Epilogue

I thought it was about bloody well time I posted this. It’s been six months since I left China. Five of them were spent at my parents’ place, regrouping back in Ann Arbor. This last month, however, has been another, rather significant readjustment.

Two days after my twenty-seventh birthday, I packed up my Honda Element with practically everything I owned and moved to Alexandria, Virginia. Since then, I’ve been acquainting myself with the Washington, DC area, loving the museums, the architecture, and of course, moving in with dear friends from Wyoming.

Now that I’ve had an acceptable grace period after leaving China, I can look back and honestly say I am glad I spent a year abroad, going far outside of my comfort zones. There are still times (more often than I would have expected), even after six months of being away from what I’d become used to in China, when I notice differences between the Chinese and American cultures, and I find myself still making the occasional comparison.

Surprisingly, there are elements of China that I find I miss, or that, looking back, I really admired about the country. The public transportation system, particularly in Beijing, was miraculous, now that I am experiencing our own American version. When I lived in Beijing, I was immediately astounded by not only the availability and ease of the system, but also the expense. You could go practically anywhere for less than the equivalent of a dollar a day. Here, the average commute on public transport can be around ten dollars a day. This is a cheap alternative to a car?

There are also odd times when I’ll overhear a Chinese conversation and think, hey! I actually understood a few words of that! Yet, I find it difficult to believe myself when I tell people that I’ve spent a year in China. They ask me questions and I have a hard time answering with what I’m sure they want as a quick and easy answer. The trouble is, there isn’t one. It’s a complicated answer. And when I do find the words, it doesn’t really feel as though I’m telling the truth, as though the inquisitors are expecting more than what it was. However, when I think of some of the things that I put up with, some of the cultural differences I learned about, and all the hurdles I trampled on and tripped over, I’m convinced that I had one of the more unique abroad experiences.

But, when all is said and done, I am very glad to be back in a country that does not make being a vegetarian practically impossible. And now that I have plans that will hopefully take me through future adventures, I’m encouraged and curious about what the next step will bring. Living in DC will be an exciting adventure in itself. Already, I’ve been dazzled by the architecture and the surrounding buzz of what it is to live in the Capitol environ.

I’m determined to continue writing and have decided to begin a whole new blog, not simply just for DC, but one that will encapsulate all locales. This blog will actually be split in two: One, the Traveller’s Edition of Peregrinus Poeta, will just be a diarrhea of prose, I’m sure – one that may explore where I am, both geographically and intellectually, even if that changes. The other, the Writer’s Edition of Peregrinus Poeta, aspires to be simply a self-indulgent whining of the struggle of writing. You know, something all writers tend to do.