It's Time I Got Back

Two men sit in the corner of a diner,
Both of them look quite a bit like Carl Reiner

It's over. After spending nearly 13 of the past 15 months in China I have decided to come home. There was a dispute with my school over the terms of a leave I asked for over the winter holidays, the end result of which is that I have decided to end my contract early and go back home in less than two weeks. It feels very unceremonious but the thought of missing two straight Christmases with my family and missing out on seeing many of my friends who I get to see once a year if I'm lucky outweighed my desire to finish out the last month of my contract. I will be leaving behind some very good friends, many of whom I am sure I will see again, but I don't know when. That is going to be the hardest part.

One of them is smoking even though the sign says not to
The waitress says to stop, he says "sorry but I've got to."

I took my first trip up to Shanghai in nearly month this past weekend. I accidentally took the long bus which gave me a lot of time to think. I'm a sucker for top ten lists, so I tried to think of the greatest hits of my time in China, the moments that really stood out from all the others. It's a work in progress and I refuse to rank them in any order, but here are the ones that immediately come to mind:

-Chinese New Year: This was the time when China really came alive for me. The 26 waking hours I spent from 7am New Years Eve morning until 9am New Years Day consisted of seeing the Great Wall for the first time, meeting some of the coolest people that I've ever met, playing a game of Risk with four of the other hostel stayers while thousands of fireworks exploded around us, finally meeting Alan just after midnight in the middle of the Hu-Tongs with fireworks going off around us, driving around all night being lost and trying to find the right club, staying up until dawn to see the rising of the flag at Tiannamen Square...

And when they finish up they leave a $20 on the table
The waitress picks it up with their half eaten bagles
And when her shift is over she goes back to Mineola
Sits on her couch and opens up her diet cola and says:
I'm so, I'm so sick of this place
I'm so ready for a change of pace
I'm just looking for a new routine
So she spins her cloak and the next thing you know,
She's living in...

Dalian- The week that I spent in this beautiful ocean side town with Charles and later Jason was wonderful. The weather was perfect, the scenery was gorgeous and the food was fantastic. Sharing a beer with a large Chinese family on the beach and then being driven back into town by another family helped restore my somewhat shaken faith in the kindness of strangers. The trip also proved that Charles was and is well on his way to a mastery of the Chinese language.

Riding through the city on my bike all day
'cause the filth took away my license
It doesn't get me down and I feel ok
'cause the sights that I'm seeing are priceless

Brahm and the Bikes- I can't say enough about how important Brahm's friendship has been to China trip 2.0. I will say that his idea of getting bicycles was simply ingenious. It's given the city a whole new look and has created new exploration opportunities that we would have never otherwise had. If I have my druthers I'll be converting to bike as much as the weather allows when I'm back home.

Highlights glisten, silence listens
The days that found you, the breaks that bound you
Here is the sunrise, a'int that enough?
True as the clear sky, a'int that enough?

A certain someone- The day I got together with my now ex-girlfriend. It's in the past and it's obviously pretty personal but it would be wrong not to mention it.

Wo zhi ai ni, you are my superstar

The KTVs- I would love to recreate those nights with Luke, Charles, Stacey, Alan, Michael, Vicky, Cindy, Kaitlyn, Sophia and the whole gang again. We had such a good time singing some truly great and truly horrible songs at the tops of our lungs.

And everybody seems to wonder
What it's like down here

Shelby- She was my guide to my first two months in China, and also a friend. I do not think I would have the same perspective on China that I do without her.

(In danger!)
But I a'int scared
(In danger!)
I found a splendor there

The infamous night of the outdoor BBQ restaurant- Stacey, Alan and I sat outside on the steps in front of Alan's apartment for at least three hours watching people, talking, and sharing a couple of brews. Around ten o'clock, out of nowhere a barbecue restaurant opened up right in front of us. So we ate and we drank and talked with the other restaurant goers until almost midnight. At roughly 3:30am I awoke from a brief rest to the horrors that are food poisoning (hard-boiled eggs, cooked in the dark are just a recipe for disaster.) That was the sickest I've ever been in my whole life and qualifies as the second time I ever thought "This just might be it. This could be the end," and I STILL remember that night fondly. That's how much fun we had.

Two men sit in the corner of a diner

One of them says “I might take a trip to Chiner

It’s one of those things we should do before we’re too old.”

“Thanks but no thanks, bring me back an egg-roll.”

The clock’s running down and it’s time for me to say my good-byes. Right now I’m thinking about bike rides into the parts of China the Chinese don’t usually see with Brahm, late nights in the pool hall with Charles and Vicky, opening presents alone in my cold apartment Christmas morning, waking up to a days worth of e-mails, trying to find myself in the strangest ways possible, roller-skating until they shut the place down, playing wiffle ball in People’s Square, playing Frisbee in People’s Square, spending a weekend with good friends I’ve barely known in Shanghai, exploring the truest parts of Shanghai with Adam, and so many more good times that I hope one day I will be able to write as eloquently as I felt them.

If there’s any one thing I’ve learned from my time here that I need to get across to the rest of the world, it’s this: do not be the person sitting in a restaurant in 20 years waiting for that egg roll.