I'm practically Chinese! (but not really)

Though I may have things to complain about China, as most recently, the online censorship; I have been realizing in the past month or so that I am completely comfortable in living in China. I have gotten to the point in where everything a foreign country have now come all together. I remember that at first, I felt like that I could never eat the Chinese food here; from what it looked like to me, it was just rice and food in a pool of oil. That doesn't sound delicious right. But now I crave Chinese food all the time. It's almost all I ever eat now. I cannot get enough steamed dumplings. My favorite Chinese place is a chain called Yang's Fry Dumplings. Every Chinese person and foreigner in China knows what I'm talking about. This place makes the best dumplings EVER in the world! My mouth is just salivating with the thought of those dumplings.

Another thing is that I am totally comfortable with using chopsticks. Now it feels weird for me to use a fork, knife and spoon. I thought that would never happen; I've spent my entire life using cutlery. But more so in the past two to three months, I've pretty much only used chopsticks. I never think to use a fork because everything I eat is Chinese.

Now I am pretty skilled in using survival Mandarin. You know that when you learn a new language, you think and try to form a sentence in your head before you speak? Well, now I just speak without thinking. It's feels good to be at this point in a new language, even thought is just survival level of Mandarin. I have no problems with speaking Chinese in cabs, restaurants (most items anyway) and shops. I have been able to write and understand more Chinese characters lately. Though I haven't been going to Chinese class lately; but now I am more motivated than ever to learn more Chinese. After all, if I'm going to live in China for almost two years (I think), I should be almost fluent in Mandarin after that long. PS-It's something that looks good on my resume and can get me a lot of jobs in international affairs field.

Now I can really understand on how people say they experience reverse culture shock when they get home. I cannot imagine being home now. America just isn't cutting it for me anymore. Everything here in China has now finally come together. I'm practically Chinese, well besides the fact that ethically, I'm white. I just want to be in Asia forever. I want to go to every country in Asia. I don't really care about Europe that much anymore actually. I used to think that Europe was an exciting place where sex and drugs and hot guys are found everywhere. But now, I'll just go to Bangkok. As for the hot guys, there are plenty of foreigners here (the hottest ones from France). Hard to find that many hot Chinese guys, but it doesn't mean that they aren't out there.