Nelson Ngov

I was standing in line at the JFK airport wondering why I was there and what led me to this point in my life. I was going on an over 15 hour journey to China, where I was to meet my grandfather after so many long years. I don’t remember much about him, but what always stood out to me was how he would lay in bed all day and occasionally get up for meals or to talk to family. As he got older he decided to take his last trip to permanently stay in China because of his declining health and his wish to be back in his hometown.

On the flight I was thinking of what to do while im there because for all I knew he lived out in the peaceful countryside with not much to do. After many hours of old movies, tasteless airplane food, and awkward napping position, we arrived to the little town of Shantou China.

My first impression of the town was how rural it was. There were lots of fields, tons of farm animals, and not many paved roads. Fortunately when I entered my grandfather’s house, I was welcomed into a modern house with lots of family members greeting me. It was difficult at first getting to know family because of a clear language barrier. However the issue soon fixed itself with my mom translating and being my guide for most of the trip.

I would then spent the next few weeks visiting various family members’ houses, travelling to the local market to buy fresh food, or riding a motorcycle down the dirt roads. While I was visiting, I experienced a major culture shock of how open and friendly, many of the people  were in that small town. Many people there were very nice to me by starting conversations, offering me food at the food stalls, or just generally being curious about my life back in the United States. This was different from the US because in public no one openly talked to strangers and everyone kind of did their own thing. Another major change while I was there was adjusting to the strict internet laws in China. The Chinese government were really strict on no outside influences so they banned websites like Google and YouTube. Fortunately  I remembered this before the trip and set up a VPN to let me enjoy the internet while I was staying there. This made the trip a little less painful.

This trip to China was a major change in my perspective on life. Although I didn’t enjoy every single part of that trip, this trip left a sense of gratefulness to my life back home and how I should appreciate the changes and differences of other places