Welcome to China
I filled the last pages of my journal in Vietnam.
“I finally caught up to Linda and Ged [in Hanoi]. The three of us and Russell had a few beers together on the roof of a hostel. [I had spent a lot of time with Linda and Ged (and our friend Kirsty) in Thailand and Lao and had at last met up with them again here, with only an hour or two to catch up before they had to leave for their flight. Russell, I had backpacked Vietnam with, along with our friends Jeremy and Aiden.]
I had felt a sense of family with both groups and it was nice to see them come together. Just a short while ago, I had no idea that any of them had even existed. We now were willing to not only except each other’s differences, but learn from them and get an inside look at our cultures by doing so. As I looked at the three of them together I couldn’t help but smile even though I knew we would all be parting ways soon.
It makes me sad to think of the adventure as over, all of them headed to different parts of Australia on one year work visas, and myself to China. A part of me really wants to follow everyone else and go there, but its not in my cards right now. I am headed North for my own adventure. All good things come to an end, and my backpacking adventure is over… for now.
There is a whole other culture out there that until 2 years ago I had no idea even existed. We surround ourselves with only those we truly want to be around. We’re where we want to be, and if that changes we can be gone with everything on our backs in 10 minutes or less, never looking back at who or whatever is in out wake. Strangers to friends, friends to family. The highs are high, the lows are low. No memory can ever be recreated. Our biggest worries vary. Some worry about how to change the world while others worry about what their next meal is going to be. We all worry about bed bugs. We are leaving our dent, and the world will never look the same to us by the time we’re done with it. We are backpackers.”
And just like that my backpacking days ended (again, for the time being). I had three interviews over the course of three days and received three job offers. The one in Fuzhou seemed like the best deal, and before I knew it I was walking off the plane and being greeted by a girl named Kat with red curly hair in my new city.
Fuzhou is a typical Chinese city, with a population of about 7 million. As typical as it may be to 1.Something billion people in the world, it is unlike any city I have ever set foot in. I have now spent almost the last two months here. During that time I have only met a handful of other western people living in Fuzhou that I don’t work with. I work with about 40 western people, so in comparison to the 7 million Chinese, our western population isn’t very big. This is not a tourist destination, and although immense in size, could be considered off the map here in China.
There isn’t a day that passes that I don’t learn something new. Some lessons are bigger and more shocking then others, but most could probably be summed up in a paragraph or with a photo. These experiences are the biggest reason I have decided to start blogging.
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