Taking a step back...

Chris wrote about what it's like to stop being a part of AIESEC in Mainland of China. I totally agree! In fact these are some of the things I've noticed now I've stepped back from the world of working full-time for AIESEC, into a random, waiting-to-be-a-student-again kind of lifestyle:

• Not every conversation will wander into discussion of AIESEC, either philosophical or practical
• Acronyms don't pop up that much in daily life (I'm not techy!)
• You don't actually need to check your email every day
• People expect you to have credit on your phone, and to answer it!
• Your day is determined by what you want to do, not by what your plan says or what other people have asked you to do
• T-shirts come in varieties other than AIESEC ones that fit and AIESEC ones that don't

Coming back from Beijing, these are some of the more general things that have struck me in the last week (I've been here for 3 weeks now):

• A surprisingly large amount of the general (well, the ones I bump into anyway!)population freaks out at the thought of living in (or even travelling to?) a developing country
• TV is nice for a change, but really not necessary, no matter what anyone says
• Middle doors of buses don't open automatically for you to get off - I was waiting for a while last night! I must have suddenly reverted back to Beijing ways or something...
• Speaking of buses, you really do need to look at a timetable before you leave the house, because buses don't just come all of the time! This requires a bit of extra planning...
• There really are hardly any people in Adelaide! There's heaps of peaceful places, and you bump into people you know everywhere. It's kind of cool.
• Hot chips really are under-rated, and coffee is cheaper than food!
• Heaps of people do things that they don't really enjoy, for no apparant reason other than perhaps habit? Why IS that? Are they just too lazy or afraid to change things? I find it so frustrating...
• Everyone at uni look so young! I know I do too, but...
• Some people seem to me to have changed a lot, and others not at all. I wonder if people think I'm much different? I know some parts of me have changed, but not others...