top 5s.

It's all coming to an end... only two days left. It seems only fitting to give a recap of some of my favorite moments and I am obviously going to do it in my favorite format of Top5 lists.


Top5 Things I Have Missed From Home
1. Dairy products. Milk and cheese especially.
2. Being able to run outside without getting sick from breathing in smog.
3. A shower where I have some say over what temperature it is. I'd love to have a non-ice-cold morning shower.
4. Text messages. Yeah. Call me silly and ridiculous, but what I'm really saying is that I just miss being able to communicate with everyone on a daily basis.
5. Mom.


Top5 Things I Will Miss About China
1. The friendliness of everyone. I'm not sure if it was because we were Americans, or if it was because we were Olympic Volunteers, but everyone was so happy and intrigued by us.
2. Being able to get lost in a city where I know about three phrases, and still make it home thanks to inventive communication and a smile.
3. Living at CUC with people I now consider to be great friends. I haven't lived in a communal living situation since freshman year, and had almost forgotten how fun and hilarious it is.
4. Every adventure to find something. Getting lost has never been so fun.
5. Conversations with Chinese friends, talking about differences together and suddenly finding similarities. (Like when I found another girl who knew just about everything there is to know about Sex&TheCity.) Makes the world feel a little smaller.


Top5 Things I Won't Miss About China
1. Riding the subway to and from work for an hour and a half. If you didn't get a seat, and you were on a non-air conditioned train... have fun spooning with all of sweaty China.
2. Smoggy air. I really do long for fresh air.
3. The unorganized, over abundance of people situations from work. It was a real challenge to be patient with problem-solving skills (or lack thereof) and constantly changing time schedules.
4. Feeling filthy all the time. No hot water in the shower, gross air and the lack of cleaning products (like PineSol and Clorox) made me always question how clean things (including myself) were.
5. Dead mosquito carcasses all over the walls of our room. I kill them and leave them... just to remind the others of what their fate could be.


Top5 Non-Chinese Restaurants
1. Luga's. This is by a landslide my number one favorite non-Chinese restaurant here. I know I've talked about it in my blog... but, honestly, you just have no idea. It changed my life.
2. Paul's. American food. Cheap. And enough room for our entire group. Plus, Paul is the coolest guy and hasn't missed a day of work in like three decades.
3. Donata's. This doesn't make the Top5 because of the food quality, but because of how many meals were enjoyed from this lovely little restaurant near campus. Food was pretty good... especially all those "Pasture Feeling" pizzas and shared club sandwiches... but I think the comfort of Donata's is what earns it a Top5 spot.
4. My popsicle man. Technically, because so many of my meals were popsicles, I will count him as a restaurant, but not a Chinese restaurant. Cheapest popsicles in the land. Conveniently located just outside the subway.
5. PB&J. This is also not a restaurant, but it may as well be. We made more PB&J sandwiches than ever. And even without milk, they've never tasted so good.


Top5 Incredible Olympic Moments I've Seen
1. Watching Usain Bolt break the Men's 100M world record. It was everything I could have ever imagined... camera flashes everywhere, people going crazy.
2. Being at BMX for the very first time it has been an Olympic event.
3. Watching opening ceremonies from a crowded street with thousands of other people.
4. Watching Michael Phelps dominate that pool... I don't care if I only got to see it on TV, he's a pretty remarkable machine.
5. Seeing Chris Hoy and the rest of the British team rock track cycling.


Top5 Hilarious Things About Work*
1. "Maybeee.....now you can have a rest?"
2. Absolutely refusing to eat the food... but getting the drinks and the banana.
3. "Now we can go to the Photopositions."
4. The day of the Mini-Olympics and all the games we played to pass the time on non-busy days.
5. All the communication barriers that, although they were difficult at times, it usually yielded something we could laugh at.
*I'm sorry, but unless you were there, these things might not make much sense. I can't ignore it though.


Top5 Room 801 Moments
1. The day Megan and I turned the TV volume all the way up, stood on our beds and sang the Star Spangled Banner during a medal ceremony... and then realized the cleaning ladies were standing in our doorway smiling and laughing.
2. Brownshower. Most specifically the recent brownshower where while Megan was screaming about the brownshower, I was screaming about a giant bug crawling around our room. Utter chaos.
3. Every morning and our "waking up" routine. If you ever come in here before we're ready to speak... be careful. We need our morning time.
4. Megan's late-night birthday note to me... telling me to have a great first day of work. It hangs on our wall as a memory (or, non-memory) of my birthday night/working the next day.
5. The 5gallon challenge. (See blog post for entire story.)


I think most important is this last one... I came on this trip to learn and experience. And I must say, it's been a wild ride. I can't decide if I'm ready to go home... and I can't decide if I want to stay here. It's a pretty charged moment for me, as I feel like I am really on the brink of something really big. I've had a trip that changed a lot in my world, and I'm ready to keep the momentum going.

Top5 Things I've Learned

1. No matter what you've seen or where you've been... or even where you haven't been... there is no way to compare what you've done before to what you're doing at the present moment. China blew my mind at how different my perceptions were compared to what I was actually experiencing. And even though I still don't have overarching statements about "What I think China is," I'd much rather have it this way. Think about if someone asked you what you think America is... you'd never be able to answer it, taking into account all of the different things and people there are. It's the same for anywhere, which sometimes gets overlooked. You can never compare an entire country or culture to anything else... everything is what it is, and at the present moment. The China I saw is not the one that you would see if you visited even a month after the Games ended. The China I saw is not the one you would see if you visited on business. The China I saw is certainly not the one you would see if you had visited ten years ago. Everything can only be taken for what it is at the exact moment you see it... and I rather like that.

2. Communicating with others is such a gift. You might never realize how personal, how intricate communicating with other people is unless you try to communicate with a language barrier. I know before I came here I valued interpersonal communication for sure. But now I see it as this brilliant interaction... something I could get emotional over... because of how truly remarkable it is to connect with someone else, especially when you are working with two different languages. It's amazing how I've had short conversations where neither party knew the language of the other, yet the communication was there... I didn't need to hear that we understood each other, I could feel it. I've learned to express what I'm really trying to say in the clearest way possible. I've learned why people get frustrated (mostly because I got frustrated so much myself) over language barriers, but how breaking down those barriers can be so rewarding. Mostly, I've learned that everything I learned through college wasn't as common sense as I thought, and can really see how it is applied after this experience.

3. I'm a tumbleweed. I've learned I should never plan too far ahead because chances are I will change my mind about what I want to do. Before this trip, I planned on moving to Chicago, getting a job and starting from there. Now all I want to do is travel the world and be an anthropologist... learn six languages... live minimally... take pictures... write books. I just have a thirst for experience... which I've always had, but this trip really kicked it in the pants. I'm ready to start pursuing some of those dreams and goals. This hasn't shattered my plans... I'm still moving to Chicago and getting a job... but I'm trying to squeeze another adventure in before that happens. And I am for sure planning my next great journey because I feel more alive seeing the world and different cultures and people than I do anywhere else I think. I can't get enough, so why would I stop myself?

4. The world is so much smaller than we think it is. I've met people from every corner of the world. I've hung out with friends from home IN BEIJING. I've had conversations with people from an entirely different culture and been able to see things in common. Granted, I was here for a global event and the atmosphere was very international, but all the same, we were brought together for a common cause. People here know about America more than I know about China... and that makes me wonder why that is the case. I promise after leaving China I will read more international news... and really figure out where things are happening and how it affects the world, rather than just acknowledge it. I want a greater understanding of how the rest of the world functions with the US, not just how the US works on its own (which is so often the viewpoint we are presented with). So many people from around the world are working with and in other countries... and that trend isn't going to reverse itself. I looked around at the people here for Olympic events... so many people have international careers for things you would never expect (example: BMX racing). I'm really ready to start building some skills (namely, learning more languages) that will help me get into this worldly group of people, because I really think they've got the right idea.

5. Patience really is a virtue. Patience with others, patience with changing plans, patience with everything. I would have never survived without sharpening my skills a little bit. And yes, we did have to blow off some steam, but it only helped us realize that we were growing and learning how to be more understanding in a lot of situations. So many times I just wanted to jump into a situation and try and do it how I thought would work best... but it is at those moments when I would step back and think, if this country of billions of people is making it work (because really, they are a global force), maybe I'll learn something if I watch and take it all in. I know the situations I was in are really small scale and aren't much compared to an entire country's economy and political decisions, but in a small way it is the same. This country is making it work... so why would we try to force a different idea upon them just because we think it will work better? I think we can apply this idea to a lot of global situations where one country thinks it sees a way to make another "better" and then ends up disrupting the entire balance of that culture. Just be patient, take a look, realize that whatever is going on is working the way it is for a reason.


As with any great experience, it's seemed too long at times and too short at others. This really was an opportunity I couldn't pass up, and I'm glad I didn't. I'm also pretty sad that this blog is winding down. I've really enjoyed all of the comments, and am flattered that reading this has become part of some of your daily routines. I hope that it's provided a good window into what I'm experiencing here and I'll be a little lost in a few days when I don't get to blog about the crazy cultural daily adventures I have. I promise to do my best to make these last few days worth reading.