Goodbye Chengdu... Until Next Time

Goodbye...

I will miss you.

This morning, I woke up at 6:30 am. I blame it on Circadian rhythms. I got dressed as I normally do and packed a few more things. My host mom gave me the usual breakfast of two juicy pieces of corn, peach and apple slices, and warm milk for oatmeal. I even ate a few plums. After breakfast, I had some hot water and sat on the coach by the TV. After a little while, my host mom sat next to me and told me she wouldn’t be able to come to the airport because she had to go to work. I motioned for her to give me a hug, and we embraced for a moment. I found that we were both crying. I didn’t know what to say. All I could say was thank you one last time.

I went for my last run in the relatively small apartment village. There are certain people I’ve seen many times while running there, such as this one short, older man with a pipe that’s always sitting with poor posture in this beach chair on the sidewalk. I feel like I’ll miss them all too. At the conclusion of my run, I changed, finished, ate the usual, and then sat down to write for a little while while my host dad watched some Chinese drama on CCTV. Around 10:00 am, 吴璨, my host dad, and I all headed to the airport.

We met up with all the other host families, checked our bags, and then got our boarding passes. My luggage ended up being twenty-one kilograms. Although the limit is twenty kilograms, the person checking my bag didn’t make me pay any fee. The fee is technically thirty yuan per kilogram over, but I guess if your only a little over, it’s all good. While we were all in line, families were exchanging goodbyes. 吴璨 passed out some letters she had written and some small gifts she had purchased. Taylor came up to me and gave me a letter and a little gift. Chandler’s host sister took a picture with me, and Jordyn’s host sister gave me a hug.

My host dad helped me with my extra bag, and told me that I should call or text if I ever return to Chengdu. He even gave me his phone number. We took a few final pictures together as a host family minus my host mom and hugged a few times. There were a few moments that I felt that I would cry, but I didn’t. As we finally walked to the area in front of security, I stalled for a moment. It felt so sudden because, once I was through security, my trajectory would be for North Carolina. Six weeks flew by so quickly; it’s really insane. I looked at my host dad and motioned for one last hug. This time I cried. I tried to stop myself, but I couldn’t. My host dad began to cry too, and then I embraced my host sister and Jordyn’s once more. I waved goodbye and kept walking forward until I had made it through security.

A relatively short plane ride and long bus ride later, we arrived at the same hotel we had stayed at the first time we arrived in Beijing. It was like Dejavu. After a brief dinner, two groups of us headed out to Tiananmen Square. The group I was in headed straight there while the other group headed to a store/market first. Getting to Tiananmen was quite tiring. We took the subway from line 7 to line 4 to line 1... I think. We changed lines so many times I can’t quite remember. Ben was so excited about all the subway lines and trains. His excitement about transportation and infrastructure is pretty cute.

We got to briefly see the square and the front of the Forbidden City, but it was all very brief. I wish we were able to actually go into the Forbidden City, but it closed at 5:00 in the evening. The brevity of it reminded me of another Chinese idiom, 走马观花, meaning literally to look at flowers while riding a horse. The figurative meaning is to gain a superficial understanding from a brief moment. For example, we took pictures of the front of the Forbidden City and left soon after. It was a brief moment that did not afford time to gain a deeper understanding of an important Chinese landmark. There is definitely a lot more in China to explore and understand.

Before we left, I looked up at the sky and saw a singular star. Though I could only see one star, I know there were many more in the sky I couldn’t see. Just another figurative moment. We made it back to the hotel by 11:40 pm. After the usual nighttime routine, I hit the hay.