.....well about 3 weeks left in China, and boy am I torn. On one hand I could not be happier to be going back to the states, to familiarity, same dialect, family, friends, weddings, no diarrhea. On the other hand I have enjoyed and will continue to enjoy my time here, the great food, the constant state of learning/being stretched, new friends, adventure.
One thing that has been a great contributer to my longing for home has been my recent case of giardia (or so I think). It began with a day trip to a beach about 3hrs drive from Xiamen in a town of Long Hai (I think). We, about 12 of us, spent the whole day in the sun and swimming in water that most likely was less than clean. It was a blast but the next day and all this week have been the aftermath of that fun, severe sunburn, sun poisoning, and giardia! That day I also found out that the memory card puked on my camera, but I had someone take lots of pictures during the day which I will upload when I get them. Despite the giardia and such I still think it was worth it for the whole day of fun.
Other than the beach I have been really falling into quite the routine, of which includes a mens group that I attend. This past week we went out to eat as a send off for a member who is heading to the states to work, and it was an all you can eat buffet of amazing food. If you can't tell I really like the food here. It was all sorts of sushi to fried chicken to Koren seafood specialty dishes. We got a discount somehow so it ended up being $7, amazing! And the ice cream was great, a rarity in China I am discovering.
On a non-food note I am trying to ask myself what I can give. It seems like the trip up to this point has been all about me and what I want to experience and learn and take from this time here. I want to always ask myself the question of what can I give and how am I blessing the people here and contributing. I asked my Chinese tutor yesterday what she wanted because I was I wanted to give her a gift for her teaching me and she simply said "your smile". After trying to argue with her she, I realized that the best gift I could give her would be to lift her spirits each time we are together for our remaining lessons.
2 comments:
hey buddy, I read it!
hey mike,
wow, what is it about other countries messing up the system? hope you get over that quick! glad to hear you are still enjoying it, though it will be bittersweet coming home. i'm sure you are pouring more into people than you realize. give it your all these last few weeks!
later!
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