So I get the absolute pleasure of going home to New Jersey, Ohio, and Kentucky for three weeks. I leave on September 25th and return on the 15th of October.
I PROMISE I will spend most of the 13 hour flight writing. I have not had a ton of luck recently using WordPress in China. It’s just been so SLOW. What I should do is seek out better WiFi, but it’s very hard.
Some content you can expect from the long hours writing during the flight is a guide to long haul flights (duh), including my preferred Asian airlines, inflight essentials, and what I listen to or watch. I also am excited to write about Shanghai and Xian and to have my amazing friend Kiley write about a crazy solo trip she went on: preview, it involves a yoga mat, hot soup, and a 19 hour train ride.
Expat life is hard and weird. You meet people that you fall in love with because you have only ever see them in this weird Beijing lighting. I’m nervous and excited to one day visit these friends of mine out in the ‘wild’ one day. Mainly in Utah. There is just something about Utah that drives people to China I guess!
I am excited to return home for a bit though. I worry that I’m a different person and I haven’t realized that yet. Maddie, a friend I worked with in Beijing who left the city in May, talked to me a little about her return home. The transition period, where you don’t have a routine yet but everyone around you does. That’s different that moving to a country/job where some one arrived two weeks before you and 100% understand both your jet lag and your discomfort.
In America I wonder if I’ll find that when I just return to visit. I’ll have no routine. Just free time to relax and vacation and go to a million doctors. This free time excites me, but almost limits me. I won’t have a car. I won’t have a bike ready to rent right outside my doorstep. I won’t have street food, I won’t have the ability to constantly stumble upon an underground children’s talent show, complete with an art exhibit, free booze, and a ball pit.
What will I have though? Chipotle. 24 hour Kroger’s. Pumpkin spice lattes! All the friends I have know for years. A nail appointment where I’ll see an old high school friend. A new lil baby to meet (don’t worry Corynne, Eloise is number one, Chipotle is just funnier).
I know this visit is just three weeks, but it’s three weeks where I live in a weird limbo. I’m still excited.
Side note, Why do ⅓ of the flight attendants in China insist on telling me to take out my headphones when we land. That’s not a thing. It’s never been a thing. Anywhere. Answers anyone???
Alyssa in France 