I won’t let my masculine pride get in the way and pretend that everything is fine, I have no sense of home and I never miss anything from my past because I only move forward to forget the past…at least, that’s masculine pride as I have learned it from such manly icons as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Burt Reynolds. Though, I can honestly say I’m fine, I do have that nostalgic bug in me that is activated by the slightest things like, certain tastes, music I hear every once in a while, getting an email from (what is now) an old friend, and so forth. I can’t help but get lost in some of my finer memories when I just have the feeling that I don’t want to be in China today. Naturally, I do try to be out and about to fight this feeling and really lend myself to my potentially brief time here in this place. Recently the feeling has increased and probably mostly by my own hand. It is now 40 days until Christmas and for me, this marks the day that one should officially start to equip oneself with the holiday spirit. I mean, I know there’s Thanksgiving, but let’s be honest, Thanksgiving is just a warm-up meal for what everyday is like after that one leading up to Christmas. I think of it as a time to get the family together and officially kick off the spirit in a more unified way. So, as we know, I will not be having Thanksgiving with my traditional family and I’m okay with that because the Father needs me to be with a different family this Thanksgiving. On the other side of that thought, I realize that I haven’t been with family for the past five Thanksgivings. Furthermore, I have not been with family for the past two Christmases and that just isn’t quite right. It is these thoughts that have led to an increase in my homesickness this past week. I don’t even know if it qualifies as homesickness, it is more and more a sickness for the past. I miss being a kid and I miss the mindset of simplicity. I suppose that’s part of growing up though. I have to get to the place where I realize that I’m an adult, I have responsibilities and, yes, even debt. Ironically, the simplicity of being a kid is that you just pretend to be grown-up and you only have to act out the parts of being grown-up that seem exciting. Yes, children will always pretend to be grown-ups and grown-ups will spend their lives trying to recreate their childhood. A vexing cycle to step outside of for a moment, isn’t it?
With little notice and plenty of backpacker spirit to go around, some of my best friends in the world showed up in China last week and came to Harbin to spend five days with us here. Dusty and Cecily Breeding are two people I knew in college before they even knew each other and I have, for the past two years at least, considered them two of my closest friends. I’ve traveled with both of them separately and now together as a married couple and it is a blessing to see what the Father can do with two crazy spirits like theirs. Being with them stabilized a recently unstable reality for me. College has ended. Not only has college ended, but also I will probably never be in that type of environment again where I am surrounded by my best friends everyday. There was a time when I met up with Dusty everyday. Together, Dusty and I traveled to Africa, bought and fixed up off-roading vehicles and together we destroyed my off-road vehicle. Cecily is that friend that you could call for a much needed and deep conversation, or just catch a movie with. Seeing them together makes me happy, seeing them together here in China on their way to Africa makes me happier. Perhaps the atmosphere of being around all your best friends everyday fades away as reality fades in, but if you are faithful and patient, maybe you can spend everyday for the rest of your life with your best friend, and that just makes good sense.
Just hours after Dusty and Cecily hopped their train back to Beijing, it started to snow here in Harbin. When I say snow, I don’t mean that it snowed, I mean, it SNOWED! For two days straight those white, fluffy flakes came down and the city Harbin went from some place in Northeastern China to a winter wonderland, overnight. As I was walking back from class just a day after the heavy snowfall, I walked through the remaining five inches of snow on the ground when Jared, Miriam and Rachel suddenly ambushed me. A friendly snowball fight became a war, as I don’t take lightly to a snow fight challenge. There were some bruises and wet bodies when it was all said and done. It is nice to be back in a place that has weather because it just jives naturally with the rhythm of the mind. I’ve been in a more consistently good mood the past few days as I let some old things die off with the winter weather. I reckon I’ll be in a similar mood as some new things come to life within me with the springtime.
The last thing I want to address is karaoke, yes, karaoke. Probably most of you who are reading this are American folk. In fact, this may even apply to European folk. When you go out to karaoke, it’s with a group of people who are wanted to make fools of themselves and this process is no more than two hours long; furthermore, this event occurs once a year, if that. In China, discard all of these cultural norms. KTV is on every street corner in China, or so it seems, and the Chinese absolutely love and, as far as I can tell, attack every opportunity to sing with some friends…or strangers…for 6-12 hours. That may sound like a joke to you, but it is completely serious. We had a short intro session today with our very dear friend, Wesley. It was Wesley’s birthday this Sunday and we accompanied him to and participated in, a five-hour karaoke session. I was a bit wary at first, but as soon as my jam (Livin’ on a Prayer) blared through those speakers, I was all in and did my best to offer my full energy to the five hours of singing. It was a good time to bond with some of our friends and yet again, a great spot for me to sit (or place to stand with a microphone) to view and grasp this culture through the eyes of it’s youth. It’s a different world from mine in every way and that’s just what I signed up for, something different.
~Johnny Young
With little notice and plenty of backpacker spirit to go around, some of my best friends in the world showed up in China last week and came to Harbin to spend five days with us here. Dusty and Cecily Breeding are two people I knew in college before they even knew each other and I have, for the past two years at least, considered them two of my closest friends. I’ve traveled with both of them separately and now together as a married couple and it is a blessing to see what the Father can do with two crazy spirits like theirs. Being with them stabilized a recently unstable reality for me. College has ended. Not only has college ended, but also I will probably never be in that type of environment again where I am surrounded by my best friends everyday. There was a time when I met up with Dusty everyday. Together, Dusty and I traveled to Africa, bought and fixed up off-roading vehicles and together we destroyed my off-road vehicle. Cecily is that friend that you could call for a much needed and deep conversation, or just catch a movie with. Seeing them together makes me happy, seeing them together here in China on their way to Africa makes me happier. Perhaps the atmosphere of being around all your best friends everyday fades away as reality fades in, but if you are faithful and patient, maybe you can spend everyday for the rest of your life with your best friend, and that just makes good sense.
Just hours after Dusty and Cecily hopped their train back to Beijing, it started to snow here in Harbin. When I say snow, I don’t mean that it snowed, I mean, it SNOWED! For two days straight those white, fluffy flakes came down and the city Harbin went from some place in Northeastern China to a winter wonderland, overnight. As I was walking back from class just a day after the heavy snowfall, I walked through the remaining five inches of snow on the ground when Jared, Miriam and Rachel suddenly ambushed me. A friendly snowball fight became a war, as I don’t take lightly to a snow fight challenge. There were some bruises and wet bodies when it was all said and done. It is nice to be back in a place that has weather because it just jives naturally with the rhythm of the mind. I’ve been in a more consistently good mood the past few days as I let some old things die off with the winter weather. I reckon I’ll be in a similar mood as some new things come to life within me with the springtime.
The last thing I want to address is karaoke, yes, karaoke. Probably most of you who are reading this are American folk. In fact, this may even apply to European folk. When you go out to karaoke, it’s with a group of people who are wanted to make fools of themselves and this process is no more than two hours long; furthermore, this event occurs once a year, if that. In China, discard all of these cultural norms. KTV is on every street corner in China, or so it seems, and the Chinese absolutely love and, as far as I can tell, attack every opportunity to sing with some friends…or strangers…for 6-12 hours. That may sound like a joke to you, but it is completely serious. We had a short intro session today with our very dear friend, Wesley. It was Wesley’s birthday this Sunday and we accompanied him to and participated in, a five-hour karaoke session. I was a bit wary at first, but as soon as my jam (Livin’ on a Prayer) blared through those speakers, I was all in and did my best to offer my full energy to the five hours of singing. It was a good time to bond with some of our friends and yet again, a great spot for me to sit (or place to stand with a microphone) to view and grasp this culture through the eyes of it’s youth. It’s a different world from mine in every way and that’s just what I signed up for, something different.
~Johnny Young