The Shift to a Different Life

(by: JustinP) 

In my estimation, Hong Kong is one of the most dynamic cities on earth--if not THE most.  In many ways, it almost feels like being on perpetual vacation when you live here, with the endless litany of things to see and do.  I’m not exaggerating when I say you could go to one new tourist attraction per day for a year and still not see it all.  Sites such as The Peak, Victoria Harbor, and several spots on the Kowloon Peninsula are world-famous, and the city boasts the best nighttime cityscape in the world (sorry, Shanghai and The Bund).  And it’s not just city: Hong Kong has over 40 distinct beaches and hundreds of kilometers of hiking trails through some of the most picturesque landscapes I’ve ever seen. Hong Kong is the SMALLEST city in which we’ve lived in Asia, and its population is over seven million!  Crowds of thousands of people are normal almost everywhere we go, and have been since 2010.  And there are over 140 Starbucks locations within one hour of my apartment!  

Aerial View of Kowloon, Hong Kong at Twilight

Greensboro, North Carolina has 19 Starbucks (I think we pass that many on the way to church every Sunday in Hong Kong).  And only 280,000 people (what a ghost town!).  When I was there to interview for my job in February, life there seemed like it was running at half-speed.  I hear nothing but great things about the city and surrounding areas, but it is not an Asian megacity, and that’s all I’ve known for the past eight years.

There are distinct differences in how life is lived in Asian cities versus mid-sized American cities.  The speed of life in the cities over here is just fast all the time, and no city I've ever seen is faster than Hong Kong.  In Asia, there is also a distinct “sidewalk culture” that we have grown very accustomed to here, in which you take trains or buses to different areas of a city and then walk the sidewalks where virtually everything is located.  On the sidewalks is where you will find the life of the city: street vendors, convenience stores, performers strumming for your spare change, a worldwide variety of walk-up restaurants, street markets galore in which every item manufactured in China can be found, and an endless array of what we in China called “dongxi shops” that sell a never-ending supply of random stuff (and are incredibly fun to wander through!). 

Sidewalk Shops and Restaurants in Sai Kung, Hong Kong

In the back of my mind, I can’t help but think that I will be a little stir-crazy at first as I adjust to a slower, simpler life upon leaving Asia.  So many aspects of life will shift to a new normal when we come back to the US.  One thing that immediately struck me when I was in North Carolina for a week in February was just how car-centric the US is!  There are very few walking districts anymore, and if so, they are small and overly planned and upscale.  I missed not seeing any semblance of a “sidewalk culture” as you would find nearly everywhere in Asia.  Amy and I were poking around the Internet for good Thai restaurants in Greensboro and I was startled to see the picture below of a Thai restaurant in an old, isolated, fast-food building by the side of a highway surrounded by a sea of asphalt parking spaces!  To be fair, the food is probably wonderful and the atmosphere inside looks fun and inviting, but it is just not “sidewalk culture.” 

Car culture scares me.  At one point between 2014 and 2016, I went almost two entire years without driving a car once.  I don't remember how to live with one anymore!  Pictures of vast American parking lots seem such a harbinger of a life in which connection will take a lot more effort and intentionality.  It seems so isolationist as the status quo.  It seems to breed disconnection.  I’m sure I’m overreacting a little, but it will certainly take adjusting to again.  There will be a different kind of beauty to life in America that will reveal itself once we settle in, and God will be faithful to show it to us in time. 

-JustinP-

Mooncakes and Lemonade?

As Americans living in Asia, we have known to blend cultures in many ways. In these ways, both cultures (our home and host cultures) can both look at us strangely and wonder what in the world we are doing. Things that give others around us a good chuckle because it looks so insanely out of place.

For example, in Japan there is a wonderful time of year called Golden week. During this week it is the peak of cherry blossom season. Gorgeous trees with pink or white flowers are all over the streets and parks of Japan. The Japanese will pack beautiful picnics and bring them to the park. Their picnics often look something like this:

Image from here

We decided to join in on the picnicking fun during this time but we did not have the beautiful bento boxes (Japanese "to-go" boxes) our fellow neighbors had worked hard at creating. No, our picnic looked more like this:

It was a spectacle to say the least. Many locals looked over and had a (very friendly) chuckle at our “picnic” and thought it was quite a hysterical site. A few college students stopped by and asked us several questions, practicing their english with us for a few moments. Yes, there we were, in the middle of Japan, celebrating the local festivities with our American twist to the local tradition.

Another example is where our blog name was created from. In China, during October holiday there are several different festivities but one of my kid’s favorite was to eat mooncakes. Mooncakes are a sweet dense cake/cookie like dessert that looks like this:

 Picture from here

These treats come in all kinds of flavors and varieties from lotus seed to Starbucks coffee flavors. This Chinese dessert seems to be a “love it” or “hate it” type thing with foreigners. Our family enjoys them for the most part. One year we were sitting near the lake of our apartment building and looked around and saw everyone around us eating mooncakes and drinking green tea, the traditional choice of beverage with these treats. I then looked at our kids and had a good laugh with Justin as we watched our kids devouring mooncakes and washing them down with a certain sports drink that kind of sounds like lemonade. Again, a beautiful example of how we now live in this blended culture created by our unique experiences. I didn’t use the said sports drink, due to copyright reasons, but I found lemonade to be a good switch that made the same point.

Our lives have been changed forever from our time overseas. We don’t always fit the cookie cutter mold of Americans and we certainly don’t fit into the Asian world. But through time, we’ve created a beautiful world where our kids love sushi but will eat a hot dog any day. Where they enjoy a great baseball game but are just as happy watching a kung fu session at the park. They are very use to crowds and chaos. They are just as excited about Chinese New Year as they are about Christmas. We use words in Chinese and English, often blending the two together to make a sentence. Because sometimes, the Chinese just say it better. 

But even with all it's ups and downs, I am forever thankful for this cultural blend that has been created due to our experiences both in the USA and in Asia. Our family has been blessed to know glimpses of Asia. And our life has become so much richer because of it. 

And so came our blog, Mooncakes and Lemonade. Because well, we just do things a little different around here. 

An Introduction

Transition. 

It’s a word I am very familiar with. It’s a blend of ups and downs and emotions you don’t know exactly what to do with. Our family has been in the midst of transition for several years now. And if we weren’t in a textbook transition time, we’ve been figuring out other cultures and living a life different from our own.  We’ve spent the last eight years in Japan, China, Hong Kong and the USA. Our children have grown up in Asia, with small glimpses of American life woven into summers of three-day travel, jetlag and family get togethers. And our perspectives about the world have changed rapidly and dramatically with every experience in each culture.

We are currently preparing for our second international move within one calendar year. I’m beginning to feel slightly professional in my “up and move” techniques, but at the same time still feeling like I have no idea what I’m doing. This move is different than our last few moves, however. This move we are headed back to our “home” culture, which we haven’t called home in years. We will be sorting out a new city, where to shop, and how to pay bills…but this time in a place where we look exactly like everyone else. It’s quite overwhelming and deeply exciting all at the same time.

But as this move is different, I have been being nudged by God to share glimpses of our story of transition and life overseas. It’s a reality where parts of us fit into Asia and parts into America, but neither side quite understanding who we are. I have heard God whisper to me in the midst of this beautiful chaos, “share your story.”

And here has been my dialogue with God about this:

“But I can’t think right now, I need to be packing and moving and figuring out life. We still have plane tickets to buy, friends to gather with and places to say goodbye to. It’s really bad timing.”

Share your story.

“But there is no way on earth I could put this on paper for anyone to understand. Let alone help anyone else”

Share your story.

“I just. Can’t. Do it.”

Share your story.

So in the midst of a time that doesn’t make any sense to me, I will share, in the hope that our story will touch others. In the hope that through our words there will be understanding of other cultures and ways of life. In the hope to shed some light on life as a Third Culture Kid. In the hope that someone will say, “I know exactly what you mean.”

So without any more introduction: Our beautiful, broken, life-giving, exciting, heartbreaking, challenging stories of life overseas and transitional ups-and-downs as we transition towards the Land of the Free.