Reverse Culture Shock

Being back in America has been... surreal.

At first, I just didn't quite feel right. I couldn't figure out what exactly was wrong. I just felt tired and disconnected. A lot of that was jet lag. Some of it was because I'm getting ready to move away from home, as this is my last semester of college, and a lot of things are changing.

I had a lovely holiday and caught up with friends, and now I'm moved back to Tulsa. I miss a lot of things, but I miss speaking Chinese every day the most. I ran into one of my Chinese friends and got to speak a little with her, and I ordered food for my mom and some friends in Chinese. It tasted almost like I was there because I'm lucky to go to school in a city with a few authentic Chinese restaurants. But it wasn't quite the same. I'm going to need to learn a few recipes.

I'm ready to teach my friends how to play mahjong and to learn to make new dishes. I'm (almost) ready for my Chinese literature class that technically counts as advanced Chinese. I've come a long way, and I brought a lot more back with me than I ever expected to. I guess that happens when you go somewhere so different from where you live.

I may be back in America, but my Chinese adventure has only just begun.

Beijing Again

The skies are also blue today. Compared with the recent pollution in Xi'an, it's a relief, even though the air has been cold and the sun set early.

We walked the hutongs and saw the Temple of Heaven. It was a nice, quiet last hurrah. Then we played mahjong at our hostel. Mary and Malcolm left a few hours ago. Shelby and Daniel leave in a couple. I want to grab a shower, but they're not around much longer.

The last time I was here, I didn't know how to say hardly anything. I relied heavily on Shelby for help feeding myself. Now, I can chat with the cab driver and read some street signs.

The night before that last Chinese final (which was surprisingly easy), I deleted that old phasebook app on my phone. I remember when it was so hard to try to remember how to say a phrase correctly. Now I know the words, how to say them, what they mean, and how to write them. I could make those sentences on my own. Some of them currently come a little more easily than my English.

It's hard to believe it's almost over. I've been in this place with these people so long that I can hardly believe this departure doesn't mean a break. It'll be interesting to see what going home feels like.

I've done so much more in China than I ever imagined. Especially at the end there, my experiences started to get through to me in ways I can't quite explain yet.

I'm ready to go home. I want Christmas and friends and family. But I also want to see these friends again someday. And come back to visit China.

I'm not sure that I'll have another chance to post from China. I might send something from my phone in Chicago. It'll be weird that Facebook and Blogger will work on my phone again, let alone texting and phone calls!

I guess all I can say now is, "再见，中国！"

To Beijing

I took my last Chinese test this morning.

This week, I've had my Silk Road test, oral exam, exit exam, literature final, literature paper, Capstone project, and Chinese final. In addition to packing. But it's all done now.

I'm getting ready to go to lunch here soon. It's our chance to say goodbye. We've made a family here. I honestly wasn't expecting to. I've been here for four months without going home. It's the longest I've been away. And it's the longest I've been someplace I may never go back to. I hope I get to someday.

I got a little bit emotional when I was working on my Chinese final today. Last time in that classroom. Last walk back to my dorm.

At our little closing ceremony, we're going to show the video we made on the Silk Road trip, which I hope to be able to post at some point, if we get it working. I don't know whether I'm going to laugh or cry. Maybe both.

I'm taking the train tonight with Shelby, Mary, Malcolm, Daniel, and Joey. It'll be nice to have one last day. I wish we could have taken more with us, though.

It's so weird that the flight I booked forever ago is almost upon me.

I should be able to post again in Beijing.

For now, 再见!

Last Afternoon Out

I'm supposed to be doing my homework, but instead, I'm feeling the end sink in.

Today, I took a study break with Shelby and Mary to go to the Muslim Quarter one last time. There were a couple of t-shirts that we wanted to look at (it's so touristy of us, but we wanted something that wasn't a qipao, something we could wear on a normal day), and I didn't get persimmon cakes or pomegranate juice the last time I was there, and I wanted to have them one more time.

Here are some pictures from my last couple of trips:

Biang biang mian - one long noodle! "Biang" is the most complicated character in the Chinese language.

I wanted to type in the character for you, but I can't. Nor can I copy and paste it from anywhere.

In fact, it can't be entered into computers at all.

Have a picture from Wikipedia:

A new paper store opened up recently with a lot of postcards and buttons and things specific to Xi'an. Here's one gem:

Elizabeth contemplates a purchase.

I loved the way these were set up.

I commissioned her to write my Chinese name in calligraphy today. Her work is lovely. Also, she was wonderful to talk to and kind enough to let me take this picture.

These past couple of days, I've done the last of my hand-washing (in the washer and by hand), packed most of my stuff, done most of my last-minute shopping, studied my last new material, wrote my last Chinese essay, done my last worksheets, written a paper for literature, taken my Silk Road class final, worked on my Capstone, and studied for my Chinese final. I'm getting everything done ahead of schedule, but when I consider that I have three nights left in Xi'an (COUNTING tonight, and it's almost 11:00), I don't feel too on-top of things.

At this point, there's still so much I want to see and do and learn, still so many friends to spend time with, so many things to try, that my new catchphrase is "I'll sleep on the plane." Don't worry - I'm still getting healthy amounts of sleep. And I've managed to wake up at a consistent time all semester! But I'm not going to stress out over time. I'm going to do my work.

Last Class

Well, not quite. But it was my last class with new material.

My last dictation assignment.

I guess I should be glad that it's time to buckle down and study, that I don't have anything new to cram in before the final test on Friday, but I'm kind of sad about it. I love my Chinese class. I've learned so much this semester.

I've made plans to continue studying Chinese next semester. It's a class a bit above my level, but I'll have all of the resources I need to succeed. And it'll push me to get better.

I'm excited for Christmas, and I'm excited to see my family and eat certain American foods (although I'm currently in a moment where the cravings have subsided), but I'm also pretty sad.

Holidays!

I'm taking a much-deserved break from studying, cleaning, and packing. Yes, packing. I leave Xi'an on Friday.

The program just kept going by faster and faster. And this last week is going to be super short. Mostly because I don't have a full week left in one place.

So, in the midst of all of the chaos, I'm going to talk about the holidays!

Our group is incredibly lucky because we have someone named Emily. The same Emily who pushed me to dance with everyone for the Mid-Autumn Festival. She saw to it that we had a Halloween party, and she also made sure that we had a Christmas party. Alliance provided Thanksgiving.

Our "cranberry sauce" which we had with pizza and Chinese food.

At our Christmas party (which we rented an apartment for and cooked for and invited our roommates and teachers to), Orion opened his present.

Hugging the calligrapher.

Did I mention that we did Secret Santa? We totally did. My Secret Santa was Daniel, who got me the notebook he caught me admiring. I was Shelby's Secret Santa. How perfect is that?

Look at Joey and Emily having fun.

We played games and made food (including mashed sweet potatoes and grilled cheese and taco salad and anything else we could make without an oven), and it was pretty awesome. Our group is really close now. Riding camels and getting sick one after the other will do that to you.

It's so weird to be leaving. Today marks the end of my last weekend in Xi'an. I have a lot to do to wrap up and not a lot of time to do it. We're planning our last meals here and everything. And trying to cram in things like "One last trip to the Muslim Quarter - I forgot to have a persimmon cake last time!" and "We need to watch another movie all together!"

A big part of reverse culture shock will come from the breaking of our Fellowship (Allianceship?) here. We're so used to speaking weird combinations of Chinese and English together. And being a short elevator ride away from even the farthest person.

I'm currently previewing my last new lesson for the semester. It's the second part of Chapter 21 in the second book. It's not all that far, but it's a long way from knowing nothing at all!

I'm going to stop myself from getting too reflective here because I have a couple of essays that need written before our study party tonight. The internet has been finicky, but I should be able to post more throughout my last week here.

This time next week, I'll be boarding my plane.

Silk Road, Part 3: Xinjiang

At long last! You know, I've only been back for a month and a half...

First stop was Urumqi! It's the capital of Xinjiang Province. For those of you who don't know, Xinjiang Province is the huge northwestern province that is also sometimes known as the Uyghur Autonomous Region. Urumqi has a lot of Han (the people we normally think of as "Chinese") people, but in general Xinjiang is home to a lot of people of the Uyghur nationality.

We didn't stay in Urumqi long. Just one night. I was feeling a little ill (still due to dehydration - DON'T BE ME), so I mostly read. We took it as something of a rest day before we went to Kashgar.

And boy, did we need it. Xinjiang was where we did most of our hiking.

Here is some sort of reservoir scenic spot:

But just look at how pretty.

Mary and Elizabeth! And yes - that's snow!

And we hiked to Shipton's Arch:

You stand on this hill that you just climbed. There's the arch. You look ahead. Through the arch, the world falls away.

We also saw a glacier. My first glacier!

More snow! Such a pretty hike.

And that's a glacier.

Shelby is from Texas. She couldn't stop making snowballs.

In Kashgar (which is nearly as far west as one can go in China), we met some Uyghur students and cooked with them. My knife skills were appreciated, but they were so much better! One of the girls belonged on the Food Network.

Gotta fan those kebabs.

Our new friends!

They know the Lizzie McGuire Movie, it seems. And we somehow remembered the words to that song from the finale. It was quite the bonding experience.

The whole Silk Road Trip was quite the bonding experience. Afterwards, we found ourselves missing group meals and spending all of our time together. We started throwing parties. We've had Halloween and Thanksgiving so far. Our Christmas party is Saturday. We invited our roommates and our teachers, and we're going to cook a little American food to show them.

I have a little over two weeks left in China. It's hard to believe.

I'm going to start working on some more reflective posts about the end of my time here, and I'm also going to see if I can put some things together about Calligraphy Street and Xi'an traditional crafts. Stay tuned for those and for a more in-depth post about Chengdu!