I love family and friends. Duh.
I love coffee and books and movies and boys with glasses. Double Duh.
Even more rare, I love the combination of coffee with banana, the way that water sounds you’re your ears are underwater, the way that Spaniards talk with a lisp, eating ice cream when I said I was going to go for a run, and oddly enough, I love writing.
But there is something that I realized in my travels to Sweden and Greece. Something I knew I loved but didn’t know to what extent, to what extreme.
Now I realize.
Now I know.
Thanks to my traveling buddy Raleigh, thanks to the clubs in Santorini, thanks to a French singer named Stromae, I now know, that among other things in this world, I love Daunce.
Not just dance. Not the typical hippity hoppity kind of dancing. Not the kind of swaying or side stepping- none of that. More of the soulful, deep-voiced, authentic body thrusting kind of DAUNCE where nothing is going through your mind except for the power of the music and how awesome you look in that moment even though you just look like a white girl stuck at a junior high dance with awkwardly closed eyes and even more awkwardly swaying hips. That is what I realized I loved to an extreme this summer.
Bus alas, that was only a part of the trip, for this was an epic two week trip rounding from Taiwan to Sweden to Greece and sadly back to Taiwan.
Going to Sweden to visit grandfather and grandmother was a whiff of something that had been utterly lacking in my life in Taiwan- family! Oh to be around family, around Armenian, around Armenian food, around loving and nurturing people, was such a drastic change from my daily life that I was able to soak in and truly appreciate my time there.
And you know there are those moments in life when you look back and say, man, those were the good times and I wish back then I knew how special that moment would be later in life. The day we went to my grandpa’s dacha was that kind of special moment. Well it was that kind of moment except for the fact that while I was experiencing it, I already knew it was that special moment. So in this way, I could live it enjoying it in the present, knowing how important it would be in the future when that moment would become the past. I think it was a glance of what eternity feels like- when the mix of past, present, and future coalesce into one moment, one meal, one hug.
We arrived at the dacha in the afternoon and spent the next few hours picking berries, digging up potatoes, and watching my grandpa barbecue juicy eggplant, tomatoes, pepper, and fresh beef. Oooo Gooood Lord. It was soo good to be around such good company, such fresh air, and such delicious food. After picking thousands and thousands of raspberries and linden berries,
Rals and I walked to the lake, had a sword fight, went to the bathroom next to each other on dual porter potty seats, and we just smiled knowing that we were partaking in a day that would last us a lifetime.
We came back from the lake just in time for the most amazing meal of my life- eggplant salad, fresh tomatoes with basil and onions, boiled and seasoned potatoes, and juicy steak, followed by fresh mint tea and coffee.
All grown and prepared on the little plot of land built and cared for by my grandparents.
Is there any need to continue with the rest of the trip? …….ok Yeahhhhh.
Don’t you want to know about Greece??? And why I love Daunce?
Stay tuned...
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