a dream

the morning light gleams in their hair, bringing out the red that earned them so much attention in taiwan.  awake before dawn, after baths and breakfast, their first request was to bike to the playground.  it's still shaded at this hour, but i can't convince them to put on their jackets in the cool spring air.  hair streaming, arms and legs flailing, they fly on the swings.  little l, who could just manage to ride the bike before we left, confidently does laps around the equipment.  with her jacket tied around her waist, c looks more like a schoolgirl than a toddler.   reminders that time didn't really stop while we were gone.

c says she's hungry, and i marvel again that a day's travel brought us from a bustling city life, with food stands and restaurants and 7 Elevens lining nearly every street, to this suburban development with its planned green space and sleepy lanes.  buses, taxis and scooters have disappeared with the morning, along with the pervasive need to impersonate a taiwanese person and explain my illiteracy =p  it will take us some time to process the last month, but for now it feels like waking from a vivid and imaginative dream, with the bittersweet combination of memories made and loved ones now separated by the seas.