Back Home, and a Look Back

Our last day was very much what I expected it to be. I was somewhat surprised at how early everyone wanted to leave and start shopping (left at nine), but getting an early start meant more time to find what we were looking for. We went to Silk Alley first, and spent the morning there. Walking through all those stalls one last time made me realize that I was going to miss the Chinese shopping experience a lot. It'll be weird walking through the malls in America; I'll actually have to find a shopkeeper if I need help, and I'll probably have to wait... Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit. But my point is that living in this environment for a whole month has left a strong impression on me, and I'll be keeping these experiences forever.
We finished up our last day with a little more shopping, then visited our favorite dumpling place for our last meal in China. I already really miss the food, and I'm trying to find some recipes for my favorite dishes. Don't get me wrong, it's been nice to eat cheese again, but the food was excellent over there, and very cheap. After dinner I headed back to the room and packed up what I wouldn't need in the morning and tried to keep myself up late so I would a) be able to sleep on the plane the day we flew back, and b) get adjusted to the time difference easier. I suppose it worked well enough.
That last day we left Beijing Normal University, our home for so many days, at nine. We drove the hour to the airport and got ourselves checked in and waited for the flight. At 12:30 we boarded up, and got off the ground on time at 1 (Chinese airlines are always right on schedule). The flight was long (13 hours, of course it's long), but it still seemed shorter than the flight over. There was much rejoicing when we landed and went through immigrations and picked up our bags. Goodbyes were said and promises to meet over the coming semester were made, then we all went our separate ways. Which for me meant down to the Delta terminal at JFK, which is where the fun began. It wasn't so bad up until about an hour before the flight was supposed to leave, when I found my plane had been delayed until 11:50 that night (it was 5 by now). I was incredibly saddened by this, but right as I was beginning to despair, they made an announcement that an earlier flight that had been delayed had room for us, so we were able to get on that one. That didn't cut out the three hours we still had to sit out on the runway before takeoff, but I was still on my way home at last. Finally lifted off at around 8:20, and landed in Philly at 9. I got to meet up with my family at long last, and that was a relief. Unfortunately, our bags didn't make it on the plane with us, but I didn't care at that point. They shipped them to us for free the next day, so it was hardly and inconvenience. Got in the car and drove home, got back and into bed at 11, at long last. Which gives me a total travel time of 27 hours, all on the third (yes, more than 24 hours of travel time within one day). It was awesome being back home, and I spent the next several days re-adjusting and getting ready for school.
And so this concludes my trip to China. I hope you all have enjoyed reading this as much as I have telling you about it. This will be preserved offline, and there's talk of making a book of sorts... Well, with nothing further to say, I'm off!