...not very English

OK, there were lots of elements to my dream, but for the sake of keeping this post short and sweet for myself and for anyone reading, here's one little part that I easily recall at this Saturday noon hour:

I'm sitting in a bus that actually looks more like a shuttle van than a bus. There are two seats in a row, separated by a little aisle. I'm sitting near or in the middle row of the bus on the seat in the right, facing the front. There is a lady sitting on the left diagonally to the front of me. She is with two daughters, one sitting directly behind her/next to me, and the other sitting directly behind me. The lady looks over to me and comments, "You know, I was looking at your red frames..." I'm anticipating a comment or compliment on my red framed eyeglasses, since in waking life I have been receiving many unsolicited compliments on them from strangers and friends and seemed to be used to this response even in my dream. The lady says, more or less, "You know, I was looking at your red frames and they drew my attention in...I noticed your face looks English. You know, most Chinese people look a certain way, but your face looks a little English." She and her daughters continue to converse on the matter while I wonder if they are of English heritage, and then the daughter behind me says what sounds like, "And we're Scot..."

The whole time, I'm thinking of educating the mother that "I'm Taiwanese, not Chinese," but end up not doing so as it doesn't necessarily explain my looking "different" than most Chinese people*. The daughter behind me continues to ask in excited curiousity, "How do you stay so thin?!!" I tell her about not overeating, nutrition, and metabolism...(I think this element of body image was triggered by the most recent 30 Rock episode I watched before going to bed. If you watched it, you know what I mean.)

*a majority of Taiwanese have either recent or centuries-old ancestral ties to China and therefore, may share a similar look. Differences and nuances that are more apparent may be found in speech, dress, history/heritage, culture, diet, lifestyle, etc. Some of us, if not the majority of us, have aborigine ancestry, and it's possible that that mixing and even adaptation to living on the island may have given some of us, amongst other things, a Taiwanese look, body-wise, but I'm just speculating...

Have you ever been to Nebraska?

Well I hadn’t either until the other night. Of course my Nebraska wasn’t anything close to the likes of a glossy travel catalogue written in Tahoma font. But still, I will contend forever that I did indeed travel to this often neglected state.

I don’t know if you know, but Nebraska is completely surrounded by water, kind of like a moat. And there are no cars either. You have to walk across this narrow bridge that looks like it’s made out of three two-by-fours that run long ways for more than a hundred feet. Also, there are dolphins. That’s right, real dolphins of the bottlenose persuasion. Though I must warn you that these dolphins are not as friendly as the ones on TV. They kept slamming into the bottom of the bridge, looking for a free meal I suspect, or perhaps revenge for all the tuna sandwiches I have ever eaten. I happened to be traveling with my parents and so naturally I kept grabbing my mother’s shoulders to help her get safely across. After all, we were on our way to visit relatives that they hadn’t seen in some time.

The neighborhood we entered was a maze of streets that twisted in figure eights. Walking around the block would force you to make two separate decisions on which way to go. The houses were all the same (suburban sprawl is a bitch), painted sky blue with white doors, and a brass colored mail slot.

Inside, my cousins (too many to name) were sitting on lawn chairs and staring at the TV. In back of them on the ground lay the figure of a man lying with his arms spread like either a soaring pigeon or Christ (the latter is much more dramatic, so let’s go with that). He was wrapped in corn husks so I couldn’t tell you who he was, though I had this feeling that we at one time had been very familiar with each other. After a few moments one of my cousins stood up and declared that it was now time for him to be unwrapped. They took to it, pulling off the husks as fast as they could to reveal all at once numerous cuts of fruit that had been arranged in such a way. Slices of pineapple, watermelon, and cantaloupe made up the bulk of the torso. Blessed are the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. (I told you it would be more dramatic this way). They didn’t eat the figure but just stared for what seemed like hours, and I, right beside them all, did the very same.

Dreammoods.com says:
Fruit = a period of growth, abundance, and financial gain
Dolphins = spiritual guidance, your intellect, mental attributes and emotional trust
Nebraska = N/A