America in a Suitcase

^America in a suitcase.

Have you ever considered what America in a suitcase would look like?  Well when my Uncle came to visit me in Shanghai this past week, he brought this suitcase and it really got me thinking about all the things that makes America great.  Just think, America has the most common internationally traded currency and acts as reserve for the majority of large economies in the world.  America is a healthy nation with the highest quality ingredients on earth, have you ever looked at the ingredients on a Lara Bar? Two to three ingredients in most cases, natural and delicious.  We're home to beautiful national parks, along with some of the world's most beloved cities from New York to San Francisco.   We're driven by coffee, and I promise that us Yankees will get any job done with a little ingenuity and a lot of coffee.  New York! Home to the winningest team in baseball, the Yankees, and the recent Superbowl champs, the Giants.  We take a daily vitamin and you can be assured that brands like Centrum will do everything they can to maintain their reputation and standard of quality.  America is home to friends, family, loved ones, and a strong network of fellow Americans helping one another carry out each others dream.  America embodies innovation and forward thinking, and exports Apple products, which are idolized by the entire world.  But don't forget how sweet Jelly Beans are around Easter time, or how delicious Ghirardelli chocolate is.  And what's more American than lighting your Marlboro Red with a Zippo lighter? It's not my habit, but it is my culture.  These are all of the things that make me so proud to be an American, and going abroad has certainly strengthened my appreciation for America’s values and democracy.  Sometimes when you're caught up in the day-to-day news in America, such as the never-ending discussion about political gridlock, you don't have the chance to take a step back and appreciate all the great things that make up America.  I was always aware of these subtle things but when you travel abroad and see for yourself that the world is a different place once you get outside of the United States, you can't help but feel a little nostalgia when thinking of home.  Whenever you go abroad, just take a moment to think about home and appreciate a few things about your way of life back in the States.

So my uncle that I just mentioned came to all the way to Shanghai to visit me and had a week from hell… I mean if it could go wrong it pretty much did.  He just left today.  Well scratch that, I had to come back and edit this post because I just got a text from him saying that he was still at Pudong International Airport.  The first text reads, "Passenger died on incoming flight, no one knows much more than that."  Then a few minutes later another text reads, "flight never touched down, flight tomorrow morning, stuck here.."  Ahh, the last memory of China is a delayed flight and night in crappy hotel.  So let me backtrack a few days to tell this awful and hilarious story.

^The beginning of the end at Morton's Steakhouse.

It almost seemed like it was doomed from the start.  We never discussed visas before he came over and he read online somewhere that he could get a visa in China.  Unfortunately I just assumed he had one, and when he was about the board the plane at the gate, the workers said, "woah, not so fast." Then he had to rush around New York City to get his visa application into the consulate before 2 PM that day, so that he could have it rush processed and turned around in two days.  Then when he made it here several days later than expected he had a tough time adjusting to the jet lag right off the bat, and didn’t sleep a wink the first night.  Also keep in mind that we had hot pot for dinner the first night, and he definitely ate some uncooked food.  So about 24 hours later the food poisoning sets in as my uncle, my Chinese roommate, and I are sitting at Morton's steakhouse at the IFC mall eating the most delicious and expensive meal I’ve had in Shanghai.  Just as he was finishing his filet, he yacked in the bathroom, and then when he got back to the table he was told that the bank had frozen his card because he was in Shanghai.  One more yack in the elevator of the hotel, one more sleepless night, and then a week of debilitating diarrhea followed.  Then one hour before he left for the airport we found a Pepto Bismol like medicine that cleared up all of his symptoms.  If only we could have found that 5 days prior.  But I guess when you really think about it even that didn't matter anymore because there was no fixing this trip.  I gotta run, I think I just got another text saying, “Plane not at gate yet, I can't do this again…”  Uncle mark, if you're reading this, I hope you'll consider coming back to china some day?