The Pacific Ocean

I always associate the Pacific Ocean with the west coast of the United States and the Atlantic Ocean with the east coast. All the maps that we see are centered around the Atlantic Ocean so that your eye is automatically drawn to North America and Europe, while Asia is far off to the right and the Pacific Ocean is cut in half. Last year though, while visiting my friend in China, I saw for the first time a map that was centered around the Pacific Ocean.

Though I had never thought about it before, it made perfect sense. Of course you would want to adjust your perspective according to where you live. As we travel around Taiwan, I have found myself adjusting my perspectives as well, no longer observing things with an American eye, but rather experiencing life as a Taiwanese person. I have been reminded that we are so much more similar than we are different.

Driving along the winding Pacific coastline of Taiwan brought me back to that map where Asia and America were so obviously bound together by the Pacific Ocean, where Asia and America didn't seem so far from each other. The vast expanse of water glistened turquoise, lapping against a shore that quickly gave rise to steep mountains. Listening to the happy music in Cape No.7, I drifted in and out of sleep but was always greeted with an ocean view every time my eyes opened as our bus wound through the mountains, onto our next destination.

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At the tea factory, I sat behind a row of little kids. The little girl in front of me, around 7 years old, heard me and Ten talking in English, so she asked us where we were from. We told her we were from the United States. Then she asked, "if you're from America, why is your hair the same as mine?" So cute and smart, don't you think?