I am from Wuhan.
Alot has changed in just 5 years since I left for university then grad school. Even the culture changes fast. I'll never forget how nervous I was back in 2008, on a train to Beijing to meet my first internet girlfriend who was in my kindergarden (!) and was reintroduced just a few months before. Still remember how she opened my box of Belgian chocolate that I worked my *** off to buy, only to find it was starting to melt, so we shared it. Fast forward a few years; I broke up with my first girlfriend, even dated a girl way younger than me, and now I'm dating a girl my age because we're already too damn old and just want to settle down. She complains about back pain, thats how old we are lol. I even learned the concept of dating in these years - that awkward stage of the relationship between being friends and being boyfriends/girlfriends. Used to be confused by it. I used to think I was shy, now? Shyness is for boys, not men.
Alot of popular vocabulary I used back in 2010, isn't even in use anymore. I don't recognize alot of the new music stars; hell, some of them are younger than me now. The girl classmates who wore tank tops, no bra, during the summer because it was too hot and yelled at us "看什么看,又不是AV上没见过“ (the hell you looking at, its not like you haven't seen it in p*** before) ? Mostly bitter at men, tired of life working shitty jobs and either alone or with guys that treat them like trash. The guys that chilled with me in the internet cafe yelling ”草你妈的能不能认真点玩儿“ (motherf*** can't you just pay attention) at the screen for losing in DOTA? Mostly bitter at women, tired of life working shitty jobs and either alone or with girls that don't love them. Definitely no more DOTA. Me? They all say I haven't changed. I still get mad at injustices, still have my feelings on my face, still bright and cheerful and think about things too complicated for my own good. Still too many ideas. Guess I'm a hopeless romantic that still hasn't grown up, cuz not enough bitterness. Maybe my current date, if she decides to become my girlfriend or even get married, will kick that out of me. But I doubt it; she's the same way. If she wasn't, she'd be married already.
My hometown? Shit, i can't recognize some places anymore. The New Oriental where me and my buddies crammed GRE? Used to be hidden in an alley on top of a small hill. Now theres a huge gate. The long rides by bus across the bridge or ferries? Replaced by cross-river subway tunnels. The streets behind the university we called 堕落街 (hedonistic avenue) because it had alot of bars, internet cafes and clubs? Nice and clean now. shit, kids these days barely go to internet cafes. Still remember me and my girlfriend riding to the end of the bus line, just thinking about shit, or me lying on a bench smoking, trying to look cool and getting the ash blown back into my face. When my family first bought a real house, the neighborhood was still a permanent construction zone. Now? Nice and finished with gardens 2nd to last time I went back, then the gardens got polluted when I went back again.
Lots of good memories. Some of it is applicable to today's China, not all.