Grateful

I guess it is a little early to break out the "I'm Thankful For..." speeches, but I'm going to do it anyway. I am very happy lately and most of it comes from being married to Megan. Two years have flown by and I'm very excited for the future.

Today I finished reading a book called, "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho. It's amazing. I had several good friends recommend it so being the cheap Mormon that I am, I borrowed it from one of those friends instead of buying it myself. :)

If you haven't heard of it, it's about the story of a boy who desires to live a life more fulfilling than what is offered in his hometown. That's all I'm going to say, you need to read it yourself.

One of my favorite lines summarizes how I've felt about a few people who influenced me but I'm sure they wouldn't recognize me if I passed them on the street. In "The Alchemist," it reads, "He thought of the many roads he had traveled, and of the strange way God had chosen to show him his treasure. If he hadn't...he would have never met the Gypsy woman, the king, the thief, or...well, it's a long list."

A couple of days ago, I made my own list so reading this line really hit me. I think about how lucky Megan and I are to meet so many people from all over. Here are a few.

Balinese/Indonesians

• The Laundry Lady who spoke very little English but had the only dryer in the village we stayed!
• The crazy dude who I paid 4,000 rupiah (40 cents) to give me a ride on his scooter back to our hotel.
• Widhi, our dive trip salesman who accidentally offered us a lower price than I just offered. Haha! A good guy who had recently married.
• Made, our crazy taxi driver who was named the world's best taxi driver by National Geographic (not a joke, he had the article to prove it). "Friends first, money second" was his line.
• The teenage girl who worked at the Internet cafe we stumbled upon in Denpasar. We saw the sign that said, "3.000 Rp/jam" and Megan said, "Now if we only knew what a jam was." I remembered the McDonald's sign that read 24 Jam 7 Hari so we went inside. The girl was very surprised to see two white people in her cafe. She looked at Megan and told Megan her name and Megan reciprocated. A cool experience.

Singaporeans

• The old Chinese guy originally from Penang who had lived in Singapore for most of his life. He sat next to us at the bus stop at the airport. He "helped" us get to our destination (but not before we went the long way). Megan mentioned how his English sounded just like the way old Chinese-Hawaiians speak.
• The hawker centre Chinese guy on Joo Chiat Road who made awesome dumpling soup. He was amazed I spoke Chinese. I paid and then went to the other side of the seating area. I watched as he tried to deliver the soup to the only other white guy in the place (who already had his food). Just like the Taiwanese say, "We all look the same."
• Megan's mission friend, Tiffany Lai, who took us around. We went to Little India, the Arab Quarter, and Bugis. At one point there were some Traditional Chinese characters written on a building. She couldn't read them (Singaporeans read Simplified characters) so I translated them for her. Pretty funny that a white guy had to teach a Chinese person how to read Chinese!
• The Malay kampung hawker centre we walked around before heading to church. All Malays except for Megan and me! Amazing iced drinks for S$1!
• My good friend Nathaniel's dad happened to be in Singapore for business and we ended up at the same ward! He took us out to dinner at Clarke Quay and walked around with us and told us about his experience living in Singapore as an expat.

Malaysia

• The security guard at our hotel in Kuala Lumpur. He locked up our luggage in a side room after we checked out while we explored the city. He asked my name and I said, "Jordan." He said, "Oh, like the country!" Never heard that one before. He asked where we were from and then said, "Oh America, I'd love to live there, but I can't get the visa." Helped me realized how lucky we are to live in the US.
• The pack of boys in Kota Bharu who rode their bikes through the night market. They saw us and rode over toward us. They asked where we were from and said, "Welcome to Malaysia!" So cute.
• The keeper of the Internet cafe in Kota Bharu. When we tried to leave, he was nowhere to be found. We went to the street level and waited for a while. Finally he showed up, "Sorry, I had to take my friend home." Haha, yeah, your "friend," you mean girlfriend.
• Fatima, the old lady who mopped the floors at the McDonald's at KL Sentral. She did that all day. Crazy.

While you are bored, I am very thankful for all of these people. They've brightened my life. The best part about it is the fact that Megan and I have many more years to keep meeting more and more interesting people that we'd never have a chance to meet anywhere else!