I cried twice during this time. Once when arriving in China, probably for four days constantly, and then when I had to leave. It is funny how the feelings of getting there and leaving mix up in a way. In both cases there is excitement of getting to a new place. Then there was also a sense of panic; the realization that I was in a completely new situation, knowing more or less nothing about China, and then, when I got back, I realized everything was scarily and maybe conveniently the same as when I left; like the world stood still while my life turned upside down in China. There is also a feeling of contentment; at first for actually making this step, not knowing what exactly to expect but even more now when looking back at all the experience gained. After sometime of strong controversial feelings you start to realize that things will get better, eventually you get used to any new (or old) situation, and it all feels.. normal again. I believe the hardest thing was being alone at the beginning and then, the toughest thing was having to leave all my friends behind. It is strange not to have them around, when we almost spent 24/7 together.
On my last day in Tianjin I walked around the city by myself for a while since everyone was working and I realized how much I have done in these 4.5 months, how different things were in February when I got there and how they are now. Comparing the ice-cold winter weather and the frozen lakes to the warm summer sun and the beautiful trees all over the city, is probably the most obvious difference and it was nice to see Tianjin in both seasons. It was hard to bring back in mind all those layers of clothes and running on the icy lake when sweating in my t-shirt drinking iced tea. Also, now I can communicate with taxi drivers, street vendors, and maybe catch a word or two when hearing a conversation in comparison to the complete chaos of my first moths. My neighborhood, that at first I presumed as soulless, in the middle of nowhere and utterly boring, slowly showed its other face. It was nice to live in a more traditional Chinese area, full of street vendors, children playing and tuk tuk drivers hanging around outside our complex; the in-the-middle-of-nowhere part doesn’t change though :P! If you read Anne-Marie’s list of ‘You know you are in China when’ I think I can tick out all the 35 points. The most important change however was arriving in China alone and then having the best group of friends waving me goodbye at the train station. Eveyone from the Linky Sense group: Andi, Raghda, Paul, Kerim, Anne-Marie, Nghia my Tianjin family that I spent a significant amount of time with to Jon, Akio and Ilyana that we met frequently after work and that literally saved me during my first couple of weeks and my Chinese friends Breanna, Tang, Phoebe, Cocona, Summer, Yasmine (she has been in China for 9 years so she is almost Chinese :P), Limei, Kagume and Frank and also Oliver turned these into the unforgettable months they will always be. Working 9 hours every day, climbing the Great Wall, watching the Skyline of Shanghai late at night, standing at a peak with a height of 2000m with just a plank under our feet and all those delicious dinners and much more wouldn’t have been the same without you guys.
So coming back home, to my Greek home, felt weird but of course I was also happy. It was really nice to see my mother at the airport when she picked me up. I also met some of my friends and relatives and I realized I had missed them all. No matter how much I love traveling and seeing new places, summer nights in Athens, sitting on a rooftop bar with the view of the Acropolis, are priceless. Also, even though I like speaking in English, some jokes and some thoughts can only be said best in your mother tongue. And I hadn’t spoken Greek in months! Some small details these days made me laugh: Having a meeting at 9.30 with my friends and everyone (including me) started showing up 9.45 without further notice because we knew everyone would come around that time anyway; going to restaurant for dinner around 9 or 10 while that was the closing time for most places in China made me think ‘yes I’m back!’ Also, the sky is surprisingly blue, maybe; after all, China was extremely polluted. Several times I had to hold back my words when I almost said ‘xie xie’ (thank you) or ‘duo shao chen’ (how much does it cost) to the shop keeper.
There are also a lot of things going on in my country at the moment. Good news are that we are now in the quarter finals of the Euro Cup, however yesterday we celebrated as we won the whole thing. The other news are the elections and the whole economic situation. Talking with my friends made me see what I probably already knew, no one wants to stay here to work, no matter how nice Athens is to be in, no one sees himself creating a career here.
I leave you with some pictures of my last week in China, Tianjin. The last week was full of nice dinners and as much time with my friends as possible. On Sunday we had a dinner at our place. I got a really nice good bye gift and we ended the night with fireworks. We all got our revenge for the fireworks we have been hearing once in awhile at 5 am! 9 pm was apparently a totally illogical time to fire them, hahaha! Then we also lit Chinese lanterns. Luckily we did not burn down our complex although it seemed like it was close a couple of times.
Now there are 2 months ahead of me on my beautiful island and then I have my tickets booked for Sweden for the 27th of August.
So that’s all… for now ;)