Space Bubble

This was written on December 30th when I was flying back from winter vacation.  It has been sitting, ignored, on my desktop every since.  Time to share...

Many times over the last week, my parents marveled at the fact that both of their children live in China.  It is remarkable, really.  I never in a million years would have thought that 6 year old me, would end up living in this part of the world.  I didn’t even think that I would visit this part of the world again and didn’t see a need to.  But now, here, I am, half way through year four in the world’s most populated country.

As a resident of the world’s most populated country, one would assume that I love people.  And I do.  I really do.  I love people.  But since moving here I have definitely become more introverted.  Me? Introverted? Who would have thought.  Sure, I still recharge from people time, but I’ve never appreciated my own space more than I have in the last few years.  On a flight today, I was feeling completely claustrophobic.  The man sitting next to me didn’t really get the concept of sharing the arm rest…and in fact kept moving his rather annoying elbows into my space bubble, no matter how cocooned I tried to be in my little seat.  Then, to make matters more annoying, the airline had these little tablets instead of TV screens, which in theory are really cool but in actuality are incredibly annoying.  Why? Well, they didn’t give people headphones.  That’s right…imagine this: a plane full of people, everyone around you watching a movie…with no headphones.  There was action there was romance…it was all there…and I could hear it.  Going to the bathroom was the one place that was quiet.  I stood in there for about 5 minutes, just to breathe. 

It’s strange writing all of these words, because this really isn’t the me that moved to China.  Who knew that I would learn to love peace and quiet? Who knew that I would come to need time of absolute solitude? Seriously, who knew?

Welcome to international living: full of the unexpected.