Hi, all of my dear internationals! How are you guys doing! I miss you all.
I have safely returned to my home in Chongqing, China for about two weeks now. And I am with my family and my cute doggie Wangzai. Everything is good. I don’t have anything in particular to say, but I just want to use this blog post as an opportunity to share with you my journey back home, the situation in China, and some beautiful moments in my life recently.
During spring break, I left campus to stay over in Michigan, my boyfriend’s home. We spent some really good time together with his family for about two weeks until the covid-19 situation in the US started to make my parents concerned about my well-being greatly. I heard worrisome news from my father about my mother’s situation. She could not fall asleep every night because she was so worried about me. Out of consideration to ease my parents’ anxiety and worries, I decided to travel back to China. I spent an entire week checking on airplane tickets and only started to find out that air tickets back home became so hard to get. I bought five tickets in a row and they all got canceled in the end. Luckily, my parents were able to find me a ticket that was canceled by another passenger last minute. Finally, I was able to leave the country, but I needed to be on the road the next day. Everything happened so fast. I had to say goodbye to my beloved boyfriend and his family overnight. I left the next day morning with a small suitcase and a heavy heart. The sadness of separation with my beloved boyfriend and all kinds of uncertainties kept on squeezing my heart tightly. I had to fly from Chicago to LA and then from LA to China. It was a long long long journey. I was so exhausted, hungry, and dehydrated by the time I arrived in China. I did not eat anything for more than 24 hours. But anyway, I have returned to my country and was one step closer to seeing my family and my dog.
I was quarantined in a hotel for 14 days before I returned to my home.
It is now springtime in my city. Everything is beautiful. But before I could direct my attention to the beautiful sceneries, as a foodie, the first thing that was on my mind after returning home was food, real Chinese food! So we went to eat hot pot. God, I was happy. It was real tasty! Then days went on. I went out to walk my dog by the riverside during sunny days. And I surprisingly found out, my little Labrador learned how to swim when I was at Vassar. He could swim so well now and retrieve his toy ball from the water by swimming towards it. Since now it is spring, lots of people go to riverbanks to fly a kite. I was lucky enough to rescue an ownerless kite from a tree by the riverside. Then I got to fly a kite which I haven’t done for years. I suddenly found out I have never observed and enjoyed nature as I do nowadays. When I see flowers blooming by the road I can’t help but feel amazed by the beauty of nature. I enjoy the soft winds, the blooming flowers, and the new leaves on the trees. Ohh BTW, I got to go to a cherry orchard to handpick cherries last weekend which was a very fun experience. I love spring and I enjoy the time at home.
Finally a short update on the covid-19 situation in China. The government has done a good job to contain the virus through quarantine. Now everything is pretty much under control. People have gone back to their normal life. Parks and restaurants are getting crowded again. I hope everything gets back to normal soon, so I will be able to see all your lovely faces on the Vassar campus when next semester starts.
Qinyao Li, Class of 2022
