The Honeymoon is Over

I've lived in China long enough to be over the honeymoon stage.  When you first arrive, everything is new and exciting and fascinating!  And the people are great, and the food is so interesting!  And look at those quaint little pedi-cabs!  Let's take 8,000 photos!

I distinctly remember the moment when I realized I'd lost my fresh eyes for China.  I was walking home from class last fall when it dawned on me that everything that was once new and exciting was now normal.  It was a sad realization.

You might have expected this to be a post about disillusionment with China, but it's not.  My post-honeymoon love for China has become a steady, warm affection, which I hope will keep growing.  I've seen some of the good and some of the bad of this place, and I still want to be here.  This afternoon I was trying to take a nap, but instead I found myself reliving snapshots from the last couple days:

• toasts of friendship from the university president at our opening banquet
• having our students and foreign affairs officers watch out for us on the night of the stabbing
• chatting with a student about a confusing relationship
• reading my students' sweet and sappy classmate introductions
• biking down a dead end in the village with my teammates and having an old man laugh at us
• enjoying Qufu's attempt at a pizza (mayonnaise, anyone?)
• posing for photos with giggling strangers just because we're foreigners

Nothing new and exciting there (in fact, I didn't take a single picture), and life here isn't always this wonderful.  But today I'm full of thankfulness for this stage in my China life, and I wanted to tell someone.  So share my joy with me -- I'm in love with China!