迷失的老美

Well, it’s been another year. Still have an hour and a half until I am 24.
It’s really been a life-changing year for me. Got a job, got an apartment, started to really get settled like I wanted to.
This is the 4th birthday in a row for me abroad in Asia, 3rd in China. Each time all I do is look back, this time I am going to look forward and try to answer that famous question that every foreigner over here asks himself from time to time.
What’s after China?

For me, I know I bitch about this place a lot, most around me know it too. But to be completely honest, I love it here. Sure, the traffic is crap, the pollution is worse and common decency doesn’t seem to exist as a concept at all. The bottled water in Beijing is 50% fake, the baozi is made of cardboard, there is shit in the choudoufu and Shaanxi officials apparently have no problem with slavery.

But, putting all that aside, it’s rather addictive. It’s exciting. It actually feels alive and real. Even the most boring and mundane things are never boring or mundane. You try to develop a routine only to realize that “routine” doesn’t seem to exist as a concept in China either. I’ve gone back to the US a few times and each time, while it feels good to be home where I can relax and catch my breath, in a word… it’s dull. The things I have seen here endure and last in my memory, the number of stories is unimaginable and all of it is fairly routine if one can call it that.

Sure, I deal with the insane stupidity from time to time, the “I can’t understand you 听不懂” which really means “I don’t want to work”; the “It’s impossible 没办法” which means “I don’t want to work”; and of course the amazing ability people have to do things “right” even though they are completely wrong. But, like all things in life you learn to deal with it and find ways to cope.

China makes me appreciate the little things that I used to take for granted. Pudding? It’s no longer a quick stop over at the store, it’s something I get if I am extremely lucky or remember to get some in the US. Tacos? If I want good ones I have to bring in the spice. Blueberry waffles? Without the waffle iron, impossible and there is only a handful of stores that even have blueberries. Whatever, that’s just food, but it’s one of the few things I can have that, for a moment in time, takes me back home. It’s hard to get much anything else that can do that here as quick and effective. The simple fact of the matter is that it’s doable, compared to a lot of other things that are more or less impossible.

In the US, it doesn’t work in reverse. The food is all wrong and the ingredients just don’t exist because they need to be fresh. To get anything even close to take you back to the other side of the world I would have to go into the city, get to Chinatown over on Cermak and pretend that it’s not a giant joke. Sure, it’s fun once or twice, but it’s not real. Everytime I go back I find myself desperate for communication from back home.

That all being said, I have a life here, I have someone who I treasure (yes you) and I have a prospect for the future. I made my transition to “real life” over here and back in the States I would die from the blandness if I had to transition. Even the absolute bullshit I have to deal with on a daily basis has it’s fun points, everyday is an adventure, a mental overload to such a degree that in order to cope you have to shut it out and pretend you didn’t see what you just saw or you would explode. In the US, people call the police over a barking dog or “someone suspicious” in the neighborhood and talk about something that they saw on TV the night before. So, to answer the question. Nothing, there is no after China for me, I am pretty happy where I am and don’t see that changing.

So, so long 23, hello 24. Let the adventure continue.

胡乱的照片～

Never thought I would get this action shot

I have the best girl friend in the world

So, the final installment in the saga of wisdom tooth removal in China.
Last Wednesday I got up early (didn’t sleep), and got over to 将台路 for the horrors that would await me.
I had chosen to go for the local and the gas before and this meant not only would I get high as a kite, but I could get back home on my own afterwards.
I was prepped with some mouthwashes that tasted horrible and then got a topical applied. I have always hated the shots, and this stuff makes it much more tolerable when I am getting stabbed in the mouth with needles.

The gas was started up and I got stabbed in the cheeks and waited a while. Then the work began, a PAINFUL PAINFUL shot in both gums below the tooth was what awaited me. I just about threw up from that alone.
Silly me thought that they had ripped the teeth out already and I was about done. Nope. They went after the left side first, I didn’t feel a damn thing so I thought they must have broken the poor tooth getting it out and they were digging. 20 minutes later, RIP. Out it came… in one piece.
Fuck.
This meant that the fun was only beginning
I got another shot in the right to numb me up some more and then the process began again. Using the elevator to get it loose, so much pressure on that thing, thank god for the gas and the Lidocaine. Finally it came out and the stitches went in.

The next 24 hours were ones filled with sleep and blood and more sleep, waking up and coughing out blood… oh such good times those were.

I got the stitches taken out on Wednesday after only a week because it was healing faster than expected and giving me much pain.

So, end result? Left side is doing fine, right side seems to have dry socket and there is basically nothing to be done that’s worth it. Pain killers and time will fix it up on it’s own.
Here are the evil bastards that used to be in my mouth

And the gas… oh god, the gas… if only there was a way to buy the tank