Back to Being a Beach Bum

I've been back in the states for a couple weeks now. I work at Warren Dunes State Park in the campground office and go to the beach on my days off or whenever I get the chance.

Hard at work at Warren Dunes.

I've been keeping a mental list of things that I'm thankful for here at home. Food tops the list, among other things:

1. Food that I am used to, especially dairy products. I am thankful for cheese mostly, but also for skim milk that I trust. Milk in bags always kinda freaked me out in China.

2. Driving wherever I want, whenever I want, with the AC and my music blasting. No more crowded metro rides with sweaty, smelly people!

3. The weather. With heat indexes over 100 degrees in Shanghai right now, I am thankful for the 'mild' Michigan weather. The nights are nice and cool and I missed sleeping with the windows open.

4. Being able to read! You don't realize how much you take for granted being able to read road signs, billboards, food labels, etc. until you can't anymore.

5. Old friends. I missed them.

I apologize to anyone still in China reading this, but if I had a choice I'd still be there. I've been keeping a list of things I miss about China as well:

1. New experiences. You know how they say you learn something new every day? Definitely true in China.

2. The food. I know food is on both lists but I miss trying new foods in China. The canteen food started to get pretty gross by the end but going to restaurants was always exciting (mostly because I didn't know what I was ordering).

3. New friends. I miss everyone in China. I made some great friends and I can't wait to see them in the fall.

4. Traveling and sightseeing. I can't see myself going back to China anytime soon and I wish I could have traveled to more places. I keep getting emails from friends still there about traveling to different places and I wish I could go with.

5. The big-city nightlife. Nightlife in St. Joe consists of walking around at Best Buy and/or Wal-Mart, or driving around aimlessly. Enough said.

I've been trying to prepare for Guatemala by bringing my Spanish book to work and reviewing my Spanish. My mom has also been giving me daily Gutemalan crime updates and travelers' recommendations to insure that I'm fully terrified of Guatemala City before I leave. (We're not spending any time in Guatemala City). I'm also reading a book called I, Rigoberta Menchu. She tells the story of her life during the Guatemalan Civil War.

21 days to Guatemala and counting!

¡Adios!

Katie

From Shanghai to St. Joe

I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to update before I left. The last few days just flew by. I've been home from China for two days now, and I can't believe it's really over. This has been one of the most fun, interesting experiences I've ever had and has only made me want to travel more. I even more excited for Guatemala now.

I chose China because I knew basically nothing about the culture and language--I wanted to experience something different and new in a culture that was very unlike the U.S. I toured Europe in high school with the orchestra for 2 weeks but this trip has been completely different. I didn't know anyone else on the trip ahead of time, and while it was initially rather scary flying to a foreign country alone, it really forced me to open up and make friends. Too often I feel I rely on other people for new friendships so this trip has been a real growing experience for me. I'm leaving with a great group of friends that I hope I can keep in touch with back in Ann Arbor.

This trip has also really opened my eyes to globalization... perhaps maybe globalization isn't the right word. More like I realized that I know very little about the world. On this trip I was surrounded by people from around the world who speak and read two (or more) languages. I felt a little inadequate with only my English (and very limited Spanish, which obviously wasn't of much use). It's a little strange when Chinese people, assuming you don't know Chinese, address you using English... sometimes it made me feel like I gave off the ignorant American stereotype. In bars and clubs we met people from Finland, Mexico, and Italy, among many others, and they would always speak to me using English, their second language. But I was here to learn, and by the end of this trip I feel I was able to communicate a little more. I can at least understand numbers and a few key phrases in Chinese, and I am even more interested in learning Spanish now.

Knowing so little before departure meant that I came in with very few expectations and that definitely helped with the initial culture shock and helped me be able to 'go with the flow,' so to speak. Being back in the U.S. is pretty weird now, perhaps I am experiencing the 'reverse culture shock' they described at China orientation. The first thing I noticed is how green everything is here! You never really notice how little grass there is in Shanghai, and how much you miss it. I couldn't stop telling Sophie how green everything looked today. I keep wondering, "where are all the people?" And I feel pretty non-environmentally friendly driving my car around everywhere after riding the metro for two months. St. Joe is pretty sleepy compared to Shanghai.

Anyways, before I left I made a day trip with three friends to Hangzhou, which is a really pretty town about an hour away from Shanghai. The town is centered around a big lake called West Lake. There were a lot of trees there, which I realized I really missed. We rented bikes and rode around the lake, in the end we calculated that we rode almost 13 miles. I have officially experienced the most important component of Chinese culture now, bike riding! Here are a few pictures:

So green!

We took a boat to an island called "three lakes mirroring the moon." Inside the island were another three lakes.

Jonas found bike riding to be quite easy.

See that pagoda in the distance? There were escalators to get up to it. We didn't get a chance to go in because we ran out of time.

A touristy shopping street.

One of many lakes.

Old people doing Tai Chi in the morning.

I miss China and friends a lot already. But I am thankful for a few things here back in the U.S. I'll update in a little bit with some reflections. Check back soon. :)

Katie