I effectively sabotaged my quest for fortune and glory in Beijing. After my visit to the hospital I was a little less adventurous in China, sticking to the things that I would have done at home. I confined myself to mainly Western areas of Beijing with my foreign student friends, and my main concern was going out to bars in the evenings. As the national day vacation ended and Halloween approached, I got homesick. All I could think about was thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner, James Bond marathons on television, football and sitting on my living room couch with my family, blanketed in silence and sipping egg nog. I came to the conclusion that I would work in Beijing or Shanghai if I could find a job that led to a career path, but I no longer wanted to stay in China to teach English. I didn't see how I could get anything out of teaching English in China. I returned to the United States and wondered how China measured up to the mythical country it was in my imagination.
I think China is somewhat of a mirage for Westerners. It's comparative in size to the United States with five times the population. The longer I was there, the more I felt like I was satisfying some sick obsession with having an international experience. I setup barriers for myself constantly reinforcing the mindset that I was in an exotic land. One of the barriers that reminded me I was in a foreign country was the curious form of English written everywhere. Coincidently, the Chinese have embraced English far more than we have embraced Chinese but, there are problems. China’s brand of English that’s written on the signs throughout the country is its own. It's riddled with grammatical errors because the signs are translated literally rather than conveying the message in English. This is confusing to see, because sentences are not structured the same in Mandarin. The forms of English I saw on signs throughout China were not what I would have expected in a post-Olympic Beijing.
The Olympic Games are one of the oldest traditions of the Western world and they defined the ancient world's relationship with outsiders. The popularity of the games has exploded in the modern world and its ability to traverse cultural and political boundaries is exceptional. Being host to the games is recognized as an honor by most of the world, and the people of China are proud to remind you of the summer of 2008 when all eyes were on Beijing. Cab drivers point out the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube when you drive by. The people are friendly despite the extra attention you might get as a foreigner. Granted, there are more, and maybe the percentage of people who are friendly seems less because of the lack of personal space, but it was a great experience spending an hour in a cab conversing with the driver who was eager to teach me Mandarin and to hear what I liked about China. The doctors at the Tsinghua hospital were helpful as well, and had I not been afraid of needles, I probably could have finished my treatment at the University and gone home the night I caught dysentery. I was glad to confront my most crippling fear in an environment so far removed from my home. I was also glad it was with friends I’d only met a month before.
The sites we visited exposed how vast the differences are throughout China. I was extremely pleased to see Inner Mongolia, Chengde, Shanghai, Xi’an, and all the historical landmarks I saw with my classmates. It allowed me to put the history of China in perspective with that of the rest of the world. Though the Terracotta Soldiers, the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City inspire completely different reactions, they are all powerful landmarks. Visiting them and understanding the context of the 60th National Day of the People’s Republic of China allowed me to understand the current state of China since it opened itself to the United States in the 1970s. I look forward to following its political and social changes throughout the course of my professional life.
I will miss some of the food tremendously. Peking Duck and dumplings are on my list of things to find in New York so long as they compare to the quality of China's. I've already found a KTV in Brooklyn, but I might stay away from those until I can continue that challenge of uncovering the Texas girl's accent. I will also miss eating lamb off of a skewer when I don’t need much to eat but I’m looking for a late night snack. It took my body a while to adjust to the food but, I have learned to appreciate most of it. Rice may become a staple of my diet and I might even have to buy a set of chopsticks to show off the skills I honed in Beijing.
I plan to return to Beijing in the future, after I’ve made an honest attempt at the professional world and after I've seen as much of America as I've seen of China. I hope that I can show friends around some of the places I’ve been, and recall the stories from the most memorable semester of my life. I didn’t quite find the fortune and glory I set out looking for, but I am grateful for the experience, and I would recommend it to anyone who already had the idea of going. Maybe I can find that fortune and glory somewhere in the United States. Future travel plans coming sooner than later hopefully.
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