Happy Birthday

It’s official … I’m 27 years old. I’ve been checking for wrinkles on my face and sagging body parts and things are about the same as when I was 26. But 27 sure does feel a lot older just because of the number. I’m a lot closer to 30 now and it seems like someone in their 20’s is more likely to play with life and do impulsive things. What I’m trying to get at is that I never want to grow into a static adult routine. All of this traveling is reminding me of how opportunistic the world is and why living is so important rather than simply going through the motions and one day realizing that old age has caught up with you.

So Aaron and I are seizing our moments and he is surely treating me with special care. For my birthday this year, he out did any of my past surprises. It sure is nice to be loved.

Knowing how much I miss the sight of forests and smelling fresh air, Aaron took me to Beitou which is a hot springs haven nestled in the mountainous tropics. For 2 nights, we stayed in a resort that has it’s own springs on-site surrounded by lush gardens. It’s a Japanese style hotel where you leave your shoes in the lobby and wear slippers to your room. Each room offers woven mats on the floor with a low table and pillows for seats. One of my favorite services offered here is a large thermos of hot tea brought every morning to the room. It stays hot even into the evening.

The owner and operator is an old Chinese woman who’s been living and working here since her teens. If only I could speak Chinese I would love to question her about a more detailed history of the place. One tidbit that we do know is that Japanese kamikaze pilots spent their last nights here during World War II.

And this would be a terrific place to spend that last night of your life. It’s calm and meditative. We opened our windows in the morning to hear birds instead of traffic and at night I cherished the sounds of dogs barking in their yards. In between those nature sounds was a lot of silence.

So with that silence we spent a lot of time in our room relaxing and celebrating an older Jenny. Actually, this year I felt like I had two days of birthday celebrations. Because we are 13 hours ahead of the States, when the 14th rolled around it was still my birthday in the US. To fully appreciate this, on the 13th we had an ice-cream party in our room, and on the 14th we had cake.

Tomorrow we leave for Huwei where we’ll stay with some of Aaron’s old friends for the week of Chinese New Year. I’ll be breathing deep until then.