One Month After China
… and I’m ready to go back. Nah, just kidding. There are certainly things I miss about China (my girlfriend being first and foremost), but I really wasn’t getting much enjoyment out of teaching, and there are so many things about China that drive me crazy and would have continued to do so had I stayed. For the sake of my sanity, it was important to leave.
But being back in the US has been rather stressful. A lot of chores pile up while you’re away, and the job market ended up being considerably bleaker than I imagined. That’s a rude awakening. But there are some good things about being back, too. It’s nice to be around my family again, and it’s nice to have Mexican food and legitimate copies of video games readily available!
On the other hand, it’s hard to go from being a foreign teacher and being treated like a celebrity (for better or worse) to being just a plain, old US citizen again. I don’t stand out at all, and few people even bat an eye when they hear that I’ve been living overseas for 18 months. If that time has done anything for me, it’s just put me way out of the loop.
Part of the problem is that I’m from a small town in Utah. The population here has yet to break 10,000. Changzhou had a population of 3.5 million and enough shops and restaurants and fun things to do to support that many people. In a city that big and crazy (this is China, after all), every day was an adventure (again, for better or worse). Believe me, I’m hoping I can move soon, but for the time being, I really feel like I’m just treading water.
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Responses to “One Month After China”
Comments RSS Feed – All CommentsHopfrog — 27 February 2010 @ 11:36 pm
You know, people’s indifference to certain things just bewilder me. If someone I just met or even knew told me they had just returned from 18 months in China I would be so excited to talk with them about it. Not because I am interested in China too, but because it would seem like an amazing experience I would want to hear about. I know that feeling though that your going through.
I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail (2,168 miles) from Georgia to Maine in 2002 and it was a 6 month adventure. I was amazed that 70% of the people I told about it didn’t even have but maybe one or two questions about it and like you say, didn’t even bat an eye. 20% wanted to put me on trial and ask me a bunch of unrelated questions to try and expose me as some kind of imposter, and 10% seemed actually interested.
I don’t know if the vast majority of people are truly uninterested in adventures like these or if people just have a scarcity mentality and a little jealousy which make them not want to delve into it. Its weird though, to me at least it is and I know exactly what your talking about.
Got the combs, thanks for the prize their pretty neat.
Oh, and if you or anyone who stumbles across this is interested, there is a book called “A Walk in the Woods” which is about the Appalachian Trail experience. Even if you don’t care about the Trail, but just want to read something hilarious, it is the funniest book I have ever read.
http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Woods-Rediscovering-America-Appalachian/dp/0307279464/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267335383&sr=8-1
Clark — 28 February 2010 @ 12:17 pm
When you say you thru-hiked, you mean you stayed on the trail for the entire six months? That’s incredible. Sometimes, it feels like people don’t do things like that anymore. Maybe that’s why there’s so much disbelief and “Nuh uh, oh no you didn’t.”
For me, living in Utah, it’s kind of the opposite. Kids get sent to foreign countries all the time on religious missions. So I think when people find out I was living abroad but not “teaching the gospel,” they lose interest.
I would love to hear more about your experience on the trail, though, but… maybe the comments section of a blog aren’t the best place. I’ll send you an e-mail.
Hopfrog — 28 February 2010 @ 4:59 pm
I sent you an email. Yeah, what you say makes sense. A lot of people who were hiking the trail just for the weekend or to see a specific site were bewildered that it was possible to hike along a 2,000 mile trail.
Jessica — 28 February 2010 @ 9:02 pm
One thing I think is a part of the indifference - people over here really don’t know what’s going on in China. I don’t know about you but our first hours in China were a shock to me. The cloudy sky, the spitting, the noise, and Hallooo!!’s were nothing I imagined were a part of China. Not to mention the cold! (lol, American moment - China gets cold? wow!)
I find when I talk about the experience with others who have been to China the conversation takes off. What city did you live in? What did you think of such and such…
Another thing I’ve found is that in different areas of the US people react differently when you tell them about such amazing experiences.
In some areas people hear you say “I lived abroad in China teaching English” and they say, “That’s cool, how was it?” and leave it at that. (lol - “How was it?” How are you supposed to answer that?) A lot of people seem to ask a simple question like that when they don’t have the ability to relate to that experience.
The area I am living in now in the South people share their entire life stories and LISTEN to each other. All when they first meet each other. It’s considered rude to not show interest in the other person’s story. The first time I went through this, I was in a restaurant in Savannah, Georgia. The waitress talked to us a long time and shared details about her Christmas with us. To me and a few West coast people it’s crazy to us that people share their life stories with us as soon as we meet them, but I like it.
Hope your transition to coming home goes well. Enjoy the Taco Bell! I remember the first time I went to Taco Bell after ILP I ate so much food! Good luck finding a job. The computer/IT/technology jobs are pretty scarce right now. Sorry to hear it’s been a little more difficult for you than you’d thought. Is your brother still in China?
Hopfrog — 28 February 2010 @ 9:53 pm
lol, I grew up in the south, maybe thats why it seems weird to me.
Clark — 1 March 2010 @ 11:07 am
Jessica?! I didn’t realize it was you, because your new last name was throwing me off. Thanks for commenting. Like you, the cold was the first thing I noticed about China. I never really thought that it would be cold, but then I didn’t know anything about China before we went. I expected to see fireworks and parades around every corner. The parks would be full of old people waxing philosophical and practicing kung fu. While you do get some of that, it’s mostly just busy streets, dirty alleys, crowded buses, and lots of pushing and shoving.
So, yeah, people don’t know what really goes on in China. In fact, I recently ran into an older gentleman who acted like he already had China all figured out and couldn’t understand why I didn’t like the “socialist” government that took care of everyone and gave them a job and a place to live and food to eat. Uh… I hate to break it to you, but it’s not like that at all.
Oh, and my brother came home with me.
Hopfrog — 1 March 2010 @ 4:27 pm
Man, the pushing and shoving, easily the one thing I thought was the most uncivilized aspect of the society. Getting on a train was like a battle in Thunderdome instead of an orderly procession.
Also, in the train station, my wife went to the restroom and left her purse on her chair. Some dude came by and just took the chair without even asking while I was sitting right there. I grabbed it and he didn’t even bother to acknowledge anything, just let go and grabbed the next one he saw.
I guess its a byproduct of a huge population. Sort of like how adults who come from big families tend to eat very fast, just a byproduct of learning how not get left with a small plate of food.
Clark — 2 March 2010 @ 11:39 am
Come on, there’s got to be huge populations out there that don’t push and shove everywhere they go! I just think they use the “because there’s too many people” card as an excuse not to change.
Beijing has actually started implementing “queue guards” to force people to line up for the buses. Of course, as soon as the guard is off duty, the lines go back to their usual disorderly selves.
Jessica — 2 March 2010 @ 4:17 pm
:) Sorry I didn’t clear up the “new last name” thing… oops! You must have really wondered about the “Diarrhea” comment a while back. I didn’t even know you saw my last name in the comments/makeup of your website. Oh well!
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