Back in 2008, when I was about to graduate from UCLA, I made the decision to move to Shanghai, China for 10 months. The plan was to finish up some graduate school course work, research for my thesis, teach some English and then come back to the USA. Little did I expect that original 10 month plan to become a “6 more months” plan, which turned into a “3 more months for the Expo” plan, which turned into a “stay until Expo is over” plan, which turned into a “I want to spend a few more weeks after traveling” plan sprinkled with short trips back to the USA to clear my lungs of Chinese pollution and to restock my luggage with American goodies.
2.25 years later, I’m back in the USA again but this time with no definite plans to return to China. There’s been no plane ticket purchased, no Chinese visa applied for, everything that I left in China has either been thrown out or donated. But, who knows what could happen in the upcoming weeks which may have me scurrying around getting travel arrangements and documents settled and making trips to Costco to buy in bulk.
In the time that I’ve been on the other side of the world, I’ve:
- been sick more often than in the 24 years of my life combined
- been stung by a jellyfish in Phuket, Thailand
- sprained my left ankle (day 2 of China, great way to start right?)
- popped the ligament/tendon (?) behind my right knee
- bruised my right wrist go-karting
- had a bruise in the shape of Mainland China on my left thigh
- as “Teacher Amy/Amy Laoshi” taught over 1000 Chinese kindergartners how to say “ho ho ho, Merry Christmas”
- taught the “Nobody” dance to Chinese kindergartners
- given English names to hundreds of Chinese children
- from Shanghai, traveled to Hangzhou, Suzhou, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Xiamen, Taiwan, South Korea, Nanjing, Tibet, Beijing.
- saw The Amazing Race in action in Shanghai and waited in the freezing cold for the shoot to end to talk to the host
- saw Wang Leehom twice in Shanghai for a total of four times in my life; photos and a short conversation with him too!
- told U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that I was “Amy from California” before taking a photo with her
- introduced the USA Pavilion to former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
- had photo ops with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jimmy Carter and David Tao
- traveled the world in 184 days at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo
- sat on a yak in Tibet and an elephant in Thailand
- climbed the Great Wall of China
- discovered my stomach was no longer queasy after eating eggplant and duck meat
- showed up to work to find Derek Fisher giving a speech to Chinese people
- 8-clapped with Bruins who came to visit
- ridden bumpy bus rides through the Cambodian countryside
- had a hard time finding a dim sum restaurant in Hong Kong
- discovered Tom N Tom’s peach iced tea in South Korea
- seen the Annoying Asian pose go international for the first time ever
- learned what a VPN was
- saw snow actually falling from the sky
- had food delivered from McDonald’s, KFC, Wagas or Element Fresh for those times when you just can’t deal with going out for food ... or cooking
- had to sprint through terminals (like in the movies) to avoid missing trains and planes
- experienced more rain in Shanghai than in my whole life in Southern California
- improved on my Mandarin and picked up some Simplified Chinese characters
- watched too many movies on DVD-9
- spent the night at the Bangkok Airport to save money
- seen pre-cooked, skinned dog meat
- asked a Chinese person to take me to a place that would sell Xiamen souvenirs, only to have her drop me off at a Wal-Mart
- trekked through the tea fields near West Lake in Hangzhou
- met and made a whole bunch of new friends
and most importantly of all ...
I had the time of my life
