Last Words...

As the summer wraps up and I'm finally in the comforts of home, I look back to my summer in Shanghai and think about everything I learned and experienced. It's hard to put in words of everything I learned. No one can understand until they have been put into my situation. It was the greatest/scariest/most stressful/spontaneous/exciting experience ever and that's just the beginning of how I can explain it.

Living in China is a whole different story then just a weeks visit. There are so many changes and challenges I went through. All of my 5 senses were challenged. And I wasn't going anywhere for two months so I had to learn how to adapt to these difficulties. I have no only learned so much about myself, but about my culture and people. I am very lucky and grateful to have the life I have today thanks to my parents and grandparents, so it was amazing to go back to the cities they grew up in during the tour around the surrounding cities of Shanghai. I appreciate being a Chinese-American, (even though some people in China didn't seem to enjoy that I'm from the US...) but I'm so proud of my culture and it's beautiful, rich history.

The place, people and (especially) the history are inspiring. I had a lot of time to walk around and instead of listening to my ipod like I usually do when walking around, I wanted to hear and experience the surroundings. I wanted to examine I got to think to myself a lot and figure out my passions and my life since I live a small, fantasy life in college filled with friends and partying. I feel more confident and in-tuned with the world, a feeling that some people never get to experience.

One night, while eating dinner outside, I looked around at the stores, restaurants and people and thought "wow, I'm in CHINA." I'm young and in China and when the hell am I ever going to have this experience again? I have no obligations, no worries or anything. I just got to do what I wanted in cities faster than the biggest ones in the US. I now find beauty and the comforts in things back home that I wouldn't have thought of before. I'm eyes are opened, way opened now.

I have caught the travel bug and I'm not afraid to use it! Where I will go next I'm not so sure, but I'm so happy I got to spend time in China.