We returned to our little village by the sea four days ago. After a happy dance of discovering no mold devouring the hutong and a good cleaning to eradicate two months worth of grime, we collapsed.
It has been a wild, busy, and an overwhelmingly amazing two months of travel. The stories to be told are numerous and so good. We truly do not take these holidays for granted, and the start of 2017 has been spectacular. As Zach and I have chatted with each other about the journey these past four days, we are repeatedly in awe of the people we were able to connect with along the way.
In a world that is pushing anti-immigration agendas and fear for fellow man, travel reminds me that governmental rhetoric rarely conveys the true state of the world. People are not their government. I travel to learn, to be challenged, and to be reminded that people are people with dreams, hopes, fears, and insecurities no matter what nationality is stamped on a document. I have vowed to leave my door open for the world, because the world has welcomed me through its doors so many times. This trip was a beautiful and tangible reminder of that. So, before I fill this blog with tales of kangaroos and water villages and the call to prayer wafting through a little kingdom by the sea, here are the amazing and endearing connections we made along the way. As Grace Lin wrote in When the Sea Turned Silver, "If one of the greatest joys is encountering a friend far from home, making a friend must be as well."
Our Christmas surprise would not have worked without the help of this family. Though we did not get to spend a night in their house as planned, our short reunion was well worth the delayed flight and lack of sleep.
In the midst of family celebrations, we were able to carve out a couple hours for breakfast with our "always on-call for a rescue operation" fashionado, Scott Campbell.
Returning from our Christmas surprise, we spent three days in Hong Kong. The best way to beat jet lag is to spend a day with former students...
...or in our case, two days with former students.
We landed in Miri, Malaysia just in time to connect with Roger before he went into the wooded wilds of the country.
Football brings the best people together and the Lee family was an incredible bonus to our days in Brunei. I am so excited to write the story of how our paths crossed for it is one of the greatest reminders as to why we travel.
Australia Day began with an expat reunion at a local pub. Our lives intersected in China, so it was fun yet strange to meet in a foreign land.
Sixteen years ago, Zach spend a summer working in Hervey Bay. It was a pivotal summer for him in many ways. In planning for the journey, we decided to revisit the bay and hopefully connect with people from that time. We had low expectations for reunions as it has been sixteen years, yet we were overwhelmed at the people who wanted to see him again. This is Neil, his former boss, Jenny, and Tim. We spent an amazing day with them in Newcastle, and it was so fun to hear Zach and Neil chat about that summer so long ago.
An overnight in Brisbane was delightful thanks to Megan and Jeremy. We loved their old farmhouse, their cats, and their hospitality. Jeremy won my forever adoration when he made it his mission that I would see kangaroos or wallabies. We saw dozens thanks to his wildlife knowledge. Later that evening, we laughed so hard when Megan pulled out her photo album of Zach's summer.
Zach lived with the Bell family during his time in Hervey Bay. For years I have heard about them, especially their waterfall shower (which instigated Zach's continual love for such a shower.) On this evening, we were able to reconnect over an evening meal and ice cream.
We stayed with Viki (a student when Zach was there) during our time in Hervey Bay. She won my devotion with vegetarian nachos, Bondi Rescue, and her great sense of humor.
We joked that we were playing a game called Where in the World is Roger? as we were two for two countries within a month. Our day in Melbourne was even better with the addition of Ada...and some awesome chai tea.
This reunion was our most anticipated of the trip. Diana plopped into our world near the beginning days of Portland life. We vividly remember the day she came to our apartment and announced that she had met the man she was going to marry, Shawn. It came to be and a couple months later, they went to travel the world. They finished the journey in Australia and stayed, adding three boys to the brood. We spent a week with them in Melbourne and it was amazing. Their boys are hysterical and we loved being a part of their world for a time.
Not only does football bring the world together, but so does wallpapering. Our meeting and last days in Australia were spent with Beancaa and Gary, thanks to the mutual contact of Bob Banker. We immediately connected with our mutual deep love of travel. They were amazing hosts and we are excited to see where in the world we will meet again.
