bā lí kè

Firstly, the word "Balike",  I know, what the hell is that Juliette? Well, let me explain.

If you think that it's not an English word, you are correct. It's the word "巴厘客" in Pinyin, read "bā lí kè", meaning "The Balier", The Balinese" or just "The Bali Guest"?

And what is that suppose to mean? Well, like how I explained to my friend Miss Sparkle Mermaid- yes, that is indeed her real name- the idea comes from "New Yorker".  The New Yorker was translated to "纽约客", read “nǐu yuē kè”. I think it's a brilliant translation. Since usually the New Yorker, or the Shanghainese, meaning the people from there, the locals. However, 客，read kè，in Chinese means "guest". Sure, when I was younger, I didn't understand why it's translated that way, fair enough, the sound "ke" is similar to the "er" in English, but is that it? You see, as a kid, I'm already a pain in the neck for some parents and teachers. So I dug in and did some research, to my disappointment, it is just translated by the sound. But I formed my own theory, I think the people who landed on the name 纽约客 thinks bigger, that maybe "everybody is a new yorker", no matter where you come from. Or maybe, that wherever we are, we are just the guests, the land was there before us, it welcomed us when we are passing through, and we are forever the "kè" hosted by this generous Earth.

So I thought about the name "bā lí kè" to be my new column, I've met so many interesting people who called Bali home, they are not from there, but there they are.

Whoever I encountered has a good story of how they landed on the island, and while I'm 100% focused listening to those stories, in my head, I had this idea formed. I want to have this new section on the blog and I would call it Balike, it won't be an interview with someone, but just each article I write inspired by the stories of them though. It can be anything, from witches to recycle, but there's one thing I found interesting is when I ask, where is home, they would always reply to me by asking back, yeah, where is home?

Where is home?

In the movie <Julie and Julia>, (Funny, when Julie named the blog The Julie and Julia Project, I wanted to adapt that idea and start the "The Juliette/Julie/Julia Project and improve my cooking skills, my then-boyfriend was very excited about the idea and all the food that he's gonna devour, oh well.) Meryl Streep asked her diplomatic husband "Where is home?" I felt so relatable.

I don't know, where is home? I've always had a vision in my head, and that place where I had my beautiful home doesn't have a name. So I am forever searching, all the people I met here, they left their original home, and make this place, where they reside now, their adopted home, but then, where to next? In an age when everything changes in a blink of an eye, can we still find a sanctuary place for us to nest?

I know I know, home can be just a concept, not a physical place. " Home is where your heart is" right?  But my heart is in several places. Ha! you see, your heart is still longing for a place to rest, to come home to.

Looking back in history, in the special periods of time, a lot of people forced to move their home, from city to country, from east to the west, from mountain to the sea. But then there's also a time when people loved to be in one place their whole life, they loved the stability, the familiarity. I can't imagine people in our generation stays in one place their entire life, possible, but hard to imagine. I surely still have places to go still and " settle" maybe will never be in my dictionary.

What I can say is that I've lived in places and I felt home where I was at that present moment. I've also visited places that I thought maybe I was born there in my last life. I also imagined home in places where I haven't visited yet but longed to.

I got it when I asked the question, almost nobody can give me an answer, and when they ask me, I can say nothing but smile and look over the breathtaking sunset above the Indian Ocean, the yellow light reflects on my sunglasses and their eyelashes. Oh this golden age of ours!

So where is home? I don't know.

In the city where the skyscrapers shine neon lights;

In the jungle where if you look up there's nothing but the stars;

In the seaside where morning walk by the beach is how you meditate and get creative ideas;

In the country where trees are so tall and meadow so green;

In the mountain where birds sing your kids lullaby at night;

Perhaps home is everywhere.

And everywhere is home.

All photos by Xiaoyu shot in Shanghai, China (where once it's home).

The colors of the island were still so bright as if they were tattooed in front of my eyes, I wasn't ready to get into autumn clothes or any clothes in that sense. But three phone calls and two flights later, I landed in the pouring rain Milan morning.

Every country has color in my head, and Italy is forever this warm shade of yellow. It tastes like summer and sounds like an Opera. And Milan, to me, is the lady in a fine black Armani dress. Everybody dresses up in Milan. In the light of early morning, I saw a Granny dressed in this trench coat, silk scarf, stockings and kitten heels, and she's just about to go grocery shopping.

I like every city that still has trams, that every single joint has tasty food, that inevitably you will pick up some weight when you leave.

The last time I landed in this city was a beautiful early summer afternoon four years ago, and on my way to the airport, joined by a very dreaming sunset around 9 pm, the radio was playing "Romeo and Juliet" by Dire Stratis. So my memory of this city is sweet and romantic, with a warm shade of yellow, the Italian yellow.

Now I'm back here, every morning on my way to work, my lunch break, coffee break, and the evening walk, I snap the little things to refresh the memory, to remember, because I know, this is another city, that I will miss, even when I am still here.

I'd be honest with you, even though I did scale down the size of big cities in Europe, I am still very much amazed by how tiny the whole city is and how great it feels to just walk and wander around and you can get to pretty much anywhere by your own feet. But fear not, if you are not the type of person who likes to walk all day long, Milan has a pretty good public transportation system where you can take tram, metro and train to get to your destinations. Tram would always be my first choice on a raining day.

Thanks to the jet lag, I had some really quiet nights and early mornings alone with the city. Even it would rain later that day, the sunrise from my window was pretty epic each day. I didn't document many, but the ones I did, they remind me of that every day is a brand new day and there are so many possibilities and chances lay ahead of you.

Watching the dark slowly disappear and that golden layer appears above and becomes larger and larger, I would have this warmth rise within and that I know, as small as humans are, it is still a wonderful thing to be alive and to be here, wherever you are, to have this life, to walk the path, to make mistakes, to learn from them, to laugh, to cry, to dance, to love, to over and beyond.

All photos by me shot in Milan, Italy.