East is Relative

The wanderlust

Last night I got in my car and drove around northern Illinois for three and a half hours. I ended up in Wisconsin, and accidentally stumbled upon Lake Geneva. When it was getting late, and I thought I might turn around and go home, I pulled into a bar parking lot on the spur of the moment and went in to have a drink. After the beer had been poured (but before I drank it, thankfully), I realized I didn’t have my debit card with me, so I thanked the bartender and apologized, and left. As I got to my car, half-embarrassed, half-exhilarated, I laughed loudly to myself. If any cops had been around, I would have gotten a breathalyzer for sure.

This drive was just what I needed. Lately, things haven’t been going according to plan. I’m not teaching, I’m not living in the city limits (rather, I live in the suburbs), I haven’t moved to Atlanta or Seattle or San Diego, and I haven’t been doing theatre. Not only that, but I’m in the middle of attempting to buy a condo (still in the suburbs), which is a big step, and can sometimes sound like a jail door.

As I laughed (a bit crazily) to myself last night, I felt a sense of comfort. What I’d really been missing was some kind of travel adventure. I missed getting on the back of a moped taxi with Aimee in Changsha, with the two of us holding on to all my luggage for dear life. I missed going out for jiao-zi in a bank parking lot at 2am in Xi’an and talking to the random late-night diners. I missed walking through street markets in every city I went to, eating lamb kebabs and dried fruit.

Getting in my car to drive and just going wherever the road took me was exactly what I needed to reasonably satisfy my wanderlust for the time being. Of course, I can’t waste a half tank of gas every day or week or month, but at least it was good to know I can get the feeling back, if only temporarily.

On another note entirely, here’s an ABC news video about teaching English in China; it’s not entirely accurate to the situation outside of the big cities, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/learning-english-china-12155885

This is via Two Americans in China, a blog written by two new Buckland teachers.