Underground Atlanta

Underground Atlanta



I’ve finally gotten my ass down to Atlanta downtown to check it out. My friend who lived here years ago told me about Underground Atlanta and Little Five Points, so here I am. Underground Atlanta is essentially an underground mall with shops and such, however, it is short of exciting. There really isn’t much to say. I don’t know who it is supposed to appeal to. There aren’t really many shops that have any good offerings. There are a few stalls that makes money by letting tourists take photo with exotic animals like Owls and Parrots. I really bad for those beautiful Owls that are forced to work in the day and endure camera flash after camera flash. That said, I feel like an Owl will be a good pet!





Otherwise, there isn’t much to talk about, except a few not-so-unique spottings on the surface, like the “wheel-cost-more-than-the-car” and gold teeth shops. There were also a ton of cops in every corner of the street pulling cars over and giving out tickets. I just wish the rest of the American population can have as good of work-ethic as these police men.

Memphis

Since I haven’t updated the blog for a long time, I’ve going to make it up with this, so bear with me!

For some reason, Memphis is a big name to me. I know next to nothing about this city, but it is one of those places that simply sounds representative. Like Detroit, Memphis is known for its strong culture. Elvis, Blues, Memphis-style BBQ and of course, the assignation of Martin Luther King Jr. There’s also the FedEx HQ in Memphis, which I learnt from watching “Cast Away”. Memphis sounds exciting before I am even there, but the drive to Memphis isn’t any less exciting.

After spending 7 years in the Michigan boring flat plain, I needed some mountains badly. The south east has some pretty nice mountainous landscapes. Most importantly, nice twisty roads to drive on. Birmingham will be a city that I have to drive through on the way to Memphis. As I was checking the map, I found a really exciting looking twisty road just outside Birmingham and decide to take a little detour on my way to Memphis.



Driving out of Atlanta was easy. This is also the first time I am driving in the southern highways. It feels different from driving in the north. I cannot express this difference, but I know I am in a place that I am not familiar with. As I drove by Birmingham, I found myself in a not-so-nice area. It reminded me of Detroit. Bad roads and rusty buildings. I pushed on and was driving into the wooded area. Even though I am surrounded by trees, the uncomfortable feeling hasn’t gone away. There was thrash along the way. The gas stations don’t look very welcoming and I was avoiding having to get off the car.

The GPS led me to the road I was looking for. I stopped to check the map if this is indeed the right one. Confirmed. However, it just doesn’t seem right, because the road is really narrow and torn in pieces. It’s the worst road I’ve seen before, very different from what I was looking at on Google Map Satellite photos. Well, since I am already here, I pushed on further, hoping that the road was going to get better. No, it just got worst to a point where there is no way that my car can endure the terrain for the next 10 miles ahead. So about ¼ mile into the road, I decided to make a quick U-turn, which was when I realized that the road was as wide as the length of my car. No problem, nothing a 3-point U-turn cannot get you out from.

Back at the starting point, there was a dump site with big trucks coming in and out from. At the junction, there was a stop sign. I pulled up to it, and realized that it has been turned into a beehive, aka bullet holes. People have been telling me how the southerners are trigger-happy and I never took it seriously, thinking that it’s just a stereotypical joke. Well, I am more than ready to hit the gas now!

I was contemplating if I should trace my way back to Birmingham and then take the highway, or should I follow the GPS which was telling me to take another 30 miles of local roads before it takes me back to the highway. I took the GPS’s advice. In this 30 miles, it was another experience. Along the way, I saw mining sites with dump trucks roaming the forest. I also saw many small Baptist churches along the way. I was also driving behind a pick-up truck for quite a few miles with the driver tossing out beer cans along the way. I cannot help by thinking about a few things. Southern stereotypes, and curiosity about this area.

The rest of the journey to Memphis was quite smooth. I noticed that as soon as I crossed the Mississippi state line, the roads are red instead of the usual gray. There’s nothing wrong with that, just felt weird that the world suddenly looks red.

So I am in Memphis, finally. Kyle, who lives in the eastern part of Memphis, German Town, took me to lunch at a small BBQ place just 5 min from his place. I have to say I’ve never had real BBQ before this. This is just great. The best brisket I’ve ever had. It’s actually moist! The beans, coleslaw and ice-tea. You can taste the homemade aspect of it. The service was the atmosphere. Absolutely casual. This is the type of hospitality that I enjoy. Not the fancy high-life style that you have to fork big bucks for. This is all about being passionate and sincere to what you do and what you want the customer to experience. I am looking forward to visit that little restaurant again.



We then spent the rest of the day driving around. Kyle has been here for many years, long enough to say “I’m from Memphis” when being asked, an answer that I still don’t yet have. Even being familiar with the city, Kyle appears to be rather paranoid about safety. Every nice neighborhood that he introduces me to, he will end it with “Oh, and literally 2 blocks down that way is the ghetto, and there’s been robbery and rape incidents when criminals come over into this neighborhood…..” So it appears that there is really no safe place in Memphis. Till now, I still don’t know how to react to that being in the US where for the most part, good and bad neighborhoods are pretty distinctively separated. One of the most interesting comments from Kyle was when we visited the Mud Island Park where the residential is pretty high-end and where Kyle once lived, he said that he used to see black 3 kids riding south on one bicycle from the north (where the bad area is) and ride back with each of them on a bicycle.

Kyle then points me to the Pyramid Arena, which was once the home for the NBA basketball team Grizzlies and U of Memphis men’s basketball team. It has been unused since 2004 when both teams moved to the FedEx forum. It’s rather unbelievable that such a major facility just goes abandoned, but why am I even surprised? Memories of Detroit shouldn’t have faded this quickly!



Then we headed towards down town where Beale Street is. It’s that one street where everyone hangs out at and can drink and walk publicly. There’s live music like I’d expect, but again, Kyle constantly warned me of being approached by strangers. This leads to another observation. In Detroit, I never felt uneasy on the street even around homeless people. Bums in Detroit are pretty harmless. If they approach you for some change, just say no to them politely and they will leave you alone. So far in the South, Atlanta included, I haven’t felt comfortable in the city. Bums approach and tags onto you, trying to hold a conversation with you with the only intention of getting some money out of you. It’s rather annoying. If they have the energy to do this, they should be channeling it to something more meaningful.









The next high point of this trip is the Lorraine Motel where the turn of modern American history took place.



This is where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a gun man who shot him from the building, which is now a civil rights museum, across the Lorraine Motel where he was staying. Kyle mentioned that the actual room where the gun man was at is blocked out from tourists and the window where he shot from has been sealed. Why? Not why the room is sealed, but why are they using a place of hate as a form of memorial of civil rights? What is the message that they are trying to convey, that white once hated the black? Civil Rights movement is supposed to be something that we celebrate. It is not about remembering the hate, but celebrating the peace. I am sure King will be disappointed that people who organized this site missed the point, and will probably get a kick out of it realizing that his death site has become nothing more than a tourist rest stop.






Tourists outside the room where King was shot.


Other street photos:





There is still a lot of Memphis that I want to see, taste and experience. I haven’t had enough of it. But since I have to return to work on Monday, I had to drive myself back to Atlanta.

Anxiety was kicking as I approached the same area where I had the detour on the way to Memphis. It was the town of Jasper. Well, since my GPS doesn’t have the latest update on the roads, I was taking a long way instead of the high way. Driving through Jasper, there were “Bingo” places after “Bingo” places, like Starbucks in Seattle or Waffle House in Atlanta. Basically, they are metal warehouse-looking structures without windows and just a neon sign that says “Bingo”. The traffic was busy since it was the major route to Birmingham, and it just seemed that I couldn’t be fast enough. I just want to get out of this area as soon as I can. So much negative attitude. I know. It’s ignorance that drives negativity, but in this case, I just couldn’t help it.

Just when I thought I’ve see a lot of America, I haven’t. The south is an entirely different country and culture. We watch CNN all the time thinking that we are seeing many things happening across the country, but the fact is, we are only looking at a very selected few incidents that are happening. Upon chatting with Franklin, he told me about Appalachia, a region just north of Georgia that has been in poverty for as long as people can remember, which reminded me of the Jasper experience. Mining, logging, gambling, lack of education, jobs, resources, welfare, and most importantly, attention. I am puzzled that for something this significant, the media chooses to ignore it, and Americans forget about it. What economic crisis? The people in Appalachia has never been in economic prosperity. In fact, we should be consulting them on how to get through tough times!

I have formulated, for some time, a way to see how big the world is. My world is only as big as my knowledge accommodates for. Yours is as big as your knowledge accommodates for. So, the world is the total of all of the individual worlds combined, and that’s just human race alone. Now think about all the creatures and organisms and aliens. We live in our own little glass ball. We can choose to continue to live in the ball, or break it and let lose. It’s the choice between security/familiarity and risk. For me, I just feel insecure not knowing the risk, therefore I chose to risk. It’s always a struggle. I always feel that it’s like digging a hole that is never deep enough, which makes me unsure of the best way to address them. May be I will never know, but at least, I know that.

A trip to Seattle, a journey back through time.

I recently had an opportunity to take a trip to Seattle, for work though. Even though the work part sucked, I was really excited for many reasons. Of course, visiting a new place is something that I always look forward to, but a chance to catch up with old-time buddy is more precious than the trip itself.


North America is pretty much frozen, reminds me of the movie "The Day After Tomorrow".

Seattle reminded me of Portland and Taipei. Portland because the demographics is similar. Seattle is very culture friendly, not as hippie as Portland, but seems to be thriving. The various bodies of water around the city is also what makes Seattle unique. Instead of a city on a plain by a river like most cities in the US, Seattle is more like an island-like land in the middle of lakes. Therefore, it is hilly, roads are narrow, but is painted with unique scenery.

Seattle also reminds me of Taipei because of the rain. Wait, more like, the moldy buildings. In Taipei, many buildings look dirty with stains. This happens when rain brings dirt down from the heavily polluted air. Therefore in Taipei, it doesn't matter how sleek your architecture looks, it IS going to look stained very soon. In Seattle, it is the shear rainfall that leaves the water stain on buildings. This is also very different from other US cities that are usually full of sun shine.









Seattle also means something else to me. This is where Dedy lives. Dedy, my buddy from primary school back in my early days in Singapore is the only person I know in Seattle. We spent primary 3 to 6 together as classmates, went through unbelievable crazy times, and this is the first time, since primary six, that we met again. Sometimes I feel a sense of regret that we did not take the effort to meet more often, but perhaps, this is also the reason why this trip means extra special to me.



Dedy, the tour guide, shows me around Pikes Market.







So we started to talk about the past, and I realized that Dedy is much more nolstalgic than I am. It seems that he is still very much in memory of the days of primary school and wants to be there. As we chatted, it seems that there wasn't really much to talk about between primary school and now. It just seems that nothing was more exciting than the days when we did the stupid things that we thought was cool. The old campus layouts, secret corners, the taboos, the new campus, the recess, Auntie Margarette the drink stall vender, Uncle John's fried chicken rice, the ping pong craze, police and thief, dragonball cards, getting caught with dragonball cards, faking "goldens" and "silvers" with dragonball cards(insider story), "Stepping" the game..... the teachers and the love-hate experience, the classmates and how they are doing now. There was little time to talk about now or the future. The past was enough to keep our minds occupied. This was a golden time for us. It is a time when we sat down in the cafe with a hot cup of coffee in our cold hands, relived our memory like as if the present doesn't matter or exist. It felt good.









Then Dedy mentioned something that absolutely slipped my mind, and shame on me. Dedy and I are one of the many foreign students in Singapore who have been sent abroad for "better days". We were a strange generation with multiple cultural backgrounds, and there were a lot of us. This is an good example of cultural transition. Dedy asked why there aren't nearly as many of "us" now than before. Well, we are the transitional generation. Our parents grew up in hardship, and for those who made it, they want their kids to be able to live better than they did. It was natural that many of them tried to give their kids more in hoping that they will move on to the promise land. Well, time have changed. Asia has developed rapidly in the last few decades. Asia has caught up with the rest of the world, so for current parents, there is no need to send their children to the "better" world. The world is just as good there as it is here.

Unique generation creates unique situations. For us, there was a common person in our lives. By common person, I don't mean a "person", but rather, a role. It was very common for parents to hire tutors for their children for academic guidance beyond what school provided. However for us, they usually ended up doing a lot more. Most of us don't have our parents around. They are usually working hard making the very money that is supporting our education abroad from back at home. Being without adults around, our tutors became the closest to person to family. They supervised our school work, they signed our report cards. They helped us get settled, and cared for our well-being. These were not in the job description when they signed up for it, but they did it for us anyways. Then, some of us moved on to higher learning, some left the country. Life continued and we parted our ways. They've become an unique part of our memories, a memory that only foreign kids like us have. We were the weird bunch that grew up without the physical presence of our parents, but there were those guardians that kept us on track. Thank you!







So how's Seattle? I don't mind living here. The availability of good food along makes me happy. One thing that I noticed was, while Dedy brought me to different ethnic restaurants every night, they are all scattered in different parts of the city. This means that the various cultures that reside in this city are rather well integrated, unlike in other major cities where specific ethnic groups tend to reside in specific regions. Oh, and the girls are... really attractive. Yes, my type. Often I feel relaxed being an outsider in a city. Whatever problem that they have isn't my problem. Well, this is when I get frustrated being a passer by. I can't go back to the very store where I saw those pretty girls and make my move.... arhhhh.





This Seattle trip, even as physically demanding as it was (had to work 12-hour days throughout), was a good break for me from my usual routine in Atlanta. I've lived a lifestyle in which constant new experiences keeps me looking forward to my next thing in life. Staying in one place for too long, doing the same things too often, or thinking about the same things repeatedly wear me out very quickly. In a way, I am high-maintenance, but affordable!

What now in Georgia?

After bouncing around between places in the States, this is the first time that I am living with a true American family, and the first taste of American lifestyle. Sure, I can't say they are typical Americans(what is that anyway?), but one American experience that I got to have is Thanks Giving.



Before I had this Thanks Giving, I thought this is a day that is equivalent to the Chinese New Year when families that are scattered all over the country, or the world, come sit down around the dining table and feast, catch up with each other and re-enforce the family value. Well, this is not entirely true, because there's more.



Romeo locked outside while everyone parties indoor.

There are two parts to Thanks Giving. "Thanks", and "Giving". It's really an event of action. Irregardless of what the origin of Thanks Giving is, it is a day of appreciation. Then here's the part that I found interesting. This is a day to show "thanks", by inviting family, friends, and even strangers who you barely know, to the dinner table. It is a day when you appreciate each other, irregardless of who they are, for what they are. It is a day of more than just "thanks". It is a day when the barrier between people somehow disappears.







Traditional foods such as bread crusting, mash potato and the turkey ready for the dinner table.


Everyone does his part.

I haven't experienced any culture that is welcoming to strangers by nature. Thanks Giving, to me, is the "odd" day of the culture. It's rather surreal. How often would you invite a stranger into your home for a feast? This is a day when it is "alright" to do so. This is the day when it is alright to be nice without reason, and receive hospitality without doubt.

More stars from Michigan

2 more photos from Michigan days. They are 30min exposure each in pitch black. I am sort of addicted to star trail photography. You just never know what you are going to see in the photo, which makes waiting(for the negatives to be developed) a bit more exciting.