Thursday, April 27, 2017

Spring/Finals are here

春天到了!

Spring is here!

As the semester is coming to an end and I’m getting ready for finals, I thought I’d take the time to list some things I’m going to miss about Chengdu, and some things that I’m looking forward to when I come home. So here we go, in no particular order:

Things I’ll Miss:
·      Convenience of the city. The inconvenience of driving instead of taking a subway or a bus will be weird.
·      Cheap prices (for most things). Paying in US dollars is going to be painful.
·      The kind people I’ve gotten to know in my time here. My teachers, USAC program directors, and my tutor family are all obvious, but I'll also remember random experience I’ve had with strangers in public.
·      Spicy (麻辣) food. It’s become necessary to live at this point.
·      The pace of life in Chengdu. It’s laid back and feels like no one is in a hurry.


What I’m Looking Forward To:
·      INTERNET. Unrestricted, fast, internet. I’ll never complain that American internet is slow again, seriously. (A side note: I am trying to respond to all of the comments, but loading blogger through a VPN on Chinese internet is torture, and times out 50% of the time. This is my third time writing this blog post because it won’t load. Needless to say, comments will have to wait until I’m back in the US).
·      Food variety. Chinese food is amazing, and I’ve developed some kind of addiction to Sichuan spice, but I also feel like I eat the same things all the time.
·      Being back at MC. I have USAC friends here of course, but the campus environment is just so different here, especially since our campus is mostly made up of graduate students.
·      Not being stared at or getting my picture taken when I’m out in public.
·      Dryers. Like for clothes.
·      Temperature controlled buildings. It’s getting very hot here.



I had more points when I wrote this previously, if I remember them I’ll add them.