Life is Beautiful

My trip lasted exactly 48 hours - I arrived in Qingdao on Wednesday at 2 P.M. and took the 2 P.M. bus back to Linyi on Friday.

I'll try to condense 48 hours into just a few short paragraphs. I hope that in these few words my boundless joy can be conveyed to those of you who have taken the time to read them. Here goes:

Day 1 -

I left my apartment at 9 a.m. and headed to the bus station. I directed the taxi driver, bought my bus ticket and got on the correct bus all speaking in Chinese and without the aid of another human. My first victory. :-)

It's winter. I'm in North China. It follows that everything would be either dead or a depressing shade of brown so there was nothing to look at on the bus ride except for the Chinese movies that were playing.

I arrived at the Qingdao bus terminal at 2 p.m. and there to meet me was Kitty who was to be my guide for the next 48 hours. I had never met Kitty but she was a childhood friend of my friend Karaku so that automatically made her my friend too. I didn't describe myself to Kitty and she didn't describe herself to me but her smile made her stand out and everything about me made me stand out so we easily found each other.

Kitty brought me from the bus station to Karaku's childhood home and there waiting were five more new friends including Karaku's parents and some Japanese buddies. Karaku's parents fed us and fed us and fed us. In fact, once, after asking what my favourite Chinese meal was (Ji Dan Bing) she came back to the table with some piping hot from the kitchen. Now that's hospitality.

After the meal with Karaku's parents we were off for a little site-seeing. I saw my first Wal-Mart in China located in Qingdao's old downtown. That was it for site-seeing. We were off again for some more people-meeting.

We arrived at the home of my hostesses for the first night. Two more friends of friends of friends that had moved over from Japan. These friends had invited more friends and there were quite a few people that were over for snacks and conversation. There was so much joy in that little room where I sat. Oftentimes I would be close to breaking down into tears because I was so happy to be there. I had never before met any of the aforementioned people but each and everyone of them were like family to me and to be with them felt like coming home.

Day 2 -

The next morning after a very European breakfast of French toast with a light apple dressing my hostesses and I parted ways. They had work to do and I had more site-seeing and people meeting to do with Kitty. Kitty and I linked up and headed to see many sites eventually working our way towards the site of the 2008 Olympics boating events, the beach, and the new downtown shopping sites. Kitty and I also met up with some more of her friends, there were two beautiful and lovely girls from France with whom we ate lunch. After lunch we linked up with two more girls from Japan with whom we had dessert. There were more smile and laughter and more stories to swap. After dessert we headed to meet some more friends for Badminton. After a few swings we headed to the home of our host and hostess for the night - a couple from Japan. We ate and drank, danced and played the guitar. Told stories and struggled through translating.

Day 3 -

I and my host and hostess went out to do some work together. It was really their work but they let me tag along. That was a lot of fun and I was able to meet some more lovely people. After work we had lunch and then they dropped me off at the bus station. They waited with me until it was time for the bus to depart. At 1:54 (6 minutes before the bus was to leave) Kitty came running up to the terminal. She had come to see me off! We all exchanged good-byes and promised to see each other again. And off I was again. Back to Linyi. Back to my work and back to what at times feels like isolation.

I can't really describe how happy I am though. How very excited I am and how much I needed this trip.

There is an expression we often read "scrolls could not contain". I think that my feelings are to that extent. I couldn't ever write down how I feel for you to understand. Just suffice it to say that I'm very happy. Very very very very happy.