Thanks to some quirks in Europe hundreds of years ago and the expansion of Western influence at the turn of the 20th century in Asia, I was able to celebrate New Year’s Eve in China much as I would at home. People littered the streets late into the night on a scale that surpassed vastly the typical street activity one sees in a Chinese city, and even past midnight I found myself running into students out with their friends. For me, the night serves as a marker of sorts, and it seems as good a day as any to pause and look back on the changes in my own life.

Just from a perspective of the tangible, I can count now five full months of living in China and it feels like it has been much, much longer since my plane touched down in Beijing back on a muggy August night. My bank account has been hit significantly, and my pay here promises to do nothing to improve that situation quickly. However in exchange I am treated to a few more stamps on my passport and the experiences those entail. I can count over 700 13-year olds that I share the responsibility of teaching English to, and hundreds of Chinese words that six months ago I did not know. Just in thinking about these things I feel like I am deriving something from my time here. Oh, I also have a sweet Mah-Jong set.

There are also the less tangible aspects that are harder to grasp or quantify, like being able to have a 5 minute conversation with a cab driver using some of the Chinese words I have learned, or the feeling of comfort, familiarity, and yes, even home, that I get when walking around Lian Tang or seeing the familiar sight of Wu Tong mountain towering over the buildings on my way to work. Or going through the quiet Malaysian jungle looking for oranguatans. Going back farther I remember the hot summer days I spent hiding indoors in Tunisia or breezier ones walking a cliffside on the Irish coast. For that matter, there are also many good times from living in Portland or my visits to family in St. Louis and Spokane.

This time last year I was working full-time at my first job in the ‘real world’, albeit in a field that did not match what I had desired. Nevertheless, I was collecting experience and getting paid and enjoying perhaps the finest place I’ve been able to call home at that enormous house on NE 17th in Portland, with a set of roommates I enjoyed. At that time the idea of coming to China had only begun to form and the reality of it was far, distant, vague. That time seems quite long ago, and for now I am truly enjoying the time here.

The past month in particular I’ve felt increasingly comfortable with my surroundings and my place in China. The irksome cultural things I had seen before are more commonplace and certainly a better ability to communicate has aided this. With work I feel comfortable and confident in what I do, though I really wish I could have anyone interested sit in on a full class to see exactly what I mean. Genuinely this year has been dominated by travel, by seeing new places, which I had expected, but it has also become about feeling at home and adapting and challenging myself simply through the change of place, and the experience has been satisfying.

Yesterday I took the opportunity to walk around my neighborhood and snap some pictures, take in the sights that are the new normal and even encounter new streets and places I hadn’t known of before. I think that is part of what I enjoy about living here, that for everything that is up front there is still more to find so long as you search for it, and in a country this populous it seems such opportunities are endless. I am seriously considering staying another year in Asia when my time in Shenzhen is up. Not gonna make any resolutions about that however.

Anyway, Happy New Year.