Motorcycle Diaries

Trip Start Dec 27, 2005
1
20
Trip End Jan 15, 2006


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of United States  , California,
Sunday, January 15, 2006

Today was our last day in China & I couldn't help feel nostalgic about the whole trip. It has been 20 days since we left the SF region and in these 20 days, I've grown accustomed to living abroad. I have to say that while I got an extremely sanitized version of China, one that the government prefers you to see, I still am amazed by the country. On some level it was exhilarating to live among your ethnic and cultural peers. Moreover there is a sense of energy and hope that used to be synonymous with the US. True, there are a lot of difficult social, political and economic issues that the country must solve but the warmness of the people on a whole makes me wonder about working in China in the future. The people have been very inviting to me. I guess being ethnically Chinese and having fluent language skills helps a lot.

In the US as a 1st generation Chinese there are often times I still feel like an outsider, especially when I leave California. Yet being in California doesn't feel like I quite fit in either. The issue with California is that it is a land of recent immigrants. While people readily accept each other, there is a clash of the "new" and the "old" cultures and between different cultures as well. Consequently what is lost is that sense of community and the sense of oneness either culturally or as a society. Often it feels like we are something else first and American 2nd, much like the xxx-American monikers we identify with.

This trip on some level has been my "Motorcycle Diaries" although I do not profess that my experiences was in anyways as profound as Che's experiences. Nevertheless it has been an eye-opening and soul searching adventure that has and will affect my future outlooks. My life at this point is and will continue to be one of flux. Where it will take me, I don't know. However seeing the world and seeing the human condition across countries and borders on this trip is an experience and an excellent break before the "next step" of my personal journey.

It is here where I sign off. It has been a wonder experience and one of deep lasting memories. My hope is that I may be able to something like this again in the near future.
Print this entry San Francisco hotels