Yesterday was a threshold day for me.
It's the difference between telling a story to the class and having them giggle as wildly as the old Tibetan man in the story did and living in such a way that one has no stories to tell.
It's the difference between having a sweet shy girl tell you that she's homesick and begin to explain why her hometown is so special and wondering if you will ever even achieve eye contact with her.
It's the difference between being able to explain to the Chinese lady why she should give me a better price on that scarf and having to make the decision to pay the high price or walk away in frustration.
It's the difference between meeting a friend for lunch and taking her to a delicious, though nondescript, noodle hole in the wall and her having to take you.
It's the difference between being recognized and joyfully welcomed in some of these tiny three walled eating establishments and simply passing them by.
It's the difference between sitting down for a cup of tea in the back corner of a pink wallpapered tea house, watching in surprise as three local friends walk in, paying for their meal and shuddering in fear at the mere prospect of going into a tea house with the certainty that all are strangers inside.
It's the difference between consistently having local friends surprise you from behind every time you go to the post office and having to give yourself a pep talk before attempting to claim your boxes.
It's the difference between receiving free fruit, hugs, laughs, and dinner plans from the friendly, though totally unintelligible to the native English speaker, vegetable sellers across the street and wondering if you're getting ripped off.
It's the threshold between looking at the animal parts wagons in disgust and holding your breath as you bike by to keep the sickly smell of random boiled meat as far from your lungs as possible and actually sliding back the small plastic window, reaching past the boiled hearts and intestines, to ask the lady to slice up a pig ear and coat it with oil and spice as a snack for you and your friend.
It's the day where so much sense of familiarity and acceptance creeps in that you become dizzy contemplating if it's the city that's changed or you.
A pig ear kind of acceptance.
