When I go travelling, I love just enjoying the little things. Of course, it can be really interesting to do tourist activities and see beautiful places, but I like finding beauty in the seemingly ordinary.
I love going to a different city to see how people live their everyday lives… and staying with my friend is the perfect way for me to experience this. She’s already shown me all the local little spots. Like the laundromat, the local grocery store, local cafés and restaurants… things that you’d normally only look up for practical purposes.
Big things can be awe inspiring, but their effect is short-lived. Little things can give me a lifetime of happiness.
For example, this morning I noticed a man at the carwash near where I’m staying. He was squatting down out the front of his workshop beside a car. While cleaning between the spokes of the wheel with a small brush, a cigarette was lazily hanging out the side of his mouth. Ash sprinkling down, smoke rising up. There was something special in the way he was working, this kind of style and mannerism that I would hardly ever see in Australia.
I saw this on the way to a 7 Eleven, where my friend needed to pick up some packages. It amazes me, all the things you can do at a 7 Eleven here – they’re like little hubs for busy people who work full time. Perhaps convenience stores are the best places to see what the real culture of a place is, because this is where you’ll find out exactly what people need for convenience!
This morning, we’re at Louisa Coffee. There are two levels of the building dedicated for seating, with tables and rows of desks fitted with power plugs for people who wish to study or work.
My friend needed to work on some tasks, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to write my blog entry. Even though it’s something I’d also do in Australia, over here it feels different. I often like to sit at cafés and pretend – what if I had grown up here? What if I lived here?
At the window, there is a great view of the street. There are signs everywhere with a mixture of Chinese and English writing, in bright and bold colours like orange, red, blue, green.
I also see lots of sharp angles… some apartment buildings are made of bricks so polished they seem like tiles. Others are stained black and grey from the smog of traffic and wear over time… they are all neutral in colour. White, grey, brown, rose pink… little air conditioning units hanging off the side of rectangular windows.
Wrapped within this colourful chaos is a seemingly unending stream of activity… steam rising out of cooking pots and stoves near the entrance of the street, serving customers as they walk to the train station, on their way to work or simply on their morning walk. Cars, scooters, bicycles… all somehow driving in coordination without too much difficulty. In the air is a mess of car horns, chatter, music and humidity.
All of this set against the backdrop of Guanyin and Yangming mountains. They sit there majestically still, almost as if they are watching. How would being surrounded by these things while growing up have affected my view of the world?
Since I grew up in rural Australia, I was very accustomed to silence, stillness and stinging heat. I was never surrounded by so much hustle and bustle, and there was never anything like mountains or tall buildings blocking my view of the sky.
However my friend spent her childhood in this very area, surrounded by all the things that I’m looking at today. You’d think, being from such different backgrounds, that we wouldn’t get on well together. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
I remember when we met, it felt as if we’d already been friends for a long time. Logically, if you look at all the differences in our lives, then this shouldn’t make sense – yet friendships like this happen all the time. Another beautiful contradiction that I’ve often taken for granted in my life.
It’s nice to take a moment to appreciate that despite differences, there is always a core similarity between people which brings us together.
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