Today we returned to the United States. Despite all the great experiences I had in China, I couldn't wait to be back with the US, eating food that was not the same thing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday. I longed to see my friends and to sleep in my own cushy bed. Perhaps because of all this excitement I didn't sleep too much on the flight back, but I was not worried since I had no schedule to wake up to the next day. I had an aisle seat in the center row, which was nice because I didn't have to get up as frequently to let other people get to the bathroom. A guy two seats over was working the cart system very effectively, exploiting the fact that they were not in sync to get two glasses of wine. Such tactics are necessary in steerage because liquids are very hard to get unless you start poaching the service carts while the stewardesses are resting. I thought of the Beatle's "Back in the USSR" as we left China. I definitely had the feeling of leaving a lush, rich nation for a crowded poorer one in reverse (the way I prefer it). I made it through the flight. I found it simultaneously funny and worrying that the plane was so heavy with people that we only got airborne at the end of the runway because we had to build up so much lift. One more observation of inefficiencies I forgot to write down: The subway costs 2 RMB, but the ticket dispensers at the station do not accept 1 RMB bills. Instead, they employ 3-4 women with coin belts to exchange your bills for 1 RMB coins. Instead of spending money on paying these 3 girls, why not have 1 person come by every hour and empty out the machines of cash? I suppose this is the Iron Rice Bowl in effect.
The first thing I noticed about America was the air. Oh how wonderful it was to be able to see far off into the distance and breathe in not exhaust fumes, but some beloved oxygen. I was similarly joyous when I entered the arrival chute. After the Chinese Air China workers manning the gate equipment, the first airport worker I saw was black. I instantly smiled. I was so happy to be back in a place where not everyone looks the same: short asians with black hair. Throughout the rest of the airport I was glad to see people of all sorts of other ethnicities. The homogeneity of China had really begun to wear on me not just gastronomically. I was reminded of the strange feelings of camaraderie I had with any non-asians I saw passing me on the street. It seems ethnocentric, but it was really just a feeling that I was plunged into a sea of gray when I arrived in China. Everybody looked the same, wore similar clothes, were going here and there in every direction and spoke in a strange language I could not understand. So when I saw someone who was clearly from abroad my heart warmed as if I had seen a fleck of color floating the sea. Some of them seemed to think the same thing, and we would exchange a smile, realizing that we were not alone in this sea of people.
As we entered customs, I noted the stains on some of the walls, the dirt stuck in a corner. I was in New York and back in America. In China some places, like the airport, are kept artificially clean to impress foreign visitors. But when you step out onto the street or go inside any regular building, the standards of cleanliness are a world apart. In America, official buildings are mostly clean, some are meticulously so, but so are most businesses, streets, and homes. You do not feel like you are looking at a whitewashed facade with dirt creeping out from the sides. What you see is what you get, so deal with it. (Much like the West's standard of one-price shopping for most items). I was happy that we were citizens of the US as we walked right through while the immigration area had a 1-2 hour line. It was also great to overhear people talking and understand what they were saying, no matter how banal. Oh, and how nice it was to be able to read the signs, even if they just said restroom!
I met my dad at the pickup area and was glad to see wide open roadways without cars coming in at extreme angles, horns blaring. My ears were so happy to hear silence on the roads. And even in heavy traffic, drivers did not turn the 3-lane roadway into a 6-lane! It was great to be able to see NJ clearly from the other side of the Hudson. Of course the first person I saw when I got back in the US besides my dad was Jack Gavin.
I insisted that we stop at Burger King before we got home so I could put some delicious American food in my stomach. How great it was to eat something that didn't taste, look, or feel like noodles or deep-fried mystery meat. Here was a hunk of grilled meat on bread with fresh veggies atop it. Diversity of flavor even within this one burger. I still refuse to eat Chinese food and try to eat out whenever I can. My taste buds still yearn for something more than Chinese food every meal. My average-cushiness bed felt like a cloud after 2 weeks of sleeping on Chinese bedrock.