to eriko 2

There are so many things I want to say to you, and sometimes it just wants to burst right out of me. Because of our language barrier, there were often too many things that were just omitted from our conversations. I never talked about my feelings with you. But did you know exactly how much you meant to me?

You provided a comfort zone for me in China. That one year, alone in my dorm room, with the smallest circle of friends in a foreign country, felt so warm to me, and that warmth lingers even til now when I reflect on it. And I often reflect on China. Sure I think of how magnificent the Great Wall is, or how grand the Forbidden City is. But my most valuable experience in China is nonetheless, friendship.

I remember I thought to myself - I have never experienced friendship to this level before.  After school I would follow you and the rest to your dorm room, and there we would eat lunch together, share Japanese snacks and tea. On numerous nights, Mika would cook us dinner and we would gather in your room and share the meal over a pleasant conversation followed by snacks and tea again. Most of the time, I didnt understand the conversations in Japanese, but you were patient enough to teach me. And by the end of the year, I had Japanese under my belt. I would have just shy away and had many meals alone, but suddenly, I now had friends in China. And these friends never minded that I never had much to contribute over lunch or dinner. They took me in for meals, encouraged me to play volleyball for the school, convinced me to take calligraphy with them, and visited me when I fell ill. They always took me in. These friends never judged me.

That year I always talked about escaping from reality - escaping from a capitalistic society, escaping from pressure at school, from relationships, and alienation at home. But after that year, after spending an entire year with some of the greatest people like you, it prepared me for reality. And I want to thank you so much for loving me, for caring for me, and of all the people there that year- thank you for choosing me to be friends with. I can never thank you enough, because China would not have been the same without you, eriko.