My return trip home, thoughts on China, etc...

I had a dream a few nights ago. I dreamed about China. I'm sure you expect me to say that it was a horror filled nightmare, but it wasn't. In the dream China held all things I loved about life; a promise land filled with joy and laughter. While walking down a random street in a random city, I saw a couple of members from the Chinese Women's Basketball Team. I made eye contact with one of the players-I saw them at the Wuhan airport on my way home, btw-- and she smiled at me. And then I ran into a random person from college. He was dressed up like a clown and was preparing to show the Chinese people his love for joy and humor. The dream made me happy. This is the first dream I've dreamed about the country; I didn't dream about China once while I was over there (dreams about the United States, every night). It's not often that a dream makes you happy, but this dream did. I woke up with a smile on my face and wondering just what the dream meant. I'm not giving this portion of REM sleep any spiritual or social interpretation, but still it makes me pause and think.

As you guessed, I made it home alright. Of course, the country wouldn't just let me leave without some form of trouble. When I arrived at the Enshi airport, inclement weather delayed my initial flight. Three hours later, I discovered that the delay would last eight hours, and I would miss my four subsequent flights. When I arrived in Wuhan that night, I found out, thanks to the translation skills of a good Samaritan, that the next available flight to Los Angeles was forty eight hours later. Luckily I had a friend in the city, (thank you Lucy!) who let me stay at her place for a few nights. A day and a half later, I arrived at the Wuhan airport only to find that the help desk had given me the wrong time. Thankfully, that flight was also delayed by inclement weather. A few hours later, while lounging in the Wuhan terminal I noticed my flight disappeared off the arrival/departure board (no ARRIVED or DELAYED or BOARDING, they just took it off the board) and it is a good thing the Chinese Women's Basketball team didn't mesmerize me too much, because I almost missed my flight out of Wuhan to Guangzhou.

My three remaining flights were uneventful. We did encounter some mad turbulence when flying over Japan (I was praying to God; the Chinese were all asleep) but besides that, the 12 hour flight across the Pacific went off without a hitch. On my flight from LA to Atlanta I sat beside two Hispanics, and I sat, on the charter flight from Atlanta to Nashville, close to a cute Hispanic girl who asked me "Do you speak Spanish?" I had to begrudgingly reply "No, no I don't." I'm pretty sure this is God's way of telling me to pick up the foreign language.

Even though, judging by the papers and the magazines, I should really be learning Chinese. Since my departure, I've noticed China's ubiquitous appearance in American media and culture has gotten worse. China is everywhere. This past weekend, my sister and brother-in-law gave me a Newsweek with a picture of Yao Ming on the front. Yesterday, I noticed three magazine at Barnes and Noble that had something about China on the cover. It's the new, hip thing. And well, I just got out of it. Since I've returned, I've had plenty of time to reflect on my Chinese experience. Here are a few thoughts:

I've had little reverse culture shock, nothing major. Here are the only examples: Americans eat way too much protein, Oranges should not be three dollars a pound, Americans eat way too much sugar and I still haven't become accustomed to putting toilet paper in the toilet (really, who does that?). There you go, that's it. They told us reverse culture shock would be worse than the initial culture shock, and, in my case, they were wrong. I don't have it, and I don't think I will ever have it. Life has pretty much returned back to normal in the good old United States; I'm in the same place I was before I left. Nothing has really changed (besides a few engagements and new gas stations) and life is not perfect, but I wasn't expecting it to be perfect when I returned. And let me tell you, it's a heckuva lot better.

And I mean heckuva. Of course I blame myself for all this, but still, I will take some liberties: I hated my Chinese experience because my Chinese experience sucked. Plan and simple. I had my "return home hi" and I've come down from it. But I consider life here exponentially better than life over there. I enjoy being back for the same reasons I fore casted months ago. Nobody uses me as their high-class American arm-candy; nobody tries to make me drink crappy Chinese beer; nobody feels insulted when I tell them, for a fact, some places in America are hotter than Wuhan; nobody expects me to give them free English lessons when they know three words of the language; NO BAIJIO (cept for the two bottles I smuggled back); no loud speaker that wakes me up at 6:20 every morning; the nearest large city is not 12 hours away; etc.

Sure, it sounds like I enjoy home because home is not China, but that is not entirely true. I do love home for what it has to offer, and China has made me appreciate those things so much more. However, I'm not the kind of person that is going to ditch a ten month commitment because I don't get to eat peanut butter and cheese on a regular basis. Since I've been back, it's been nice to eat Chic-fil-a and go to Barnes and Noble, but I haven't been pining for those things for four months. They are icing on the cake.

I've been renewed with a sense of purpose and optimism since I returned. I don't why, and I don't know if it will last, but I feel as if I now have the opportunity to do what I need to do. China is over, thankfully, and the days I never thought I would see are here. It feels like a dream more or less, like something that only happened in the recess of my mind. I feel like Scrooge on Christmas morning. I just had an experience that very few will ever understand, but that experience has made me better as an individual. I'm awake now, and even though nothing has changed since the night before, it's time to begin life anew. Whatever I do in the long term, whether I move to Nashville or ditch the place for some undiscovered metropolis, I will reflect on China as something that clarified my life. But, and I mean this, thank God it's over.

"I'll see you in the morning if nothing happens."

The Final Post from China

I arrived in China on August 24 and tomorrow, 136 days later, I'm leaving.

I also have a million and one things to do tonight, but I felt like the blog deserved one last post before I left. Some random thoughts:

I've been enjoying myself since New Year's Eve. I can't explain why. I have had more fun in the last few weeks than the entire four months preceding. Why? Hmmm. Why is a very good question. I've been going out and doing fun things with Chinese people (There is a story where I was dancing on a stage in front of 100 Chinese people in a Chinese dance club, but I don't have time to get into that).

Anyway. It's late. I find it funny that this blog is ending with a whimper and not with a bang, but I guess this is it for now. I leave tomorrow and get in America on Thursday morning. See you all then.

"I'll see you in the morning if nothing happens."