It is officially 2020 and in less than 2 days I will be starting the year off in another country, China!
I remember in 2016 I told my friends I wanted to go to China. I even went up to a Chinese student while I was at the University of Miami and said “I love China” in my cringy mandarin. Surprisingly, he did not run away and actually seemed happy and asked where in China I wanted to go. I said Beijing and in 2018 Beijing is the first place I landed. It feels so weird seeing things I once thought about come to reality. I always wanted to go on a plane and ended up going on not only one but 6 all in a span of a month to go halfway across the world to China. This time I will be making that journey again, thankfully not as many flights, and for much longer than before.
As the days quickly go by I start to feel a roller-coaster of emotions. I know I will have to readjust and get used to the fact that I will be oceans away from my home, my comfort zone. Despite having been to China before, I realized I still hold some misconceptions about China which I hope to get rid of after spending a whole semester there. I just have to let people’s opinions about China stay their opinions and not my own.
When I first told one of my friends I wanted to go to China in 2016 her mom told me “Why go there, it is dirty and full of pollution.” At times I also ask myself this question, but not because I hold the same thoughts but because I would have never thought I would be going there. Now I am blessed to have the opportunity to go again and hopefully this semester I find out what my purpose for going is.
Happy New Year and see you all in Tianjin!!! Also, I found some good videos about Tianjin and food, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYz04048c3c&t=11s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjVkbvowNkA (What it’s like to be a vegan in China), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vwSwrMAyvw
