17 days

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According to the calendar on my wall, I have 17 days left in China.

Three more weeks till I come home! Adjusting will be strange... at first I will wake up on my Mom's couch surprised that I'm not in Tianjin. Maybe this will happen a few times, and then after a while it while all seem like a dream, like none of this ever happened at all. Then I'll look over and see some small trinket which will remind me that his trip actually did happen, much like the little' boy's bell in the Polar Express. In my case, it will be a magnetic Tsingdao beer bottle-shaped bottle opener mounted on the fridge (*jingle*jingle*). I bought it in Qingdao, and I think it's one of my favorite things that I bought here, if for nothing other than the novelty, but now I digress. I've had good times, and bad times, I learned a lot, and I think I'll miss it here (just a little), but I'm also glad to be coming home. Most of all, I will miss the people. I'll miss living with my friends, and I'll miss the kind Chinese people I met... but not the rude ones. I'm not gonna lie, sometimes I just wanted to...grrrrr. That's besides the point though....

Some of my friends said that after coming here, they were disappointed to come home to America because they felt more at home in China, like they were Chinese. As for me, being here has made me and a lot of my other classmates realize more strongly than ever that we are Americans. I am hamburgers and rock music... and, and...yeah, that kind of stuff.

I keep thinking about the city that I live in. I think about all of the BIG, CLEAN parks, rivers and lakes that we have there (and in America in general). I think about how I can actually feel free to lay in the grass on my campus back home with out worrying about who peed in it (for the most part). I think about picking apples at a family owned orchard in the fall with my Mom and then turning those apples into Apple pie. I think about all of my friends at home. I think about all of the diversity that can exist n one small city and yet be so completely void from some place even larger like Tianjin. I keep thinking about how polite Americans are, and I think about our food. I want a burger, a brat, and a Chicago style hotdog. All three. On one plate.

I think I've learned a lot, and I grew in many ways. I know I'll have to come back to China at some point for a long time to improve my Chinese. If I don't, my degree will be pointless. I'm both excited and saddened by this thought. I feel like my first trip here was a test run. I'll know to do some things differently next time, and I'm sure my next experience will be richer for it. Right now my thoughts are mixed as I think about my future departures and returns from both the US and China. I think I want to come back to Tianjin next summer not only to practice my Chinese, but also so I can graduate a semester earlier (if all goes according to plan). We'll see!

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