Before we set out on our adventures, all the 学生 attended a Light Fellowship meeting that included talk about a bell curve of emotions you experience while traveling abroad. I'm definitely on the upswing now. I feel like Chinese and Chinese people are finally making sense in my brain-- like I finally found the correct file box for them. One summer is not going to be enough. Aside from my classes (which, I suppose is a major aside), I don't see any reason to leave. I really feel like I'm living in China. Today at lunch the six-year-old daughter of my favorite baoziguan stand owner greeted me by name, "Ge Ying!" She's so cute. She could not believe how many animals (dongwu) my family（我的家) has. 真的！
Everyday I keep asking myself what is Chinese? Is rudeness translatable across cultures? Is it not?
"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and
try to love the questions themselves...
Live the questions now.
Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it,
live along some distant day into the answer."
-- Rainer Maria Rilke
So here's to living the questions.
I'm finally thinking in Chinese. My roommate (Jasmine, awesome Duke girl from Thailand who is introducing me to all kinds of new Asian food) says I've been talking in Chinese during my sleep. :)
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"I'm definitely on the upswing now."
ReplyDeleteExcellent! And it sounds like you'll be going again, right? =)