And so my first little adventure to the Orient ends. I am now heading back on the plane from LA to Houston.

Feeling: Sad. Sad not that its over, but sad as to how quickly I adjust and my mindset changes. I suppose after you change surroundings so many times, your brain gets used to switching schemes - gets used to moving on. Like the mission, China in part seems like a world that was once very real, but like a waking dream, you have to be careful that you forget that it all happened.

Last Lessons in China

Shopping can actually be entertaining when 1) you're in Shanghai, 2) you're with someone experienced in bargaining, 3) you're surrounded by enticingly dirt-dirt-dirt cheap imitation goods, and 4) you have only two hours to get rid of a thousand yuan.

Make sure there is nothing wrong with your exchange note, or you'll be stuck with eight hundred yuan you can't exchange back to USD. And then, once you're stuck with the extra money in the airport, you'll wish you had blown it with the rest during your shopping spree.

Shanghai is not so bad after all; after travelling around with friends that knew the city better - and staying at some LDS homes - I could definitely be happy living there.

Observations upon Returning

Americans are fat. Look, I'm sorry if I offend anyone from this statement, but especially coming to Texas, I was really thrown off guard by how ridiculously rotund some people are over here. I mean, wow. The obesity epidemic.

American cities are clean. Not to say Chinese cities are horribly dirty, and I'm not even suggesting that Houston or LA are horribly good examples of clean American cities. But this is what I thought of. Probably comes with the lack of population density.

Chinese spoken in America is still too fast. On the plane after LA, my ears perked up at the familiar sound of putonghua (mandarin). But besides the warm feeling of nostalgia, I only got a word or two.

A Few Memories

The Halloween activity in the summer camp. (And Dan dropping Lauren on her head.) Being in a car when it is hit, spun around, and flipped over into an intersection. (None of us were injured. But my theories that physics works differently in China are longer valid.) My last class with my Zhe Da kindergarteners. (I will miss those kids the most.) The Great Wall. (Enough said.) Running around the West Lake, late at night, alone - those nights along the Su causeway when the breeze glows gently over the lake, and the city lights shimmer back across the water, and your thoughts and breathing are in perfect rhythm, and everything is clear.