dream out loud

While I was having lunch, my phone rang – the caller ID showed an 800 number. I was very confused but answered. It was a recording telling me that my flight had been canceled! It even ended with “We apologize for the inconvenience. Goodbye.” No further information.

I immediately call United to find out and was put on hold for 40 minutes. Thankfully I was re-routed to an early flight. All is good now, but I vow never to fly United again.

* note: Since I have become terrible at keeping in touch with people, I’ve decided to write brief updates here, as they import to Facebook. Think of them as long status updates

I love U2, I actually do. Ever since I was introduced by my cousin to some songs on U2′s War album, I remember liking “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” and have owned every album since. For whatever reason (too young, too poor, bad timing) I didn’t get to any of their shows. I did see them recorded later on though. That all changed in 2001 when I saw my first U2 concert. I actually saw several shows on that tour, and have seen at least one show on each subsequent tour.

When I moved to China, a new album was released, and lucky me, a friend was visiting me the week of the release, so I pre-ordered it on Amazon to her and she hand delivered it to me. A tour was announced, but sadly it was in the Fall of 2009, when I would be back in China teaching. But hooray, all of a sudden a new leg was announced: late Summer 2011 in Europe. So I bought tickets for Frankfurt, figuring that we could find a way to go. Then double hooray, a North American leg was added in early Summer 2011. So I bought Toronto and Meadowlands, NJ tickets, and decided to sell my Frankfurt tickets. (It later turned out that we are starting at a new school and couldn’t go to Germany at that date anyway) Everything was working out so well.

Bad news!! It’s announced that Bono has had to have emergency back surgery and ALL North American shows are postponed. I was disappointed, but glad to hear the shows were postponed and not canceled. The only glitch would be if they scheduled the shows to dates that I’d still be teaching in China next Spring. Friends even offered to buy my tickets if that’s the case, but I didn’t want to think about that. Well today they announced their dates – both shows I have tickets to will be in July – when I can definitely make it. I’m super excited!

The band even put up a nice video message to fans. I really appreciate their thoughts. I know that refunding all the money wouldn’t have been good for them so their best option was to re-schedule, but it can’t be easy to haul around their stage again for another few months and turn this into a three year tour. So, thanks U2.

From here, I am facing another new adventure, I think of it as China: Chapter II. I had always been eager to spend time working and living in China. I was sad to learn that Suzhou wasn’t the kind of place I was looking for. So I feel like I am going to go to Guangzhou with a fresh start. It’s true, it still might not be the place I’m looking for, but I’m determined to tap into some of the opportunities I wanted that didn’t exist in Suzhou. It will just take some self-reminders and initiative.

That said, I made some incredible friendships and relationships in Suzhou, which I had to sadly leave. I don’t think it’s possible to live in a place and totally throw it out of your memory and life when you leave. For me, anyway. But for everything that annoyed me about living in Suzhou, there is something or someone that I loved. In all parts of my life that I’ve moved on from, I don’t just leave friendships behind. So, this is not goodbye

Also, looking back, I can check off many of my goals for going to China in the first place. Pay off student debt, improve my Chinese, save money, travel, gain more teaching experience. Hopefully in Chapter II, I can extend on these goals and make new ones. Improve my Chinese further, save more money, chip away at my mortgage, gain more teaching experience, travel more, meet some native Chinese friends, and learn more about local culture and cooking.

… to be continued!

I arrived home on July 5, exactly one year since I was last here. Fortunately, the school calendar shifted a week earlier this year, and so we were finished a week before. In that extra week, we first flew to the San Francisco Bay Area, to visit my cousin, her husband, and adorable 21-month old daughter. After that, we flew to Ontario to visit half of Glen’s family. And now I’m home for another two weeks.

In more “news I’m forgetting to update you all on,” all my summer flights have been booked.

Shanghai to San Francisco: June 26

San Francisco to Toronto: June 30

Toronto to New York: July 5

Newark to Guangzhou via Chicago and Seoul: July 24.

Hope to see you this summer!!