China. Miao songs. Miao dances. Dead birds at the dinner table. Climbing rice terraces. Way blocking ceremonies. Wooden plank beds. Tongue numbing Hunan peppers. 7cup. Chinese barbeque. Swimming near waterfalls. Coning in Jishou. Service club. Fenghuang. Olympics 2012. Halloween in August. KTV. Chinese birthday parties. Teaching. Learning. Graduation. Tears on tears on tears.
Some of the above mentioned things are things I thought I would never experience in my life. I think the biggest one (literally – ha) is China. If you had asked me a year ago if I thought I would ever go to China, the answer would have been no. China wasn’t really on my radar before SoS, but now I can’t stop thinking about it. Oh how things change.
After a delayed flight from Shanghai to Osaka and an…exciting (?)…time at the Kansai airport, I am finally at my friend’s house in Japan. However, my brain is still in China mode. Jishou mode, really. When we were in Shanghai on Saturday and Sunday, I couldn’t get used to the large amount of foreigners that we were seeing. I was confused by the English around me. Shanghai was a whole different world, nothing close to the China I had come to know and love over the past two months. Even now, in Japan, Japanese sounds a little strange to me (words I never thought I would type in my life). I’ve become so used to hearing Chinese that everything that isn’t Chinese is now foreign.
Maybe it was the food that got me. There were so many things I encountered this summer that I thought I would never eat or never even thought people could (would?) eat. The list of foods I’ve consumed with reckless abandon this summer includes pig feet and noodles, goose feet, pickled chicken feet, duck blood and rice, pig blood, frog, duck collar bone, and donkey meat dumplings! Who wouldn’t fall in love with a country that has food like this?
Slight jokes about food aside, I really believe it was the people that got me to love China so much. At first, it was my fellow SoSers, who are all amazing teachers and friends, who helped to spark my China craze. Soon, it became the PIJ students and Jishou residents that made me be willing to consider a serious relationship with China. I woke up in the morning excited to see what challenges and surprises my kids would have for me, I was excited to walk down the streets and wave at my neighborhood friends, and I nearly died from excitement every week when it was time for service club. One of the best parts of the summer has been seeing my relationships with all of these people change and grow as time went on. Sometimes I still can’t believe that I was given this amazing opportunity so early in my life.
SoS taught me a lot this summer. Not only did I learn about teaching, but I learned about learning and communication. I found that I had more in common with my baby Phoenixes (who are now full fledged Phoenixes!) that I could have ever imagined. As I was hoping at the beginning of the summer, as I taught my students, they also taught me. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. Everyday that we’re apart, I think of something else that I can take away from this summer.
Overall, after leaving Jishou, I’ve realized that my life is turning upside down, just when you would think it should be getting back to “normal.” I don’t know what normal is anymore, but I’m okay with that.
Thank you so much, PiA. I owe you big time.
– Kelsey