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Contemplating Going “Home”

Friday, February 23rd, 2007

I was quickly stopped by a policeman. “Have you been drinking? Have you been smoking pot? Your eyes are all red! Then he made me stand, in high heels, on one foot and count to forty. Then follow his finger moving back and forth with my eyes. Then he let me, shaken, go.

Last time I got off the plane in Portland from almost a year in Asia, I found myself jet-lagged and completely disoriented…driving on the “wrong” side of the road.

Found this blog by a Chinese-American on Bootsnall. He is probably much younger but his experience is none-the-less very similar to mine.

Coming Home: Sharks Also Need Constant Motion
By: Jeffrey Lee

“Coming home meant coming down. It was easier to stay up. I’d return home to piles of bills and an empty refrigerator. Buying groceries, I’d get lost – too many aisles, too many choices; cool mist blowing over fresh fruit; paper or plastic; cash back in return? I’d wanted emotion but couldn’t find it here, so I settled for motion.

Out at night, weaving through traffic, looking for trouble, I’d lose myself in crowds. Gaggles of girls with fruit-colored drinks talked about face products and film production. I’d see their lips move, look at their snapshot smiles and highlighted hair. I didn’t know what to say.
[read on]

Following Trouble?

Wednesday, February 21st, 2007

Good grief! Either I am following trouble around the world or trouble is following me! First a violent demonstration on a university campus in Istanbul…then the tsunami in Thailand…then the coup in Thailand…then the subway strike in New York City…then the teacher strike in Oaxaca and now this just as I am planning on returning this fall. Or maybe it’s just that there is always trouble all over the world!

Security in Bangkok To Be Tightened
Bangkok Post 2007-02-21
[read on]

New Year’s In Las Vegas

Tuesday, January 9th, 2007
Went to Las Vegas to spend a week with my son Greg over New Year's. Greg and I went to bed New Years Eve at 10:30...he got called in at 1:30am for an emergency...a four year old had gotten ... [Continue reading this entry]

Driving From Oregon To Oaxaca

Tuesday, September 26th, 2006
After finally getting the title and registration to the Toyota, I drove down to Klamath Falls Oregon from Salem to see my second family Bea and Sal Florez who are being well-taken care of by a couple in their home. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Oaxaca City

Friday, June 2nd, 2006
mexico_oaxaca.gif jNdWfJItyaUf9pFqJEvFh0-2006170145612034.gif PICT0192.JPG.jpg After three weeks in Salem sorting through 40 years of junk...one pile for St. Vincent de Paul, one pile for the dump, ... [Continue reading this entry]

House Cats In Las Vegas

Sunday, May 28th, 2006
Flew From Thailand to Las Vegas the end of April. Then flew youngest son, Josh, who is between jobs, in from NYC to spend a week with oldest son Greg and I. After Bangkok and NYC, we just ... [Continue reading this entry]

Culture Shock

Monday, April 3rd, 2006
as my mother would have said.): Am taking the liberty of posting Bob's April 3 email describing homecoming culture shock after arriving home in Oregon from Asia...very succinct.
good morning; On Comcast internet--- and it's fast. What a pleasure. The air is fresh. It's brisk. Everything green. No ... [Continue reading this entry]

New Years Eve in NY

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006
Bob left for Thailand on the 29th. Josh had to work at the restaurant so Amy and I spent New Years Eve drinking wine and champagne...good conversation with my daughter-in-law...and watching "Wedding Crashers." She spent the night and ... [Continue reading this entry]

Ellen Makes Happy

Wednesday, December 28th, 2005
One of the things I will miss when we leave for Thailand is watching Ellen DeGeneris on television. Her recent reruns of her shows produced in New York City...a stunning view of Columbus Circle through a three story wall ... [Continue reading this entry]

A Christmas Gift Brooklyn 2005

Monday, December 26th, 2005
After rack of lamb marinated with fresh oregano, thyme, garlic and olive oil; tender gratin of baby spinach in a bechamel sauce with snow crab and east coast clams; brussel sprouts braised with bacon and deglazed with cream sherry; ... [Continue reading this entry]

The Subway Strike Is Over

Friday, December 23rd, 2005
and we are liberated!

Human Rights In China

Saturday, December 17th, 2005
Yesterday, as Bob and I stepped out the door of the Thai Consolate on E 52nd St. where we were applying for our visas to Thailand, we were met by about 50 Chinese people holding up banners condemning the beating ... [Continue reading this entry]

New York City Trivia

Wednesday, December 14th, 2005
A friend from South Africa sent me some geography trivia: The term "The Big Apple" was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930s who used the slang expression "apple" for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City ... [Continue reading this entry]

More Life in Brooklyn

Thursday, December 8th, 2005
According to the winter issue of BKLYN magazine, Brooklyn, N.Y., barkeep Andy Heidel has drawn a line in the sawdust, posting the following on recent Sundays outside the Patio Lounge in Park Slope: "THE STROLLER MANIFESTO" "What is it with people bringing ... [Continue reading this entry]

Babies Take Manhattan

Monday, December 5th, 2005
Nanny's pushing babies in strollers are everywhere in Brooklyn, we noticed soon after arriving here, so it was no surprise when the New York Times ran a story December 1 called "The Children Are Back" ... "Babies Take Manhattan" a ... [Continue reading this entry]

Museum Of Natural History

Thursday, December 1st, 2005
When we were in southern China last year we spent some time hiking and driving through parts of mountainous Yunnan Province that are populated primarily with, not Han Chinese, but with "minorities." (Their word.) So when I saw that ... [Continue reading this entry]

Alice’s Restaurant At Carnegie

Sunday, November 27th, 2005
Last night Arlo Guthrie outdid himself in Carnegie Hall 40th anniversary of his song "Alice's Restaurant." Updated a little of course! What 50's and 60's folkie nostalgia with Pete Seeger (maybe in spirit) in the audience! Arlo was ... [Continue reading this entry]

How To Impress The Inlaws

Sunday, November 27th, 2005
Thanksgiving morning Bob took off for the New York Athletic Club and his ritual Starbucks ice-coffee thinking we would have plenty of time to do the turkey before Amy arrived with her mother who was flying in from Denver at ... [Continue reading this entry]

Thirty-Something Night

Sunday, November 27th, 2005
Our son, Greg, flew in from Las Vegas for a long weekend last weekend. It is the first time we have been with more than one of the progeny since I can remember...and was great fun...out to dinner at the ... [Continue reading this entry]

Another Country

Tuesday, November 15th, 2005
I knew we were living in a country other than the U. S. A when I dropped into a Dunkin Donut shop (hey it's been three years!) for a couple sugared donuts. "I'll have two sugared donuts," I said ... [Continue reading this entry]

New York City Marathon

Sunday, November 6th, 2005
It's good to be back "home" in our apartment in Brooklyn from our trip to Washington. Early this morning we walked down a couple blocks to 4th Avenue to watch the NYC marathon runners....after we watched the winners finish ... [Continue reading this entry]

“Taxation Without Representation”

Friday, November 4th, 2005
Taking a fast sleek train, we are visiting our country's capitol city for a few days. "Taxation Without Representation" is written at the bottom of D.C. license plates here in the District of Columbia. Don't know why DC's ... [Continue reading this entry]

Odetta

Tuesday, November 1st, 2005
We had been years since we saw Odetta so when Bob read that she would be performing in a Village club we jumped at the chance to get tickets. She walked in dressed in a dramatic multi-colored red and ... [Continue reading this entry]

Yonah Schimmel’s Knishs

Tuesday, October 25th, 2005
Looking for a restaurant one afternoon on the Lower East Side, we happened by a tiny bakery with huge savory knishes displayed in the window...potato, kasha, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, mixed vegetable, sweet potato, mushroom...and sweet ones too. The glass window ... [Continue reading this entry]

“An Uncommon Friendship”

Tuesday, October 25th, 2005
After getting through Phil & Adri's New York Times and Wall Street Journal that arrive on our stoop every day it is difficult to find time for other reading. However, Amy's mom gave me a book I couldn't refuse. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Pierogis In Greenpoint

Tuesday, October 25th, 2005
Around the corner from Josh's apartment in an almost all-Polish neighborhood Bob and I found an authentic Polish restaurant. Blackboards behind the cashier list items in Polish and English. When our food was ready we carefully delivered it ... [Continue reading this entry]

New York Style

Monday, October 24th, 2005
Most everyone in New York is interested in looking stylish. The definition is different, however depending on the neighborhood you are in...whether on the affluent Upper West Side or on the Lower East Side. It also makes a difference ... [Continue reading this entry]

Strangers in the “hood”

Monday, October 24th, 2005
I've never been in a city that has such diverse but tight little neighborhoods. The first question asked by anyone you meet, after what do you do, is where do you live. Soon you know the tenant ... [Continue reading this entry]

Blue Ribbon Restaurant

Sunday, October 23rd, 2005
A call from Amy: Would you like to run into Manhattan with me to pick up Josh after work tonight? Of course, I said! Bob had already eaten stir-fry at home and preferred to watch the world ... [Continue reading this entry]

Bouley Restaurant Tasting Menu

Sunday, October 23rd, 2005
There are 13,000 restaurants in New York City and urbanites, with cramped apartments and schedules, often eat out...whether take-out, order in, pizza slices or, on special occasions, in one of the more elite culinary establishments. Eating out at one ... [Continue reading this entry]

Big Onion Tour

Sunday, October 23rd, 2005
Big Onion Tours, the word "onion" being a play on the Big Apple, offers tours of neighborhoods of NYC. We chose the "immigrant tour" which shows how different ethnic groups variously settled and replaced other groups around the ... [Continue reading this entry]

Central Park

Sunday, October 23rd, 2005
In any given week in the summer you can choose from any four or five street fairs and on this day we chose the Columbus Street Fair on the Upper West Side of Central Park. Stall after stall for ... [Continue reading this entry]

Harlem

Sunday, October 23rd, 2005
Probably the biggest surprise yet in New York is discovering that Harlem is not the ghetto as depicted in years past. Sprucing up campaigns have left streets spotlessly clean...little old men with brooms like those ubiquitous to China and ... [Continue reading this entry]

Washington Heights

Sunday, October 23rd, 2005
The "F" subway line, if you take it to the very end at the northern tip of Manhattan Island, lets you off in a Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights. Everyone on the streets and in the stores were Spanish-speaking giving ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hop On Hop Off Bus

Sunday, October 23rd, 2005
A good way to get a good overview of New York and to get a good look at the architecture is to sit in the upper level of one of these buses and if you are lucky you will be ... [Continue reading this entry]

The New York Attitude

Sunday, October 23rd, 2005
The New York attitude is a lot more complicated than simple rudeness. According to a local, it's a mixture of being tough, brave, on your toes, jaded, overworked and intensely focused. Who needs to be pulled into a ... [Continue reading this entry]

The New York Identity

Sunday, October 23rd, 2005
This is a city of 8 million people-Bangkok's is 9 million-but unlike Bangkok, it's diversity is extreme. Therefore any generalization is sweeping. New York is a city for the young; the median age of residents is 34. ... [Continue reading this entry]

My New York Ancestors

Sunday, October 23rd, 2005
In the beginning of this country, the New England colonies were being settled by the Puritans who endeavored to spread their intolerant "purist" religion across much of rest of the country. But from the time the Dutch West India Company ... [Continue reading this entry]

Our Brooklyn Neighborhood

Sunday, October 23rd, 2005
Video We are sub letting a pleasant newly refurbished two bedroom apartment on Pacific St in a multi-ethnic, gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood called Boerum Hill. Bob and I enjoy exploring New York opportunities and other sites via the ... [Continue reading this entry]

Three Minute Wedding

Tuesday, October 18th, 2005
On a lovely Sunday, September 4, 2005, Bob and I followed Josh and Amy to a specialty jewelry store in our gentrified Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn to pick up their hand-crafted rings. Amy's mother, Debbie, works at a ... [Continue reading this entry]

Wedding Announcement

Monday, October 17th, 2005
A few days before we left Portland for New York City, our son Josh, who is currently a chef at the Tocqueville Restaurant near Union Square in Manhattan, asked us to keep the following weekend open...giving us no idea what ... [Continue reading this entry]

Back To The West

Monday, October 17th, 2005
In mid-July, a year after leaving the States to travel through Eastern Europe, taking the Trans Siberian Train through Russia, Mongolia and China and then to Thailand Vietnam and Laos, I arrived back in LA on China Air...then Portland on ... [Continue reading this entry]

Polish Ancestors

Thursday, August 26th, 2004
Ancestral Poland.gif I am looking forward to visiting my grandfather's little village in the north. Seven generations of his ancestors were farmers and lived in the same little village of Szczepankowo. In ... [Continue reading this entry]

US News From Egypt

Tuesday, April 30th, 2002
News in the International Press Subjects we have been reading about lately have often covered the European Union, deregulation of the labor market, global economic trends, immigration problems, agricultural pollicy and the issues stemming from the World Trade Organization agreements, market ... [Continue reading this entry]

Bob Climbs Kilomanjaro

Tuesday, June 18th, 1996
HF0m0NezqDnitkljwNP8lg-2006188095850902.gif Kilomajaro.jpg Marengo Route.jpg BobatKilomajaro.jpg Bob's Report:
Curious how one thing leads to another. It all started at ... [Continue reading this entry]

Na Pali Trail Kauai Hawaii

Wednesday, December 16th, 1992
After our son Josh graduated from Whitman College, he joined his former roommate and friend, Phil, in Kauai where they were to spend a couple years working and repairing some cottages that belonged to Phil's dad near Poipu Beach that ... [Continue reading this entry]

Rafting The Grand Canyon

Wednesday, September 30th, 1992
After two years on a waiting list my husband and I were finally able to spend 18 days paddle rafting the Grand Canyon...putting in above Flagstaff Arizona. We went with a company called "Azra"...not a cadillac company...but with knowledgeable ... [Continue reading this entry]