One more argument for having Friends

Sometime ago I was visiting Washington DC with my friend terry. DC is really the perfect holiday destination for cheapos like me - it houses one of the best (in my opinion) and largest museum complex in the world, the Smithsonian. And it's absofreakinglutely free. (Which is partly why it features so highly in my opinion).

So, the Smithsonian in DC consists of 13 museums (including a Zoo), spanning a length of 1 mile (1.6km), and ranging from the obvious (Natural history, Modern and contemporary art, Air and Space) to the less expected (Postal, Asian Art). Of course we spent most of our 2 day visit there, plus the national gallery of Art, which was in the same area.

The size of the crowd was pretty intimidating, it being a Summer national holiday extending into a weekend. There were scores of Asian tourists around - old chinese couples out on day trips with their children and granchildren, no doubt on a short trip to visit their children who are working here; young asian women hanging onto their significantly older caucasian ... er... boyfriends, whom we saw by the dozen (whats up with that?), young families out for the weekend from nearby cities.

Among the young families was this particularly irritating young family of a chinese looking guy with his wife, whom we met in the National Gallery of Art. They are most probably chinese because they spoke chinese accented mandarin.

A little bit on the Gallery setup - it was divided into multiple rooms, each with a theme (either by type or date of art, or artist). The rooms are interconnected via opened doorways, and the exhibits are placed on or near the four walls of each room, at the middle of which the interior designers had thoughtfully placed four long benches, each facing one wall, so that visitors could sit down and feast their eyes on the pieces.

We first met this couple in front of this giant oil painting of Daniel in the Lion den. I was sitting on one of the benches facing Daniel, feeling really tired from walking and dehydration, when the front view of The Wife Holding The Kid suddenly appeared in my field of view, followed by the back view of her husband holding the camera. *click click* went the camera, *flash flash* went the flash. Then, camera and kid was exchanged between Hubby and Wifey, and Wife took a picture of the Husband in front of the same Daniel with Lion painting. "oh they like the painting huh?" I thought. "Those lions are really good"

So we proceeded to wander around, with peace in our hearts and ache in our feet. In the next room, right in front of a painting of Claude Monet's garden, we encountered this couple again. *click click* went the camera, *flash flash* went the flash, kid and camera exchanged, wife and husband took turns taking picture with the same painting, without even looking at the painting before and after, or noticing that their little film fest was blocking the people on the benches who were trying to appreciate the art.

Pretty soon we were noticing this couple everywhere we went -this cam whoring addict pair on a speed trip. They would arrive at every single famous piece of painting, hastily insert their body into the center of the frame , disregard the crowd that was orderly gathered in a semicircle around the art, and take turns taking pictures, to prove that NOT ONE, but BOTH of them had been in the PRESENCE of EVERY, SINGLE, FAMOUS piece of art in DC's National Gallery of Art. Our shared Asianess and Chineseness, and the disgusted expression on the other patrons deepened my mix of horror, shame and amazement at what they were doing. Long after that day, I kept repeating the story as amusement to my friends.

Fast forward to a weekend a few months later. I was lazing on my bed talking to one of my best friends Wai on the phone. She was telling me about her recent trip to Hong Kong and Shen Zhen.

Wai: I wanna show you guys my photos! But where can I upload them ha? Too many of them.."

KG: There're plenty of online albums that you could use la. How many pictures you took?"

Wai: er.. alot. I think about 1500 with me in the picture.

kg: What?? How many days did you go ha?

Wai: 3 days lor.

That divides out to 500 pictures per day. How does one manage to take 500 pictures per day?? Read on...

Wai: We went to madam tussaud's wax museum. I took picture with every single one of the wax figures! (Insert kg's gasp) Must be worth the trip. And we actually spent 2 1/2 hr on a stretch of road that was just supposed to last 30 minutes, because we were taking pictures. The tour guide just about died because he insisted on walking with us instead of taking the bus.

both: hehehe.. wahahaha..

In a flash i was reminded of that chinese couple we met in DC. And suddenly I felt very sorry for making fun of them, and looking down on them. Because, one of the people who are dear to me, unbeknown to me, exhibit the same cam whoriness that they possess. Although I highly doubt that Wai will display such blatant disregard for the world in search of the perfect picture, i no longer think that cam whoringness, or the desire to take pictures with every living thing that one comes across, as dungu exploits. That same photo-taking-obsession, when seen in Wai, becomes just an endearing quirk (and the usage of the word "quirk"means only that it is strange to the writer in her own limited understanding of the world). Because although we sometimes irritate the heck out of each other, a more caring, lovable, trustworthy, loyal and responsible person is hard to come by. She cares with actions, not only words. And I know of at least 2 other girls who count her a blessing in their lives.

So, no, i don't make fun of the Couple At The Museum anymore. Because, who knows, taken out of the museum/gallery setting, they might be really great people like Wai. Plus i totally would not make fun of Wai the way I made fun of The Couple. There you go, one more argument for having friends, they help us decrease our contempt towards other people, because realizing and accepting differences between friends allows us to extend our sphere of acceptance to similar differences from other people too.

And wai? i would still totally love to go on trips with you, but let's avoid locations with wax museums.