Ode to China

I’m sitting in my favorite cafe in Wudaokou, Beijing. My year abroad has almost come to a close; come July 11 I’ll be on a plane to Chicago. Right now, I look and feel as though I don’t have a care in the world – I’ve got my headphones on, typing away at my laptop, sipping a green tea frappe. But inside, I’m terrified. I’m terrified of what things will be like when I go home, I’m terrified of finding how I’ve changed as a person (what was that quote about finding out how you’ve changed when you return to a place that hasn’t changed at all?), I’m terrified of the reverse culture shock… well, I’m terrified of everything.

So I decided to write an ode to China as a way of trying to tie together all of my experiences. I wrote it as best I could, but I still don’t think this ode does my year abroad justice. It’s a start, though.

ODE TO CHINA

To Shanghai, where my adventure began with a crash course into how people don’t stand in line in China while queuing up at the Pearl Tower, and where we went country-hopping at the World Expo.

To Zhujiajiao, where I solved one of the impossibly hard puzzles in the German puzzle store.

To Hangzhou, where I discovered my talent for dropping dumplings into plates of vinegar, creating a mess every time, and where we never did find that damn tea house.

To Hefei, where I visited my first Walmart, and where we went through every Chinese traveler’s initiation of sitting a too long of a train ride in a rigid hard seat.

To Huangshan, where I climbed my first mountain, where I saw my first sunrise, and where slept in the hallway of a hotel for the first time.

To Luoyang, where my two guy friends let Chinese men take photos with me for 5kuai a snapshot and forgot to collect the money.

To Xi’an, where I cemented my friendships from fall semester and where I went tandem biking along the city wall.

To Chengdu, where I saw pandas and where discovered Soho.

To Longsheng, where I climbed a rice paddy mountain, and where I thought that there was a mouse nesting in my hair at 4a.m. because I had seen it scurrying around the room before I fell asleep.

To Guilin, where true friends stuck by me and where we went to get massages at 2a.m.

To Yangshuo, where I cruised along the river with the beautiful karst mountains surrounding me, and where I developed a soft spot for hotel rooftops.

To Nanning, where we caused a black cab driver to lose face by calling her insane after she tried to rip us off.

To Detian, where we saw a gorgeous waterfall and tiptoed along the Vietnam border.

To Haikou, where I bought the cheapest bathing suit of my life at 30kuai.

To Sanya, where we went white water rafting, lay on the beach, serenaded our hotel staff, frequented Club 88, and where I got over my fear of the water.

To Shenzhen, where I followed the numerous arrows pointing to Hong Kong.

To Hong Kong, where I got to show my favorite city in the world to one of my favorite people in the world.

To Macau, where we tried our luck at gambling… and lost.

To Guangzhou, where we bought a mahjong set off a mahjong parlor in a back alley.

To Nanjing, where 串儿-ing and 干杯-ing became verbs, and I went to my first hot springs.

To Tianjin, where we gorged ourselves silly on our lunch at Little Italy, and where I had real mochi for the first time.

To Taishan, where we bonded over the tiny space heater in our freezing room.

To Jiaxing, where I got my first taste of a business-type dinner in China.

To Zhengzhou, where we 入乡随俗-ed and hung out at the 网吧.

To Lijiang, where I saw the most beautiful sights in China, rode a horse up the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, conquered the Tiger Leaping Gorge, and made awesome Chinese friends.

To Shangri-la, where I experienced my first bout of altitude sickness and saw a Tibetan monastery.

To Kunming, where we celebrated a 21st in style.

To Jinghong, where we saw people plunge their cars in the Mekong in the name of car washing.

And to Beijing, which deserves an ode all of its own…