Before leaving America, my emotions treaded between excitement and confusion. Little did I know these emotions would soon transform and enter the boundaries of bewilderment and cautionary. As the plane took off a part of me understood that the new country I would be traveling to would behold new experiences and most of all change. But I would not expect to have my comfortability stripped and my guard up.
Being a senior, I spent my four years wondering what an excursion to China would be like. Students who traveled to and returned from China often depicted vivid images of beautiful castle like mansions and monstrous buildings in which the most famous emperors resided in, leaving nothing for my imagination to play with. In my subconscious, China would be full of color and gorgeous temples in which I would find a deeper meaning to life in. And for lack of better judgement I believed in this.
The first night in Beijing I was amazed by the bright buildings and speeding cars that filled streets at a stroke past midnight. As we drove to the hotel, I perceived China as a " Chinese New York City". The second night, after being placed in an entirely new families home in Zibo, my perception of China changed dramatically. With the roaming scruffy dogs, old men with rotting teeth, fruit stands that laid low on the ground, horrible smelling squat toilets, rock hard beds and the crevice that was considered a shower, I was astounded at what was hidden from me. The stories that I were previously told, reflected nothing like what I was experiencing. Letting reality replace my imagination, I had to compel myself to understand that China was much more and sometimes much less than what I had expected.
Although China is nothing like what I had expected I am grateful for the once in a lifetime experience to encounter so many different parts of one country. I have learned that judging a city by its appearance does not always appropriately gauge experience. And although my imagination and reality are different, somehow my reality is priceless.
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