See you, Popeye

Later, Mechelen

Our little ritual

Guangzhou Chinese New Year flower market

Not far, isn't it?

Jet-lag 7 hours

7 hours’ time difference, roughly 9400 kilometers apart, Guangzhou (China) and Mechelen (Belgium) are two cities which have nothing in common on language, climate, scenery and population. Hell, they’re even utterly disparate on cultures and customs.

All these differences, yet there’re no other two places in this world that could make me feel so close to. Home, they are to me. Family, living on two ends of the Eurasian continent, they’re my most precious treasure on earth.

In this" global village" era, travelling in between Mechelen and Guangzhou only takes around 17 hours in total. But everything changes sharply around us within such a short time. While we are embracing the happiness by coming back to Guangzhou, spending time with loved ones here; the sadness by saying goodbye to our family in Mechelen lingers; same emotion in reverse. Mixed feelings, the emotional jet-lag we experience is far longer than 7 hours.

“Time” is the key element in this story. You can easily find its trail: on a watch, on a clock, a cellphone, a LED screen and on an iPod. Or even easier, just follow the Customs Stamps, then you would have a complete and compact timeline to understand our journey, January 2014, flying back from Belgium to China.

Jet-lag 7 hours, such a painful feeling in heart, yet, it is the biggest gift we could wish for from this world!

Date
2014
Type
Illustration, story
URL
momomeng.carbonmade.com