A nerd indeed

Feb 4, 2007, LAX

I was patiently waiting for my plane to Shanghai, with music plugged into my ears and a book at hand. Over the top is one of those *great* motiviation books and YF asked me to buy it for her. I deliberately held the book in a certain way so that the title is not easily seen by other passengers. After all, I had to admit it's kind of embarrassing reading such a book for I had certainly outgrown that age of efficient absorption of fatherly goal-oriented prodding. But I had no other choice at the moment and people-wathcing had grown a little old.

Totally out of the blue, a much-travelled man in a leather coat showed up, asked if the seat besides me was taken, and sat down. The whole thing happened within a second, and I wondered how could a person speak so fast. I went back to read that embarrassing book, holding it closer to me, and it seemed that man was busy organizing his stuff. We didn't talk but at one point he asked me to write down the Chinese characters of the name and address of the hotel he was going to stay in Shanghai. Then we again went back to do our own things. He must have had a lot of alcohol I thought. I smelled it -- a hint of urban indulgence.

Then I discreetly put the book back and began to play with my new cell phone, which I was still getting used to. He suddenly asked, "can your cell work in China?" I told him I don't know but this time we started chatting.

I learned that he's teaching little Chinese kids English in a private school in Wenzhou and this time he was going back for another year's contract. We talked about different cities in China, comparing them to American cities. He thought Hainan was like Miami but I didn't quite agree. Then I got curious about why he's teaching in China so I said, "so what did you do before this?" He answered, "Oh, modelling."

Right at that moment, I think I got excited for 0.01 seconds, and by instinct wanted to ask further if he did "math modelling". Or maybe "econometric modelling"? And then I quickly realized, he meant FASHION modelling. Good that I didn't ask that silly question. He probably saw my confusion and went on explaining how he travelled through NY, LA, Tokyo, Milan, and Paris and how he fell in love with Asian culture in Japan, while I was totally knocked out by myself, thinking how nerdy my first reaction was and how "institutionalized" I had been after spending more than 2 years at my company.

After the flight, my cousin picked me up at the airport and we had dinner together. At the dinner, I told her about this modelling joke but seems she didn't get it. Instead, she was yelling at me, "I am NOT going to send my [imaginary] child to a RMB20,000/mo kindergarten just for English lessons taught by models!" (Well that's another story I learned on how expensive raising a kid in Shanghai can be, but it's not relevant here. We ridiculed about the exorbitant prices slightly though.)

Actually, I saw his face again when I was claiming my luggage when we arrived in the SH ariport. He was still waiting at the other end in a crowd. I walked away without saying good-bye. Maybe the "modelling" conversation had reminded me that was a different world.

Still an interesting encounter, no? This is not the most interesting one I've ever had though. That was at the Tokyo airport in 2003 and I got to hear about an old artist's life story and witness his innocent tears. What's more awesome is that he chose to sit down near me in the almost-empty hall and started the stories by himself. Why was I so lucky? Did my guardian angle know I'm always yearning for stories? That old gentleman, among others I met while we were all waiting for a plane to go somewhere, have been helping me build my view about the world and about life. In some way, I feel I can't grow completely without meeting and listening to them. I'll write stories about what I have seen and learned from those lovely people who I supposedly shouldn't encounter again. :)