{"id":1205,"date":"2014-03-16T05:00:04","date_gmt":"2014-03-16T12:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/?p=1205"},"modified":"2014-03-13T12:41:18","modified_gmt":"2014-03-13T19:41:18","slug":"a-country-bumpkin-goes-to-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/family\/a-country-bumpkin-goes-to-the-city\/","title":{"rendered":"A Country Bumpkin Goes to the City"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<\/a>

leaving the United States<\/p><\/div>\n

A layover in Tokyo.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

The baby was sleeping in the infant bed the hotel provided. The girls were cross-legged on the floor, their eyes unblinking as Japanese cartoon characters flitted across the TV screen. My husband was in the bathroom, shaving.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only three weeks earlier I\u2019d been in the hospital in Sedro-Woolley, WA, giving birth to our third daughter. Now, here I was on my way to Hong Kong to meet my father-in-law for the first time, and then, on to Manila to start a new life.<\/span><\/p>\n

I opened the curtains and looked out on the cityscape. Building after gray building filled the space like a 3-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. Where, I wondered, did it end? And how in the world could anyone become familiar with this city when the buildings all looked the same?<\/span><\/p>\n

In the town where I grew up, it was possible to know every single street. Even in Seattle where I spent my college years, I\u2019d been able to memorize the names of major downtown streets and avenues. Tokyo was fifteen or twenty times bigger than Seattle. And yet, I thought, it must be knowable. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When my husband came out of the bathroom I was still standing at the window, staring at the one thing on the street below that didn\u2019t make any sense. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEugene,\u201d I said. \u201cCome over here. Look.\u201d I had a feeling I was about to ask a stupid question, but the urge to know trumps everything. \u201cI don\u2019t understand why so many people are coming out of that one small building and nobody\u2019s going into it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He laughed. Eugene went to high school in Yokohama, so he knew his way around Tokyo. \u201cIt\u2019s a subway exit,\u201d he said, shaking his head, not unkindly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course it was. <\/span><\/p>\n

Catching a taxi in Sydney, Australia<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Photo by Tony Vo<\/p><\/div>\n

Many years later, we moved from the Philippines to a small town in the South Pacific: Port Vila, Vanuatu. It didn\u2019t take me long to forget the big city ways I\u2019d learned in Manila. So when my husband\u2019s doctor sent him for a consultation in Sydney, once again I was out of my element. <\/span><\/p>\n

After our flight from Vila, we checked into a nice little hotel near Bondi Beach. The following day, my husband saw the doctor and had some tests taken. Then we wandered around, looking at the sights until we were worn out. By then, we had no idea how to get back to our hotel. Time to catch a taxi. <\/span><\/p>\n

We found a spot and started waving. It was approaching rush hour, though, and most of the taxis were full. I stepped down from the curb and waved harder. People around us were catching taxi\u2019s. Why couldn\u2019t we?<\/span><\/p>\n

I was worried. My husband\u2019s health was shaky. We should have started back sooner. By the time I finally succeeded in waving a red taxi over, I must have been feeling frantic. \u201cEugene,\u201d I shouted. \u201cOver here. The red one.\u201d I grabbed the taxi\u2019s door handle and called again. \u201cEugene?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Didn\u2019t he see me? But no. Instead of heading my way, he was stepping off the curb. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo, Eugene. Wait!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

He opened the back door of a red car that was waiting for the light, and climbed in. Unfortunately, the red car wasn\u2019t a taxi. It was a privately owned red Mercedes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The owner must have thought he was being carjacked because he just stared straight ahead without saying a word. Eugene must have thought taxis in Sydney were especially nice because he stayed put until I knocked on the window. <\/span><\/p>\n

Fortunately the red taxi waited for us. A country bumpkin like me would have had a hard time catching another one.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A layover in Tokyo. The baby was sleeping in the infant bed the hotel provided. The girls were cross-legged on the floor, their eyes unblinking as Japanese cartoon characters flitted across the TV screen. My husband was in the bathroom, shaving. Only three weeks earlier I\u2019d been in the hospital in Sedro-Woolley, WA, giving birth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[155,253],"tags":[308,309,305,307,306,303,931,304],"class_list":["post-1205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-travel","tag-catching-a-taxi","tag-country-bumpkin","tag-country-girl-in-the-city","tag-port-vila-vanuatu","tag-sydney-australia","tag-tokyo-subway","tag-travel","tag-travelling-with-young-children"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-jr","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5319,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/philippines\/the-letters-my-mom-saved\/","url_meta":{"origin":1205,"position":0},"title":"The Letters My Mom Saved.","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"July 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 When we lived in the Philippines and later in Vanuatu, I wrote letters to my family every week. 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As of September 7, there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "COVID-19"","block_context":{"text":"COVID-19","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/covid-19\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Eugene and me, our house, Vanuatu","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Vanuatu7-001-e1759778912358.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Vanuatu7-001-e1759778912358.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Vanuatu7-001-e1759778912358.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1386,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/philippines\/1386\/","url_meta":{"origin":1205,"position":4},"title":"An Easter Week Trip to Mindanao","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"April 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The complicated task of keeping your children safe. 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