Here is the first picture, and pretty much what encapsulated it all for me: the Great Wall of China. I didn't really think it was a big deal until we got there and started climbing. I can't remember how far up I got, but the tour guides gave us FOUR HOURS to climb up and down, so it may have taken about two or three hours to get to the height shown in the picture above. It was amazing. I really started to become aware of all the people who suffered and died in building this wall as I was so selfishly complaining about climbing up! I also became saddened when I saw the locks that people had put on the sides of the walls in memory of the dead. Whenever we passed such a collection of hanging locks with red string, the crowd always seemed to have gotten quieter and their complaints about the steep steps and their shin splints became suddenly subdued. That has always amazed me; the effect and power of a simple object or image that can instantly change our emotions or actions.
So I went to Montclair State University in New Jersey and studied Linguistics. One of the cutest and funniest professors we had in the Linguistics department was Dr. Longxing Wei (pictured above, pronounced Long-Shing Way). He was a tall, skinny Chinese man who had found a way to talk about drinking with former students, study abroad in China, and drinking with former students in China in every single lecture. The funny thing is, he was teaching us Semantics and Syntax! If you don't know what those words mean, trust me, it's the Calculus of Linguistics-- BORING with a capital B! Actually semantics in conversation is very exciting, but add a textbook and a bunch of linguists to the equation and it's not like we're chatting at a party anymore.
When I first declared my major as linguistics, I did know that I wanted to travel the world while teaching English. I just didn't really know how that was going to happen. So every week I would listen to Dr. Wei talk about China ever-so-subtly between our noun phrase diagrams and imperative politeness factors in speech, and one day he said something like, "We are offering a study abroad program in China and you will get college credit for two classes for coming, as well as an opportunity to experience the great country of China" and I was so excited! I really didn't know how I was going to do it, but it seemed like such a cool thing to do! Go to China for five weeks! Yeah! But I was working at Starbucks and couldn't figure out a way to pay for a trip to Asia....so I went home and did what most kids do, I told my parents my conundrum.
The next thing I know, I'm getting my passport and packing my bags and saying goodbye to my friends and family at the airport, and then I'm on the plane to China!!! It's a blur now, but I know that my stepmother supported me and reassured me that this will be a really great thing for me, in life in general and since I want to be an EFL teacher abroad. I met a curly-haired, sweet-looking girl outside near the ash tray (what a GREAT place to meet people, by the way!) and we started to talk. We had our last cigarette together before boarding the plane, and I think because of that, we were bonded for the rest of the trip. She was my partner in crime, my smoking buddy, my clubbing friend...yes, there is clubbing in China!
...so I guess you can't see the video? That's funny, because I can...oh dear sorry about that.
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