Wednesday, July 9, 2008

The End! At Least Temporarily

Our last two weeks in China were a whirlwind of packing, examinations, dinners and many farewells. For as much effort as we put into our finals, it is disappointing to know that our grades probably won’t actually count. In other words the students that we fail, will simply be promoted into the next class regardless. Then next year’s unsuspecting foreign teachers will inherit the same problems that we did. We had two official farewell dinners. Both times we were segregated into a separate table for the “western” teachers and refused the opportunity to mingle. Such heavy handedness was imposed by the Dean of the English Department. At least he did ask us to stay next year while were taking a departmental photo-three days before leaving China! We were able to spend an afternoon with our friend LuShan and her family. Her six year old daughter and Li entertained us with dance performances and songs for the afternoon. We had some great meals with friends and students and generally felt sad at the community we were leaving. The good news is that by the time we get back here again, most of our students will have graduated and we can visit them all over China.

One of the most memorable events of our departure was the goodbye party at Li’s school. We told her teacher we wanted to come by to take some pictures and bring a few small gifts. Upon our arrival we discovered three chairs waiting for us at one end of the room and the kids ready to sing and dance for us. We put WMI tattoos on all the kids and gave out treats. Li gave away many treasures, but ended up with about the same amount in return. There was a giant cake and lots of excited screaming, and of course some tears.

Most of our household items found good homes with students and other teachers. Nevertheless we ended up shipping 10 boxes back home (1/2 of which are gifts!). In China this involves stuffing a bag full of what you want to mail, handing it to the counter person, waiting while they look in every pocket and every book, and then cringing as they pack things poorly into boxes. It will be a race to see whether we beat our boxes home.

Steve started his 40th birthday with a burly 20 mile run and ended with a foot massage and mystery cake.

On the first of July we pulled out of campus in a taxi for the last time. Our flight to Xi’an was uneventful and we managed to forgo hotel food and find a local restaurant to drink a few beers and sit outside on a sweaty summer evening. Steve did eventually unplug our hotel room phone after the third call asking if we wanted a “massage”.

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