Connecting

In the last few days, I have been lucky enough to be able to meet up with a lot of family and friends whom I see very rarely. Friends come and go, so does family in a way, especially with the long distances that many of us live apart from each other. It is all too easy to simply forget.

However, real friends or real “family” have a connection that is strong. This connection is hard to explain but even when we meet only on rare occasions; it feels like it was yesterday.

I had not seen my childhood friend Michael Laporte for about 7 years but when we met last week, it was as if we had not missed a beat. The same thing occurred with several of my cousins whom actually I do not know very well, but there was this connection and family attraction between each other that it felt like we have always been together. A truly nice feeling to have and wished it could have lasted longer.

One thing I am bad at is keeping in touch with the people I love. I will make a conscious effort fix this bad habit and nurture these strong connections even further. Connection and realy “knowing” people is important. Life is short and we are all social animals. Deep down, connecting is one of the most important things in life.

Meeting Whities in Tonghua

Last night was a fun night. We had a nice dinner with a few whities! As the white race is certainly a very small minority here in Tonghua, it is always a treat to see a westerner on the street. Much more so actually, become friends with them.

I met Kevin on the internet after contacting him through some pictures he took of Tonghua and uploaded on the Flickr website. After a couple emails, we made plans to meet and have dinner together.

What resulted were three Americans (Kevin, John and his wife), one Canadian (me), a Brit (my wife), a Chinese/Canadian (Arvin), eating Korean food and drinking Spanish wine in Tonghua. A truly international experience…

The conversations were lively and centered mostly on the trials and tribulations of being a foreigner in a small Chinese town such as Tonghua. I think we hit it off as we were told to leave the restaurant at 11pm when they were closing their doors and all the staffs were waiting for us to leave.

We agreed to meet again sometime or maybe even go skiing over the weekend.