The Stromboli

Last year, when I realized I was going to be spending two years in Shanghai, I didn't forsee the extent I would miss my American lifestyle. I knew I would miss my family, but I never imagined how much I would miss the little things.

Needless to say, after spending August through December 19th in Shanghai, when I got a chance to come home for a few weeks during break, I was estatic. Not just happy estatic, but like a 7 year old the night before Christmas estatic.

After a grueling 16 hour flight, where I was stuck in the middle seat between a girl going home to Georgia and a man heading home to Louisville, the plane finally landed in Atlanta where I had a 3 hour layover. I staggered off the plane toward the terminal, each step bringing me closer to American soil, and I got more and more excited. As I entered the airport, I took a moment to look around. First of all, in the sea of faces at the Atlanta airport, I finally saw diversity after months of only seeing Chinese faces. All kinds of hair and skin colors, and all kinds of shapes. It struck me how much larger, in the two directions that count, the people in the Atlanta airport were. After months of being able to see over a crowd of people in China, I was now eye level or lower with most of the crowd at the airport. During my first 5 months in China, I don't recall seeing a single clearly obese Chinese person. As I waited in line at customs, I saw quite a few. And knowing what I do about China, I am sure they would be stared at walking down a Shanghai street.

Most of all, it felt good to be able to comprehend all that was going on around me. I knew what all the signs meant, I could understand the announcements over the loud speakers, and a casual conversation could be had with the person in front of me without involving a one man pantomime show, which I often use to get my point across in China. I am sure I had a smile on my face as wide as the wings of the plane that brought me to America.
As I made it through customs at Atlanta International, and was walking towards baggage claim, a familiar smell began to wash over me - the tantalizing, delectible smell that is American food. Even though it was airport food, I really felt like the luckiest man at the airport. After months of eating a few limited items in China that I knew and trusted, the entire smorgasboard that is an American food court was open to me. Do I stop over the McDonalds and try a juicy American hamburger and wash it down with a soda? Do I head over to Subway and get a turkey breast sub after 5 months without turkey? As I turned I even saw a Chinese restaurant - eek! Finally, my eyes settled on the chosen spot. Directly in front of me, like an oasis in a barren desert, was a Sbarros. One of my all time favorite foods is a stromboli, and I could almost taste it. My feet barely touched the floor as I sped towards the slice of heaven known as Sbarros, thoughts of Italian food filling my head. My mouth was watering enough to put Pavlov's dogs to shame as I ordered the stromboli. My hand trembled as I exchanged the money for the food, easily the best money I've ever spent. I finally found a seat in the crowded airport, but my focus was only on the stromboli. All other external stimuli faded away as my world consisted of me and that delicious concoction of pepperoni, ham and bread. As my mouth bit down, and the flavors washed over my taste buds for the first time in almost half a year, I realized what I had given up to go to China. I devoured the stromboli in record time, but instead of sating my appetite, it only made me long for the other foods I have been missing. Ben and Jerry's, chocolate chip cookies, eggnog, the list goes on and on. My three weeks in America will be spent seeing family and spending time with my amazing girlfriend, but truthfully, all of that is a front. My true passion over these three weeks will be to eat as much American food as I can, waistline be damned!