Lunch

An exciting opportunity came up last week; I got the chance to have lunch with an old high school friend that I hadn't seen in years.  It’s great to catch-up with people and find out how things are going.  Usually events like this happen in a more familiar environment, like when you visit home over Christmas.  But in this case, the Local had to do.  My friend, Sieg, made a joke about how he never thought we'd be meeting up on the other side of the world, and I am glad one of us finally pointed out the absurdity of two Hoosiers in their mid-twenties having lunch at a nondescript restaurant in Sanlitun.  It was tough to believe any time at all had passed considering that he had refused to age and still looked like his 17 year old self.  Not bad for him considering that my balding has started to gather pace.    

  

As we chatted and ate, I must admit I started to feel slightly guilty for not staying in touch over the years.  Getting out of Floyds Knobs is no easy feat.  The gravitational pull of 47119 is something akin to a small-medium sized star.  Sometimes you think that you’re out, but it pulls you right back in (like Michael in the Godfather: Part III).  Information sort of gets lost in the shuffle, so most of our meal was spent learning about the last five years of our lives.  I didn't even know that he’d been engaged.  He asked some questions about what I’d been up to with my life (the short answer is not much).     

 I have very little contact with anyone I knew before college, and this probably says more about me than it does any of them.  However, I am more than okay with this 99.99% of the time (this instance being the exception).  I didn't really like growing up in Cell Block 47119, and I make no apology for my open contempt when the numbers 9, 2, and 3 are placed too close together.  Yet I am a very proud Hoosier and want to move home to Indiana someday.  This perplexes my girlfriend who is originally from Hebei Province about 2.5 hours outside of Beijing.  She doesn't understand how I can love Indiana so much but hold Floyds Knobs in such low standing.  What I have really learned from trying to explain this is that the old adage “You had to be there” is still truer than ever.  My lunch the other day showed me that sometimes the “good” of a “bad” situation can sometimes be lost on you at the time.  It took me years to realize this.

It was good to see Sieg again and knowing another Lao Wei in China will bolster my guan xi.  We spent about two hours laughing at some of the more “unique” sights we'd seen in the Middle Kingdom.  We both had great stories, especially considering our different living situations.  He lives in a small provincial city, and I reside in Beijing.  As a result, I got to learn about life in smaller Chinese cities.  Truthfully, it didn't sound all that different than Floyds Knobs, or any other suburb for that matter, except for the smog of course.  I am still holding out hope of more friends and family visiting me in Beijing, but I am not really holding my breath.  That is one luxury in China not even political connections can get you.