My Life in China: a summary

It's hard to imagine that I've been here for more than 9 months, but the time has passed and I sit here in disbelief that I am actually leaving this place. Let me start out by saying that this was an absolutely incredible experience. I lived in a place that is as far opposite of America as anywhere in the world. I made friends from every continent, many that I will keep in touch with when I go home. I don't think that there is anyone that I know back home who has had a more interesting or fulfilling job since graduating from college.

That being said, I look forward to getting back to the states after a few weeks of traveling. Living in China was great, but I am definitely ready for something new. The cultural differences got to me every so often, more so in the latter half of my stay. Every time I got on my scooter there were instances of nearly being killed by other motorists who had no business being on a bike or in a car. Debate over monetary issues with certain contracts were incredibly tedious and overlong. My apartment was absolutely falling apart, looking something like a science project at the time we left because of poor construction and a lack of water draining in our bathroom. I began to think of my life in China as a sort of purgatory. I found certain food spots that I liked, but generally the cuisine was not to my taste. I ate at the same six restaurants for almost every meal. One of those restaurants was McDonalds. Work was good for the most part, but I had plenty of time off to do nothing. I drove my scooter around the lake whenever I got bored. I watched way too many bad movies because DVD's here cost less than a dollar. There was a general overcast over nearly every day, rarely having bright blue skys.

There is a certain aura that permeates every aspect of life in China. It is a combination of communism, pollution, and noise. When I had conversations with Chinese teachers about things back in the states, they seemed awe struck. Very rarely were many informed on the happenings of the rest of the world. Having things like Youtube and Facebook blocked only further hinders freethinking. When I grew out a beard, one of the Chinese teachers told me I looked like Stalin. I was taken back at first, not sure if that was a compliment. She informed me that it was, for Stalin is a great man. It's funny, my opinion of him was a little different

To summarize, this was one of the greatest experiences of my life, and certainly something that I will remember forever. I will absolutely make it back to Hangzhou at some point in the future, and I'm pretty sure that it will be drastically different. Thinking back to college as heaven, then the real world must be hell, I'll take China as purgatory for the time in between one hundred times over. I'm really not looking forward to the real world

Jon Barron

Atleast I'll have this to look forward to, gonna ease the transition I think
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KSv8SxKeBM

Been a while, 1 week left

So I kept telling myself that too much time had passed since I last updated this thing, and recognized that I only have 1 week left before I'm leaving the country. The very last post will be around the time I leave, so I figured that I definitely needed to put something else down before then. Not a whole lot is new in Hangzhou over the last month and a half. The weather has gotten pretty hot, not in a bad way, and it'll only continue to get hotter until I leave. I went to Shanghai a few weeks ago to visit an old friend from middle school, Charlie Winship, and had a pretty good time. I was there on May 1st, the opening day of the Shanghai World Expo. The country has spent something like 75 billion dollars on this thing, a great deal more than they paid for the Olympics, and the city was bustling. I was told that at any given time during the 4 months that it is running there will be between 30 and 40 million people in the city. It was absolutely ridiculous how crowded it was. I walked down to the Bund, where you get the best view of the famous skyline, and felt as if I was wading in a sea of black hair, with just the top of my head poking out to stay afloat.

Most perplexing Chinese knockoff of all time:
A friend at work showed me a picture he had taken with his camera phone of the most aggregious attempt at ripping off foreign goods that I had ever seen in China. It was the back end of a brand new, 2009 Ragne Rover. No, not a Range Rover, but a Ragne Rover. I thought about this one for a while. You would think that there is no way that a real Range Rover dealer would ever make such a spelling error and still sell the car. You would also think that the person with enough cognition to rip off an expensive model, and put together an entire car would have the thought to actually spell the name correctly. I can't wrap my head around this one

And yes, I am leaving China on June 1st. I will be heading to Shanghai to catch a flight to Phuket, Thailand, where I will be for around 9 days. After that, I'm flying to Vientiane, Laos, where I'll head to Vang Vieng for about 6 days. The last part of my trip had been up for debate for a while. Originally I had a flight out of Bangkok on June 20th. Thomas Barron didn't think that would be a good idea, something about it being a warzone, lots of people dying, buildings burning down. So after much thought, I'm now flying out of Hanoi, Vietnam on June 19th. I'm gonna be doing all the traveling by myself which I think will be very cool. Should be just about the greatest way that I could end my tenure in Asia. Gonna be pretty bittersweet, but I'm looking forward to it