Always Coming Back Home to You

I’ve been listening to a lot of rap by Atmosphere, a rap group out of Minneapolis, Minnesota comprised of Ant, the spacy and actually quite old-looking DJ, and Slug, the masochistic front man and MC, both known as Anthony and Sean, respectively. My favorite song by the duo off of their “Seven’s Travels” album is the final track entitled “Always Coming Back Home to You,” in which Slug describes his hometown and the feelings of comfort despite his sometimes bleak past there, only to let the track drone out and fade into a powerful tune praising the Mid West and all that is good about it, while still pleading with his listeners to not let anyone else on the secret. Bottom line, his home is the Shit. Well I beg to differ, because I am officially STOKED to head home to R-Y-E. Rye, NY, a little place where affairs with tennis pro’s isn’t uncommon, the parents are often times crazier than the kids, and a Beemer for a 16th Birthday is common place. Whatever man, who cares? I love the place and the people. Nevertheless, I still have some time to burn over here and with that in mind I took a weekend trip to Nanjing, a city that I’ve been intrigued by ever since hearing the musings of Don Wyatt last year in Modern Chinese History. The city did not disappoint. Becky, Big Bear, Molly (three friends from other schools), and I took off Friday night, met Becky’s brother in Shanghai and made our way to Nanjing first thing in the morning. First let me say this, the train system here is awesome. You barely realize that you are moving, the quality is first rate and the service (free water) is outstanding and they all move significantly faster than the Metro-North and Amtrak I’m so used to (see: always late, no service other than a “EY TICKETS BUDDY,” and usually terribly dirty).
Anywho, despite having my first bout of Home-sickness (real honest to goodness homesickness) I managed to enjoy Nanjing to no end. The city is gorgeous, tree-lined streets, historical sites everywhere, and great food. We spent Saturday going to Sun Yat-Sen’s Mausoleum, the man credited with founding modern China and it struck me, nothing in the States compares to this. The Statue of Liberty? Cool, but you can’t even walk up it (Screw you terrorists, let me walk up to the head of the Big French Woman) Shouldn’t this be a priority of someone in the States? Fix up Lady Liberty. I want to be able to go up and hang out on that big ole torch. I want to sing from the head like Bill Murray in “Ghostbusters 2” “Your Love!! Is Lifting Me Higher!!!” so on and so forth. Frankly, aside from the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone, two NATURAL landmarks the States are lacking in awe-inspiring sights. It is worth noting I had the same feeling when seeing the Great Wall and Forbidden City.
We finished the day off with a nice dinner at Tao Restaurant, which is housed in a remodeled traditional house. Sunday we found our way to a gigantic bridge built during the mid-20th Century without much aid from heavy machinery, spanning the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal (an ancient canal stretching from Hangzhou up to Beijing) both fascinating accomplishments and compliments to the Chinese will and ability.
Before hopping back on our train we walked the City wall, which is one of only a few remaining fully intact city walls, which is especially remarkable considering the Japanese essentially razed the city during World War II. We ended the day at Yuejiang Tower, a giant pagoda on top of the largest hill in Nanjing with a panoramic view of the city and the river. Perhaps one of the best views of a city I’ve ever seen. It really compares favorable to the view of NYC from the Whitestone Bridge at Sunset.
On top of a great weekend, my one-on-one class this morning was cancelled (meaning I’m done for the day) and I have a phone interview with Lehman Brothers this afternoon. Things are looking good for our hero. If anyone wants postcards let me know, I have a ton of them, but don’t know who would like one. Nanjing, not where the wild things are, but a great time nonetheless.