Goodbye China! Hello America! It is official, we finished our year in the great country of ZhongGuo. Jess, Andrew and I all had the same flight back from Hong Kong and it was so nice to have people to travel with, especially since it was those two. I can't believe our time is over. It did feel like a really long time, but it also went by so quickly. I feel like this should be time I recap and reminisce about all the great times and such...but I'm not going to. None of this is ending. I still have another year in China. I still will be friends with my buddies from China. So yes, things are changing, our year is done, but it is still a happy time and I'm going to look forward to our future encounters instead of focus on our past events.


Before I left I wanted one last picture of our future art building. It has been great seeing the progress that the construction has made. I can't wait to get back in August and see how far it has come along.


My book club had a final outing for the end of the year. The students invited Seven, their English teacher, and Fuat. Both Grania and Vaan (the students) are pretty much fluent and it's been great getting to know them. I can't wait to have another year to hang out with them.


Continuing with checking off things we've been meaning to do all year, Jenny, Marie and I went to the Lohuo Botanical Gardens. It was quite a bit different from what we were expecting but it was still nice to walk around in nature. Instead of having different sections of plants it was more similar to an arboretum. So we wandered around and got lost quite a few times since we didn't have enough Chinese skills to ask things like "Where is the statue" or "Where are the tall trees we heard about". Fortunately we ran into a random white person who was very friendly. He was a 17 year old German student who was studying abroad for the year. He came in with 3 months of Chinese and was put into a house with a family who spoke no English or German so he had to get fluent quickly. He was able to ask some Chinese people for directions and pointed us in the right direction. There was a small bee farm in the park so we all got to try some honey water and Jenny ended up buying a bottle. We didn't have a ton of time so I definitely want to go back again next year.


One thing that we have been talking about all year and have never done (until now) was to go to Xi Chong beach in Longgang. It was three hours away from anything but it was worth it. When we arrived there was literally no one else on the beach for quite a stretch. It was absolutely beautiful. The water was still a bit cool but we took advantage of having the beach and still went in the water and splashed around. We also flew a kite and Jess and I walked along the beach to see how far we could go. For lunch we went to a local restaurant on the beach where....the entire staff was smoking Marijuana. It was quite comical. For anything we had to get the staff's attention multiple times and even then they didn't seem happy about having to wait on us. Afterward we headed back home. The taxi driver was not happy that half of us were still wet from the ocean but we coaxed him into taking us. Jenni and I ended up crashing at Jess's place since our homes were still a lot further. We made cookies and just sat around and chatted. It was a very nice evening.


Our final family dinner. The family + Jenni headed to Longgang for a final night together before we all shipped of to the states. We had sloppy joes and mac and cheese. Very good. Plus my very first sloppy joe. After dinner I presented a slide show of our time together this year. Then I had my last night crashing in Jess's room so we stayed up for awhile chatting about life and going back to the states. It was really nice having our final time with our group that successfully prevailed through the China experience.


Jess and I were talking just the other day about how China is just a continuous adventure. She commented that she's been living in her neighborhood for almost a year and ended up getting lost just going to the store by taking the wrong bus. Our conversation came to reality this morning when I went to meet up with Jess at Dongmen. I happened to leave my school during rush hour and it was insane! I had to wait for three buses before one had enough room to fit me in (as I was fighting thirty other people for a spot) and then the subway was almost too full to get on! That never happens. Then at the two metro stops that are near a lot of the business buildings just had floods upon floods of Chines men and women headed off to work. There were so many people!


American food! As a final goodbye and thank you I made (with the help of Fuat and some of the Chinese teachers) mashed potatoes, spaghetti with homemade sauce and ceasar salad. I invited all the English teachers in my office and couple of Fuat's friends to come join. I was really worried that they weren't going to like the food, especially my contact teacher Brian who said that the only American food he likes is bread, or that I wouldn't have enough. But everyone said it was really good and we had enough for left overs! Even at one point Brian ran across the room to get seconds yelling "I love American food!!". It was a really fun event and everyone seemed to have a great time. I especially loved Turner, the head of our department, helping out. He was given the job of helping with the sauce and he seemed to be very proud of himself.

I cleared out my bank today. I had to carry over $4000 around before I could get back to my room and hide it away. Luckily I safely made it and got the money back to America and in my bank.


I love being crafty! I sent out an email to some friends asking for things that they learned while in China for instance "Never ask what kind of meat you are eating...you don't want to know". For a going away present I decorated little jars and filled them will all the different things that our grouped learned in our year together. That way we could all look back and remember the crazy place we call China.


The end of the world came and went. It was predicted that at 6pm the evening of May 21st the world was to end. I wanted to have an "End of the World" party and we decided what was better than having a water balloon fight on our final day?? That day Jenni, Gen, Marie and I's friend from Changsha, Jun, was visiting Shenzhen with a friend so they ended up joining us. His friend's name was Xin which sounds like Sheen so we ended up calling him Charlie all day....I don't think he liked us very much. Jenni, Marie and I joined with them for lunch and then Charlie ended up choosing to leave us. Marie also had to go home. So Marie, Jun and I headed to the park and met Andrew to have a waterballoon fight! The onlooking Chinese people thought we were hilarious. Afterward we played frisbee which they also found entertaining (Chinese don't play frisbee). Two ended up joining us to their delight. This picture was taken of one of the children onlookers who believed he had the force. Jenni and I were playing super hero with him but he was always the winner. Next step was to meet up with Cliff and Lisa, and we lost Andrew, and we all headed to the mall for dinner. We were a bit early so we played The Great Dal Mutti outside McDonalds (you've got to have some card playing before the end of the world!). Our dinner didn't end up being that special but at 6pm luckily no one disappeared and the world is still alive. Thank goodness, we were worried.


Last day of Chinese class!! Our last day only had five students, but that wasn't too bad of a turn out...Later was the end of the year celebration with CTLC. It started off with an all you can eat dinner at an Italian restaurant. It was really good! And it was nice to see so many CTLCers all at once...though mostly we stuck with our main crowds. Next stop was a really nice hotel where we had rented out one of the rooms. Sadly the hotel was very stingy with us bringing in our own alcohol and their alcohol was extremely expensive. So we all left there and headed to Coco Park where a lot of the foreign bars and clubs are located. A CTLCer we don't talk to much ended up jumping into our taxi on the way over. He was a little drunk and serenaded us as well as talked to us about his druggie lifestyle. It was pretty entertaining. Our Coco park extravaganza was a bit dramatic. There were a lot of drunk people. The funniest (when looking back at it) part was that someone got stuck in the bathroom for about twenty minutes. It took us three employees, multiple possible solutions, and a lot of yelling through a door to get the drunk individual inside to finally figure out how to unlock the bathroom.


Melissa, one of the second year English teachers, invited me and a few of the other teachers over to her house for a Chinese dinner. We had bitter bamboo (which was ok...), green beans, breaded potatoes and meat. Overall it was a really good dinner. Later I met up with some friends because Genevieve had a whole bunch of friends visiting from America so we were showing them around Windows.


All year I've been talking about hosting a poker tournament and it finally happened! China doesn't really have poker chips so we used Uno cards instead. There were nine participants and Trevor got first place. Everyone had a good time and we're already planning more for next year.


The English departments took Fuat and I out for a goodbye lunch at our favorite buffet. The event started with our contact teacher and a representative from the principal's office giving speeches in our honor and then we each received a book of Chinese paper cuttings. It was a beautiful gift. Later that night Jenni and I got dinner with some people at Windows and then went on a hunt for the green lazer! Every night a green lazer travels across Nanshan and it has been a great mystery for me and some of the teachers at my school as to where it is coming from. Jenni and I took a bus towards it and then had a good half hour walk through unknown territory just trying to find it. We finally arrived at HANS LAZER (a lazer making company). Maybe a little anti-climatic but I was still proud we found it.


My school informed me that they were taking away my last week of teaching. The school had rearranged all the schedules because the students were all starting to take a swimming class for the summer so instead of giving me a whole new schedule for a week they just canceled my class. Most would be happy at this but I was really sad because it meant that I wasn't going to get to say goodbye to my classes. Since I was obviously distraught about all this the other English teachers all gave me 10-15 minutes with each of my Senior 1 classes so that I could get a chance to finish the semester. I handed out awards for all the students who got 150%, gave them some contact information and took a class picture with each group. This is one of my favorite classes, Class 3.


Two things about the bus: sleeping people and the amazing working women. Sleeping on the bus is an art. Especially the part where you need to make sure you wake up before your stop. As for the women, as I said, they are amazing. Some buses have electronic card swipes to collect fairs but all the others have a woman hired to 1. collect money from each person who gets on the bus 2. to announce each stop before it comes 3. to call out to the bus driver if someone wants to get off and 4. to make sure no one rides the bus for longer than they paid for. This would typically be not that hard of a job, but most Chinese buses are packed with at least 40 people so it gets difficult. Most of these ladies days are spent pushing their way through hoards of people trying to insure that they get all the money owed to the bus as possible.


Adventure weekend day two! Jenni and I decided we wanted to have a bbq so I found a park in Louhu that rented family sized bbq pits. Cliff, Andrew, Marie, Lisa, Jenni and I went out and made our own food. We did vegetables, corn, potatoes, hot dogs and marshmellows!! Afterward some of us headed back to Jenni's and watched Gnomeo and Juliet (not the greatest). But we had fun anyway.

Never challenge a seven year old Chinese girl at a piano playing contest

The first adventure of the weekend was bowling in Bao'An. We almost got trapped in an elevator on the way there. The alley is on the 6th floor and there is an elevator that just goes from the 1st floor up to the 6th. Well it didn't want to work for us and therefore shut us in until Andrew pried open the doors. We decided not to get back in it and went and found stairs through the worker's entrance instead.


Thursday I met up with Jenni, Gen, and Dominique (Gen's sister who was visiting) for dinner. Jenni and I were doing our best to think of something fun to do for the weekend so we decided to stop by Walmart after dinner for inspiration/shopping needs. We ended up spending about an hour in there playing with anything/everything we could find. It was great! Plus we found a frisbee and water balloons for our weekend adventures.


After Chinese class we all were meeting up at Windows for dinner. Andrew, Stella and I were early so I sat and tried my best to get a picture of split pants. Worrying about the fact I might be seen as a creeper or child porn creator I stopped after this picture hoping it captures the greatness/ridiculousness of split pants. And if you're wondering, yes, it is completely acceptable for children to go to the bathroom right on the street.


When someone gets married it is customary to give your coworkers and friends little packets of candy. These were two that I got from a guy who sits across from me.


Turner, the head teacher, has been offering me Chinese medicine lately. This particular batch is to help the complexion. You put some in tea and then just drink the tea. It's actually pretty good. There is another type he uses which is a packet of what looks like bbq sauce...I haven't gotten up the courage to try that yet.


Seven (a newer teacher and friend at my school) invited me to play tennis for the afternoon at our school's court. Goodness I suck at tennis. Luckily I only lost two balls over the fence into the garden (we found both later). My hand was sore for a number of days after that from gripping the racket. So sad.


The scavenger hunt actually happened!!! Proof that if you set your mind to it you can accomplish anything. Jess and I spent the early afternoon stopping at different metro stations and hiding lists. Then we met our three signed up teams in Dongmen. This was team Tiger Blood. The first mission of the group was to find/take pictures of 9 of 10 items are the area. Once finished they came back to us and got a clue for a metro stop to go find the hidden list. They were given two hours to find as many of the items as possible and then had to meet us at Windows of the World. There Jess and I sat and calculated the scores while everyone had dinner. Tiger Blood won!!
Some fun things the groups had to do:
Get a video of a group member dancing on the metro
Get a phone number from a new Chinese friend
Take a picture of split pants
Take a video of the group playing tag in a populous area


Friday we all went out for pizza and Greg ran into problems. He lost a contact in the back of his eye. Others in our group are a bit squeamish about eyes so I volunteered to go on a search for the lost item. Sadly I couldn't find it. It wasn't until like an hour later that the contact popped back up and Greg was able to get it out. The idea that you can actually lose something in your eye just scares me and creeps me out. After dinner we went to the Ke Xue Beer Gardens and Jenni and I tried our best to play some games. A bunch of drama happened that night, including a group of people leaving without paying their bill. Luckily looking back on it now, it all seems silly.


Somehow my middle toes have gotten all out of whack. This one lost it's toenail and the other one got an infection. Well the toenail actually finally fell off so it hopefully will be in recovery from now on.


Jenni, Leah, Andrew and I headed to the Windows street food area for a nice Wednesday dinner. Jenni and I have been hanging out a lot more lately, and it's been great! She's a bunch of fun and hopefully we'll be able to keep up our friendship after China.