Thailand April 2008
My body has decided to be patriotic and remain on US time. I am such a great American.
I wouldn’t at all be surprised to find that my liver is actually shaped like a piece of apple pie, and that my heartbeat mimics the cymbal clash in the Star-Spangled Banner. I can’t wait to see how it behaves on 4th of July, but my first thought is that I will develop some sixth sense that will allow me to sleepwalk to the nearest authentic Mexican burrito.
That being said, it is nice to be outside the USA, where:
Tomatoes taste like fruit and aren’t ripeness imposters;
Coca-Cola Light tastes better because it has one calorie instead of zero;
Fresh flowers are seen as important, not frivolous;
BBC is more popular than CNN and botox is not a prime-time prerequisite;
I would have to be ambitious and proactive to find out how Britney Spears is scarring her children for life today.
As I sat at breakfast this morning, about 20 stories high, I noticed an unusually large number of sky-scrapers under construction. The buildings are all wrapped in bright green cloth. I have seen this before: In Europe, it seemed like almost every time I visited some world-famous church or monument, it seemed to be covered in a similar cloth: Closed for renovation/cleaning, etc. It was so frustrating, but at least they usually took the time and spent the money to screen-print a picture of the monument on the front of the cloth, so that if you take a picture in front of it from far away, you can still put the picture on facebook so everyone will know how cool and cultured you are.
Closed for renovation: This building is so old it is time to restore. Here we are certainly on the other end of the development spectrum, with new construction everywhere. The green cloth certainly stands out—perhaps an allegory for growth, or a subtle effort to send a message of environmental consciousness. My green rolling hills of California have been replaced with green towering gift-wrapped buildings, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
