What did You Find Surprising About Iowa?

- asked Aunty Irene.

Me:
Firstly, it was incredibly surprising to find out that I had family in Iowa.
Secondly, I guess I was surprised at how cosmopolitan it is. (But I’ve already written about that)
Thirdly, I guess most of my life is pretty surprising, so I could say everything, but that wouldn’t be very informative.
Fourthly, the hamburgers are really good. I’m not even kidding. I had good hamburgers courtesy of Irene, The Machine Shack, Steak and Shake, etc. And not to mention Whitey’s, which is also Uncle Wilky’s favourite, evidently.
Fifthly, it was very surprising that Melissa was around. And also going off on an adventure involving midwest > northeast. And she showed me the Prairie Lights Bookstore, which was delightful.

Baby Bunny by Isabel Bloom

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
— Albert Einstein

Here are some things I really enjoyed in Iowa:
1) I got to ride on a tractor! Also, a definite bonus was that the old tractor driver let a young airforce pilot do the driving, and we got an extra-long ride!

Iowan Tractor Ride from JHu on Vimeo.

2) The light in the evening is breathtaking. No wonder David and Nathaniel are both photographers.
3) Their Target, which is a SuperTarget, was SuperGood. I can anticipate that living next to a SuperTarget would be SuperBad for my wallet.
4) I got to see Irene’s house growing up and meet the couple living there. And I got a rock with a fossil in it from the backyard. Now THAT doesn’t happen to you every day.
5) They have two very good dogs.
6) Isabel Bloom statues are eerily similar to the stuff my mum does
7) Irene’s dad learned German, and had a little book with flashcards in them. One of the books is a story book written by this guy who was a world traveler and suffered from something called “wunderlust”, with which I am increasingly familiar
8 ) Bridges of Madison County and Mississippi Solo
9) I felt like Indiana Jones in the basement, except this was real treasure
10) Whenever your suitcase is too full, it is time to leave a book behind, which I can revisit later. I believe in the conservation of matter and energy – therefore, nothing is truly lost.

The library lizard shrugs off its library skin
- Irene Hope

Small Domestic Success!

Small improvements over the Minnesotan Incarnation:

1) I didn’t mess up the rice/water proportion! We used Basmati rice, and it was just the right dryness today!

2) I cut up the chook anatomically correctly – half of it. It wasn’t pretty, but it was definitely bite-sized.

Always place the garnish in such a way as to hide one’s flaws.

That’s the money shot!

Perfect Soup! All it’s missing is Chicken feet, aka Phoenix Claws

Happy eaters. I warned them they wouldn’t need dinner. On the left is Holly, a family friend and surrogate Aunt to the Hopes, and on the right is Aunty Irene!

Look Ma! I cooked!

Conversation Starters, Conversation Killers

So, my “pick-up lines” have been a little more successful in the Midwest than in the Northeast, to put it mildly. But then again, it may also be a difference between 2008 and 2010.

Northeast, Harvard Coop, Cute Bookseller, Summer 2008.

me: Hi…. um, what time do you knock off?*
cute bookseller: Excuse me?
me: Er… do you want to get maybe coffee or dinner with me?
cb: No.

Midwest, Red House, River experience Cafe, Sound man who looks like John Lennon. Yesterday.

I’m at the counter buying a drink.

me: Hi! You look like John Lennon.
John Lennon-lookalike: Um, thanks! I’ll take that as a compliment!
me: It was!
JLl: I like to play his music…
10 minutes later, I am halfway through a strawberry lemonade frappe (excellent), he walks over.
JLl: Hey.
me: Hey. Do you work here?
JLl: Yeah, I’m working at Rock Camp, which is for teens who want to be in rock bands.
me: Cool! When I was 13, I wanted to be in a rock band. But I didn’t grow up around here, and we didn’t have something like that.
JLl: So are you visiting?
me: Yes, I’m from Singapore.
JLl: Cool! Which part of Singapore?
me: Singapore. It’s not a very big island.

We talk a bit about exactly where Singapore is located, geographically. He’s been to Thailand.

me: I’m “sailing” down the Mississippi, except not really, because I don’t have a boat. And I’m making a film while I go.
JLl: Cool, where are you headed next?
me: Wisconsin, probably. I have a long-lost cousin there I’ve just met.
JLl: You should take the Great River Road. I’ve been that way myself, it’s very beautiful. It looks like Japan.
me: I’ve never been to Japan.
JLl: Me neither, but I’ve seen pictures, and it looks like that. I was going to this Zen retreat centre run by a guy from Kyoto.
me: Oh! I hear that Kyoto is the most beautiful bit of Japan. They have a lot of sheep, or so I hear.
JLl: So you just came over from the museum?
me: Yeah! It was great!
JLl: I never get to go there, even though it’s so close by. I just don’t have the time.
me: Well, you want to see some sketches I made of the art there? I saw some really cool Haitian art, and the John Deere collection was fantastic!
JLl: Sure!

I proceed to show him my sketches of the Figge, two posts below/under the “Art” category.

JLl: There’s a lot of Jesus.
me: Yup.
JLl: Well, that’s the Midwest for you. Lots of Jesus.
me: Yup. Not necessarily a bad thing.
JLl: Oh no, Jesus is cool! I like Jesus. It’s some of his followers I can’t stand. I’m a fan.
me: Me too!
JLl: By the way, you are missing one H in “Rhythm”
me: Oh. Yeah. I can’t spell.
JLl: Sorry, I was an English major.
me: I was an English major, too, and I still can’t spell.
JLl: Listen, you have a good day now. I have to work!
me: Bye!

I finish off my strawberry lemonade frappe.

*”When do you knock off” is Singaporean Parlance for “What time do you get off of work?”. Apparently it doesn’t mean the same thing in America. You learn something new every day.

**John Lennon Lookalike’s real name is Lars.

***Also, I wouldn’t entirely blame the Northeast, because I think I was very awkward in 2008. But then, I still kind of am.

Sketches uploaded for Nathaniel!

I visited the Figge Museum in Davenport today, and it was amazing! Here are some highlights… no photography so I resorted to sketching.

Captions tomorrow! I’m tired!

The River Between

Between Minnesota and Iowa, the Mississippi Flows – Click for Video

The River between Minnesota and Iowa from JHu on Vimeo.

Ancestral Land

Wong

Wai Ching             &              Yau Wai

Feb 1 1945                              Sept 13, 1914

Mar 17 2002                          Mar 26, 1982

Parents of Irene

Going back to Midwestern Roots

…. I did not know I had.

How is it possible that one house in Iowa built between 30 and 13 years ago with an extension that was envisioned with cutting edge software to determine all the views should closely resemble in spirit a house built in 1993-4 in Singapore to the uncanny extent of including

1) a koi pond, with little Japanese stone lantern
2) a patio deck overlooking said koi pond
3) two dogs who rule the house as their demsene
4) treasures/trash from travels around the world but especially southeast asia
5) 30 years’ worth of packrating in the basement, which is an ever-expanding entity that causes the youngest daughter in particular some anxiety
6) 1900 photographs of Asia in 2004, the last year my family lived in Singapore
7) the most beautiful views from Faber Garden apartment, the place I spent 1/7th of my childhood
8 ) chicken masala with egg noodles
9) a map on the wall of the eldest son’s circumnavigation of the globe
10) two ivory staffs my grandfather left when the mother of the house was 13 or 14
11) a photograph of my great-grandfather, Wong On, with 5 children – we still can’t establish which 5, and his wife, whose eyebrows are perfectly symmetrical
12) three beautiful grown children, one of whom married a Thai, the other who married a half-white, half-Korean, and another who is single in Minneapolis who loves movies and books and hanging out with friends and has a half suitcase full of shoes

At dinner we sat down, and I said, truly, all of you are of my people. Then we went out for ice cream at this place called Whitey’s. It was SOOOOO GOOOOOOD.

Life is mysterious and astonishing and wondrous strange, as usual. Or so they say.

During Chinese New Year 2004 we met. I was too much of a self-absorbed 18 year old to remember much of that CNY, but we did, here is the photographic evidence.
Photos (c) 2004 by David Hope.

Cousins, Long-Lost No More

Today at the end of a very wonderful day cooking for the Goetzes, I received a phone call from Iowa from Irene and David Hope, my long-lost second cousins (or in my parlance, uncle and auntie). Irene is the daughter of the brother of my paternal grandmother (the one who grew up in Hawaii, then Canton, Hong Kong, Malaya and Singapore). She has three children: Nathaniel in Wisconsin, Erin in Minneapolis, and Lauren in Ames, Iowa. Now I have places to visit in every state down the Mississippi until I reach St Louis, Missouri, where I will meet Darell.

I’m meeting Erin tomorrow for breakfast before I head off to the Schaeffer Institute, L’abri, in Rochester, Minnesota. God is Good. Life is hard, but good. And already outside the storms are beginning to gather.