I am in the mountains. Ppl have left to spend a day in the ski resort and I have another 2 hours till I should hop on the bus.
This is a pretty nice little town. Cool little shops. Sitting at the cafe I noticed the waitress from the restaurant last night is now lining up as patron to get lunch. I am waiting for the line to get shorter before I order some delicious looking food, but the line seems to grow longer by the minute. My latte from an hour ago is almost finished. It's busy in here, no doubt a popular place in town.
I came here to meet a friend from Edmonton and did some xcountry skiing yesterday. I could have gone to the ski resort and snowboard today, I guess. But.. somehow one day of hanging out seem enough. If I were to go with them then they will want to take me back to Calgary. I somehow like the idea of getting on the bus by myself better. Plus 11.5km of xcountry skiing later I have some sore muscles. If I hit a flats pot on the ski hill today with the snowboard I will be grumpy.
This used to be the way to spend my weekends. Laptop and cafe and myself. I can be anti-social and a foreigner. I am a nobody. I can hop on busses and skip town. Of course getting a ride has its perks, I wouldn't have to walk in the snow with a duffle bag full of winter clothes. But there is something so nice about exactly that, having to walk in the snow with a duffel bag all by myself. I am not sure if that make sense.
I lied about being anti-social. I actually made friends at the hostel. When I arrived at the hostel Sat. night I noticed the presence of a big asian group with adults and high school kids. Spring break camp of some sort, I thought. I smiled when I saw the rice cooker and extensive food preparation. The next morning I walked passed a big pot of congee in the kitchen and said hi to one of the ladies in mandarin. The lady then introduce herself and asked if I spoke mandarin. Yes, I said. Then a few more ladies gather around upon hearing that. They are a temple group from Calgary, taking the kids out on leadership camp. Most of them are from Taiwan, but some from mainland China as well. They asked which part of China was I from, I said I am from Malaysia.
The moment I said that I wondered how they would reaction. There was a loud, "Ohh... " and I was ready to acknowledge our government sucked. She then said "My brother-in-law is from M'sia too." I asked if she spoke Hokkien, she answered by asking if I do too in Hokkien. "Ah... we are all from the same place, all one big family." I was then offered to share their breakfast, in which I politely declined. When I got back to the table Liz asked how I knew her, I said I didn't... I just met her, but I am invited to join them this saturday in Calgary, and it's food related. Liz laughed.
I guess I am far away, and the sentiment is very different. No one here seem to be interested in verbally insulting M'sians. Most ppl think think of it as an accident. I told the surgeon the M'sian government didn't do a very good job. The surgeon said but it's M'sia! You guys wear t-shirts and shorts all year long and eat coconut by the beach! So to him it's just not a country that has any experience or expertise to deal with plane crashes, hence it's no surprise it's messy. "What do you want them to do? No one knows what happened.... but did you seriously think the plane didn't crash? The Chinese families are just upset, understandably." "They could have handled it better." It is slightly awkward to be the one criticizing, but I guess it brings out a different perspective.
This is a pretty nice little town. Cool little shops. Sitting at the cafe I noticed the waitress from the restaurant last night is now lining up as patron to get lunch. I am waiting for the line to get shorter before I order some delicious looking food, but the line seems to grow longer by the minute. My latte from an hour ago is almost finished. It's busy in here, no doubt a popular place in town.
I came here to meet a friend from Edmonton and did some xcountry skiing yesterday. I could have gone to the ski resort and snowboard today, I guess. But.. somehow one day of hanging out seem enough. If I were to go with them then they will want to take me back to Calgary. I somehow like the idea of getting on the bus by myself better. Plus 11.5km of xcountry skiing later I have some sore muscles. If I hit a flats pot on the ski hill today with the snowboard I will be grumpy.
This used to be the way to spend my weekends. Laptop and cafe and myself. I can be anti-social and a foreigner. I am a nobody. I can hop on busses and skip town. Of course getting a ride has its perks, I wouldn't have to walk in the snow with a duffle bag full of winter clothes. But there is something so nice about exactly that, having to walk in the snow with a duffel bag all by myself. I am not sure if that make sense.
I lied about being anti-social. I actually made friends at the hostel. When I arrived at the hostel Sat. night I noticed the presence of a big asian group with adults and high school kids. Spring break camp of some sort, I thought. I smiled when I saw the rice cooker and extensive food preparation. The next morning I walked passed a big pot of congee in the kitchen and said hi to one of the ladies in mandarin. The lady then introduce herself and asked if I spoke mandarin. Yes, I said. Then a few more ladies gather around upon hearing that. They are a temple group from Calgary, taking the kids out on leadership camp. Most of them are from Taiwan, but some from mainland China as well. They asked which part of China was I from, I said I am from Malaysia.
The moment I said that I wondered how they would reaction. There was a loud, "Ohh... " and I was ready to acknowledge our government sucked. She then said "My brother-in-law is from M'sia too." I asked if she spoke Hokkien, she answered by asking if I do too in Hokkien. "Ah... we are all from the same place, all one big family." I was then offered to share their breakfast, in which I politely declined. When I got back to the table Liz asked how I knew her, I said I didn't... I just met her, but I am invited to join them this saturday in Calgary, and it's food related. Liz laughed.
I guess I am far away, and the sentiment is very different. No one here seem to be interested in verbally insulting M'sians. Most ppl think think of it as an accident. I told the surgeon the M'sian government didn't do a very good job. The surgeon said but it's M'sia! You guys wear t-shirts and shorts all year long and eat coconut by the beach! So to him it's just not a country that has any experience or expertise to deal with plane crashes, hence it's no surprise it's messy. "What do you want them to do? No one knows what happened.... but did you seriously think the plane didn't crash? The Chinese families are just upset, understandably." "They could have handled it better." It is slightly awkward to be the one criticizing, but I guess it brings out a different perspective.
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