In case anyone is wondering why I'm blogging when I'm supposed to be on a trip, unfortunately the cold I had got a lot worse and I had to come home early. It wouldn't have been a big deal typically, but trying to hike up a mountain all day and deal with altitude changes would have been really difficult and I would have probably made everyone else miserable. A surprise migraine also came on this morning- awesome. ;) I was quite disappointed- and still am- but this has turned into a good day. Also, at least I got to see the giant Buddha and the lower part of Mt. Emei. I'll try to post some pictures of that. Everyone else will be back tomorrow morning, I think.
I spent a lot of the afternoon in bed and, being quite hypochondriacal, convincing myself that I either had rabies from all the animals I pet or had been poisoned by Chinese food (I happened to look on CNN/MSNBC and there seems to be a TON of news regarding food imports from China, huh?) Luckily I then started feeling better, so I left the dorm for a few hours. It was a HUGE success! I cheered myself up by 1) finding the new Harry Potter book- in English!, 2) getting french fries from McDonald's and 3) getting a green tea frappucino from Starbucks. Definitely American consumerism at it's best. The french fries were greatly deserved after hiking all day yesterday with hardly any food I liked! I didn't get lost or feel uncomfortable being alone at all, and loved being greeted by the women at "our" supermarket and "our" fruit stand. The woman at the fruit stand is so funny because she talks to me the ENTIRE time I'm there and I just smile because I have no idea what she's saying!!! I think she will miss our regular business when we leave as we are very loyal to her. ;) There is also a guard that works in our dorm who is so nice...he speaks no English but always greets us very happily and the other day we talked about going swimming entirely through gestures. I think I'll miss the small town feel of the area around campus, even though we're in a city of 11 million people. There are a lot of students around, but the area doesn't really feel like a college town...just a nice, relaxing place.
So anyway, this evening turned into an "I love China" day, which I don't think I've explained before. We have "I love China" and "I hate China" days. Neither is extreme as it sounds and each serves a very important purpose. I get through the "I hate China" days because I know that an "I love China" day is right around the corner. The "I hate China" days remind me that as sad as I am on that I'll be leaving in a few weeks on the "I love China" days, it will be really good to go home.
I think this summer has taught me a lot and given me confidence in skills that I didn't know I had- or at least wasn't sure I had. I've especially learned that I am pretty adaptable, or have become that way (hello, "strengths" answer in job interview, lol) and that with the right attitude, I can succeed in challenging situations. I love China, at least for today. ;)
