Omgosh, today was SOOOOOOOOOO good :) First we went to class, then we went to Katie’s apartment for our last meeting with her and to debrief… It was sort of a bittersweet meeting, because we always have SO much fun with her and I love to hang out at her apartment, but it was also the last time I’d see her, so it was sort of depressing. We ate lunch with her (we made buffalo chicken wraps :)), and then we just lounged around and talked. We walked around a park nearby her apartment, which was really cool because it had like an amusement park and zoo inside of it. There was like tigers and lions at the zoo, but we didn’t get to see them because we didn’t want to pay money to get in. But the park was super cute…there was this little playground of exercise machines that lots of old people were exercising at…and the machines were really fun, so we played on them for a little while too. Then we went back to her apartment and made crepes with Nutella (BEST STUFF EVER, I’ve decided) and just ate them while we sat around and talked. After a while, we got really tired, so Katie let us just take a nap on her couches until we had to leave. Man, it was so sad leaving though…it was always super fun hanging out with Katie, I can’t believe it’s over. We’re never really going to have a hangout like that again. So depressing….Anyways, we said our last goodbyes and left after hanging out with her for like nearly 6 hours. Then we went to hang out with Laurie and Evonne for the last time, which was also really sad, but really fun. It was a good way to spend our last time together. First we went karaoke-ing at this pretty awesome KTV spot with tons of English songs, and we ordered food and ate dinner there. It was so much fun…Laurie’s roommate, Christina, came along too, and she’s super fun to karaoke with. Unfortunately, Evonne and Joanna didn’t sing much because Evonne doesn’t like singing and Joanna is sick, so her voice is almost gone. But we still had a lot of fun. After karaoke, we went to get massages at a massage parlor. It was AMAZING. Hahaha, I didn’t realize how tense my muscles were until I went in there. It was a cute little place near People’s Square, and they gave us soft pajamas to wear while they were massaging us [see picture :)]. We all got full body massages that lasted for an hour, so by the time they were done, MAN we were relaxed. I seriously felt so much better after that…I just wanted to go to sleep. I also realized how much my feet have been hurting because we walk around so much here…I didn’t realize it before, but when my feet started getting massaged, it was kind of sore. Man, I’ll be glad to go home and rest them for a while. It was good to get this massage to relax before we start totally stressing out about our test on Thursday HAH.
So while we were at Katie’s, she gave us a little debriefing of things to do before we leave. First, she gave us this little metaphor about round & square heads. Basically everyone in China has a round head, and Americans have square heads, so when I first got here (and still now) I stuck out like a sore thumb. But now that I’ve adapted a little bit to the culture and I blend in a little more now, my square head is sort of become round at the edges, so it’s more like a rounded square. Now, though, when we go back to America, we’re going to stick out in America because our experience has changed us, and won’t really fit into American culture but neither in Chinese culture. And no one will truly understand our experience unless they were here with us. I think this is so true…I am already having trouble finding the right words to explain my experience and how it’s changed me. It’s sort of sad, though, because it’s such a huge experience and I want to share it, but I can’t. The next thing she told us to do before we get back home is to make an “elevator story” of our trip here. When we get home a lot of people will ask us how our trip was, but only a few will really want to hear everything about it. So she told us to prepare an explanation of our trip that can be given in a 2-minute elevator ride with a person, because if they ask us how our trip was, we can’t give them an hour long explanation. And chances are, they won’t want to hear that long of an explanation anyway. So I’ve been thinking about my elevator story all day because there’s just so much to include and so much I can say about how this trip has been. But I think I’ve got it now, so here’s my elevator story.
My trip was really amazing; it truly opened my eyes and my mind to China so much so that China is a definite possibility now for potential work or live-abroad plans. At first, it was really hard for me to adapt and I missed America so much, but I think I developed a comfort zone and now I feel like I could really handle being there longer. There are so many things to do and so many interesting people to meet, and I feel like I just barely scratched the surface. I think before I went to China, I bought in to the misconception the Chinese people are rude and unpleasant, but I realized that that’s just their culture. Honking at a pedestrian or cutting in line isn’t considered rude; it’s just how things are done. In fact, most of the Chinese people I met were quite pleasant; I made SO many good friends and even enjoyed talking to the taxi drivers. They really liked talking to me too even though my Chinese was limited, because I guess they don’t get to talk to their passengers that much. I wish I could speak Chinese so that I could connect with them so much better. But now I’m really driven to learn Chinese so that I can go back and talk with and meet more people.
Man, it’s just starting to hit me how much I’m going to miss Shanghai. The thing I’ll miss most is definitely the friends I’ve made here…I’m not sure why, but I’ve felt so much more free with Chinese students than I have with friends at home, so they’ve become my really good friends. Even with Katie and Laurie I’ve been more open and free, and hanging out with them today made me realize I’m going to miss them a lot. There’s also a bunch of little things I’ll miss…the cute little bakeries with delicious breads, the cheapness of everything!, the delicious smell of freshly made bao in the morning, all the convenient stores, the KTV, the ridiculous ponchos that people wear to cover themselves & their bike while it’s raining, the hilarious signs translated into English that make no sense, the bumbly old Asian men that walk around with their hands behind their back just seemingly admiring the view around them, the delicious desserts that are only lightly sweetened to suit Chinese tastes, and oh the list goes on…
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