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Just an off the cuff -
Anyone really trying to get their heads around Race Fail (and no, I haven't been by, won't be by, etc.) -
If you haven't been in a place where nobody - and I do mean NO ONE - looks like you, speaks your language like you, and you can't possibly catch up on their culture, their language...you don't know what it's like.
I think the idea that once you've open the discussion...taking 'a break' from it is absurd. It's not like I can take a break from being in Taiwan, the only one of me I can see anywhere. I can only imagine what it would be like to want to get away from this at home, and can't.
I am impressed with my hosts understanding of my needs, being so far away from home. They speak to me in English, they turn the radios to English stations, they have American and British television playing in the common areas.
It is blunt acknowledgment that the only common ground we have is the one I brought with me - my language, not theirs.
Also, in Taiwan, it is implicit that this is a place that depends on support from the outside world for survival. Everything is in Chinese, Japanese and English. Just about everything, all the time. Here, in my cozy incredibly posh hotel, of course. The hotel didn't suggest public transport to Donggang...they provided us with a driver and car of our own who took us there. Crazy things like that. Only movie stars get that kind of treatment at home, right?
Which is another thing. Nobody told me this was going to be so incredibly - affordable. It's nearly embarrassing. I've never stayed in a hotel this well-appointed, and it's a fraction of what I'd pay in San Diego. Not even half. Maybe a third. Maybe even a quarter.
We are rich people, and it's freaking me out. We're not, by our standards. So I say - we are incredibly privileged. By just dumb luck of birth. We're not special.
Oh my God, I'll be glad to be home again where I'm not.
And when all this settles down into routines and we all get sorted out
Time to Kiddo - T minus five hours and counting.
If you haven't been in a place where nobody - and I do mean NO ONE - looks like you, speaks your language like you, and you can't possibly catch up on their culture, their language...you don't know what it's like.
I think the idea that once you've open the discussion...taking 'a break' from it is absurd. It's not like I can take a break from being in Taiwan, the only one of me I can see anywhere. I can only imagine what it would be like to want to get away from this at home, and can't.
I am impressed with my hosts understanding of my needs, being so far away from home. They speak to me in English, they turn the radios to English stations, they have American and British television playing in the common areas.
It is blunt acknowledgment that the only common ground we have is the one I brought with me - my language, not theirs.
Also, in Taiwan, it is implicit that this is a place that depends on support from the outside world for survival. Everything is in Chinese, Japanese and English. Just about everything, all the time. Here, in my cozy incredibly posh hotel, of course. The hotel didn't suggest public transport to Donggang...they provided us with a driver and car of our own who took us there. Crazy things like that. Only movie stars get that kind of treatment at home, right?
Which is another thing. Nobody told me this was going to be so incredibly - affordable. It's nearly embarrassing. I've never stayed in a hotel this well-appointed, and it's a fraction of what I'd pay in San Diego. Not even half. Maybe a third. Maybe even a quarter.
We are rich people, and it's freaking me out. We're not, by our standards. So I say - we are incredibly privileged. By just dumb luck of birth. We're not special.
Oh my God, I'll be glad to be home again where I'm not.
And when all this settles down into routines and we all get sorted out
Time to Kiddo - T minus five hours and counting.