Well I have been in Chengdu for 3 weeks now. Have my apartment and look forward to making my home MY home these next few weeks. More and more I'm simply sitting back and finding time to reflect and readjust my ways of thinking and mindset. As a foreigner living in china, the challenges never stop. It's not bad at all, just learning to adapt to a whole new environment completely. The literal environment where you check the air quality each day to see if you will wear your mask or not. Not having your own car and relying completely on public transportation (taxi, bus, metro). Cultural norms and social etiquette constantly being challenged or unexplained, but expected. Oh and yes...the language. Walking into a restaurant and open the menu to find only Chinese and few pictures is sometimes quite intimidating and frustrating. However, I am so glad that I have been wired the way I am. Many have described me as easy going and laid back. This has definitely helped my transition time here in China. Sometimes the best thing I can do is simply laugh and just say "Oh China!"
Example, imagine working a long day and you simply want to get home and change and relax. You grab a taxi and start to contemplate what you will do as soon as you get home. Dinner? Shower? Make some tea? Your ride home suddenly begins to look unfamiliar and you realize the taxi driver is taking your on a sightseeing your of the city....at your expense. Unfortunately you cannot speak the language to tell him you know he's going the wrong or long way. Watching the meter climb, you just sit back and enjoy the sites. Thankfully the taxi isn't too expensive. And you may have found a new area of town. It's all part of the experience right?
Imagine walking along minding your own business. You grab a coffee or food and feel dozens of eyes staring at you. At first, you are self conscious if your fly is down or if there is something on your face. Then you just realize you are a foreigner and that's just what happens. Or the best, you are sitting in a coffee shop reflecting/writing your blog. Suddenly a grandma basically shoves her grandchild in your face to say hello. She keeps smiling really big and speaking words that have no understanding to you, yet desperately is trying to communicate to you something about her grandchild. Then u realize she just wants to take a picture with a foreigner and her grandchild. I can't tell you how many times I have posed with complete strangers. It totally cracks me up.
Being flexible and fluid is a gift! A wise teacher once told me "be ye flexible and you won't break!" I've latched onto those words here lately. In no way am I complaining, just reflecting here and hoping to give you a little perspective into life here recently. I often just laugh at all the funny things that happen or I find here. Shopping at a big store and trying to find a specific item is a giant treasure hunt. It's a game here. Oh the days I would love to find a Target or Publix here. However, I doubt they would allow the hanging dry meat, pig snouts, whole ducks with heads or other live animals aka dinner.
More and more this experience of living in china has been like no other experience before. Renting an apartment...wow...now I could write a whole movie script for that one. I'm still not sure if it would be a comedy, drama or suspense movie. Just depend which apartment we visited and what process we are dealing with at the time.
All in all, I'm starting to dig in and settle my roots here. It's starting to become home. That's another mindset I feel you have to take here. You can't have the mindset of I am just here for a short term, that's not helpful. Fully jumping in and becoming part of the city, neighborhood and community is vital to a healthy and happy stay. No matter if this is a one year, two year or ten year stay. It's allowing yourself to be part of the community and not just a visitor. I've already have future blogs toiling in my head...here's a couple topics: the guest chef for Chinese New Year, Chinese medicines verses western medicine, now why do you do that here, and my favorite...you want me to eat what? Stay tuned....pictures are worth a 1000 words sometimes!
