One Night in Beijing

So great on many levels.

Canon EOS5DmkII, One night in Beijing. from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

On this day last year

On this day last year, 6 1/2 hours from now, I got on a plane to cross the Pacific. I had stated reasons and other non-stated reasons that were obvious to everyone who knew me. I wasn't sure of what I wanted to accomplish in HCMC ('cept learn Vietnamese), I just knew I needed to go. Just as much as I knew I had to return to SF four months later.

My short list of to-dos were:
1. Learn Vietnamese (not great, but good enough)
2. See if I could live there (yep)
3. Gain perspective (mostly yep)
4. Travel around a little (yep)

Of course, knowing me, these all tree(d) out into various subcategories, like #2 was split into: make good friends, get a job, get into a "crowd", eat as much (good) street food as possible and make decisions based on personal standards, versus situational (gained from growing up in the US, more important than you'd guess)...

Things get a bit more mixed up as I climb out on those branches.

I can say this: I'm glad I did it, I needed to. The delineation between my life before I left and the life I live now was important to establish. I needed that gulf of HCMC to draw a big imaginary sharpie between time and experience. If 2008 was gonna be a wash*, I wanted it to be a wash in a foreign land.

And what I missed about life in SF [short list: friends + culture], I'm glad I came back for.

To be honest, life for me now isn't necessarily much different than life was for me in 2006, for reasons I won't list, I'm ever so grateful.



*as someone who (mostly) lives in her head, yet is abruptly aware of her feelings/emotions, but is (usually) unwilling/unable to show them to those around her, I'm using "wash" for shielding power.

Love Like Fire - William

Racing and racing

Sometimes things happen and I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world (just because I get to witness it). This past Sunday I went to the Alameda Flea Market.

While driving into the parking lot, I saw something out of the corner of my left eye, it was a wild hare. It was racing the car I was driving! I was by myself and I did reach for my camera, but couldn't work the filming part of the camera safely without slowing down. Also! I really wanted to keep up with racing the hare. It was going at least 35 mph (according to the odometer) and then it passed the car (cut in front of me) and raced me on the right side for awhile. So very cool.

When I've told people over the last few days, everyone agrees that if I was one to believe in luck, surely this is a lucky thing. I say that I would've had 4x as good as luck if I hit the hare because I would've had four rabbit's feet. (I'm kidding, of course.)

First, wild hares are in Alameda! Wow!

Second, wild hares racing cars without getting hurt? That's hot!

Then I ran into an East Bay friend that I hadn't seen in a year and we caught up over crepes.

And Sunday felt great.

True Story.

Dad Update:

Sorry, I've been absent in updating. I know when I mention something on tenspeed, I should finish the story. Not much has changed. My Dad is still in a coma, he's still in a Permanent Vegetative State, he's been moved out of the ICU and is now in a subacute unit of a convalescent home.

Family dynamics are still dicey, belief in his recovery are split. My brother and sister, who live close by in SoCal, are handling all the needed arrangements. They give us weekly updates via email. For this, I am very thankful.

I'm still wondering why we are prolonging his death, and how long will be long enough to say good-bye.

Doogie!