My Last Blog from the People's Republic of China

My room is all packed up. I'm about to take my last shower before the 14 hour flight and possible delays at the airport. It's surreal. Last night, I couldn't sleep because I lay awake thinking of all the memories I've made here in Shanghai. It has been wonderful. I still remember the wide eyed wonder with which I looked at the city on my first taxi ride from the airport to Fudan. I remember being unable to fathom that I was all the way on the other side of the world. It's gone by so fast. But in some senses it feels like so long ago when I first came here. I feel like I've grown up a lot. Whether or not I have, I don't know.

And I'm a little bit scared. I'm scared to go home. I know I've changed. How will I react to my friends, and their change. Or perhaps their lack of. I'm scared of the same 'ol same 'ol. And Southwestern. I've always sort of felt it to be confining, but what about now? After I've lived in one of the biggest, most wonderful, heartbreakingly dirty-beautiful cosmopolitan cities of the world. A place of blinding light and excitement and craziness.

Perhaps I'll be motivated to move. Not to be still. I have 4 day weekends this semester. I need to use my passes while I can. Chicago, San Fransisco, Boston, these are all places I have never been but can get to easily. With hostels. And interesting people. And adventure.

I'll never forget one evening, when I was little, at the dinner table at our house on Bear Lake Drive. I was complaining that I always had to bring my lunch to school, instead of eating "hot lunch" (the fast food that was delivered to my private school). And I'll never forget when my Dad told me that the reason we were able to go to Disneyland, and cool vacations was because I didn't get hot lunch. That seeing the world and experiences and memories are of far more worth than creature comforts. And this has stuck with me. And for my family, who has given me this gift and has made my adventure in China this much greater, I am eternally grateful.