I’ve been home for over a week now, but it has taken time to process everything – and to recover from the jetlag. Because of layovers it took 30 hours (all wrapped into one never ending day) to get home. I know you’re supposed to catch up on your sleep on the plane, but I was too busy listening to the stories of other passengers. I was on a flight from Tokyo, which is a major hub for Asian flights, so I heard about travels to a variety of places – Thailand, Tibet, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia. Listening to their adventures made me want to turn the plane around. There is still more to see! I wish I had planned to stay longer – my tour of China was far too short and I want to see so much more of Asia – but at the same time I’m anxious to get back to my son and husband.
Now how to work through everything…I’ve learned so much. Since I’ve gotten home I’ve spent my time writing, trying to get everything down on paper. I went to China with textbook knowledge, but seeing things in person makes the pieces fall into place and gives me such a greater understanding. Now the major task before me is to redo the Chinese curriculum in our world history classes. I’ve been pouring through resources and compiling them along with everything I learned on my journey in order to write my own versions of student textbook readings. There is still so much work to do. China has 5000 years of history, and at this point my writings haven’t yet reached year zero! So many thoughts and plans in my head, and now time to put them altogether.
My students are fascinated by China, but words by historians and pictures in a textbook only give a cursory view of a very complex society. I’m ready for school to begin so I can show them what I’ve learned, so that I can help them understand as this journey has helped me.
