Payback

Whenever I travel, I always make a ton of drawings. Locals are always coming over to see what I am doing. A lot of times shopkeepers ask if they could get a copy of my drawings. Especially if it is of their store. They always give me their information. The surprising thing to most people is that I always send prints to those who ask. It is part of my unwritten rule. It is a pain but I know people must freak out when it arrives. Such a thing happened in France. We stayed at Mount Saint-Michel. Everyday my parents and Yun would get coffee and a pastry in a little breakfast joint within the old walls. One day they saw me drawing the church which happened to be right across from their establishment. They asked to look at my drawings. I showed them what I had done. They were stunned. I told them I would send them prints, which I did as soon as I got home. A few weeks later a package arrived. I thought, who the hell is this from? When I opened it, I was the one who was stunned. It was the lovely people from the breakfast place. They send me beautiful tins of cookies made at Mont St. Michel. Half a dozen boxes. There was also boxes of caramels, books about St. Michel and also old postcards from the 1930's. Wow, I couldn't believe it. There was also a bunch of key chains from there too. No one had ever done anything like that for me before. Whoever said the French were a bunch of snobs who don't treat tourists well, haven't been to the places I have traveled to. People are great. That's what I say.