Nothing has happened to me, or will until I leave. So let's take this time to look back over the year. I wish I could read my first few entries to this journal (I can't access the site because of the Chinese firewall. In fact this whole year I haven't been posting, I've been emailing my thoughts to my friend Christian Kammerer back in the States who posts them for me. Isn't that nice of him?)

But I can still remember back at the beginning. Way back last spring when I still didn't know what I was going to do the next year. Then arriving with all these strange people. I recommend to any of you thinking of living abroad, do it with an organization. If I didn't have my American friends here I would have gone crazy. Michelle, Todd, Max, and Melissa are the reason I enjoyed myself here.

I feel now I know the culture enough here to judge it. It's neither wholly positive or negitive, but the long and short of it is I'm glad to be going back home. There are some things here that people beileve and people accept that are just anathematic to my being. The belief that the individual doesn't matter, the belief that you cannot question the direction of your boss, the belief that you should fit in at all costs (I'm still fighting that one back in the states), that popular opinion should be your opinion, the lack of personal responsibility (direct result from point one), the lack of professionalism, of work ethic. So to sum up, not all, but many aspects of the very foundation of Chinese culture are beliefs I am dedicated against. Kinda harsh, I know, but it's the truth.

I go home in 9 days. I'm in the single digits. Every once in while I think about that and it feels very strange.

I don't know if I'll update again before I get back. But look for some wonderful reverse culture shock stories in about 2 weeks.

-The Wandering Norseman-