china dreaming

well the day is almost here. i leave for china in a little over 24 hours and i truly have no idea what to expect. i don't know if my lack of nervousness or apprehension is going to be helpful or hurtful, but i guess that lends to a more exciting experience once i get there - it's in that inability to expect what the future may hold that surprise and revelation change us.

i have been trying to envision what china might look like, smell like, or feel like and i have constructed a picture in my mind of a largely modern city teeming with people, smells, and different textures. i see a few small traditional neighborhoods with well-tended central gardens. men are pulling rickshaws with their anxious customers riding with expectation. children run in the streets. the smell of the outdoor markets overwhelm my nose with many unfamiliar smells.

outside the older neighborhoods in the franticness of modernity businessmen rush to make their next deal. cars whiz past or rather are caught in relentless traffic. neon signs advertise the latest and best products in a language wholly imperceptible. the familiar brands of globalization abound.

gathering, consolidating, processing . . . these things will be a part of my life for the next year. how could i not be excited about what adventures await me?