Email to the guys from China

Nihow, wo shi menguren, boukway sho jung when wo gi do wo shi mingz shi A li ck

That means "Hello I am American, I do not speak chinese, but I know my name is Alec" This is my sentence. Its a pretty cool icebreaker. Not that I really need one over here. I think Chinese people, or at least the girls have a pretty scewed perspective on what a movie star looks like. I say that cause every girl i've met has said I look like a really famous star. Maybe its the beard. Jimmy the Factory liason for Salix (the company we work with) He doesn't speak English, but he calls me Baby Face. At first i was confused because I have a beard which is as far from a baby's face you can get. But latley I think it means I am attractive. I think this because everytime I get a massage (which is often - last night i got a full body...No Rob not that full...I named the girl Helga, because i felt this was the house of pain, she basically massaged every nerve ending in my body instead of actual muscles. I think i was tighting my entire body whenever she'd throw the elbow into some type of tendon or spot you aren't suppose to jab things into. It was pretty weird too when she started massaging my butt. I kid you not, not like the middle flabby part - but like the sides and bottom. At one point I think she pretty well cupped my lower left cheek completely. That was awkward) annnnnyways Jimmy calls me Baby Face to all the girls that are there, which is alot, and they all look 16, then again two nights ago I asked one girl her age...she was 28 :0 well he calls me baby face and the girls laugh or rather giggle. I think giggle more appropiately describes the situation.

I am still sick :( at first I was trying to polietly hide my coughs. I know how germaphobic they are here. But not I just hack up a lung and spit it in the closest garbage. I am tired of being sick, i don't care if they stare at me with they mouths wide open in disgust. Haha i was on the way to the factory this morning when i coughed up a particularly large amount of phlegm (don't you just love writing that word) and rolled down the window to spit. Now you have to understand China roadways are crazy, nobody signals, nobody gives right of way, its basically "if i have a bigger vechile, MOVE" this includes people walking, on bikes, on scooters, on motorcycles, in cars, in trucks, in vans, in buses, in big trucks etc etc. Well i rolled down the window and this guy on a scooter up coming up on the right and I spit the....pphhllleegggmmmm......

out right in front of him. He totally swerved out of its path and just stared at me. Thats the interesting thing about chinese people and road rage. It doesn't exist. They use their horn way more then we do. Here I will count how many times I hear it from the factory office (4th floor) in 10 seconds......1 2 3 4 55555555 6 7 - the 5th horn was held down. But they don't get made, nobody rolls down and cusses - not that I would know what a chinese cuss word sounds like. But they totally honk with faces of calm emotion. Really weird.

Anyways - writing this email was a good break. I spent two hours today taking footage with different cameras of a brick wall. Honestly. That was my day. So this is a pleasant break. I miss you guys and can't wait to come home...really...i can't wait. I am bummed to have missed out on everything, especially the party, but thanks for putting me up on the computer (and keeping me there - Karl) Curt convinced me you left that freezed frame on the TV in the living room. Gosh. Anyways I'll be home this Saturday at the earliest and next wednesday at the latest, thus is the life of China, can't work on schedules.

Mucho lovo, am praying for you all, and am appreciating all of the praying you guys are doing for me.

Love piece and chicken greese (suiting cause all I eat here is chicken)

Later,
Alec


PS. Also worth mentioning I have an official girlfriend here. He name is Ju-dong-lee. She is a hostess at the massage place, she is 18. I just found this out as she apparently texted Jimmy requesting to hang out with me tonight since she isn't working....Don't worry. I will decline. Tempting...actually NOT AT ALL HA! see you guys

Time Traveler's Wife

So I am sitting in the Narita Airport in Tokoyo Japan. I'm getting on a plane to Shanghai in less than an hour and I am super tired. Its something like 1am back home. I am not too sure right now.

Anyways - I watch the movie The Time Travelers Wife just before we landed here. Alot of that movie is sticking with me and I am processing it pretty thoroughly. Just wanted to write down my thoughts;

1. Having a love of your life. How often this is the theme to any good story or movie. A sole individual whom you've known for the bulk of your life and fall deeply in love with and pursue happiness with them despite insurmountable odds. I wish life was like this. It becomes really easy to become captivated by this idea and examine my own life. At 24 years into it and I know with all the most certainly that I have not met the love of my life, let alone met anyone that could come close to her. The task at hand, is to take it all with perspective and look forward to the time I do get to spend with her, whenever that is.

2. The movie really has reinforced my belief and desire for a family. I don't believe I'll be anywhere near a having a family when I meet my wife, however the desire for it..at some point in life...is there. The picture of a family, of a home, of love, of unity, or intimacy. Its one I want. More then any job, career, money, fame, or experience I could ask for.

3. The severity of the desire for the second item brings me to the third. Death. What is it like to loose the one you've loved, in one way or another for your entire life? Where is one left when they are gone. Alot of my head tells me my faith in God and Christ. However in this moment, i am scared. Scared of one day loving a girl, a family enough to have to risk the chance of one day living in a world without them. Its a pain, a loss I hope to never feel. I have never been around death, never lost someone close to me, perhaps this is why I am fearing it so much. I don't know what it will be like. The fear of the unknown.

I'm scared to love someone with all of my being, beyond all reason and logic, beyond doubt, insecurity, indeed any deterrent this world has to offer. Someone who by all means will never fully belong to me, and may be taken away at any moment. But I firmly believe that this cannot deter me from loving them. A life without love is terrible.