Wrapping Up the China Adventures

I'll be ending my China adventures in exactly 16 days. I must say that the past year and four months is filled with a lot of extremes for me. For the most part, I'm excited to go home. I know I'll be missing a lot of things here but there is a part of me that knows that it really is time to wrap it up and begin yet a new journey.

I thought it best to look back on my Reasons for Coming to China entry written about a month after coming here. It's my way of seeing whether I was able to achieve what I originally set out to do, how, and why not if I wasn't.

1. The primary reason for coming here is so I could live on my own. Perhaps I thought of it as a way of playing house with higher risks and responsibilities. I don't think I was really aware of the immensity of a life on my own when I set out on this adventure. But I think I did pretty well. Plus I survived the housework, or more likely, I survived the filth for not doing enough housework. I survived nonetheless. That's what counts.

2. This is my cheapest and most lucrative travel experience ever. It feels a bit like being on a long vacation and getting paid for it. Maybe that's why it's so fun. There's this part of me that treats this whole thing as getting away from real life for a while. But only for a while because I always knew that I'd go back home when it's all over.

3. I asked for some excitement and I definitely got it. One never really knows what would happen next in China. It's full of little surprises whichever way you go. You cannot have any kind of expectations whatsoever because it'll only shock you even more once you get to the outcome. I'm not sure if this is only true for foreigners. Even so, it must be twice the fun (and at times irritation) for foreigners.

4. This is by far the most adventurous thing that I've ever done in my life. Looking back, I'm still a bit surprised that I actually went through with it. I don't exactly think of myself as a gutsy person but after everything I went through for the past year and a half, I think I should start adding that word to describe myself. This whole China trip is surprising even to me.

5. The novel. Okay, I'm not very successful in this area. I did get to think more though. And if I had stayed home, I'd probably still not be finished with it either. I think my only consolation here is that at least I spent my year living, as opposed to whining about how nothing exciting ever happens to my life.

6. Maybe because I set out a fairly easy goal (which is to "brush up on my Mandarin"), I think I passed this with flying colors. I learned the language more than I thought I was capable of. Of course there is no real way to tell when one has learned the language enough. In fact I don't think one ever stops learning a language, any language. I know I'm still a long way to being really proficient in Mandarin but I realize now that it's not impossible. Sometimes I even catch myself thinking in it now. Isn't that weird?

7. China will always be a home of sorts for me. Not only is it the land of my ancestors, but it's also the place where I got to test out different sides of me that I was only dimly aware of before this trip. It has given me a wider perspective of the world and how people live lives in ways different from what I was used to. Or at times the same way but with a different twist.
I still haven't been to Fujian though. But knowing how near it is to Manila compared to all the other places in China that I've been to, I think it won't be that hard to one day visit Fujian and have a homecoming of sorts. That would be interesting.

In 16 days I'm going to have my real homecoming. I'm not sure how changed I am because of China. I'm hoping just enough to be exotic and mysterious but essentially the same to still be recognized and loved by the people who are impatiently awaiting my return. Hehehe.