First things I noticed after coming back from China

My Day In LA

I left China on June 21st at 8:30 PM and arrived in Los Angeles at 5:45 PM the same day! That is the time difference. The flight went well, I fell asleep shortly after the flight took off and when I woke up we were over Portland, Oregon. So I didn't feel like I endured a long flight.

My uncle James picked me up at the airport and we went back to his home and I met his new lovely wife Jamie. They were really good to me and cooked up some Italian pasta for dinner. I met their friends and for the first time chatted about my experiences.

The next day I spent with my friend Jason, who I have known since grade school. I wasn't interested in going to Disneyland or shopping malls or anything like that. I just wanted to talk and catch up. So we went to Mulholland Park that overlooks the city. We hiked around there for awhile and then went to Rodondo Beach.

Los Angeles is not known for its great air, but I thought the air and weather were great! After living in hot, muggy and dusty Beijing, Los Angeles was like a breath of cool fresh air.

Early this morning, James took me to the airport and I flew into Phoenix. The sky was blue with few clouds in the sky. The colors seemed vibrant as I remember them.

When I arrived at the home, Susan and Victor ran out to meet me. The dogs even remembered me and were very excited. Mom made my favorite food, a fruit salad, and I gobbled it down. Mom had prepared the extra bedroom for me, there is a nice bed and desk and phone. The house looks better than ever after all the recent add-ons and renovations, it looks so lovely.

Some of the first things I noticed back in the states were how low all the buildings are. In Beijing its rare to have apartment complexes only one or two stories high like in the US. All the new buildings are built towards the sky in China to accommodate a large population.

I also noticed all the fat people. In the US, we have a obesity problem. There are just a lot of way overweight people. I asked my Mom about it, and she said there were not always this many fat people years ago. But there weren't so many kinds of snacks and garbage food when she was a kid either. She said when she was young, if you wanted a snack, maybe you could get a apple or a banana. Today, there are whole supermarket aisles of snack/junk foods and soda beverages.

After living in China, where it seems so many people are slim, I guess that was a bit of a reverse culture shock for me.