All of us have interesting stories and experiences, if we'd take the time to listen to each other.  One of mine has been China.
As my first full-time professional teaching gig, I chose instructing English to Chinese locals in the coastal area of Tanggu (go ahead, Google Earth it).  Seven-and-a-half months of foreign ground.  First time living abroad.  First time away from home and family and those closest.  A lot of firsts.

I've made new friends and shaped old ones.  I became a teacher, and yet a student.  I was immersed and learned a new culture and language, yet realize how absolutely little I feel I can say I know.  I've had the most surreal of experiences in China.  Days and events that your wildest sitcom couldn't dream up.  I've had slow, time-stands-still days where I've become perhaps more comfortable in my skin than I wanted to be.  The friends.  The students.  The unique experiences.  The longest months of my life that somehow seem to have gone by quickly... China has been such a truncated, specific time of my life, unlike any other period before.  I'm better for it.  It was a dream of mine; a dream fulfilled.

My reasons for coming were different than originally set.  I should've expected that my actual time in China would be unlike my expectations as well.  I became friends, and was indeed befriended, by traveler/teachers like myself, the lot of whom I could never forget.  I joined a punk-rock cover band.  I ate cafeteria food from no less than five different Chinese corporate canteens.  I was visited by the Love of my life, who--in very touch-and-see ways-- stepped into my world and met me where I was at.  I ate good food.  I made a fool out of myself in front of my students.  I talked too much.  I loved throug distance.  I worked ha rd.  I sought rest well.  I batered.  I saved.  I spent.  I laughed.  I cried.  I became lovesick, homesick, and world-weary.  I enjoyed the simplest of things.

I t's an experience where I'd love to share the specifics, yet realize most people probably won't want to hear them.  And I'm fine with that.  It was my experience to have and hold, and each of us has those things th at are truly meaningful to a handful of people.


So much of li fe is di fferent (n ew experiences gained, and just time lived will do this to anyone, living abroad of not).  Yet, so much remains the same.  I wish I could say it was all easy and uphill.  I can't say that it wasn't worth it though.  By seeing the underbelly, I've been able to understand Love and Patience and Trust in ways I couldn't quite relate to.  That's not to say I have it down.  I just have tangible moments in my history I can point to which shape these life lessons.
 
I'm still taking things a day at a time.  So much changes in so little amount of time.  If anything, China has taught me the importance of being inentional; of having to be proactive to just "be" and open one's self to experience what comes, the hurt and the happy.  Life is complex.  Living is multi-faceted.  But it's beautiful, and redemptive.  And when you have loving people to share that with, it is not only worthwhile, but Life itself.