The return to Houston offered very little time for reflection. I had two internship interviews the day immediately after, so what I ended up doing as soon as I got home was get some Taco Bell, eat it at my apartment, and then shower and go to sleep. I then woke up at 7, took the metro downtown, and had my first interview with the right half of my black leather shoes digging into my ankle. At least I found an awesome döner place for lunch.
Having been to China seven times now, I still like going back. Maybe I’m actually super upper-middle class and am shielded from all the crap that’s actually in the country. But I think that my experience with urban lab last year in Istanbul taught me to appreciate parts of the city that aren’t glamorous, tall skyscrapers. I’d hope that even if I were in the poorer part of the town that I’d still be able to get behind it.
Honestly, as someone who has been before and who plans to go back again, I know that I want to act less like a clueless tourist (to think that I was like this with a country that I knew!). However, I really have no idea how one would actually go about doing such a thing.
As I alluded to before a few times in my posts here, I’ve been constantly surprised at the little things I took for granted as common knowledge that others didn’t know already. For most of these people, actually being in China was some weird experience, where everything was new. I’ve been here a few times. I know that China’s skyscrapers and slums next to each other. People seemed to be genuinely surprised (and sometimes disappointed) at stuff like Pudong, which is super-modern. For me, seeing my relatives who live in those kinds of new developments in new parts of various cities, I take for granted that that’s China. Many of my classmates seemed disappointed (like I said, someone on the trip thought that Shanghai was “less Chinese” for all its new housing developments).
Anyway, much of my research will involve researching China as a topic, rather than experiencing it through my (admittedly limited) perspective.
Here’s a parting photo of me with my friend Josh. It was a fun trip.
