We’re baaaaack!

So China was awesome. So many impressions, and it’s difficult to describe. First off, the scenery is amazing. Secondly, the people are really nice. We compared them to mid-Western Americans, uncomplicated, easy going, and genuine.

I really have to get cracking and put my nose to the grinding stone in preparations of my looming exams in a few weeks, so I am not sure how much I will be able to blog about the trip. But in the meantime I will post a few pics inspired by Sarah’s couples’ self-portraits post.

Germany - On the train to the airport

Beijing - In the Forbidden City

Xian – The Terracotta Warriors

Longji Valley - Rice Terraces

Hong Kong – Jordan Street, Kowloon

Hong Kong - Hong Kong Island Skyline, albeit blurry, as seen from Kowloon

It was a long trip, and we are both happy to be back in Germany…although not too happy with the crappy cold weather we were met with. We both have colds, but are taking advantage of the long Easter weekend to get back into the groove of things.

Often on the trip I was struck at how surreal it all seemed. I mean, wasn’t he just, 3 weeks before we left, sitting in Afghanistan? He hasn’t been back 2 months yet, but it seems like forever. I have almost forgotten that he was ever gone. However much he was missing from my daily life before, he is so enmeshed in my daily life now, that I can’t believe I survived that whole year he was gone.

This trip was an amazing experience for us both, and a great opportunity to spend a lot of time together outside of the pressures of and routines of daily life. I think it was a necessary cut in the whole homecoming process, because the first few weeks, I was still so fascinated that he was back, and things seemed so un-real. And now that there is a cut between, when he came home and us getting back to our daily routine, delineated nicely by the return from our vacation, it is easier to move on.

For a while he was my boyfriend “who had just returned from a year’s deployment”, and now he is slowly returning to just being my plain and simple boyfriend. After Easter I will go back home to my apartment and study study study for my exams, and my boyfriend will go back to work (after shaving his beard, which I have grown quite attached to, strangely enough). And we will finally be back to “normal,” whatever that means.