There's No Place Like Home

Now that I'm only a about a week away from getting back to the United States, I'm feeling a bit trunky (and by a bit, I mean I've been thinking about seeing my mom and eating chips and salsa for a month now).  Lately I've been contemplating the differences between the United States and China; other than my family and friends (because obviously those come first).  I've found that there are a few things that I will really miss about Beijing, and a few things I will definitely NOT.  So here they are, since I'm an optimist, the things I'll miss will go first.

1.) Food

First and foremost I will miss the food, I haven't posted my food post and it's because there is literally so much food in China; I'm 90% sure that if I tried everything there is to try in Beijing, I would return to the United States at least 50 lbs. heavier than before.  But everything here is so tasty and exotic.  It's way different than the food back home.  I have rice with almost every meal and have eaten more meat in the past month than I care to admit (it's not my fault China isn't vegetarian friendly).  Luckily one of my favorite dishes I can easily (and most definitely intend to) cook at my home.  It won't be the same, but it'll be good enough.

2.) Discovering

I'm really going to miss finding new things that I like, or really don't like.  I'm relatively familiar with most things in the States.  But in Beijing, there's new things at every corner.  Makes sense since I've only spent about 4 months of my life in this city.  The Chinese do everything so different than we do.  I'll be frank, some methods I think, "Yeah, that's so smart, why don't we do that?" And others, I just wonder how anything gets done.  Nevertheless, I question everything I run into; for example, how a business can be demolished and replace in only the short span of two weeks; why people think it's okay to leave their restaurant doors open when it's 21°; or why there's only one unlocked exit door to the outside in my entire school.  These are the questions that plague my mind...

3.) Seeing Characters

Seeing characters instead of words really scared me.  Especially when you see it on the menu.  But as the weeks wore on, I was able to recognize a large majority of them.  I'll admit, I feel a bit proud of myself that even though I still can't understand exactly what people say; I can at least read some signs proficiently.  Also, I always though that unless characters were written in a clear font like Times New Roman I would never be able to read them; this turned out to be untrue.  Now I can recognize all sorts of characters albeit I have stare at them a little longer.

And now for the things I won't miss, luckily these things don't counter the good things.  They're only minor, but also so frustrating at the same time; sometimes I didn't know if I was going to survive.

1.) Dirt under the fingernails.

Seriously, this makes me so annoyed.  No matter how much I clean them, they always have something underneath them.  When I'm in the States, dirty finger nails are a sign that it's time to cut my fingernails.  Here in China, the only time my fingernails are clean is the 3 hours after I clean them; then they always seem to get dirty... It's not like I live in a rural area and work in the garden or the field all day; I sit in a classroom and take notes all day.  Fortunately, I was able to ignore it for the most part, but the last few weeks I feel like I've turned into the CDO person who has to always have her fingers perfectly clean.  Thank goodness I'll be returning to the United States where my fingernails and I can live in peace and harmony.

2.) Carpet

I know it seems really immature to be missing carpet, but it's such a precious commodity; where in China can one find such soft plush comfort for one's feet? I can tell you, NO WHERE.  It's so sad.  In addition to the absence of supple ground for me to walk on, my feet are constantly cold.  I now understand the importance Chinese people place on wearing slippers inside, if people didn't, I'm sure that 87% of the population would be missing toes.  It gets that cold in the winter time.  We've all had those siblings who came in from outside and then put their freezing hands on the back of our neck.  Yeah, it's like that when walking on the tile floor.  If I sit down for one minute, I don't want to move; ever.  Not even to eat, I'll eat when I'm warm.  But there's no escaping the cold; it's everywhere.

3.) Internet
About the picture to your left: I realize it's hard to understand why this represents the internet.  It's because I'm not at my apartment.  I'm in a Starbucks submitting my homework.  I traveled 30 minutes halfway across town to get there because the internet at my school was like glue drying on a sloped surface...

I really try my best not to surf the internet.  I like to live my life as free of digital things as possible, but sometimes school forces me to use the internet.  Furthermore, if I ever hope to talk to my family again, its necessary to use my email or Skype.  We all like to reminisce about dial-up internet; how hard it was when you were 14 and wanted to talk to your BFF on the phone, but somebody was chatting it up on AIM.  Dial-up (for those of you who can relate) was slow, but you didn't know any better so you sat and waited five minutes for your email to load.  In China we paid for, internet like dial-up connection, but at a high speed price.  Semi-unfortunate when it's 11:57pm and you still need to submit an assignment by 11:59.  Not that I've ever been in that situation....