I was 20 years old when I got married. I met Barbara the year before and it seemed like a really good idea to ask her to be my wife a year later.
I married an 18 year old. “Shhhh, don’t tell anyone.”
We were young and figuring out how married people are supposed to act around all of their friends. It sometimes felt like we didn’t fit in anymore. Though, I think that slowly but surely people got used to us being in holy matrimony.
I remember living in our apartment in St. Albert. We had no meal at our wedding, just desserts, and we also had a wedding cake that we only used for ceremonial purposes at the wedding. So, for the next month, in the middle of an Alberta winter, we kept this great chocolate cake out on our balcony. Slowly we worked at it and eventually it was gone.
Later, about a year later, we went to Nepal. One time, as I mentioned earlier, we had to hike up a mountain to teach English. Well, on that same mountain, we showed a movie to a bunch of people in the village. They had electricity but no tv. So, on the back of a motorbike, I strapped a 27 inch tv to my back and leaned forward enough to not fall backwards and down the mountain. That was a really hardcore moment for me.
I remember, in Nepal, seeing a traveling group perform quite an act. A man stuck a knife into the shoulder of a child, behind the neck, and out the other shoulder. There was blood and everything. The crowd was amazed when he stuffed the child under a curtain, handed him a “magic pill” and then removed the sheet to show that the child was completely okay. The villagers ran away to their homes to get money to pay these swindlers. It looked real, that’s for sure. Heck, maybe it was. But I know that if their medicine worked that well then they would not be traveling around in such a crappy vehicle.
To tell you the truth, this segment of my life is the hardest to remember. Maybe it’t because it was also around this time that digital cameras were made easily available. I’ve got thousands of photos of all of these times but not much in my memory.
I think that around 2004 I got a job at the Teglar Youth Centre. It was an indoor skate park and a youth group gathering place. The funny thing is that I could not skateboard at all. I learned along with a couple of other little kids.
I remember the first time I tried to drop into a ramp on a skateboard. I landed on my face a knocked the wind out of me. My little skateboard buddies cheered me on. Not wanting to disappoint them I got up and made my way out of the room without showing to much of the pain I was suffering.
I think that it was about 3 years after I stopped working there that the White Stripes performed some sort of secret show there. It’s kind of sad that I missed out on that.
One time I had the day off and Barbara was at work. I rented “The Ring” and I had to fast forward parts. Keep in mind that this was the middle of the day. Ever since then I’ve had a hard time keeping my eyes open through movies like that.
Okay, listen to this. One day I heard that a certain band was recording a music video at West Edmonton Mall. I told Barbara about it and we went to try to be in the video. When we got there and the band came out and started playing the music, it suddenly dawned on me that I absolutely hated this band. When the camera cranes would float by I did my best to avoid them. We left a little after that. The band was Nickelback. Seriously, I made a wrong turn that day. Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.
Barbara and I moved to China in February of 2006. We came to Xining at a time when a lot of the people we knew were not around. So, we stayed at Bill and Amy’s first apartment and watched a few seasons of the tv show 24. About a month ago we got a little completion in our lives by finally watching the last season. Jack Bauer had been there being awesome the whole time we’ve been living in China. We’ll miss you, Jack.
Language class was a headache. I remember, in the middle of one class, just getting up and walking home. Not words. No explanation. I just got up and left. Frustrations abounded.
One of our classmates was a guy named Tyler from California. He was a cool guy. He wore overalls a lot. In China, you wear overalls if you are pregnant. I don’t think that he was pregnant but California is a pretty crazy place, so who really knows, right?
Barbara and I have been in a lot of places together. It was almost 5 years between having our own apartment. We lived in community for most of that time either at camp, in Edmonton, or in Hawaii. I remember when we were packing for China Barbara and I had an argument over the inclusion of a potato peeler in our luggage. She said something like, “I haven’t had an apartment in 5 years and I am going to have my own potato peeler in China!”. I guess it was a really nice potato peeler or something. Okay, the truth is that I know it is a great potato peeler. I use it all the time. I guess this was one argument that I am glad I lost.
Anyways, I guess the main point I see here is that even though China was, and still in most ways is, completely foreign to us, it was the first place where we finally felt like we had a home. Then, our leases came up in our first 2 apartments and now we find ourselves in our 3rd apartment in 5 years. I don’t even really know how that is possible.
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