Back in China.

Descending from cruising altitude, high above the brown and grey city, it is hard not to think that we are heading into a different world. After only a few days (well two weeks but it felt like just short days) at home, we were returning to this weird land of strange happenstance and unpredictability. We were coming back to China.

The weather hit us as soon as we landed. Sweltering heat, oppressive humidity smacked us in the face as we boarded the bus on the runway. Unlike most modern airports, China’s runways tend to have no permanent gangways that lead into a building. Instead you push and prod your way through the aisle of the airplane, rush down the stairs with hand luggage in tow and cram your way onto a bus that takes you the thirty feet to the door where you get off. Then you fight your way through to immigration (stamp, stamp, stamp) find your bags at the luggage carousel (or don’t, as the case may be) and head through customs.

On this return trip we were traveling with a number of new and returning teachers so we hired a van for the ride back to Jinshitan and piled in with all our gear. An hour later we were “home”.

In many ways it is as if we never left. Our house was in the same state we left it (although possibly it was slightly cleaner as our “auntie” stopped by several times in the summer to give it a wipe down and scrub the floors). However, the campus had changed in one spectacular way.

It was green.

There was grass where no grass had been (they only roll out the sod for a few months of the year then pack it away so it isn’t damaged by winter). There were trees, actual trees, with leaves! Our view from our bedroom window was a field of grass, wild hemp and weeds, and even the occasional bird flying by.

Of course the trade off for all this lush verdancy has been the weather. This summer has seen some of the most rain on record for the region. In fact there was more rain in July and August then in the last four years combined. So, the air is full of moisture. It is hot, so hot and humid that it feels like someone is smothering you with a wet diaper. I chose diaper as a metaphor because in China smells are often, shall we say, unpleasant.

We have started to settle in to a routine: work, workout (which in the heat is a trial and a half), cook, clean up, sleep, repeat. We are spicing it up now and again with the occasional night out, a game of baseball or ball hockey or trip to the beach, but in so many ways being back in China is…. normal.

Which is in itself, very weird.

This was the view when we arrived in February, not very awesome.

This is the view from our apartment NOW!!! Much better! If things keep getting better, we might even stay ANOTHER year, hahahahhahaahahaha!