WHAT I MISS ABOUT CHINA

1. Foot rubs...enough said previously!! However, last night I paid my kids $1 each to rub my feet (pathetic I know). They did pretty good. Mr. Wenfung may have a little competition.

2. The food...I kind of had a love/hate relationship with the food. I enjoyed everything I ate (well, except for two things, a tofu dish and an eggplant dish) and I ate some really GOOD food (the pictures are of two of my favorites....sweet and sour fish and jowza)! However, I also got sick of it too. At those times my cousin would take pity on me and let us go to McDonalds or have pizza or would cook something herself. So when I say I miss it I guess I miss the ability to have good Chinese food at any time not just Hy-Vee's version. Although today when Sam asked if I wanted to go to a Chinese place for lunch, I did get a little nauseous so I guess I'm not quite ready for that yet.

3. Our fan club...It was kind of fun to see how celebrities live if only for a short time. Almost everywhere we went stares and picture-taking abounded. My cousin has blond hair so she got more attention than I did but I did ok! Our uniqueness was especially evident in Hohhot where I did not see another foreigner the whole time I was there (other than the people I was with). Some of these people do ask if you will pose for a picture with them and we always obliged. When shopping we also drew large crowds when we stopped to look at something. I was somewhat offended when I got off the plane in San Francisco and had no fans!!

4. The way the Chinese people's faces would light up when my cousin started speaking Chinese to them....That was just cool! I could tell they were very impressed and excited that she is learning their language!

5. The way no one there understood what I was saying....I've always wondered if the ladies at the nail salon are talking about me when I go to get my nails done....They are! We didn't talk bad about the people but we did make observations about them. Such as, "Oh no...he did not just spit there did he?" or "He is driving like a maniac!" Those kinds of things. I had to retrain myself when I got back among English speaking people not to just blurt out the first thing that came into my head.

6. The Freedom....It is probably extremely ironic to read that I found freedom in China. Let me explain. When a mom goes on a trip with her family she still has to work but when a mom goes on a trip by herself she doesn't have to take care of anyone but herself. That was a nice break. I did a pretty good job of setting aside my worrying about what was going on at home and enjoying my free time.

7. The Adventure....Every morning in China I would wake up excited to see what the day would hold and what new things I would get to see, and the new people I would get to meet. Now I'm back to real life and don't get me wrong but I've gone from Indiana Jones to Debra Barone in just a few days and all the excitement that cooking, cleaning and school runs brings doesn't really compare with international travel and The Great Wall.

(picture is of me and a friend riding bikes through some back streets of Beijing)