Summer Job and internship

Our rafting guide in the scenic tour is a woman, who currently studies for her PHD degree in Water right mediation. I was very intrigued and surprised. I talked to her during lunch and mentioned that I worked in a Water District in California and talked about the issues and problems with the State legislations on water issues. I mentioned to my older son afterwards that there would be some opportunities for him to consider when he is in college: he can work, make money, and travel to different beautiful places at the same time.  And we have seen many foreign exchange students working in the grocery stores, restaurants, and ice cream parlors. However, I got my biggest surprise when we stayed at the Jackson Lake Lodge in the Grand Teton Park.

There was a petite Asian girl, with a Japanese last name on her name tag which also indicates she was from Wisconsin, serving as a bus girl for our sets of tables when we had our dinner there. I assumed that she was one of the college students till my neighbor dinners asked her. No, she is entering high school as a freshman in the coming fall! My jaw dropped and I let out a surprised exclaim. My son stared at me and made me quiet down. I asked her eventually some specifics about her job and she told me that she could only work 8 hours a day and forty hours a week and had to stay with an adult since she is still a minor. I told her what she did was remarkable and I really admired her parents allowing her to travel so far to work. And she was going to go camping over the weekend with friends.

Camping

The first night we came to the Jackson Lake Lodge, my younger son met one of his friends from his school in San Jose. They are a Chinese family of four like us. The mother told me they drove 11 hours from San Jose to Salt Lake City and camped around. She told me that she was the main driver since she would be car sick if she did not drive. She also talked about how exciting and fun to camp which gave me the impression that camping was the only choice to enjoy the nature. She brought cooking pots and utensils and cooked during the trip so that they would not get bored with American food. They enjoyed two raining nights during the trip, sleeping with wet sleeping bags.  Another secret she shared with me was that she also had a son in college, which means she is the mother of three boys.  And she had already made the camping reserving in Yosemite for the next Spring. I was very impressed and admired her greatly for her high energy.

I related the information later to my hubby afterwards. He blurted out series of questions immediately:”where are you going to take showers?” “What do you do when you need to go pee at night?” “How can you sleep in a sleeping bag on the ground?””Are there lots of mosquitoes?”All of his questions seemed legitimate and we finally settled that camping is just not our cup of tea.

We went back to China during the Chinese New Year, therefore, we decided not to go back again for the Shanghai Expo. My high school freshman son decided to take a 6-week summer course, which left us only a few weeks to enjoy summer. Yellowstone was chosen for our vacation destination. Right after the summer school, we headed to Yellowstone.

Rafting

We started our first vacation day by rafting in the Snake River by the beautiful town called Jackson Hole, which locates near the South side entrance of the Grand Teton National Park. Jackson Hole is also the closest airport that we can fly to.

We were grouped with a family of four from England in the morning scenic rafting tour. The mother is an American and lived in San Francisco 13 years ago. She married an Englishman and moved to England. They have two boys, Louie: the 9-year-old; Miles: 7-year-old. The father is a professor in a college and he is taking a year of sabbatical from work. They are taking 7-week’s vacation in America and Jackson Hole was one of their stops. It was a perfect match with our family. The kids started to tell jokes and riddles soon after. Miles likes to sing and tell jokes and often has to be hushed up by his mother. Louie sets his mind to maneuver the raft himself and kept on asking the tour guide for a chance. When the mother asked me what we could do in San Jose since their next stop is San Francisco, I regretfully told her that we had been ignoring what San Jose can offer since we live in it and did not bother too much to find out. We enjoyed the jokes, riddles, laughter, and bald eagles. The family did not book the afternoon white water rafting because Miles, being the youngest one, was afraid. However, his mother kept on teasing him and eventually we had a taste of the mild white water rafting toward the end of the trip. Miles was very excited and exclaimed that he wanted to do white water rafting. Louie got what he wished for at the end of the trip by maneuvering the raft himself for a while. 

Louie got attached to Alex toward the end of the morning tour; he chose to sit with Alex on the bus back. Only Louie and his father joined the after white water rafting tour, since his mother wanted Miles to get some rest. Louie and Alex were hoping to be in the same raft again. But it turned out to be not as what we wished. Louie and his father were assigned to a sturdier raft since he is too young for the rough raft.

With the roll call, the tour guide called the family of Huang, we raised our hands; the tour guide called the family of Wang; we raised our hands again, we all know that the American’s cannot differentiate the Chinese names of “Huang” “Wang”, or “Wong”. I was wondering whether the tour guide made mistakes till we were all assigned to the same raft. They were two fathers with their sons, and they were using the name of “Wang”. They were actually tourists from China!!! I was so proud of my fellow countrymen; they are rich enough to travel in America now. However, I cannot compliment on their attitude. One father told his son “Ben” not to use too much of his strength to paddle since he is not the “Coolie”.  According to the tour guide, the strongest of the group should sit at the first row. My husband and my football player son sat in the first row. My younger one and I sit in the 3^rd row, which left the 2^nd row (3 seats) and one seat in the 3^rd row available for the other family. However, the Wang family was not happy, therefore, my son moved to my left side so that the other family would have one seat in the front row. 

The tour guide started the drill on how to paddle, what to do if accident happened. She even made it clear that we need to use our almighty strength to paddle since it is white water rafting and there is no engine to propel the raft. After a while, it was apparent that the sitting arrangement did not work since the other family had the attitude of not working as “coolies” in America, and my husband and my older son were paddling on the same side, our raft kept on making circles. The tour guide finally asked us to switch the sitting arrangement back to where we originally started. Every hurdle we conquered, the kid, Ben, would say it was not exciting, challenging enough for him; he kept on asking for more exciting and challenging ones.   And it was his comment for the entire rafting which made me wonder whether his family paid for the trip themselves.

Louie came by to see goodbye to Alex after the white water rafting. He hugged Alex and said:”Bye Alex. I hope I will see you somewhere someday”. I was so touched I almost offered to invite the family over when they came to San Francisco.

 After a week of sun, snorkeling, boogie boarding in the exotic vacation land of Cancun, Mexico, we were ready to head home.

We have to line up to board the airplane outside of the gate and it took forever for the airplane gate to open.  I noticed there was a skinny Mexican guy in front of us.  He struck a lively conversation with a group of American female tourists.  I marveled at how easily he talked with them about himself, his family and what he was going to do in America, and I reflected that I was never at ease to talk to someone that I did not know well.

Soon, we settled in the airplane and the airplane took off.  A lot of people took out their laptops and games to get on their business.  A man with a laptop approached us, he showed us a picture on his laptop and said excitedly:”see, you are in our pictures”.  It was a picture taken in a restaurant in Cancun that we enjoyed so much.  The waiter made fresh guacamole in front of us and it was the first time we saw the actual process of making guacamole.  I guess the man took his family’s picture while dining in the same restaurant.  Now, seeing us in the same airplane and reviewing the pictures, he and his kids recognized us and were very excited to show us the picture.

After a while, the captain announced that a lady’s purse was reported missing and he cautioned everyone to watch his/her belongings closely to avoid the same thing happening.  I noticed that the man showed us the pictures was very busy going up and down the aisle and I was wondering  probably he was just taking care of some personal business like the rest of us do.

Before the airplane landed at SF international airport, the captain announced that the thief was caught and policemen will come on board to escort him off and asked us to remain seated till the man was cleared. 

To my surprise, the man that was escorted off the plane was the man that talked lively with the American female tourists. And the man that solved the mystery was the man that showed us his family picture with us in the back ground.  The man actually was a detective in San Francisco Police Department.  Everyone on the airplane gave him a round of applause after the thief was escorted off.  His detective instinct still works during his family vacation. Solute to the detective for his dedication for his line of duty.

My father reconnected with my grandfather after twenty years of no communication. At that time, Grandparents and four of their six kids have immigrated to the United States. Grandpa asked us to go to Shanghai to meet with one of my uncles. This is the uncle that Dad’s younger sister married to and was doing “big” business in China. It took us three days and four nights horrible train ride to get to Shanghai from HeiLongJiang. The train was packed with travelers that we had no place to sit except in the passage way. Since it was so packed, we could not get any food or water except purchasing some from the train station vendors through the window. We literally had to step over people’s shoulders to go to the toilet. Since it is hard to get to the toilet, I believe that some passengers found other means to relieve themselves because the train smelled of urine mixed with cigarette smoke all the way. 

We stayed with my father’s aunt, whom we call as “婆婆”, eagerly awaiting the uncle’s arrival. However, the waiting time turned from days to weeks; and from weeks to months. In order to keep four young kids occupied, 婆婆dug out some books for us to read. 牛虻 (The Gadfly) was one of them and the most memorable one for me. I can still visualize the teenage me sitting on the bed in one of the亭子間 (a typical studio room in Shanghai), bending over with tears streaming down, crying nonstop over the hero and heroine’s unspoken love, and the hero’s heroic action fighting for the cause that he believed in.

大兒子因為學功夫，又因體格健壯，师付邀他去參加在San Jose Repertory Theatre春節晚會的功夫表演. 表演完還要直接到好朋友家參加生日party 和sleep over. 我把功夫的表演服，sleep over 用的sleeping bag, 換洗衣服等，一起放在車后，就上路了。