Goodbye China

Few of the many, many things and people I would miss....

my PhD friend and asst. prof who has stunning directions skills
- my Chinese friend is an asst. prof teaching algorithms and does research on P2P systems. Ironically she can not remember directions even to her own house. When we went on trips, sometimes I wonder if she is really chinese! :) Ofcourse she is and gets angry if I questioned that.

the crowd
- not just the crowd, the way people would push you past even if there is space for walking around you!

the efficient subway system
- ahh, I love the subway. Cheap, predictable and so easy to use!

the massage spa Chinese practise sessions
- this should actually go to the top of the list. I am not a big fan of massages. But the 80RMB per hour sessions are great for the amount of invaluable Chinese language practice you get. But thinking about it, I wonder why the conversations always had the boyfriend-girlfriend topic in them! I definitely wont miss the full body massage (ofcourse I tried only twice). I remember clamping down my teeth not to scream because of the pain. Even after many "Qing yi dian" ("Softer please"), the massuers were always too strong for my liking. I lie there wondering why I was putting myself through the pain and wonder if all those massage lovers were basically masochists! :)

the "bu yao" and "mei you" confusions
- did i mean to say 'dont want' and did i actually say 'dont want' or 'dont have'; or is it the other way around??!! this is in addition to the four tones and countless 'ohh its the same character but different meanings' frustrations... ohh, there is another friend of mine (who is also a Chinese teacher) whose answer to questions like "Why is it this way in Chinese language?" was a standard "There is no why!". I think its a polite version of the Western style answer "Because I said so"!!!

the spicy Hunanese cuisine and the lively Xinjiang restaurant
- the amazing lamb ribs of Xinjiang restaurant along with its lively but noisy and really bad singing and dancing! the delicious fish head of Hunanese cuisine (cheekily named the "Mao's Home").

my very professional and strict chinese teacher
- she is one of the best. I was actually scared of her and used to do my homework promptly! ohh, during my final language session, my teacher was advising that I should continue practicing my Chinese after I leave China. I replied, yes, I should take some courses and maybe find a Chinese girlfriend. She got very angry, asking if I wanted a Chinese girlfriend just to practice my Chinese! :) I had to appease her saying that it was just an additional advantage. The main ones being that Chinese girls are beautiful and intelligent and fun. Looks like she never realised that in my 6 months in China I fell in love with all the Chinese girls... (hmm that probably works out to 600 million Chinese girls worldwide! Going to be really tough to narrow down to that special someone! :) )

Still on the 'China To Do' list...
Tibet
Hua shan
Train to XinJiang
Learn to make dumplings (specifically Xialongbao!)
Speak Chinese fluently ( stretch goal, I know! :) )
Find a Chinese girlfriend (hee hee, I know, I know!)

China and I: the love-hate relationship!

All good things should come to an end - so they say. I felt really sad that I had to leave Shanghai and China. But China still had some surprises up its sleeves for me until my last day there. I was kicked out of my house yet again - just 30 hours before I was set to leave China! Yes, dont ask me how! Looks all my life I have been riding on some dumb luck and it suddenly ran out! So I get kicked out of my house the second time in 2 months!
This time the story was lot better and interesting! Seems the Chinese Security Bureau / Police wanted my house immediately to "spy" on someone! Yeah, I know. I am starting to suspect my 6 months in China is actually something like Jim Carrey's "The Truman Show" movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/)!
The manager told me that the apartment has a security deal with the police in case they wanted a house for "spying".... and in my apartment manager's own words ... "especially since a lot of foreigners live here!" Huh, now I am not sure if that meant "lot of foreigners live here so the police wants to spy on them" or "lot of foreigners live here so the police wants to spy in general to provide better security for them"!!! If its the former, something went wrong somewhere obviously. Because I am the foreigner, if you kick me out of the house, who are you going to spy on?!! :)
Anyway, after 2 hours of flat out packing (now after doing this twice, I am confident that I can pack my entire life's worth in the 3 bags and move out in 2 hours max) I moved to a hotel for the remaining 30 hours in China.
Oh, I forgot to mention. I ended up in a police station during this episode, spoke to a Chinese detective trying really hard to see if there is any truth to this story! I was even contemplating if they would throw me in jail if I said I wouldnt move! But all my TV/Movie watching didnt go to waste. My brain dug out all the scenes I have seen over my life. Questions started pouring like if they jail me, will I get that customary one phone call, if I do get it who will I call, if I call someone at work will they be able to get me outon time for me to catch my flight the next day. Or will I just disappear without trace, if I disappear where will I be taken.... ha, I would love to see Tibet or western China... If they send me to one of those places to do manual jail labour, that wouldnt be too bad after all! :) Anyway, reining in my gallopping imaginative horses I kept my mouth shut, got out of the station to go home and do some packing! Hey, this is not too bad, my life's first police station experience and it happened in China! :)
So as you see, even if I cant confidently say that China loves me, I definitely love China! The whole 6 months was one of the best times of my life. So many fun encounters and some really great, sometimes ridiculous experiences!
hmm, I still need to wrap up my China blog posts with one more about stuff and people I would miss...