Greeting all,
I realize many have expressed concern for my lack of postings lately, but life has been more than crazy. In hindsight, I now realize that the slew of redundant questions (not that I am complaining!) could have been avoided had I just posted them online for all to view.
I'm currently in LAX, awaiting to board my 14 hour flight to Shanghai. Fortunately, I managed to put myself in a coma during the last two flights, so I hope I can manage some sleep on the next one.
I'm sitting at the gate, and I have literally heard nothing but the Chinese language (some of which I actually understand!). This is a nice welcome into what I will be hearing and learning for the next year.
When I land in Shanghai, the owner of the school is going to greet me with a name plaque, which, in all honesty, I've always wanted to encounter. I imagine him in a nice three piece suit, aviator sunglasses and a sweet hat, but I think I will be sorely disappointed. Either way, I might secretly feel like a part of the CIA (stay tuned!).
I'm reading a book called "Coming Home Crazy". It's a series of essays by a Minnesota native (Bill Holm) about his time living and teaching in China. I can't imagine what the people next to me thought as one minute I was laughing out loud and the next minute I began sobbing like a baby.
Having been to Asia a couple times (albeit for no longer than a month at a time and never by myself), I feel like I have a tiny grasp on the culture, however, there is still a lot I need to learn...and none of those lessons can come from a book. A quote from "Coming Home Crazy" that I'm going to keep in mind the moment I step off the plane on Asian soil is this:
"In Asia, you either lose your inner moorings, start to sink, go some kind of crazy, [but] just let it happen, or you will leave sooner than you expected and not learn anything"
I know this future journey is going to be anything but easy but as Holm puts it, you can never truly learn if you're never challenged. As sad as it's been to say goodbye to my current comfort zone, I need to fully embrace an UNcomfortable zone so that I can really see what I'm made of (which I'm hoping beyond hope is steel!)
