone and talking to friends and family back home thanks to wifi during this last week of my international travels. I missed the US and was ready to be back. (As I write this, we have just started flying over US soil!!! Oh happy days!!) Chalk it up to familiarity in people, places, and things, a full closet of clothes, or a dependency on focusing on the next project on the horizon, but my last week of overseas travel was the most difficult by far. I still have another week on the road before going home, but at least I'll be in good old America :)
1am. Fell asleep. Felt great. Woke up at 6am, packed, rolled out the door with Mike who drove me to the bus, bus ride to the airport, checked in, wandered around, used the wifi to chat with friends and realized not a minute too late (or quite a bit later than I should have) that I didn't have a clue where my gate was and hadn't checked the board since they had announced it! So of course...I sprinted. And after escalators, train ride, and moving walkways, made it to my gate as it flashed "final boarding call". Oh brother. Knocked out on that three hour flight, landing in Osaka at 3:30pm before a 5:25pm departure. This time I went to my gate first before finding a camp out spot. Once on the plane I realized sleep wasn't coming. Next best option? Watch all of the Jason Bourne movies so that I can be caught up for the one in theaters. (Dad, pencil me in for a Tuesday movie trip when I'm home.) Check. Still had four hours left...music playing, eyes closed...
Nope nothing. I think I nodded off for 30 minutes somewhere in there. And now I'm bent over my trey table typing this up in hopes my intestines don't come out of my body on the descent.
Good news? I get the rest of Friday back again :). We will land at 12:15pm on the day I've already lived to see its sunset. Bizarre.
Teammates and family in LA, here I come!
(Lord help me sleep when I should!)
Much love!
M
Ps. Posting this after a MAGNIFICENT evening of friends, an ocean sunset nap on the beach, and a FULL night of sleep from 7:30pm-5:30am. Oh oh oh so wonderful!
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