I have to put my pajamas in one of my packs, put my laptop in my daybag, see what else I can steal for gifts, grab my bags and go. Go home.

Home, where my bed awaits, my dollar is not as strong, you can’t haggle prices, women don’t spit on the streets, you can’t cross a street anywhere and walk through speeding traffic. Where I can’t hop in a taxi and get where I am going for $1.20. Or in a bus for 65 cents.

I am going to miss this culture, where the people are a different type of polite, and though at first they seem rude, they are nicer than at home. I am going to miss waking up and eating strange things like fresh meat packages, baconian, fried greens, and noodles. I am going to miss serving myself out of the dish with my chopsticks that I put in my mouth.

I am going to miss China.

When this day starts over again, I am going to have to get my tires changed, order a head gasket kit, and eat all the meals I already ate.

But, home is home. And I am going home.

But we don’t want our beliefs. God of Peace, we want you.

Last night I went shopping for myself. I spend something like 60 dollars, and you should see what I got.
We went to this street next to a hostel with shops lining it. All types of shops, from clothes to trinkets to tea and food. Most of the shop workers speak english, and that is a good thing. ‘Cause they start out really high. So what I wanted to buy, just one of the articles, starts out at 2200 yuan. Then you bicker and banter back and forth to you get to a price that you like. You buy your article and move on. Everyone is saying “Hello!,” and trying to get you into their shops. It smells like China, and urine in some places, and it is dark.

I am going to miss China.

That is how many emails I have. I am Beijing, and I know how to write Beijing in Chinese. Ah… Fun!

Took some pictures at the Summer palace. I could have a lot of fun there. Since it is the end of the trip we are on a tour, and for the first time in my life I am a tourist in a foreign country. So strange.

‘Kay, dinner time!

October 25^th, 2006

Listening to Ku’u Home ‘o Kahalu’u and reading emails from home. Such a pretty song. “Last night I dreamt that I was returning, and my heart called out to you.” You should listen to it. It is about returning to a place/person after a long time, after you/they/it may/probably/inevitably has changed. That it is just not the same. “And I will greet you as I find you, with a sharing of a new song.”

And emails that make me wish I could talk to the people face to face. To give them a hug, slap them playfully, or just watch their faces while they talk. Don’t get me wrong, email is great. It gives you time to think of how you want to say something. It gives you the chance to pick the right word, the one that gets your meaning across the best.

Anyway, today was normal. In fact, there was a time while I was sitting down, inside a bright, clean, new restaurant, listening to Hawaiian music and hearing English spoken, that I had to remind myself that I was halfway around the world in China. But I am and I should be getting to bed. It is rather late and I am tired. 

-Andrew!

PS. But I am so small, I can barely see, how can this great love be inside of me? Look in your eyes, they are so small but they see incredible things.