I read a book recently called China Wakes about the experience of two New York Times journalists in China during the 1990's. When asked if they enjoyed their time in China they pretty much said it was interesting, not enjoyable. In many ways I'd agree. Living abroad is fascinating. I learned basic Mandarin and a great deal about the culture and history of China as well as the cultures of other countries we visited. I saw places I never even heard of let alone planned on visiting.
I went to Tainan, Taipei, and Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Tokyo, Japan. Seoul, South Korea. Bangkok and Koh Chang, Thailand. Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Udaipur, and Mt. Abu, India. Siem Reap, Cambodia. Hong Kong and Macau. Bejing, Xi'an, Harbin, Guilin, Yangshuo, Xiamen, Nanjing, Huangshan, Souzhou, Huangshan, Hefei, Tongli, Xitang, Jiaxing, Zhu Jia Jiao, Kunshan, and Moganshan, China. Danny also went to Lijiang without me. Not bad for three years, especially with the baby slowing down travel plans for the past year. We made friends from China, as well as England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Mexico, and Malaysia and learned about their hometowns too. I saw the Great Wall, Terracotta Warriors, karst mountains, the Taj Mahal, and Angkor Wat.
Our time in Shanghai is finally over. Living far from family, friends and everything I'm familiar with was hard. It took me about six months to really adjust and feel settled. Once I came down from the culture shock in day to day life we have our family and friends and our jobs and life isn't that different wherever you go. The small idiosyncrasies of a foreign culture make things challenging at times but after a while they become routine like anything else. I'll miss the travel but we are happy to leave behind the pollution and Chinese manners and return to the benefits of a first world nation. Most importantly we are happy to bring home Jonah and start a new chapter of our life as a family.
End of Blog... (Unless we move abroad again.)
No comments:
Post a Comment