Preparing for Reentry

We leave for the States tomorrow. I don't know how much I'll blog when I get back-- in the past I have found there is less to blog about when I'm in the US, though I like to write about contacts with foreigners on campus in this blog which focuses on my contacts with China.

Though China is not noted for the freedom of its press, I have felt pretty free to write whatever I liked, if I did it tactfully. Being an outsider affords us a certain freedom. When I arrive home, things are different. I am not an outsider in the US, especially not at the university where I teach. I may write freely about my society and government, but about the inane bureacracy of my own institution, its silly committee meetings, its tempests in teapots, I have to be circumspect. And those are the things I like to write about, which is why I am often silent when in America.

I anticipate reentry, the inverted culture shock one experiences on re-encountering home. Things change in our absence, and we ourselves change through contact with a foreign language, people and culture. I will miss the contact with Chinese students in these very hopeful times. I will miss my friends. I will miss CHINESE, this elusive, difficult language which I am beginning to learn.

In a few minutes, we will have our final "field trip"-- a look at the Olympic stadium. There will be lunch with friends tomorrow, packing, and the surreptitious discarding of presents which will not fit in our luggage. There may be time for another entry or two before our departure.

Thanks for reading. Keep in touch.