Well, I’m home.
The flight back to the States was wonderful, seeing as I got a free upgrade to business class. (Score!) My best friend from Beijing came to pick me up at the airport after my own arrangements fell through, and it was wonderful seeing him not just because it’s been a while since we’ve seen each other but also because he, of all people, understood best what I was feeling when I first arrived in the States. I remember standing in the immigration and customs lines thinking that it was strange most of the signs were either only in English or English and Spanish. Definitely no Chinese characters to be seen…
I’m still a little jet lagged (why else would I be up at 7a.m.?) but otherwise, things are good. (I plan on going to Chipotle for lunch today, how can things not be good?) Strangely enough, I find the Chicago weather to be strangely cool. Yesterday it was around 73F with a wonderful breeze and I found myself almost shivering in my shorts and T-shirt. I guess I grew more accustomed to the smoggy Beijing heat than I thought I had, as I usually am pretty bad at handling heat.
Also, a question. I got a new cell phone number, and I’m curious as to what is the best way of 1) getting my friends’ numbers, and 2) letting people know I have a new number. Do people still do Facebook events these days to let people know? Or is importing my old contacts (manually, as I canceled my number when I left the US last August and have now switched cell phone providers) and sending out a mass text better? Or should I just opt for sending smoke signals instead?
