The Story of You Pt.2: Wondering the Wonderland

The Story of You, Part 2.

Jay K.

[My train ticket to Qingdao, which is my first destination of 21days trip]

Ep.13 Wondering the Wonderland

Today is August 16, 2008. The program just ended yesterday. Many people left and I am leaving in two days. Throughout the program, I met lots of people. Most of them are from California, different UC campuses. I started this essay talking about leaving people behind and how I will miss them. Now, I met new people and made new friends. Some of them left last night. To be honest, I am a bit sad, but not that sad. Why? I guess now I am used to saying goodbyes.

Lots of things happened over the last seven weeks. I made some close friends; sometimes I was happy because of them, and sometimes I was mad and sad because of them. I wish I was nicer to them. Anyway it is too late. They left, and I will remember them, and we will meet again.
I am excited for the upcoming fall semester. Actually, I’m excited to make new friends. This time, I want to make many local Chinese friends. I have to go out of my way to do that and it won’t be easy.

The program is over, now what? The fall semester starts on September 12th. I have more than three weeks of vacation. I am going on a trip for three weeks. I have my grand plan for this trip. I will visit 10 cities in 21 days. I’m visiting east coast cities including Qingdao, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, and southern cities including Hongkong, Macau, and Guangzhou. I am very very excited for this upcoming trip. Everyone’s saying visiting 10 cities in 21 days will be too tiring and rushed, but I think I can do it.

I don’t like travelling that much—I don’t like “moving” in general. But, travelling is always exciting for some reason. I remember almost every trip that I went in my life. Each trip has different meaning. If you go by yourself, it gives time to reflect yourself. If you go with someone, it usually gives unforgettable memory of that person. Getting away from daily life is always tempting and gives you a fresh restart.

I went on a trip to Yosemite and San Francisco four years ago (yes, ironically). It was right after I just came to U.S. So I couldn’t speak any English—I even couldn’t ask questions like “how much is it?” I even didn’t know how much each coin worth. Thinking about that trip just makes me laugh. I went to that trip because I had time until the school starts. I went with Korean tourists and a tour guide. I saw the Golden Gate Bridge and stuffs. Yosemite was pretty impressive. It was also the first time I tried In’n’Out—it was delicious. It was only 3 days trip, but it was very meaningful and memorable.

Today is August 21st, which means I am already on my trip. I am in Nanjing now, I will write more about my trip in the next episode. This world is so vast, in which almost 99% of the world is unfamiliar to us. Thus, everywhere is the wonderland and we are wonderers of this wonderland. If you think about it, our life is also one long trip that our future is the wonderland. What is really known and what is unknown? In the end, isn’t everything unknown? Even myself or my mind is unknown; it is another wonderland to be wondered.

I want to stop writing here. I don’t know when the next episode will be uploaded. It might be after I finish this 21days trip or possibly before that. I’m travelling right now, so it is hard to organize pictures and stuff, but I will try my best to record my journey and tell you guys the story of you.

This time I organized pictures from this summer, named "People of China"