One thing I regret not doing before we left (besides taking out the kitchen garbage) is blaring Neil Diamond's "Going to America-- TODAY!" right before we left for America-- TODAY! One thing Kevin regrets is being so excited to leave that he couldn't sleep the night before.
We flew through Tokyo, spent several hours there, and then flew overnight to Hawaii. Tokyo has a beautiful airport with a fun little playground for little kids, as well as nursing/baby changing rooms all over the place. As far as airports go, it was really nice and made it almost convenient to be travelling with kids.
You know how we Americans go to China and can't use the chopsticks, then we giggle and take pictures of the hole-in-the-ground squatting toilets. I guess some cultural differences go the other way. I stood in line behind a Chinese woman trying to use a drinking fountain. Her 13-year-old son knew everything (as 13-year-olds tend to do), and was telling her how to use it.
"Mom, you push one side for hot, and one side for cold. If you push them both together like this, you get cool water for drinking."
Then the mom pushed one button for a while, then the other button for a while. "Which one is hot, honey? I want hot water, but I don't know which side it comes from."
Then her son would explain more how it worked and push the buttons for her.
"Um...." I said helpfully from behind them in line. "It doesn't have hot water."
Funny how you don't listen to people when you assume they don't speak your language.
Eventually they gave up, and I got to drink some water from the fountain. That was one thing off my list of things to do in America.
Other things from my list:
Drink water from the tap
Brush my teeth and then drink from the tap
Drink from a hose
Let the girls drink their bathwater (they do anyway)
Let the girls suck on their washcloths (they do anyway)
I really miss potable water
2 comments:
I felt the same way on our R&R (and had the same goals)! What luxury to drink from the tap! I think difficult places keep us grateful. :)
I love america! I think its kindof funny when US people put filters in their homes cause they don't really get how lucky they are to have clean water in the home.
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