A challenge accepted

After an excruciatingly long, frigidly cold, and polluted winter.. spring has sprung. We have welcomed the sun back into existence in our lives and cannot stop but to be in awe of  blue skies. I have shed my bulky winter coat and feel less restricted in more ways than one. I must have forgotten what seasons were like, and don’t believe I’ve ever been through a harsher one in my life. It may sound cliché but I feel as if I’m brand new, refreshed, reborn.. a different human being than the one who wanted to hide inside away from the cold world. I’m once again antsy to breathe the fresh air outside and be a social creature.. to get up and go! It’s just lovely.

Even so, this winter I’ve been doing quite a bit of traveling, saying “yes” to just about anything. Weekend trip to Shanghai, check! Weekend trip to Hong Kong, why not? I start to realize however, that getting out-of-town should be to explore and not to escape. I happened upon some dashing young men at a rooftop bar in Hong Kong, and immediately started venting about life in Beijing. They asked me why I would live here.. and my inebriated brain could not think of a justifiable answer. I suppose I said, to travel and to save money. How boring. I mean, these things are definite perks.. but they’re not specific to the Jing. Why do I live here.. and consider staying past my contract? It’s not just about the money.. obviously. In my right mind, and with a little sunshine to lift my spirits, I’m able to properly answer this question (even though the men are long gone). Beijing is a city of culture and history, unlike ever I’ve really experienced. Being able to delve into the foreign and the ancient is somewhat miraculous, and it happens to be at my fingertips. Yes, life here can be horrendously difficult at times, and yes, I find myself often dreaming of my cushy, easy life back in Cali.. but this, living here is the adventure of a life time. I’m learning a new language, tones and characters and all. I’m learning to successfully navigate relationships in a culture that is almost opposite of my own. I’m stretching myself in ways I wouldn’t have imagined, trying new things. To be honest, it may not bring out the best of me all the time, but it’s growth and that’s not always pretty. I sometimes tell people back home that I wouldn’t tell anyone else to move to China, and it’s true. I’m not sure many people could handle it. There are somethings that I really hate about it.. like the spitting!! Overall though, I wouldn’t change where I am. I really feel that this is where I’m meant to be for the here and now.

Looking at the past 9 months since I’ve been here, I’ve had experiences that were never available to me at home. Yes, I miss good Mexican food, and I miss my “tribe” terribly. But.. I’ve gotten walk around in the Avatar forest, float down the Li River on a bamboo raft, hike through miles of rice terraces with a minority group, stay in ancient towns, see the World’s biggest Buddha, and watch pandas play. It’s been so worth the complications, the loneliness, and the frustrations. It’s almost too easy to complain about life in China, there’s no shortage of things to vent about, especially when coming from such a blessed country like America. From now on however, I challenge myself to find the beautiful, the unique, the pros instead of the cons. The small moments, like watching old men fly kites high in the sky, which I love. Signing off to enjoy everyday life in BJ..

XX