I left Taiwan on Friday, June 5th for San Francisco. It must be that season of the year – traveling with babies’ season because there were so many babies on board. Luckily they were well-behaved and slept through the boring flights as most adults did.
As soon as I landed I was off to lunch at Woodhouse Fish Co. in Castro. Usually the cultural shock begins with the first meal. Look at the portion – it’s enough to feed the hungry children in Africa! Just kidding…but it’s obviously that the serving portion in America has gone up every year. Not only I can never finish my food but also it looks like I barely make a dent in the pile of food in front of me.
In this land of Super-Size-Everything people must be growing as if they are still in their adolescence. Honestly I feel small when I’m back here. I don’t think that I’ve gotten smaller but my friends seem bigger and bigger every time I visit them. However, I never feel this way when I was in Taipei. Perhaps it comes down to perspective – when everyone around me is small then I feel like a big girl. And that’s usually the case in Asia. When I’m back in the States I feel like a midget, even when I wear heels. Tonight I feel tiny…
On a red eye flight from San Francisco to Chicago I was seated next to a woman literally 3 times of my size. Even though we’re seated in the economy plus section on United, she invaded my space and corned me to the window since she had the isle seat. She was so big that she couldn’t buckle up her seat belt. She had to ask for an extension to be added to her seat belt before buckling up. This was a horrific experience. Thank god the flight was shorter than expected - less than 4 hours. Originally I planned to sleep on the plane but as you may have guessed, I was up the whole time, feeling uncomfortable and restless. After tonight I’m all for that previous politically incorrect airline proposal - big people need to buy two seats. In this case, the woman next to me would be happier if she had two seats to herself instead of apologizing to me during the entire flight.
