Moving on

Haven't really traveled lately, so there isn't much to post. Then once I told someone that technically, I've been traveling since I was eight, and that every place I move on to becomes a scene, and decided that there are always new things to post.

Cranbrook is behind me now(although I look forward for a visit sometime soon) and I've started a short term contract job back at Whirlpool in St Joseph ( photo here) Michigan. Even though I am not unfamiliar to this town, there has been interesting new experiences.


Living in the American Dream Neighbourhood, the American Home.



I am renting a bed room of a family house. The owner is a paster who seems to be doing well and has many other rental business going on. I am living in his own house, which is big, spacious and has many rooms, including 3-car garage, 4 bedrooms, big living room, dining room, a big open kitchen, basement converted into an entertainment room, gym, sauna and even room to make a separate unit for his wife's mom!

Taking about the kitchen... I guess this will sum up what an American House is. It has all the conveniences that you can ask for... Space, middle island, tons of drawers and storage space, granite counter top, side-by-side fridge with water and ice dispensers and a dish washer.

Oh, dish washer! They put all their dishes in the dish washer, so much so that they don't even have regular dish soap and sponge by the sink! So I had to get that myself. How convenient!

Then as I opened the drawers looking for space for my utensils, horror reveals itself. The drawers are packed with half-washed cookware and utensil, unorganized and over crowded. There are excessive items every where, things that are old, that are unnecessary, that are useless. The storage spaces are also packed with food that they don't eat. The fridge too... bottles of jam in the freezer?

All these tells me that this family doesn't cook. Sure enough, one day I asked the wife if she has cooking oil. She pondered, then said,"Oh yes I do!" She then reached into the fridge and took out a barely used bottle of vege oil... cooking oil in the fridge???

Things have gotten so much better after they've moved out... because my habits move in. Then comes one day, the grandma who lives in the basement was cleaning the fridge. As I got home, she left me a note on the counter top(she loves to leave notes... will be covered later). On the note, were some words and a ginger root, my ginger root. It read something like "ying, I was cleaning the fridge and taking out their food, and I saw this(arrow pointing at the ginger, how thoughtful! Even the graphic layout is considered, this grandma is talented!!!). I don't know what this is. Is it yours? If not, I don't want it, can you throw it away?

My jaw almost dropped. A grandma who has never seen a ginger before... this is AMERICA! America is supposed to have everything, the best opportunities, the best life, the best house, the best convenience, isn't it? May be, may be not. Or may be, there's too much of it.