Upon completing my final paper, rewriting it, giving my oral presentation, going to work, turning in my final paper and realizing that I had finished my year at Middlebury's China school, the moment I had waited for since September, I felt...

nothing.

Perhaps the thought, "oh" popped into my head, but it's doubtful. Later yesterday night I know realized that I am a senior at Northwestern University which temporarily shocked me, before I returned to a state of vacuousness.

I'm not really sure why things are this way, or why the last 9 months immediately collapsed into a blur and folded into a box, but they did. I feel strangely and utterly detached, almost as if the last 12 months starting in July never happened, and when I go home in August this last year won't have counted.

Interesting Musings

• I have now spent more time in China in the last 15 years than most of my Chinese-American friends... for some, more than all their family members' time combined
  
• I recognize 3000-4000 characters, yet newspapers still give me problems
• it's starting to inch towards 100 degree heat

Summer Plans

• Take my family for a two week tour de force around China, with stops including Beijing, Si Chuan Province, and Hangzhou
• Stay here until august, continuing to work at my internship. I am subletting a bedroom from an art student. She's a girl, but she has promised that I won't have to model for David-esque sculptures. Plus, I had no where else to live.
  
• Travel with the Zhe Da baseball team to Beijing to watch them participate in the whole country competition