A Cold Splash of Water

I'm not going to lie, I like convenience. I like being able to take a taxi from one place to another if it's too rainy to walk. I like having wireless Internet in my apartment, and I enjoy all the options I have the moment I walk in the grocery. 

So perhaps it's hypocritical to say that I sometimes get tired of the city's slickness.

 I just love the beauty that comes with antiquity, in worn architecture and wrinkled faces. I enjoy spaces that have more grit than luster and that draw people to them, not by their neon lights but rather their character. 

Today my friends Lilyth and Winona took me to Qingyan, an ancient town about 45 minutes outside of Guiyang that was built in, go figure, the Qing dynasty. 

Even the drive was enjoyable. We took Winona's family car, which was a novelty to me because I have never had a Chinese friend with an automobile at their disposal. The mountains in Guizhou look like artwork out of a Dr. Seuss book, and listening to the "Dixie Chickens" as the girls referred to them made me feel as though I could experience both Texas and China at once. 

On our way to Qingyan, we stopped at Guizhou University, where Lilyth went to college. I loved walking around the campus grounds, and I think because part of me misses this aspect of living in China. I miss the university students who surrounded me at Xiamen University in Fujian. I miss living in the dorm and the energy and charisma of campus life. Plus, Guizhou University had these enormous magnolia trees that were some of the most beautiful I have yet to see.

Once arriving in Qingyan, the girls took me out for customary Guizhou cuisine, which included all sorts of gelatin dishes and pigs' feet. It wasn't the greatest Chinese meal I've ever had, but I enjoyed getting to share in this part of Lilyth and Winona's cultural heritage. 

We spent the next several hours wandering around the streets of Qingyan, indulging in local snacks — I tasted and loved the rice cake — and enjoying the beautiful scenery. I appreciate the presence of China's minority groups in Guizhou, which was evident in all the funky tapestries and clothing being sold in the shops. There were also large amounts of loose-leaf tea. I love tea! 

Sometimes life here seems so normal. I'm reminded of Meg Ryan's words in "You've Got Mail." I do "lead a small life." I wake up and go to work and eat and spend time with friends just like I would if I were in Texas. It feels natural to enjoy a day with these Chinese friends, discussing work and laughing over dinner. But I have to pinch myself at times to help remind me that this season of my life is a bit unconventional, that I'm lucky to see and experience the things I often fail to notice. 

I guess you could say that days like today and places like Qingyan are a good, cold splash of water in the face for me. They are so completely out of the norm that they enable me to remember how blessed I am to live out this dream and to be in China right now, that life continues to unfold whether or not I open my eyes to realize it.