Semi-conscious Oil Change

Today is my last day on the job here. The competition deadline was last Friday. I hope we win. Coming to Shanghai has made me more confident and optimistic about my future as a designer. I feel like someone has whispered in my ear and suddenly my vision has become extra vivid. Another way of saying it would be ... if everyone had a little life engine puttering inside their bellies, someone changed the oil and changed the fuel in my engine. Or maybe it's been re-tooled. And now my engine is more powerful and happy. Being in Shanghai has been fantastic. There is something really wonderful being in a state of semi-consciousness, that is, only understanding a small percentage of the information being shouted from the streets, radio, millions of advertising posters, and the flashing neon signs. There is a lack of pretense, a naive-ness that makes being in China give me a respite that I could not escape in either Europe nor Japan. No one's here to judge (at least, the typical guy on the street is not bothered), no one's here to analyze every action to the last drop of human decision. Okay, I haven't written in a while; I don't think I'm making a ton of sense. :) Maybe after I go back. I will think about things harder, but feel it would still take more than six months just to retroactively process and reflect on all of the things I've experienced in this place. It's been extraordinarily refreshing.