11/14/2011
Leaving Tulsa was full of last-minute effort but no hard task thanks to relatives, friends, neighbors and colleagues, James and I simply left everything we were doing at the moment behind to pick up with and complete a container art project in Kaohsiung. After 4 hours on the ground, 18 hours in the plane, and flying over the North pole, Siberia, Mongolia, Japan, Hong Kong, we landed in Kaohsiung City. Kaohsiung is a city in southwestern Taiwan with a population around 2.9 million. It is a center for manufacturing, refining, shipbuilding, and other light and heavy industries. Designated an export-processing zone in the late 19
70s, Kaohsiung has succeeded in attracting foreign investment to process locally purchased raw materials for export.
The images of thousands of factory workers riding their bikes passing through the gate are long gone. The old parts of the city welcome us with some breeze and quietness in the early morning. James and I passed through some narrow alleys and checked into a hotel.
- First line from One Art, by Elizabeth Bishop
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176996
