Travellyn

As I entered into the rest stop bathroom with my mom after touching down at O'Hare I couldn’t help exclaiming, “AH this bathroom is so NICE!” My mom chuckled slightly in response and stated, “Lyn… this is just a normal gas station bathroom.” I also marveled at the fact that you can throw the toilet paper IN the toilet…

Welcome to my re-entry to America! Though I’ve been back two weeks now, there are still things I analyze daily… like how clear the sky is, how fresh the air is, how uninhabited Iowa seems. I love that an absence of toilet paper in bathrooms is usually an abomination. And cars drive in such an orderly fashion. I almost forgot to leave a tip at the last restaurant I was at! I suppose that’s a customary practice here…

Honestly, I thought I’d have some more insightful culture shock comments, but aside from analyzing my physical environment, the re-assimilation into my home culture happened rather quickly and quietly. I wasn’t shocked by the swarm of English words buzzing around my head or overwhelmed by the plethora of signs with letters instead of symbols. Instead, it was more like I woke up one morning and thought… Wow, I had the craziest dream last night that I lived in China. Then the phenomenon occurs where if you don’t consciously recall what your dream was, it starts to quickly dissipate as you move about your day because it was so far removed from normal life.

Then some strange symbols will pop up in my Gmail inbox. Various students have described to me how incredibly hot it is in Shijiazhuang now (and I know those students live in un-air conditioned dormitories). Since they’re ending classes, most will go home for the summer. However, in order to secure a seat on a train home, many students left campus at 5:30 AM to ensure they’d be first in line for a ticket at the train station. I feel a twinge of guilt as I tap out a response on my Mac in my air-conditioned dining room with my car only feet from the front door.

Probably the weirdest thing about being back in the States is being uncertain of my next step at the current moment. In a society where, “What do you do?” is a common first-meeting question and our occupation helps us identify who we are… I feel slightly identity-less. Especially after being touted as an exotic, beautiful foreigner so different from the masses. However, I became pretty accustomed to living with questions and uncertainty in China, so though the feeling is still uncomfortable, it’s a rather familiar feeling as well.

Though this does mark the end of an era, I don’t really plan for my return to the States to mark the end of this blog. Whether it’s random life anecdotes or tales of future travels, I plan to continue to enjoy and comment on the journey. Though I’ve just ended one chapter, I have a feeling my story is just beginning.

As this is starting to verge on extremely cheesy and annoyingly rambling, I’ll just say stay tuned for what’s next. Whatever, where ever that may be…

Until then… zaijian!

I woke up this morning and as I lay on my back and gazed at the underside of the bunk bed above me in my Beijing hostel, my first thought was, “Oh my god. Today I am going to America.”

To backtrack slightly, the art of packing was… not really an art. If it were, my packing would be analogous to abstract art, or more likely a toddler dabbling in finger painting. Things were grabbed out of my wardrobe and swept off my dresser-top haphazardly into two suitcases. How I managed to arrive with three bursting suitcases and leave China with two that seem to be exactly at the weight limit is somewhat of a mystery.

But to clarify, I’m still in Beijing. After I woke up weirdly early from sun streaming into my eyes and remembered that I’m actually going to be in my home tonight, I definitely couldn’t fall back asleep. So instead I decided to grab a latte in my hostel lobby and post one more rambling entry before I depart this hemisphere.

Since my thoughts are incredibly scrambled and I’m confident whatever else I write will either be emotional or totally incoherent, I’m going to reflect on my year using a method I always turn to when I feel slightly overwhelmed – lists. This would explain the sticky-note clutter on my desk, walls, and planner in college… Anyway, without any further ado:

Transportation Methods:

Plane
Bus
Train
Foot
Horse
Bike
Boat
Motorbike
Cable car
Kayak
Ferry
Car
Rickshaw
Taxi
Subway

Some Crazy Things I’ve Eaten:

Dumplings
Hot pot
Chicken claws
Fish Head
Cicadas
Frogs
Lamb Kidney
Chicken Heart
Stinky Tofu
Chicken Liver
Pig Intestines
Duck Blood

My activities of the past year range from amazing to the completely mundane (I’m already tiring of the list format…). My life was filled with the daily routines of teaching class, going to the gym, being squashed on buses, doing laundry… but I have also learned to surf, spoken Chinese, watched an Indonesian cliff top fire dance, explored a cave, climbed a mountain, cycled through the Bali rice paddies, watched fireworks in Vietnam for the new year… the list goes on. I’ve laughed and cried, felt excited and bored, met a plethora of new people and made some extremely amazing friends.

I suppose though it’s pretty impossible to sum up the past year, I thought I’d at least give you my last insights from my final morning in China while sipping my latte and checking flight times online. In a couple hours I’ll lug my suitcases out to a cab, go through the obligatory security checks in the Beijing airport, board a plane, and go home.

Go home… it’s felt like a ridiculously long time since I’ve said those words and actually meant the US rather than my Shijiazhuang apartment. So since I can feel this post becoming overly long and taking an awkward emotional turn, I will just conclude with saying though I’ve done a million various things the past year, I absolutely can’t wait to be back home and see all my family and friends whom I’ve missed A LOT!!!

And now… off to the airport, a 14-hour flight, jetlag, and AMERICA! I’m coming home!

I took the liberty to alter a song from one of my favorite musicals that I deemed to be pretty fitting to express my current feelings...

To the melody of "Seasons of Love" from the musical RENT:

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand minutes in China.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In dumplings, in students, in honking
In lots of chopsticks
In scooters, in bikes, in slit-pants, in kuai.

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure
A year in the Orient?

In squat pots, in temples, in street food
In millions of people
In ping-pong, in trains, in markets, in planes

In taxis, in spitting, in hostels
In KTV’s
In bus rides, in gifts, in baijiu, in rice

In classes, in new friends, in festivals
In holes in my clothes
In kebabs, in smog, in hutongs, in tea

So I changed it around a bit, but this is the point in the song where they start wailing, "How about love?" Which would actually be a pretty accurate term of measurement since the Chinese people are by far some of the nicest people I've met in my life. But really, the point is I have no idea whatsoever how to begin to fathom I've been in China for a year and will be heading back to the USA in exactly a week. ONE WEEK!

Have I graded my students' final exams yet? No.
Have I begun packing? No.
Do I remember what's in my closet in America? No.
Do I have an American driver's license? No.
Do I remember how to drive a car? Debatable.
What am I doing when I get back to America? Good question.
Do I have a plane ticket back to the States? Yes.

I've always adhered to the idea that life is a journey, not a destination to be reached. While I'll be closing a chapter in about a week, I'm also excited for what's next, whatever that may be. However, for now I'm going to enjoy my last week in China with some great people who've made the past year an unforgettable one.

Stay tuned for closing reflections, the art of packing, and comments on the United States from a long estranged expat.

And now - off to enjoy the sizzling, 90 degree city that is Shijiazhuang. Hallelujah for discovering a pool!!

Until next time!

Music.

Those of you who know me at all are probably aware music is an intrinsic part of my life.

I sing constantly, love to play piano and clarinet, have an itunes library that would take 16 days to play from beginning to end, completed a music minor in college, attend way too many concerts (I already have tickets for a concert a week after I get back to the States), see musicals often, perform in musicals… the list goes on.

So to say that music is probably the thing I’ve missed most in China other than my family and friends is an understatement. In retrospect, I can see how this has manifested itself into an over-dependency on my ipod. However, my musical collection keeps me grounded in a culture overwhelmingly different from my own and motivates me on grumpy days.

The other day I finally discovered a piano in a vacant classroom. Needless to say, after sitting down almost reverently on a piano bench for the first time in many months, I proceeded to play and sing my heart out for over an hour. After playing every single song in the three measly books I managed to stuff into my overflowing luggage, I sat in silence (this doesn’t happen often) for a moment and regarded my surroundings. It was almost strange to take in the chalkboard with its chromatic scale and chord progressions and realize… I could understand every single symbol on that board.

Which is when I had somewhat of a musical revelation: Music transcends. Music transcends language, boundaries, time and space.

I remember attending a symphony during one of my first months in China. Though I couldn’t even hold a simple conversation with any of the players, I understood completely what they were trying to express through their music. We didn’t need words.

Since this post is starting to sound a little too theatrically dramatic, basically what I’m trying to say is somebody buy me a piano for my next apartment please. But all kidding aside, it felt like a profound, if obvious, realization.

On a non-musical note (no pun intended, seriously), I recently had one of those moments of horror all teachers must feel at some point when a student asked me, “When will you go back to Africa?” Instantly my mind replayed every class in quick rewind as I digested the idea that this student actually went the whole year thinking I came from AFRICA. Yes, please disregard my Kenyan upbringing as I tell you all about American culture… However, at my confused and startled expression she quickly stammered to correct her country selection and we both shared a good laugh over the miscommunication.

Though I would love to see Africa someday, I think I’m pretty content with my next destination being the United States. And though parting is such sweet sorrow (to continue with the dramatic theme), I’m anticipating many joyful reunions back in the homeland.

For now, I am off to grade some final exams and enjoy my last few weeks on this side of the world. Stay tuned (I’m really not intentionally continuing to make musical references) for the final days…

Zaijian!

Just a couple random notes as I sit at my desk on a gloriously sunny Sunday morning sipping my (not so gourmet instant) coffee.

First, I will depart China in less than three weeks. The idea is starting to seem more real to me as I begin to wrap things up with my students in preparation to give final exams next week. Though I am extremely excited to be home again and see family and friends, leaving will be incredibly bittersweet! My students have definitely been one of the highlights of being in China...

Second, on Friday I became a Chinese TV superstar!! If you have ever seen the TV show “Wipeout,” then you have a pretty good idea of how I became famous. The show I appeared on was called “Obstacle Course”… pretty self-explanatory. While on this TV show I would either “fail” and fall in some water or win 1,000 yuan! Though my performance was pretty underwhelming, my friends and I did have some pretty hilarious wipeouts – stay tuned for videos! However, we weren’t alone, as not a single person could finish the course!!

The incredibly difficult course... and this is the part no one even made it to!

The fearless foreign competitors!

Even now, after 9 months of being in China, I still continue to learn new things that never fail to surprise me. A couple examples for your reading enjoyment…

The majority of Chinese people can’t swim.

When men and women get married they both keep their respective last names. Any children will take the father’s last name.

Females and males can’t get married before the ages of 20 and 22 respectively.

Kobe Bryant is hands-down the most popular NBA player in China. I have yet to meet a Chinese person who can explain this phenomenon to me. I actually had a student who picked Kobe as his English name and managed to squeeze a Kobe Bryant mention into every writing assignment given.

That is all for the Sunday morning ramblings. Stay tuned for the final weeks in China! Until next time… zaijian!