And in that moment I actually felt home.
The end of the longest trip I have ever (left home - landend in London - stayed there for 23 hours just to meet my cousin - 1 hour and a half delay - 10 hours flight) did not start really well: I was supposed to meet Phoenix at the airport, so I was expecting to see my name written on a piece of paper. But it wasn't there. Besides the fact that I didn't have his phone number, I started cursing because my Shanghai SIM card (less than one year old) was not working anymore, and you need a chinese sim card to access most of the public wifis. So I was about to buy a SIM card and waste a lot of money to get online, hope to find William or Ransler on Skype and get Phoenix's number. I admit that for a moment I have also thought "Fuck, I knew it"... then I saw a man that reminded me of the man that I stalked after he had interviewed me on QQ... he was holding a camera and looking for someone. So what the hell, I just went there and asked "are you from CiMEC?" and thank God he was! Sooooooooo: CHINESE PEOPLE DO NOT LOOK ALL THE SAME!! He was more surprised than I was, that I managed to recognize him among hundreds of people, after only one skype interview. You know, it's the social network effect: how many times have you happened to see someone on the street that you thought you knew but you actually only saw on Facebook because he is a friend of a friend???
Anyway (FOCUS!) he was there with my host family! First thing I noticed: well dressed and quite people. No rush, no yells, no staring. I liked them immediately.
At home Lu Wei (my host mum) introduced me to Xiao Yun ("little cloud"), the young nanny (19 years old) who lives with them, and Dou Dou, the cutest little girl that I have ever seen! At first she was shy but she wanted to test and observe me, so she started jumping, running and climbing everything. I had a first hint of what "little emperor" really means.
Next day I met Bryce, my american tongshi. Also a cultural ambassador, also working at gymangel (unfortunately in a different branch), also staying here until september. I really liked him, easy going, relaxed, perfect pronunciation (and with that I mean that I can perfectly understand him!)... I hope we'll get good friends.
When I finally got a SIM card I felt connected to the world. It was good to be disconnected from the world for a couple of days. Reeeally good. But it felt just as good to be back online.
Today I had my first "free night": Lu Wei and Wang Wi Jun went for dinner with friends so I called Vale, my latest huge coincidence. Have I mentioned her already? Anyway, in short: she texted me because she saw that we were arriving in BJ on the exact same day. We were classmates in Venice. She is doing the intership I gave up at Csoft.
Well, it's amazing how meeting someone that you actually didn't know on the other side of the world makes you feel at home just because you share something. I felt immediately relaxed, like I have someone I can rely on. I know I can also rely on my chinese family and Cimes guys, but this is different. I have tried to explain in already in some past post (ahah)...: you just feel like family. But real family, not the biological one. Talking about that, today I texted two of my cousing to ask for a really little favour. It was the first time in 26 years. Result: they didn't reply. So, I just wanted to say: FUCK YOU! Wholeheartedly. And I am just sorry that you are not going to read this. On the other hand, thanks to another cousin that answered me and fixed the problem in a matter of minutes. Sorry, little outburst.. just to prove once again that sometimes the family you build from friends is way better than that you were born in.
Well, now I am goig to bed with my nostrils filled with that sweet and sour Spring Scent in that you can smell only in China: a fabulous mix of spring, dust and smog. Yay!
