Hi everyone,
So yes, I feel super guilty that I haven't been updating this blog as often as I anticipated, but I think this is something most exchange students go through. First they have so many new things that they want to write about and share with the world. As time passes though, life in their foreign country then turns to the norm. This is pretty much the stage I am in right now. Well, in all honesty I am caught in the middle of two stages, one being the stage where everything is seeming normal even though I'm in this totally different world, but also I am in that stage of being abroad where you start to get angry with the host country. I think it's called an emotional phase.. I mean, the honeymoon feeling of being in Beijing is gone. I still have days where I say, "I can't believe I'm in China right now," and I really still can't believe it, but then I have times where I'm saying, "this place is so stupid, I hate these people, I want America back!" Sorry, China. I don't mean it (that much).
I have found that now I just go about my daily routine and life here has become normal. I get up and go to class and do my homework, go out and eat rice, rice, and more rice, and it's just the way it is. Things that I was like OMG about when I got here now go unnoticed.
I will say I am proud to be an American, which I don't think I understood how much I loved my country until I came here.
And the one thing that kills me here is how wrong I was about the food. I remember people telling me before I left, "oh the food is going to be really hard to get used to." I was like, "no way, I love Chinese food" (what little Chinese food I had eaten in America, that may or may not have been authentic...). Now I can't even believe myself thinking it would be so easy to eat the food here when every day that goes by I am dying for "normal" food. I don't want rice and crazy sauces, I want soup that doesn't include eggs, I want real home sandwiches, and I want oven roasted chicken!!! I have visited McDonald's here in China more times than I'd like to admit, just because I'm missing familiar foods.
Now, I don't want to give the wrong impression. No, I am not miserable here. I still enjoy it here, but I can easily say that I would not want to live in China forever, but I would like to visit again someday.
While I still have 2 more months here in China before jetting off to Vietnam for another adventure, I can already say I know why people tell you that the best decision you can make during your undergraduate career is to go abroad. I have so much more respect for anyone who has done it. It's not easy, but it's totally worth it to test your limits and see just who you are when you've been taken out of your comfort zone. Before I came to China I was proud of myself and I had already thought I was a strong person, but I feel I've become even stronger. I want to be able to share this feeling of self understanding with you all but I just don't really know how to put it in words. Being in this new place has allowed me to get to know myself deep down even more, and I'm happy for that.
