When Peiya met Cliff

We have two versions of the story of how we met.

Here's my part: It was the end of winter break '99, on American Airlines from LA to Detroit. Found my seat right in the middle of 2 guys, an asian boy in MICHIGAN t-shirt reading a chinese book sitting by the window. "He looked familiar, probably Taiwanese", I thought at the back of my mind. I took my seat, and felt really sick right after I took the seat. A kind air stewardess offered me a seat at business class, grabbed my bag and left! Upon arrival at the Detroit airport, Cliff came up to me at the luggage claim, offering some assistance. I had two HUGE luggages, and Cliff wondered what was in it, since I flew in from LA instead of Taiwan. It was frozen handmade dumplings from LA and of course, I offered some. He was kind to offer me a ride back to Martha Cook, but, another mentor was picking me up.. From then on, we became friends in college, as we both took Japanese language, by coincidence.
A birthday wish via email reignited our conversation again after busy college days. We met again in Japan 2005~ during my stopover from to NY to Taiwan. Our cyberspace communication lasted while I worked in New York and while Cliff studied graduate school in Japan.