I’ve been in China too long —

I’ve begun to stare at white people. 

Back in Beijing.

“It was like a timewarp.” And so sums up a week which began in the international city of Shanghai, seeing the USA pavilion, clubbing with people I haven’t seen all summer — moving to Yan’an, the birthplace of the Revolution — to Xi’an for a brief few days, enough to want to return to a city so imbued with the culture and history of my favourite Chinese Dynasty. 

There are so many aspects of this trip that I found worthwhile -

1. The opportunity to see Yan’an, somewhere I never would have traveled to on my own. Getting to understand the history, the culture, and the “spirit” of Yan’an; the treatment we were privileged to receive from the government and the university, the genuine care of all of the students we interacted with truly touched me.
2. Getting to meet and get to know everyone I didn’t see over the summer — the Shanghai/Changsha/Taiwan folks, or even just Wanliu people I never see, the random moments we bonded over late at night, bus rides, and lectures.
3. Group 2, the absolutely amazing group dynamic we had - the serious and intense discussions we had (while still having fun), our table toasts at dinners, talks on bus rides, the quotebook, the jokes, and the general incredible support and self probing we had.
4. Getting a brief glimpse of Xi’an — I know I want to return to this city. I want to see the historical sites, to stand on the city wall, to try the food. But it was a good teaser and one day I know I want to come back — this time, armed with my arsenal of Tang Dynasty poems. Walking that street at night, reading poems I had long forgotten, sent chills through me — a bittersweet remembering of all the poetry I once had memorized, and a longing to return to that childhood.
5. The conversations I had, the personal struggles, the small things that perhaps no one else noticed but to me mattered. 
6. The experience of watching JC run a program — I learned a lot from his leadership style and it’s given me a lot of food for thought. 

It’s been a whirlwind of a week. I can’t begin to describe it, and my pictures barely do it justice. One week left in Beijing and then back home — home, home home. 

And you — you, you, you.