not an ending

I’m going home!

This last week in Hong Kong went by in a flash. Packing, mailing, and e-mailing things amounted to a whirlwind of things that kept me from being able to write a few more posts that I wanted to tack up here, but hopefully I can get to it later after I return to the States. I want to continue writing in this blog; after all, I’m going from one adventure in China to another adventure in medicine!

The next two months will make a great transition from one to the other too, as I’m not staying idle. Things are going to be even busier – we’re hitting the ground running, and dashing all the way from Washington State to Los Angeles, Singapore, Indonesia, and back again quite a few times. (It could be said that my itinerary amounts to the most inefficiently planned summer holiday ever, but optimistically, it will be fun!)

But before I tackle those things, I’ve still a plane ride to prepare for and goodbyes to say. Continuing my general privacy habit of not posting much about my family interactions in China, I can still say that I’m entirely grateful that I had this chance to get to know my mother’s family, most of whom stayed in China, and that I was able to begin communicating with them for the first time in my life with the Mandarin I’ve learned this year. Last night I had a three-hour long conversation with my aunt and uncle here. “You have gained a lot of experiences from being in China for a year now!” they commented in Mandarin. “But you must be looking forward to going home to all the things you are used to!”

“It’s not the cultural things that I’m looking forward to the most, though,” I tried to reply. Whether people spit in one place and don’t in another, or whether the cost of living is high in one and not in the other, are all things that I can grow accustomed to and don’t mind so much. To me, the best thing about coming home is going to be that I can fully interact with the world again in a language I’m adept in. I never realized how important this was to me until it was taken away; it was like I lost a limb or, in a more apt comparison, like I lost one of the five senses that I perceive, understand, and engage the world with. I have now an entirely different and amazed respect for American immigrants who entered the country with English skills comparable to my Mandarin or worse, and made themselves a home and a life here, and the example foremost in my mind of course is that of my parents.

Mom and Dad, I know a little bit more now what it must have been like when you first touched down, and I’m amazed by the successful and enriched lives you’ve built for yourselves and for us. I’ll see you very soon!