Back home for Break and a little R&R

You know how the old saying goes "you never know what you got until it's gone?" Well, I haven't truly understood it until now. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the chance and the experience of living in Lhasa and I wouldn't trade it for anything. If I wouldn't have been able to go back I wouldn't have ever left but all signs pointed toward me toward being able to return so I've come back home for a quick break and recharge with family and friends.
What is strange is I find myself making little comparisons now and then and filling them in with short explanatory stores both out loud and in my head. Stories about pedestrian rights, weather, female labor, local cuisine, clothing, governance and travel in China vs. California, seem to flow so easily. As if my mind is readjusting to life in the USA by explaining the differences to anyone who will listen.
One of the reasons I came home was to see my 88 year-old grandfather who was visiting from Cleveland. It was so wonderful seeing his face when I got to see him again. He really is a wonderful man and I hope to be half the person he is when I am his age. With that said, we spent three days watching old movies, driving down the coast on historic highway 1, and eating at my favorite California cuisine spots. It will probably be another year before I see him again and I look forward to it. Thankfully, I have these newly made memories to subside on until then.
However, what I really can't get over is how much I really missed the food here. I like Chinese and Tibetan cuisine but the lack of variation in China is surprising. I mean If you want something different you really have to eat western fast food. And I hate fast food. There is no middle way, you either eat traditional Chinese or Tibetan cuisine or fried chicken and fires or bad pizza. And let's face it I have no desire for fried chicken sandwiches or fast food pizza. That's the kind of food I run from in the US but when you are stuck in an airport for 15 hours (no short or direct flights from Lhasa to the US) you have to eat something and meat flavored ramen soups can only last you so long before you realize the only thing left to eat as a vegetarian is french fries.
To review some of the points of comparison that I've made over the past couple of days to my friends and family here are a few of them I mentioned earlier with a little explanation.

Pedestrian rights: In California, by law cars are required to stop for all pedestrians. In China, you are almost risking your life by stepping in front of a moving vehicle. They simply won't stop and there has never been a time when I've seen a car either stop or I felt a car would stop for me as I crossed the street. A survival of the biggest truly reins on China's roads and not even New York City compares with the aggressiveness of drivers in China. Nowhere close.

Weather: In California, the air smells of the ocean and the weather has been warm and beautiful after a very rainy winter. In Lhasa, it hardly ever rains and when it does it is usually at night or early in the morning. It has not snowed as of yet and the only storm we had was a sand storm that closed the airport. Sunsets in both places are breathtaking but definitely different in the two cities. The way Lhasa has been developed over the years gives it's sky a closed feeling where the Bay Area after extensive development, still feels very open, like an amphitheater. The amount of sky and the fresh air really have to do with it's bay climate and geography and although the Tibetan plateau millions of years ago had an ocean, it really can't be compared to a marine ecosystem. However, the dryness and altitude in Lhasa really takes it's toll on your physical health, e.g. skin, hair, and energy. But, even after accounting for altitude and season ( in California it is almost in Spring) I really can't get over the climate back home and the difference I feel when I take a deep breath.

Female labor: female laborers are the core of the physical work force for the construction and government services. You see women working at all construction work sites and cleaning the streets as garbage collectors and sweepers. This might be a sign of manual labor drain, like the kind felt in Nepal due to the draw of outside higher paying manual labor jobs in mainland China and the middle east. However, it could also be a reflection of the role of the woman in Tibetan and Chinese society, where women were never really excluded from physical labor or contributing to the household by working the family field or flock.

Cuisine: I can't talk enough about the lack of chemical free and local food in Lhasa. California is the home of 80%+ of the US' organic and non organic produce but all except three or four produce stands in Lhasa offer commerically grown produce. This results in literally all the vegetables looking and tasting the same. I have even gone through periods of just not eating fresh vegetable (like when I lived in Nepal for two months because of water contaminated produce) due to perceived health issues arising from consuming fresh produce. In the end I concluded that skinning or peeling potatoes, tomatoes, and apples made me feel better but I'm not really sure if it actually makes a difference. The amount of commerical product in Lhasa is also in stark contrast to produce in Nepal, where although fresh vegetables are potentially contaminated they are grown without pesticides.

Clothing: After getting over the shock in Lhasa that none of the clothes really fit and that most of the clothes are of poor quality or bad knock offs, you begin to realize that if you found a good sale in the Bay Area, the clothes you buy may actually last FORVER and the boot leg things you got on your trip in China may in actuality not last longer then your trip. But with that said I do have some "north face" and "wed-ze" (??? not knock offs put trying to be???) socks that have held up pretty good so far. The ability to buy sizes has greatly improved upon returning to the US, where my size is no longer XL or XXL but M or L again. Sadly, being a vegan/ vegetarian over six months in Asia has caused me to loss over 15 pounds so the US clothes I fit into now are even smaller. However, I do have wishful thinking and have not fully accepted my new US size, causing me to continued to buy larges and engage in a strict high fat and high calorie diet titled, "project butterball" which I am not only the president but also a client.

Traveling in China has definitely given a me new perspective on my life as an American student. I have traveled all over Europe, Brazil, Australia, and the US but never in Asia. After living in Asia for six months, I think I will never look at California organic strawberries and the workers who pick them the same. I now more than ever realize how privileged I am to be able to enjoy the things I do living in the US (whichever coast it may be) and hope that someday I'll be able to improve and promote sustainable agriculture in other parts of the world.