Just to add to my previous post. I am learning a lot about how people act in certain situations. For instance Maia has this great quality when she speaks to a large group of people. She becomes extremely animated, and everyone is drawn into what she is saying! She uses her hands more, and her face becomes much more expressive. This quite a unique quality because I rarely see a person who can do this. I have also become really in tune with certain people's innuendos. The majority of them positive! It's quite interesting! And habits. Goodness gracious! Everyone here has they funny habits, like how some people pour the half and half into their coffee before they put the coffee in. Or in what order people eat their food. I find all of this quite interesting to observe, possibly because I'm never around lots of people! :D
On another note. Aaron made me slightly homesick today. We were pulling our dirt out in ceramics, and I smell this wonderful scent wafting through the air. I look over at Aaron's box and I see red clay! "It smells like home doesn't it Mei-Jing? It smells so good." Me: Like the just rained on soil in the summer." Aaron: "It smells good here too when it rains." Me: "They are totally different smells." Aaron: The smell of homey dirt can never be replaced." All I could do was smile after that. :_) Just the simple connections like that is what I love about being here.
Though I'll have a hard time leaving this beautiful place, and only seeing grayish colors is going to be devastating, but at the same time I miss the smells of my home. Especially the simple things like the dirt :) But being with certain people here makes me feel at home in a completely different way. And with that happy thought... peace out!
You are certainly right about smells making you homesick. 2 examples. When I was living in Turkey, out of the blue one day in a shared taxi I thought of my mother and missed her. The cause: someone struck a match from a match book, not a stick match. My mom was a smoker and that match book smell reminded me of her.
ReplyDeleteA better example: about 4 years ago I brought Joey home from the airport, he got out of the car and stood sniffing the air. It was the middle of summer and the magnolia and honey suckle were blooming. He said, "I miss Georgia and the sweet smell of the air."
After your blog, I now want to smell wet red clay. Love ya'
You know your family eats food in different ways...
ReplyDeleteOne eats a little f this and a bit of that (Frances and Albert, "So everything comes out right.") and the other eats all of one thing and then another. Coming out right is irrelevant.
:0
it all ends up in one place!
ReplyDeleteYes -- You and Susie are right. Even now, when I smell the first mowed lawn of the summer it takes me back to Clarkson Ave. in Newberry and all those summer evenings riding my bike up and down our street, waiting for the rest of the kids to come out and play. :-)
ReplyDeleteMiss you!
I have read somewhere that smells trigger the deepest of our memories. I too love the smell of Georgia red clay. One of my strongest memories is the smell of my Mema's dirt floor basement on 12th Street in Atlanta. Also the smell of moth balls on her line dried bath towels when we would bring them out of the cabinet to dry off after a bath. They would feel stiff until they touched your body. Then they were soft as could be. We miss you too, but know you are having a great time filling yourself with memories you will hold forever.
ReplyDelete