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So this post has been very delayed because in the 2 weeks that I have been back in the States I have been to NYC to Maine back to New Haven. So I've been trying to absorb everything I learned over this summer, while simultaneously running around New York for a week trying to see all my high school friends, getting ready for A cappella and our insane month of "rush," AND packing for/moving back into Yale. I'm still incredibly busy with the latter two (and the first two except now with Yale buddies), but I can already start to feel my summer experiences settling in my mind and letting me look at things differently here.

Firstly, my new roommate speaks Mandarin (maybe we'll tell secrets in Chinese!)

But in a less superficial sense I actually have already been put in this unfamiliar position of constantly comparing two cultures. I wasn't in China very long, so I'm not having very strong reverse-culture shock, but now I am starting to look at everything Americans do (me, my friends, strangers and all) through a different lens. I just read a very interesting graduation speech by David Foster Wallace (thanks Hye Mi) about how a liberal arts education's best purpose isn't to teach us what to think about but to teach us how to think. That was my very inarticulate attempt at a one sentence summary. But I'm feeling it's sentiment so strongly now. Even things as simple as how people wait in line to get groceries can be viewed from so many different perspectives (ie. economic, emotional, societal...etc) Then extend that lens to how people raise their children or what their expectations of their government are.

I miss a lot of things about China, from the crazy fast elevators that you had to run into or risk being crushed, to the loving teachers and their stories about Chinese college life. And haggling. god I miss haggling.

Now I'm just figuring out when I'll go back....