China is a crazy land. Crazy crazy. For those (mostly AFSers) who heard about the insanity of Paraguay…. China is weirder. Sometimes I become concerned that I have assimilated too much China crazy, and that I won’t properly reintegrate into “normal” life. There’s a lot of things I’ve missed while here, and probably some things I’ll miss back home too. And so I’m making some lists. Lists are friendly things.
What have I missed about NZ?
- Dairy products
- Toaster, oven, drinkable tap water
- Not being paid two weeks late
- My relative anonymity
- Walking distance
- Fully functioning, relatively reliable internet
- Carpet
- Non-Chinese supermarkets
What will I miss about China?
- Jiaozi dumplings
- My wee kiddies
- Having no idea what crazy thing is going to happen today
- Chuar (streetside spicy skewered meat of dubious origin)
- So much fruit, a large proportion of which I’ve never seen before in my life
- yī èr sān sì wǔ liù qī bā, èr èr sān sì wǔ liù qī bā…. Or maybe I won’t miss that
- Tomato egg
- Fajita Thursday
- The fact that it’s totally acceptable for me to not shave my legs, because no one else does
What won’t I miss?
- Humid heat
- Staring
- Chicken feet, duck feet, coagulated blood, pig hooves, whole fish, bitter melon, steamed egg, etc…
- Lack of chocolate
- Chinese internet
- Rats, geckos, beetles, cockroaches, mosquitoes
- Chinese bureaucracy
Reasons it’s time to come home…
- Six dollars is at least double what I’m willing to pay for new headphones
- Twenty four degrees is bordering on chilly
- I’m intimidated by other foreigners in the metro / street / restaurants
- Maybe that high necked, floral, lacy, sequinned blouse is actually quite becoming
- I really no longer mind squat toilets
- I’m beginning to believe that my chopstick skills are quite exceptional… but they’re not.
- Counting to ten on just one hand has become quite natural
- I’ve come to accept that public transport will likely include full body contact with at least 3 strangers at once
- I accept the need, and am willing to use elbows in a “queueing” situation
- Rice cookers are pretty much en entire kitchen’s worth of appliances in one convenient device
- When speaking quite harshly at someone, it becomes frustrating when they take no offence, but instead compliment me on my exceptional Chinese (even though all I said was “I’m getting off here too!” when they tried to push me out of the way, and even then the Chinese was probably rather average)
- I’m beginning to think that maybe I could survive another year
Anyways, this time next week I’ll likely be at Shenzhen airport, getting ready to fly out to Chengdu, see some pandas, and eat some spicy food before 2 weeks of travel and then my return to Kiwiland. You’ll likely hear from me again before then though. No photos this time, but next time I’ll do my best to get some up here :D
emilyonearth 
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