Bai Bai Shang Hai / 白白上海.
I’m moving back to the States. To San Francisco and California, more specifically. The movers arrived this morning and packed up my apartment and at 10pm on Sunday, I’ll be on a flight to New Delhi. From there, I’m going to Mumbai, then to London, then to New Jersey/New York, then to Nicaragua and returning to home via Mexico.
It’s been about 15 months since I’ve been living in Shanghai and just under a year and half since I’ve been traveling and working here. The amount I’ve grown, the friends I’ve made, the people I’ve met and the experiences I’ve had have made this last place truly phenomenal and easy to call my home. When the packers were at my house this morning, I really felt like my home was being packed up and I was getting ready to leave my city.
Shanghai has given me so much and I think I got a lot out of my time in here. I can speak/read/write some Chinese (我知道一点中文, 但是，我的中文不好). I lived in a totally different culture, understood what that meant in terms of work and my personal life. I changed jobs and teams. Got to eat all kinds of Chinese food I never knew existed. I got to travel all throughout Asia. How lucky is that?
The saddest part about leaving without a doubt is all the friends I’m saying goodbye too. For the last year they were my family. Some old friends from the states who became best friends, some new friends from here that became my closest friends, and of all the random people I met along the way who are on similar or totally different journeys that I am on, it’s hard to say goodbye to all of you. To boot, I’ll miss my apartment. I loved that place, I can only hope I’ll find as good a place in SF.
If you’re interested in getting a postcard, shoot me a mail at [email protected] and I’ll try to send you one from a few of the places I’ll be at. I’ll be blogging throughout my trip and I’ll be back in the States around the 25th of March.
See you soon, Shanghai.