What do you think? Wouldn't that be a cool idea? For the planes that
have in-seat tvs, I think this would add to the flight experience. This
would be especially so, landing at airports like LaGuardia where it
looks like you'd land in the water. You could just tune in and out as
you saw fit. I would watch in terror!! :-)
On a proud note, I started and finished John Grisham's most recent book,
The Racketeer, on my flight over from China. The whole book! All 340
pages!! For those of you that know me well, that's a huge feat!! Huge!! I
haven't read an entire book in less than a day this since freshman year
in high school, and that was by choice!! So yeah, I'm psyched!!
On a more reflective note, I come away from my trip with a whole new
insight on a world I never knew much about until recently. The trip has
sparked my interest to continue learning about this culture. The Chinese
culture is very modern and advanced in so many ways (architecture,
subway security). However, I can also name many ways they are
significantly inefficient and developing (sanitation, ticketing
systems). These ideas all vary depending on what corner your turn and
what street you venture down. Throughout my trip, even when I was lost, I
never felt in harms way. The Chinese people, even though they push
their way through life, literally, were very nice, helpful and
accommodating.
I come away from this trip appreciating and empathizing with my students
that are learning English as their second language. I've been to
Russia, Germany, Mexico, and Costa Rica but never have I been alone on a
trip, like these kids are in my class, where no one speaks their
language. On my previous trips, I've been in a group or with someone the
entire time that knew the language, or I knew enough of the language to
get by. Not this trip. I was isolated linguistically and that was
terrifying at times. Luckily, their metro system was like any other so I
was able to maneuver around. To put it very simply, I was hungry some
days, because I refused to eat at a place where I couldn't figure out
what I was going to eat because I couldn't speak the language. Yes, I
had granola bars and crackers in my bag, but those were for emergencies.
Not being able to communicate, I spent a lot of time this trip in
self-reflection, blogging as I went, so I could share my experiences
with someone and so my memories would not be lost with time. I
thoroughly enjoyed the modern city of Shanghai and the historical city
of Beijing. They were each magnificent in their own respects.
Would I visit China again? Absolutely! Will I visit another non-English
speaking country alone? Probably not. Scratch that. No! Through
arrogance (I think), I overestimated the amount of expected English to
be spoken by others and overestimated my skills at being able to
navigate such a place. The trip was very intense and kept me on my toes,
but I will never forget the landmarks and treasures that I had the
opportunity to marvel and admire.
Until next time!!
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