More Evidence that It’s a Small World

If you're a faithful reader (thanks mom!) you might remember few posts about small the world can really feel.  Let me think back…

The time we met friends of my parents at an international meeting in Korea.  My parents' friends next stop was Shanghai.  They were meeting in-laws of one of their own children.  However, the in-laws they were meeting didn’t actually live in Shanghai, they lived in Suzhou.  Hmmm, I’ve heard of that place before!  A few years have passed since that realization and it’s fun to chuckle about it because the people they were visiting have children LBean & EBean’s ages and our kids all go to school together.

Another reminder was just this past fall when our taxi driver on the island of Borneo had not only been to the US, but had lived in souther Illinois (my home state) for over a year.  He had attended flight school at Southern Illinois University.

Later int the fall we were in line to board our flight back to Shanghai from southern China and the father behind us nudged his son.  He said “Did you tell them?” and his son shook his head shyly.  Turns out that they had stayed at the same resort as us in Borneo 6 weeks earlier and they remembered us.  (So much for being anonymous while on vacation.  My first thoughts were: 1) Had I been yelling at my kids and 2) What had I been wearing?!)

In January I was scanning through a Suzhou friend’s FB page.  I was helping put together a photo book for her going away party and needed to find some contact information for her friends.  As I was scrolling through her friends list it told me if some of my Facebook friends were friends with her Facebook friends (did you catch that?).  Most of the friend connections were easy to figure out…people from church, Girl Scouts, housing compounds and other Suzhou-related ties.  But then, there were at least 4 or 5 connections that had nothing to do with Suzhou at all.  A dear friend of Jamie’s from college (a study buddy that we have camped with on many Labor Day camping trips), one of my good friends from college (we might have passed the time in class by trying to complete the daily crossword puzzle in the Daily Illini), and someone I know only via a Facebook introduction (but she also lives in SE Asia).  It was fun to keep discovering the connections.  

ChinaBean "demonstrating" some
of my physical therapy exercises

Most recently I started seeing a doctor to address some pain in my foot from running.  During our first meeting we started chatting and as it turns out, he is also originally from central Illinois (my home state in the US).  We grew up within hours of each other.  Now I can pretend to be very particular about my health care and say that I will only go see a doctor from my home state.  You can do that, even in China!

She is having way too much fun with this!

Maybe instead of seven degrees of Kevin Bacon, it should be the seven degrees of Suzhou?

China's Golden Week 2014

This year for October holiday (the week of National Holiday in China), we decided to go to the island of Borneo.  Before this trip, I knew nothing about the island and it had a reputation that I didn't know about.  After our trip, I was texting a friend in the US and she mentioned that her grandmother would refer to the "wild women of Borneo".  Even recent episode of the BBC show, Downton Abbey, Lord Grantham referred to Borneo.

I believe that the island of Borneo is the third largest island in the world.  The northern part of the island where we stayed is governed by Malaysia and the southern part is governed by Indonesia.  After doing a bit of research, I think the former practice of head-hunting on the island might have had something to do with its reputation.  

Our visit at the beginning of October meant that there was a good chance that the rainy season might have already begun.  And, it had.  There were a few days of full sun, but many days it rained.  We were thankful for a great hotel with lots of indoor options for fun because we needed it.

Enjoying some Borneo milk tea.

This look says, "Oh, dad"

Our hotel had an orangutan rescue center.  We were fortunate to see the orangutan's up-close during their morning feeding time.

On our way to the sanctuary...

 Here they come...

Can you see the baby hanging onto the mama?

Comparing our feet to the orangutan.

 The clouds are rolling in and the rain will begin...

Date night.  Jamie and I have decided that going to dinner with fewer than your maximum amount of children constitutes a date night.  LBean and EBean partied at the Kids Club while Jamie, ChinaBean and I enjoyed a nice Indian dinner.

Mmm, Indian food!

We convinced the girls one night to go to a teppanyaki restaurant.  They were skeptical at first, but the table-side entertainment and good food won them over.  LBean sighed and said that it was too bad there weren't these kinds of restaurants in Suzhou.  I got to give her the good news that indeed China has it's fair share of Japanese teppanyaki food too.

While the rain came down, we found ways to entertain ourselves.  We enjoyed games in the kids club and it was even more fun because some friends from school happened to be staying at the same hotel.  We took advantage of the activities in the lobby and learned how to make a grasshopper out of a leaf and fold napkins in fancy ways.  The hotel also had a nice open-air game room and we introduced EBean to game Jenga and LBean tried to dominate a game of checkers.

On our last day in Borneo, when the sun broke through, we made a mad dash to the pool before the rain began again.  The water was a bit chilly since there hadn't been enough sun to warm it up, but the girls got over it quickly and enjoyed themselves.

Peeking up at our room!

On our way back to the airport that evening Jamie struck up a conversation with our Maylasian taxi driver.  The driver mentioned that he had been to the US before (I was expecting him to say L.A. or some other major city) and in fact he had been to Illinois.  He shared with us that he had gone to school for 18 months in southern Illinois to earn his FAA pilot's license.  He had been about 3 hours from where Jamie and I grew up. 

What they say is true, it's a small world!