The Transition
In the period after deciding to go to Columbia, people in Kunming would say: 'That's a transition- Kunming to New York!'. I must admit I felt a little bit anxious at the prospect of going from a third-tier Chinese city to arguably the world's most prominent city. Would I be able to handle it? Did the years I had spent in Kunming soften me to the extent that I can't enter the 'real world' again? Shouldn't I have chosen to go somewhere a little more, well, transitional than New York?
So far, and with the caveat that the weather has been good and there hasn't been much school-work yet, I should say that the transition has been easier than I had expected. In a strange way, life in China is actually a better preparation for New York than one might realize. New York is crowded, but nothing like Hong Kong or Shanghai. Chinese cities have more concrete and much less green space than New York. The pollution there- even in Kunming- is worse than it is here. And while New York is famously noisy, the lack of construction noise is conspicuous to anyone who has lived in contemporary China.
