It is done

The past nine months have been some of the richest of my life. No matter how much you read, watch, or hear about a place you have never been, it is not fully available to you until your feet are on the ground. I had my expectations and preconceptions of what my time would be like in China, and those images rapidly evaporated once the realities around me took over.

It has been a time of powerful eye-openers, unprecedented personal growth, and a wider and deeper understanding of our world; and that was only nine months mainly spent in one city. I have to say, my appetite for seeing more of the world was further whetted during my time here. This experience was invaluable and something I will cherish and recall for the rest of my life.

All that navel-gazing aside, I will conclude my weekly updates from China with a couple of events from my last bit of time here. Last week I finished all of my classes. I have grown surprisingly fond of and attached to many of my students, and as I recalled my very first day of class with one of my freshmen classes, things got a little dusty for a second. Composure carried the day. America’s image abroad was not tarnished. The opportunity to interact with Chinese university students on a daily basis was a unique and insightful experience. I feel it is safe to say that I learned more from those conversations than I did from any other experience I had here. I will miss them.

The second event from the last week was my first and last set of visitors. My friends whom I visited in Bangalore came to Chongqing for this weekend. The chance to show people my life here made my experience richer, more real somehow. They saw my neighborhood, my noodle restaurant, the roads and the rivers, the gray. Being able to share this city with friends was truly a perfect cap to my time here. Plus we had fun. Lots of it.

Below are a few pictures from the last week.

When in Rome

That’s all I got for you. I truly appreciate everyone who took the time to check in for stories every week. Having a place to record my experiences in China, I feel, greatly enhanced my time here.

Further stories can be purchased for the low, low price of a beer. Coming soon to a city near you.