Back in the USA!

Guangzhou Open Air Market

I've been back in California for nearly a week. Jet lag is almost behind me and the common cold from the 13 hours flight has run its course.

Golden Arches in Canton

The longer I'm back, the more I am absorbed into the So Cal culture. But the more I reflect on my journey, the more valuable and amazing it seems!

Memories of the open air market in Guangzhou seem to me like a dream. At Buckley, I describe them to teachers and staff as like 'down the rabbit hole' or 'through the looking glass.' Lewis Carroll seems to have captured the sense of what it is like to be in a parallel, dissimilar universe, disoriented, with nothing familiar to anchor to.

 This 'defamiliarization' as we call it in English classes, is classic in Heart of Darkness or when Gregor Samsa becomes a vermin in Kafka's Metamorphosis. For some it can be experienced as a nightmare, but because I chose it and was seeking it out, I experienced it as a giddy dream, disorienting, but not unpleasant, stimulating to the senses. For me, this is the point of world travel, to defamiliarize the familiar world and see afresh.

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From a restaurant in Guangzhou

Covered Market

So for now, I'll say goodbye to Nepal and China and say thank you to those that followed my blog. I can't express how much it made me feel connected to know that many here were following me there. In the end, my blog received almost 2,000 page views (though blog statistics can be misleading, LJ informs me). For me, that makes it all worth the photographing, uploading, reflecting, typing, and frustrating internet connections. For me, my first trip to Nepal was isolating, and re-reading the journals helped me see how alone that 22 year old really was. For me, this trip has been about connecting and re-connecting, with my younger self, the person I have come to be, and with my followers who made this trip less isolating, really like a community of travelers. Thanks for the attention and the vote of confidence you all gave me.