I took a moment from my day

It’s hard to believe I have been here for nearly 3 months. I can’t believe how quickly time moves here. I guess that's how it goes living in a Chinese city. Coming from a village of 700 people to a city of 7 million of course it'll take some time to adjust to the hustle and bustle of life in a Chinese city. Traffic jams consist of more than just a group of cows. Where you no longer wake up in the morning to roosters crowing but instead to the sounds of construction work going on. There are bad points and there are good points (mainly good points), but I’m finding it all works out. Everything is all part of my experience here. I can't believe I am in China. I still feel like I'm walking around in the never ending Chinatown district in New York City. I haven't had much time to really process my move here, so on a recent day off, I took the day to do just this.

 First, I took a walk around a nearby lake admiring everything around me. A group of ladies dancing around with a colorful fan in one hand. Their bodies moving around so delicately. Just a few feet from them an elderly lady sits alone on the bench singing opera as other ladies listen while knitting a pair of socks. A man sitting below a tree meditating. A group of people practicing Thai Chi. Others scattered throughout doing their morning exercises under a line of cherry blossom trees (exercises like walking backwards, or standing and just hitting themselves – ( I guess it’s a way to get the qi [energy] flow going throughout their bodies), clapping their hands, swaying their arms back and forth, and other random exercises. A man propped upside down on a bench. Maybe a form of Yoga?

I sit on a park bench to people watch for a moment. Business men carrying suitcases frantically trying to get to work on time. The “minority” women in their colorful traditional clothing, carrying their babies in a sling behind them, school children in their uniforms, boys in their taekwondo outfits. People walking their dogs dressed in a sweater and booties. (I guess when you are only allowed to have one child here, people will tend to spoil their dogs.) There’s just so much going on , and I could spend hours just people watching.  And I do just that. After a morning of people watching,  I hop on my bicycle to join the other bicyclists and families (dog included) on their scooters. I pass by a line of restaurants with flashing Chinese characters full of people inside digging their chopsticks into a bowl of oily noodles.  Vendors lining the street selling fruits, vegetables, dog, chicken feet, etc. People everywhere.

I pedal to a river, where I’m better able to escape the crowds and be at peace. I direct my focus on the river, allowing the craziness of this city to escape my mind. Even with people walking by, I do my best to block them out.  Their stares at me often last longer than a respectable amount of time. Maybe they are admiring the largeness of my eyes, the curliness of my hair, or my plump figure.  (Yes in China I am fat, which is much different than in El Salvador, where I often was forced to eat all time since they thought I looked like a sick, unhealthy, undernourished individual.) Perhaps they are wondering why I am alone, sitting, staring, and writing. Some take a look at me, then at the spot in the river where my mind found peace, expecting to find some strange creature or something. They don’t see what I see… they haven’t found what I found, and they carry on with their days.

I love China. Of course there are some things I’m still getting used to. But overall, I couldn’t be happier with my move here. The culture. The people. The new foods. The new friends. My soul and mind continue to grow with each day.  The euphoria and freedom I feel of being in a new place on the other side of the world. On my bike ride home, I take a few more moments to admire everything around me. Next month, or maybe even never week, everything will begin to appear normal.