Big Update
I spent 3 long weeks chilling in the US, to be honest, it was weird as hell. I felt out of place. Everything just seemed off to me in a way that I couldn’t explain. I had been gone for 14 months and nothing that should have been normal to me was. My flight out of China was delayed due to the typhoon in Shanghai and it got into LAX late. In theory, I had 15 minutes to make my connecting flight, but Air China decided that there was simply not enough time and they put me up in a hotel for a few hours. The conflicts in my head about this were as weird as the circumstances surrounding the fact that I had had 3 flights in a row delayed due to bad weather, 2 because of typhoons. Thanks to Japan, I felt as if I didn’t deserve the hotel, and thanks to China, I felt as if I didn’t need it. I would have been happy just sitting in the airport for a few hours instead. It’s not like I could sleep as it was. Checking into the hotel was a hassle, I couldn’t speak English for the life of me, it just didn’t happen. I had been in the US for maybe 2 hours and I was ready to leave again. Getting carded for a lighter, getting carded for a beer, what the hell was this? And to top it off, the first English conversation on the ground I had started with the taxi attendant saying “You’re not from around here are you?”.
Air China gave me a voucher for some free food, but it all tasted off, I was hungry, but the food make me feel ill. So much for my first burrito back in the US. Flash forward a few hours later, and I am back at the airport for my flight. The hotel shuttle came late, and the airlines decided to hit me with an SSSS boarding ticket, meaning that I got extra screening for no reason other than the fact that my flight was leaving in 20 minutes and the gate was at the other side of the terminal. Needless to say, I made it, by final boarding call.
Back in Chicago 4 hours later, I have lost count of how many times I have flown now, I don’t know what time it is, nor do I care. I slept through takeoff and landing. Dad came up eventually and as nice as it was, it was weird. It was weird again at home. I know these people, but I don’t. I know this town, but I don’t. I couldn’t say it then, because I didn’t want to cause extra drama, but that is how I felt. I don’t have a bed there, I don’t really have friends there, and the house is not the one I grew up in. I’m basically homeless, and I know some people who let me crash at their place. It’s a horrible thing to say, but it’s true. The salts and sugars in the food made me sick, to compound with the jetlag which had just begun. So, am I really home I ask. No, I am somewhere that at sometime used to be home, but isn’t anymore.
Thus began the rush of crap to do. I had a few hours to get some rest before my first encounter with the local Masons. It was a good experience overall and I felt confident about my decision after the initial meeting. I thank my parents for staying out of it, because as much as they might have tried to be helpful, they don’t really know me anymore… sad but true. 14 long months can change a person, expecially if they are someone who needs the change and welcomes it. I had another meeting a few days later because one of the Masons couldn’t make it and to meet regulations I had to meet with one more. Everything went well, and 2 lodge meetings later, I became a Master Mason of the Blue Lodge Unity #48. I would love to go into it all, but that is something that I can’t do, and to most readers, it wouldn’t make much sense anyways.
Other stuff:
I went skeet shooting with Dave, his dad, and his grandpa, and discovered that I need to shoot lefty to be good. Shooting righty I am just so-so, shooting lefty, I am deadly 
I also had to go get my physical exams and whatnot for China, even though it might have been in vain, I am glad to say that if I have to redo them in China, there is nothing surprising waiting for me. My chest is clear, I don’t have AIDS, I don’t have hep, and after an electrocardiogram, I found that my heart is fine as well. Cavity-wise, I had one tiny one that I didn’t let them use novocaine on, and it was filled in 5 minutes.
I also found a day to go up to Milwaukee and see teachers and friends for maybe the last time in a long time. Yea-fen was glad to see me, Byron was there and we went to lunch, Yosuke and Toshio were on campus as well. My advisor advised me that I am screwed at UWM and Eckmann wished me luck but in Eckmann-fashion showed no emotion or response.
I went bowling with Markie and did my best to let him have a chance at beating me, which he did one game hehe.
I also went digging around a bit through some of grandpa’s stuff. Turns out that a great-grand uncle of mine was not only a mason, but he also, at some point in time, went to China and Japan… fucker. I can’t just be the first for anything. How did I know he was a mason? He had a commemorative coin which mom let me have, and I took it with me… this later becomes important.
I then went to Orange County to see Brian, another SSSS ticket of course, which prompted me to call TSA and bitch them out about it.
I didn’t really do much at Brian’s, but it was nice to just relax for once and hang out with him, it had been too long. We didn’t get to go shooting, but, that was ok. Me and David hit it off for the first time ever, and Andrew and Heather have changed so much since the last time I had seen them. Weird freaky Mormon stuff went down, but it was fine with me, I have seen and been around weirder things in the last 14 months.
I managed to get myself lost on a night walk, and on the last night, me and David went for a last run to the store to grab Beef Jerky, Rum, Tequila, Jaeger, candy, and Magnums. That was by far the best purchase I have ever made. Brian gave me a lift to LAX and I got hit with another SSSS. But this SSSS was cool. No stripping off my pants to have them x-rayed, no digging through luggage, the screener was a brother and took note of my coin, then basically just let me through. Finally, all the weirdness had a payoff in some way.
The flight was interesting. I showed up “late” and ended up in a middle seat. Right in the middle of a whole bunch of old people. But, unlike many old people, these old people were cool. Some were brothers, and they all were going to China on some commemorative reunion for their old units. They were none other than the Flying Tigers! (google that).
I landed, went through customs, got my way to Beiwai, got my room, and took a nap.
Beiwai:
A friend called this place “The Golden Cage”; and they were pretty much correct. It is just far enough from the other unis to be boring, and it is 13-14kuai away from the fun of wudaokou. I went through so much hassle in the first week. No internet in my room, it wasn’t even installed yet, it still really isn’t in fact. Of course, the only room like this. I had no information at all about what to do. Registration meant paying tuition, and that had to be in cash at a not-so-great exchange rate. 16,000kuai is ALOT to carry around too. I had placement tests, and of course I got sick, right now everyone seems to have the same thing. I missed the first week of class due to this sickness, and am finally getting into the swing of things here in second week. I am going to be here a looooong time. My visa is currently being changed, so I have no passport (that is a shitty feeling), and I still need to find a transformer for my new George and Waffle Iron. Hassles, hassles, hassles, what fun is life without them.
I also have a job now at XinDongFang teaching English for obscene amounts of cash whenever I have the time to do it.
But, all that is not what prompted me to write up all this. Yanying finally said yes to me. After going out with her for 6 months, going to Okinawa, spending every moment I could with her, she finally agreed to say I am her boyfriend. I was going to go up to Harbin this weekend, but she did something silly like get a job at her university teaching Japanese, and got busy. So, next weekend it is. But now, as long as she is free, I don’t care when it is as long as I can call her my girl. I seem to be stuck in China as it is, this wonderful hole I fell into, and I want her by my side to dig the hole deep enough to lay down in. Am I young and foolish? Maybe, but so is everyone else. She trusts me, and I believe in her, that is enough I guess. This girl has me whipped, and I don’t mind a bit.