I realized that it’s almost April and I haven’t yet written any sort of post this month. So I am going to attempt to rectify this.
Most notably, at the beginning of this month my parents and bothers came to China to visit. I think they had a good time (correction, I've been informed a better description is a WONDERFUL time), and I’m really glad that it worked out for them to visit! The fist weekend they were here we took a trip to Luoyang, which is a city I have been to once before. When I went there the first time, it was during middle of winter so it was great to go again now that the weather has gotten better. We visited an amazing garden where the Peony Festival is held each year. We were a little early for the festival, so only a few of the peonies were actually blooming. Though, personally, I thought that the gorgeous flowering trees were even more beautiful than the peonies the city is famous for. There were hundreds of trees, many with different and vibrant blooms. It was probably the most beautiful garden I’ve ever visited. Even the air there smelled lovely, like sweet flowers and fresh grass, rather than the usual smog/sewer combination I’ve become accustomed to. After we returned from our weekend trip to Luoyang, I worked during the week while my family went off to Xi’an. When they returned all 5 of us went to Beijing. We visited a section of the Great Wall about three hours outside of Beijing, and did a 10 km hike along it. The day we visited the wall was amazing, the sky was clear and vibrantly blue, which is rare for China. I thought it was a really great day, and while the hike might have been a little difficult for some of the members of our party, it was totally worth it.
We spent a last rainy day in Beijing, and then my family returned home, and I headed back to Zhengzhou once again. It was great to see my family, and caused me to realize a few things about myself. Mostly, just how protective I’ve gotten of certain things while I’ve been in China. It’s just that some things are so hard to come by that I have begun to see them as treasures (example: cough drops). I’ve had about a million coughs since coming to China (I hate, HATE, Chinese air), and it sucks to not have any cough drops available when I need them. I’m sure they sell them somewhere in this country, but I haven’t seen any. I’ve had a horrible Chinese version (black liquorish tablets = worse than any cough), and maybe if I tried harder I could find something better. But this isn’t something I think of doing when healthy, and when unhealthy, an adventure though various pharmacies in search of suitable cough drop substitutes is not high on the list. I had recently received a couple of bags from America and had a solid cough drop supply, that is, until it was threatened when basically every member of my family developed some sort of cough (China’s 'Welcome!' to any visitor). Consequently I was faced with a team of hacking visitors and yet found myself only grudgingly handing out cough drops, as if it caused me physical pain to part with them. I’m a horrible person. If they’d have come anywhere near my chocolate stash, hands would have been lost.
Other “interesting” news is that it has been confirmed- my last day of teaching will be June 4th. I am hoping to do some traveling after that, the length of which is dependent on the availability of funds. I have no idea what I will be doing this summer after I get back, nor exactly what I will be doing next year. I do know that I will for sure be attending graduate school. I applied to master’s programs in biology, and was accepted to all three schools to which I applied. I didn’t apply to many schools because I knew the decision would be hard enough, not being able to visit any of the programs (as is generally customary). And this is indeed the case. I’ve been doing little else besides stressing over the decision. Hopefully soon I will have it figured out. It’s crazy to think that in about two months, my time here will be finished. Where did it go?
When I returned from my spring holiday in late February, I was ready to be done with China. I think the exhaustion of traveling and of seeing someone from home took its toll on me. By the end of my trip I had wished I were going home instead of returning to Zhengzhou. But now the weather has gotten better (I say this as a small sandstorm rages outside), I’ve gotten back into the swing of things, I have some really great friends, and I honestly feel sad to think about leaving. Of course there are certainly a few things I miss from home (including but not limited to: nature and other assorted green things, blue sky, places to go running that don’t involve congested roads or a treadmill, burritos, Ben and Jerry’s, baking and baked goods, air that doesn’t leave me sounding like a TB patient etc.). But there are also a number of things that I will miss about China (including but not limited to: milk tea, my good friends Pancake Lady and Noodle Lady, cheap food in general, seeing at least 4 people riding on a single bicycle/motorbike at once, other ridiculous and dangerous things that amuse me on a daily basis). How about I give some examples of amusing, ridiculous and dangerous things? On a few separate occasions I have seen men fixing power lines on ladders. Three to four men lean a metal ladder directly against the thick bundle of power lines (not even against the power pole, just the lines themselves) and hold the bottom of the ladder, attempting to balance the poor guy at the top. Safety first. Also, the other day I watched as three men heaved a wheelbarrow full of cement up to a fourth story window using a single rope and a tiny metal pulley. Of course other men were working directly beneath the swinging wheelbarrow. And finally, just today, as I was riding home on the bus, a car was driving in front of us in the lane that is designated for rapid transit buses and emergency vehicles only. The bus driver was not happy about this, and honked his horn at the car for about 5 solid minutes (including the entire time we waited at a red light). The driver of the car didn’t seem to get the drift, and if anything, just drove slower. So the bus driver got right up on the guy's bumper, and finally the car figured it out and moved over to another lane. But, the bus driver was not through, and swerved over at the car, completely cutting it off and causing the car to swerve into the next lane, where it then hit another car (very slight impact, tiny fender bender). Was I frightened? No. Did I laugh? Yes I did. It was just ridiculous, that the driver of a huge bus (it was the kind with the added accordion-like attachment making it twice as long as a normal bus), carrying at least 80 people, was driving like a maniac. The most humorous part was that nobody else on the bus seemed phased.
So what’s my point? I’m not really sure. I guess I’m just going to miss all these little everyday surprises and adventures that have made my time here, while occasionally difficult, oh, so worth it.
