anniversary post

i came home from china a year ago today. i have been thinking of june 16th all week. actually, all month. my mom thinks it seems like it's been longer than a year. that depresses me. i swear it was last month. china keeps getting further away. i hate that.

so i'm going to write an anniversary ode to china today and if you're thinking "oh my gosh, rachael, not china again".....then read no further! i always swore i would not be one of those people, who talk about their travels abroad months after they got home and generally bug the heck out of everyone. but here we are. reading my one year anniversary post. (sorry...)

anyway.

i miss china. everyday. i think about it everyday. i didn't imagine i would ever miss it this much. i miss the smells and the sounds more than anything. i miss those pesky fireworks that woke me up at six every morning. i miss hearing only chinese. i miss my kids calling me "miss geisel!" i miss my kids. i miss bob and sam the most. sleeping on a concrete mattress. waking up to a sore throat every morning. the smell of smoke. the smell of stinky tofu. (i never thought i would miss these things! i hate stinky tofu!) i miss trying to be creative on weekend nights (parkour? hot asian stalking?) i miss my girls. gourmet donuts downtown. haggling. seeing who could say obscene english sayings the loudest in public. tucking my kids in bed. rotting teeth and dirty kisses. little hands and bear hugs. wearing gnome jammies to the cafeteria. sun salutations, yoga, and running every morning. getting embarrassingly creamed in ping pong by 9 year olds.

i miss traveling. i miss having no adult supervision. being a free spirit and not having a care in the world. as a result of my devil-may-care attitude, while i was in china i experienced what i'm pretty sure is the best day of my entire life. after some reflection (even a year after the fact), i still submit that the day i'm about to share with you was the best day i have ever experienced in my almost-21 years of living.

after kindra and i were released from ILP, we backpacked around china for a few weeks and loved. our. lives. we took a 25 hour train ride to guilin and explored the city for a few days. on our last day before we were leaving for our next destination, we woke up and had no idea what to do. we had seen all that we wanted to see in guilin and were in the lobby of the hostel about to get directions to some cheesy touristy cave ride. all of a sudden this young, bearded american backpacker reading a book in the corner said,

"if you're looking for something adventurous, i know where to go. but the last bus there leaves in 5 minutes."

he told us about these gorgeous villages a few hours away that you could hike around and in between. he'd gone the day before. it wasn't very touristy but kind of a hassle to get to. worth it in the end, he said.

he scribbled down some messy instructions, and we bolted down the street to the bus station to find aforementioned bus that left in 5 minutes. we couldn't quite read the name of the bus he'd written down, but there was one that looked kind of promising, so we took a chance and jumped on it. hopefully we'll get to where we're going!

after two hours or so, the bus stopped and the driver ushered us off. when the bus rolled away, we realized we were standing on the side of a road. in the middle on nowhere. not a thing to be seen in any direction. ok, that's not true. there was a run down building and a man standing by a car telling us that he could drive us where we needed to go. we ran into the building but couldn't communicate with the teenager sitting there. we walked outside, sat down, and started laughing--why? i don't know. we were lost in a foreign country. all of a sudden, a rickety bus appeared and an old woman's scraggly-haired head shot out the broken door that wouldn't close.

"dazhai?"

we looked at the instructions paper, which said dazhai village. we looked at the building, looked down the street into nothingness, looked at the man by the car, and got on the bus.

we drove up a canyon, through waterfalls, and across bridges till the road ended. the driver dropped us off and told us the bus would be back at five. we hiked for a while in silence, seeing no one and only hearing our breath and chorusing insects. we finally got to dazhai village and spent the day eating lunch in a tavern, playing with local kids, and hiking up the mountain to sit and look down upon dazhai and the hundreds of rice patties that surround it.

there were no cars, no televisions, no tourists, no noise. it was surreal. i felt disconnected from the world and mindful of my thoughts. it took us a while to climb the mountain because we would stop every few minutes, sit down, take in the scenery, and listen to the silence. kindra and i had an understanding of silence with each other and therefore hardly spoke the whole time we were there. we just companionably walked, hiked, sat, thought, and enjoyed the village. i remember thinking the whole time, god gave us beautiful places like this so we can be happy and enjoy them. and enjoy it i did. we meandered and took our time. we had no place to be. life is slow there. everyone takes their time. the women take their time washing their hair in the river. the men take their time picking rice.

we rode home in silence, but smiling the whole way. back in guilin, we walked to the park, stuck our bare feet in the lake, and put our arms around each other, glad to be in china together.

i was so happy that day. when i got home to the states, i realized that i had forgotten that i had things to worry about like school, work and boys!

i'm sad that it's been a year since i got home. but i will never forget the memories i made in china. it will continue to be one of those life-changing experiences that i am grateful for everyday.

thanks for the adventure, china! i'll never forget it.