China Tales: Part II

At the request of a very special VIP in my life (a.k.a. my grandpa a.k.a. Papaw), I am going to finish this blog. It’s something I should have done anyway. I have no excuses, except maybe that the Chinese government decided to block blogger starting in May, which meant I could not access my blog. They also decided to block facebook shortly after this time—apparently blogging and facebook were distracting the youth of China. Imagine that!

Government limits on free speech and communication, however, is no excuse. Others in much dire situations than me have managed to get their messages back to their friends and families. My problem was that I had lost my will and direction a little bit over the last few months in China. Life had become hectic and confusing. Should I stay in China or not? If not, what do I do when I return to the United States? Once that decision was made (I am now in the United States in case you didn’t already know), I then had the task of soaking in any and every Chinese experience like it was my last. I went to Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Beijing—three of the most travelled places in China. I took a few final trips back to Hong Kong. I prepared for a visit from a good friend from America and for my last week of teaching. I did my best to pack a year’s accumulation of stuff into my suite cases. I went to countless goodbye dinners with the other foreign teachers and Chinese teachers, and I planned for a month of travel when my teaching came to a close.

I could leave you with that summary of my experiences over the last few months, but I don’t think that would be fair. So, I am going to back track, and tell you in more detail the craziness, the stress, and the fun that ensued over the last few months of this life-changing experience in China. Finally I will try to sum up what this experience has meant to me, and I think it will mean for me in the future. I will also tell you about readjusting to America, how it has changed for the better and worse in my eyes, and how my view of China has evolved over the past year.

I will do my best to give you at least one entry per week. If you see a lapse, feel free to write a nasty comment on my blog. Comments are always welcome. I love knowing what you like and don’t like about my entries. It keeps me motivated to write more.

Without further adieu, I give you China Tales: Part II.