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Community Corner

It's a Small World After All

Our trip through Asia classed up our daily routines

On a recent trip my husband, daughter and I took with our friends Leon and Amanda, our itinerary included the exotic destinations of Bali, Jakarta and Yogyakarta in Indonesia, and Hong Kong in China. And I have to admit, even though we flew to the other side of the world in search of new experiences and to immerse ourselves in other cultures, nothing we did on our trip was much different from what we do at home. Life for us was pretty much exactly the same, with a few tweaks, as we followed a similar daily schedule that included many of the same activities. For instance:

Starting the day with a cup of coffee.

Home: Drink a cup of Folgers from to-go cups while packing lunches and getting ready for work. 
Vacation: Leisurely sipping coffee brewed from beans that civets had predigested, upping the price to approximately 87 times the cost of a Starbucks latte.

Eating breakfast.

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Home: Mix water into instant oatmeal. Eat upstairs while putting on makeup.
Vacation
: Dining on a repast expertly made in our villa by someone who also snapped open our napkins with a flourish and placed them on our laps before serving us fresh mango juice and banana pancakes.

Keeping up with the daily routine.

Home: Hop in the car to go about daily business.
Vacation:
Hop in the car to go about our daily business. True, it was a chauffeured car driven by an exceedingly polite gentleman who referred to my daughter as “Little Madam” and the daily business was visiting 8th century temples and active volcanoes … but otherwise, exactly the same as the daily routine at home.

Dealing with daily stresses.

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Home: Traffic. Work. Errands. Laundry.
Vacation:
Our vacation was not without its stresses and aggravations. We had to walk 300 feet to the spa for a massage, and keeping up with the laundry (by tossing it into a bag and having it washed, folded and delivered the same day) was a real chore.

Attending special events.

Home: We occasionally get invited to weddings and other social events, where we blend in with the hoi polloi.
Vacation
: During our visit, we attended the wedding of a friend’s daughter.  During the celebration, we got to wear special clothing, were seated in a VIP area and greeted government Ministers and CEOs as they entered the reception.  

And just like at home, hanging out with our friends in other countries was really fun, because they also share our appreciation for juvenile humor. After a particularly immature conversation during dinner one night, our waiter stopped by and asked if there was anything else we needed, and our friend Amanda deadpanned:

"Adult supervision."

Note: The eye roll response is also the same in all languages and cultures.

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