I lived in China back in 2005-2006. It was back when I was first married, and we celebrated our first anniversary right beside the Great Wall. We moved there, from Ohio, because we simply wanted to experience and learn more about a different part of the world, so we found jobs in Tianjin, a city not too far from Beijing, where we taught English to high school students.
We spent our days in the classroom, our evenings exploring the foods across the city, and our weekends and holidays traveling to Beijing or exploring other parts of China, including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau, and Tibet.
We got lost and sick along the way, were yelled at and taken advantage of. But also fought back, shared laughs, and made great friends as well.
This week marks the first time I've been back since then, and I'm teaching in Wuhan, a city of 10 million. It's been a somewhat emotional week for a number of reasons. First off, it's somewhat counterintuitive to leave little ones behind. My girls are 7 and 4, and it wasn't a happy goodbye. Secondly, the last time I was just out of college and felt as if I was taking the world by storm, and everything was new and exciting and pointing towards the future. Being here really brings this time to life, but not I'm in a different phase and the future is now, and this feeling is a little unsettling. Lastly, things have changed here so rapidly it almost feels like a different country in some ways, and I'm just stunned by this. I knew that it would be different, but I just can't wrap my head around this type of progress; I've never seen anything like it.
Here are a few pictures I've taken from walks around Wuhan, and one of my girls right before I left Ohio.
A beautiful Wuhan University street lined with London Plane Trees
A partial skyline of a fraction of Wuhan
Kid Street Performers-the big twins in the back were not happy
Balcony Imprisoned Pets
A last photo with my girls before I left
