Coming home

Was a process. Like I said, I left school Saturday and headed to the east side of Beijing for debriefing. We stayed in a nice hotel where we had meetings, said goodbyes and talked about what it'll be like to head back to America for a few days. Tuesday morning we loaded a China Post truck full of all of our 70-pound bags and boarded a bus to Capital Airport. Our first leg was to Shanghai and then on to LAX. I remembered and was dreading flying home after the awful, awful flight to China in August when I got sick and puked because of the smell of airplane Chinese food. I really think that was my worst experience of the entire year. Compared to that, the flight home was great. We landed in LA Tuesday around noon PST and I was back on American soil. I saw a flag out the window of the plane while taxiing and was happy to hear rude English phrases coming from everyone. Honestly though, I was surprised at how friendly everyone was, not that I think Americans or Californians aren't, but I'd just come from China where everyone constantly wants to help a foreigner. I just expected to feel a little more ignored. The friendliness was nice. Ryan and I each had red eye flights that left about 12 hours later, so we dished out $8 or something crazy for some Mexican food in the airport and went to the hotel we'd reserved for the day--to shower and sleep. That day I went to Burger King, bought a Butterfinger at a drug store and watched SportsCenter. Wow. The flight to Pittsburgh left at 11:30 PST and landed after 7 a.m. Wednesday EST. I was home. On the flight to the 'Burgh, I met a Chinese woman who was in America for her first time, on her way to meet her husband who's doing his post-doctorate work at Pitt. We talked about China and it was good to know while I've left China, it isn't gone. My first couple days here have been great--a little busy--but wonderful to see family, friends, and two Pirate wins!! I've played two rounds of putt-putt and while I've eaten well thus far, the variety and options available of good food astound me. It'll be a while before I get bored of the options we have here I'm sure. And then I'll miss Chinese. The biggest surprise so far was while landing and looking out my window, I was shocked by the wide-openness of Western PA. SO many trees and hills and space between neighborhoods. I really couldn't believe it. After so long in such a crowded city, Pittsburgh looked like the middle of nowhere. Being on the ground made it seem a little more normal, but I missed nature. And Pittsburgh sure is a beautiful place.