Narla's American Adventure – Part 3: (insert word here) is HUGE!

Narla’s American Adventure
Part 3: (insert word here) is HUGE!

He’s here:

Narla arrived in San Francisco and the adventure has officially begun. The tour of hugeness started at the airport…”this airport is huge”, then we got on the freeway… “wow, this road is so huge”, crossed the Bay Bridge, “this is the bridge? It huge!” and saw a cow…“that much bigger than the Cambodia cow, why?”

Everything was bigger and fancier and more than what he had ever seen before, here were some of my highlights and some things that make you go hmmmm:

1. He thought it was funny that none of the Lexus’s and Land Cruisers had their name spelled out in big letters on the side as it is in Cambodia, he asked if it wasn’t a big deal to have a Lexus here. I explained that it was still a big deal, but it was a bigger deal if you didn’t make a big deal about it.
2. He thought Vallejo was beautiful (I thought I should write their Chamber and let them know, it might be a first)
3. At one point we had been quiet for a while, having spent the first couple of hours catching up on all the B&B gossip and future plans. “You know,” he said, “I am going to have trouble describing this to my friends back home.” I advised him to take a lot of photos!
4. Out of no where he said, “I would like to go to the Taco Well, Brandon say it what make him fat.” Oh yes my friend, we will go to the Taco Well, we will go.
5. As we came through Sacramento he asked where all the people were. He said if it wasn’t for people in cars he would think there were no people in America. I realized that he was right. In Cambodia I don’t think I’ve been anywhere where you couldn’t look around and see people walking, riding their bike, playing games, or napping in a hammock. The country is just outside a lot, out in the world for all to see. I realized that in America we tend to go from car, to work, to shopping, to home and spend very little time out front. With relief as we drove through Brandon’s parents neighborhood where we’re staying the night I saw a family sitting in their front yard, “look,” I yelled triumphantly, “there are some Americans outside.” As we drove by and I waved, happy to prove that this wasn’t a people-free country, the kind Vietnamese family waved back!!

Narla is in bed, hopefully for a jet lag free nights sleep and I am heading that way myself. Tomorrow we have our first fundraising presentation and then on up to Tahoe where he may just freeze, he just described Sacramento as, “maybe the coldest place I ever been.” Wow, not after tomorrow it won’t be!!