Moving on to.......................... Hungary!

These past few months have been filled with ups and downs. Due to family emergencies back home I decided to leave my beloved Deutschland to come back to the good ole' USA. 

My homecoming was bittersweet but being there for my family made up for it. I was also very fortunate to be able to step back into the job I worked at during high school and college. Without the kindness of my boss who chose to offer me employment despite my uncertain future I was able to earn enough money to purchase my ticket back to Europe. I was even able to spend two weekends at Vision's Center on Blindness where I was able to reconnect with many of the people who made summer 2013 a great one.

Throughout this situation I kept my eye on my goal of living abroad in a new country and began searching for jobs as soon as my family was back on track. I can now happily announce that things are looking up. The job search was difficult but I was able to secure a position teaching at a bilingual school in Budapest, Hungary. 48 hrs from now I'll be flying to Europe!

This position is a dream come true for me, I can't wait to share my wonderful experience as I explore a new part of the world.

P.S. Germany was wonderful although short. Sometime in the future I'll post more about it but the decision to go home was too difficult, I'm not ready to post all the pictures. Somehow doing that would make it feel more real and I'm just not ready for that.

Chinese Food At Home!

During my time at my summer job I was constantly yearning for Chinese food. Not the Chinese food cooked up in local "Chinese" restaurants, but the real deal. Particularly I was yearning for Chinese street food, and my favorite was baozi. Since I figured I'd be unable to get real Chinese food for a while (being in Germany) and since my parents had never tried any; I decided to make a Chinese feast.

In order to make this Chinese feast, I had to go out in search of ingredients, since things like Shanxi vinegar and dark soy sauce aren't available at my local grocery store. My Mom and I ventured to the closest Asian market, about an hour north of my parents' home.

We came back with quite the load. I had the ingredients for Egg & Chive Baozi, Pork & Scallion Baozi, Kung Pao Chicken, Mapo Doufu, Sweet & Sour Pork, and Spicy Fried Green Beans. The guy working at the store who helped me find the ingredients I had trouble locating got a kick out of me and my Mom. I was asking for ingredients in Chinese and my Mom was perplexed by something called bananas in syrup that comes in a can.

It took me forever to chop up all the ingredients. I had given myself two hours of prep. In retrospect I should have given myself four hours of prep. Chinese food has a lot of prep time but very little cooking time, very different from the food I'm used to cooking. Thankfully my family was very eager to try the Chinese food and gave me a hand. Unfortunately I don't have any other pictures of the cooking process, I started to get overwhelmed and then my family started helping, and then we were done. Oops.

 

The above picture that I drew is a testament to my love of Baozi.

We were also too hungry to take pictures of all the food. By the time I was ready to take pictures most the plates were empty. So sad as I am that I don't have pictures, I'm glad that my family enjoyed the food. This is the only picture I have it has some of the food and some of my family. My parents are sitting with Sweet & Sour Pork, Spicy Fried Green Beans, and China Inspired Asparagus (my own creation).

The food came out very good! The only thing I have to work on really is my Baozi the dough was a little tough, but I suppose there are worse things I could have to work on.

It's Been Awesome

I love the word awesome. I like to describe things as awesome and I strive to make sure that everything I do is awesome. Life is short, something I've been reminded of a few to many times. Especially this summer. However despite some truly trying times, I must admit this summer was awesome.

Last March I spent the whole month applying to summer jobs in the United States. I had many phone interviews and it came down to two jobs. My first choice job and the job that all my friends thought I should take. It took me a few weeks to figure out what to do, but I followed my favorite saying:

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams, your heart will not lead you astray."

I found myself working at Visions VCB or VCB as we commonly referred to it, a residential program for people who are blind or visually impaired. Here I worked through all the sessions ranging from small children to active adults. During my time in China I hadn't realized how much I missed helping people and at VCB I was constantly helping. More than that I was impacting someone's life. I know that teaching is impacting someone's life in a positive way as well, but somehow it's just not the same. It seems that no matter how long I postpone this post looking for the perfect words to describe it, I never seem to find them.

Growing up I always knew I wanted to help people, but I didn't know how I wanted to help people. In college I found Social Work, and I loved it. But somehow it wasn't enough. I wanted passion. And despite how much I loved my Social Work classes and internships, I didn't have passion for it. The only thing I found passion for was traveling. Working my summer job introduced me to the field of Visual Rehabilitation Therapy, something I think I've found a passion for and want to continue pursuing in the future. So as the title says it's been awesome!

So I'm Back

Coming back to the United States what so much more difficult than I expected it to be. For a long time I had heard of something called "reverse culture shock" I was really worried about it and all of my friends told me I'd be fine. I suppose I was fine, however it was more of an experience than I expected it to be.

I know that a lot of time has passed since my last post but I finally feel that I'm ready to tell my story of coming back to America. Ironically getting out of China was the easiest part of the entire journey. I was only charged for one heavy bag saving me $200 plus I was upgarded to United Economy plus because I had a short layover in Chicago giving me free wine and beer for the whole flight.

The issues began with my layover in Chicago, having flown through here before I figured it would be easy. NOT. Chicago does international flights differently making me get in line with the general population entering the airport instead of having a seperate line for people entering the United States via international flights. So as I rushed desperately through the airport searching for Terminal C, I found myself in insanely long lines for TSA checks. Had I bothered to check the flight boards I would have known that my flight was in the process of being delayed nearly inevitably.

This is where the wonderful people working at the Terminal C United Desk helped me more than I ever could have imagined. Having arrived in the United States without a cell phone I was at the mercy of their kindness for getting in touch with my parents to tell them that my flight to Albany was delayed.

With the help of the wonderful woman at the desk I was able to avoid spending the night at Chicago O'Hare International airport. They were able to switch me to a flight to Newark that would arrive only slightly later than my flight to Albany was scheduled to arrive and they waived the fee for changing destination. The woman even allowed me to use the United desk phone to call my parents and update them of the change.

Speaking so much English was actually a bit of a tongue twister, I found myself automatically using Chinese phrases instead of answering in English. Thus we get to the first reverse culture shock moment, I had to remember to reply in English. Even in China I would use various Chinese phrases when speaking to my Western English speaking friends.

Once I touched down in Newark I ran into the funniest reverse culture shock issue of all, the amount of water in the toilets. As I walked into the women's room I found the first toilet had a ton of water in it, figuring that meant an overflow was inevitable I went to the next, and the next, and the next. At somepoint I began to get frustrated, why were all the toilets about to overflow? It took me at least two minutes to figure out that they actually weren't broken, there is just more water in US toilets then there are in Chinese toilets (if you can find one).

I think however most of the "reverse culture shock" is most noticeable when it comes to the things I missed. When I turned on my favorite radio station for the first time I didn't recognize any of the songs. People talk about new movies and TV shows, most I've never heard of. At first it bothered me how much I missed, but now I like it. In a way it makes me feel more mature, being ok with not knowing all the movies and all the TV shows. China changed me, the country, the people, the food, the experience. All of it together has re-created me into a new person. And I like it.