6/20-home

June 20th continued:

After lunch I walked my kids to class because now that I'm pretty much done teaching them I want to spend as much time with them as possible. Once time for classes came around I played Jeopardy with my 4^th grade class and the two teams were Iron Man vs. Star Wars. Well, Bruce is super obsessed with Star Wars so when his team lost he bawled his eyes out. Luckily I had Mikelle's camera with me and got one of my favorite pictures from China.

During my break between classes I grabbed costumes out of the supply room and wanted to have a fun day taking pictures with my kids all dressed up. When I got back to my 4^th grade class to teach I discovered that we were watching an hour long video about China in space instead. Bayli came in to have the kids she used to take for a couple classes each week (before Geoff went home) make cards for a scrapbook she's putting together. While some of the kids watched the video she had some in the back with her doing that while I went around the class taking pictures of them for their student profile papers I was supposed to have done by Friday and having them help me fill out their info. 5^th grade kinda ended up being the same thing. The Chinese teacher just said there was no ILP for some reason but we stayed anyway and did the same thing as the class before with cards and pictures and student profile forms.

That evening I ran to the JiaJiaYue with Luke to get more banana popsicles for me and candy for the party I had promised my kids the next day. I managed to get back in time to tuck my kids in since I had been planning on doing so all week but had missed going for one reason or another. It was shower night so they were running around mostly naked (sometimes all the way naked) and one of my boys took a picture of us with Mikelle's camera that I still had with me and Tyler decided it would be funny to pull the front of his underwear down for the picture. Pretty sure that picture is illegal to print in the states.

I stayed up super late that night trying to get everything ready for the next day since it was the last day in class with the kids and I'd promised parties and Bayli and I were going to do the photo shoot idea for 5^th grade and student profiles were due and needing to finally get a QQ account.... but it was totally worth losing sleep.

Friday 6/21:

Even though I'd stayed up late the night before trying to get everything prepped I still had things to do so I got up early to prep some more. On my way to breakfast I ran into Hannah and Maddie (or Mannah and Haddie as I accidentally repeated to someone else later) who said breakfast was gross so I turned around and went right back up the stairs.

I got one set of photos printed off before class which still took forever because the computer in the printing room was being suuuuper slow but at least it finally worked. In 4^th grade I put in Star Wars and had all my kids make me cards like Bayli had done the day before. The card has their picture on it and most of them wrote their English name, Chinese name, QQ number, and sometimes a note or picture on it too. Right before I left America I went out to dinner with Stephannie, Brianna, and Haley and got a big Pixie Stick that Brianna bought from some Mexican kid so he'd stay out of a gang. Well, I brought it to China with me and shared some with all of my 4^th graders.

In 5^th grade we did the dress up photo shoot idea with Bayli which ended up being really fun. There was still some time left so Bayli showed the kids a couple Michael Jackson music videos that her mom was a dancer in and then a couple High School Musical videos that Bayli danced in when she was twelve. I glued my 5^th graders pictures in this notebook I've been carrying around and writing in the past few months and had them write the same stuff down the 4^th graders did on their cards. When I'd bought candy at the JiaJiaYue Luke suggested this spray candy which ended up being a really good idea because I could just walk around and spray the candy in all the kids' mouths. I made sure to get grape flavor so I wasn't tempted to eat it :)

I was supposed to teach for Melanie's last class but it ended up being cancelled because Luke had subbed the hour before but he taught in the wrong classroom so the class I was supposed to teach already had their ILP lesson and the class he was supposed to be in now had a Chinese teacher.

Instead of teaching I went back to the printing room and printed off more photos to glue on the student profiles which ended up taking up most of the hour. At lunch I ate really fast and then hung out with my kids, giving them more candy, and then walked them down to class again.

On my way back I ran into Sam who said it was time for English Corner and he wanted to teach swing dance. English Corner is the equivalent to a fun after school program for the high school kids who want to come. I had never been and had been wanting to swing dance for a few weeks so I joined them. It was fun but none of them really wanted to dance with each other so there's really only so much you can teach. Apparently there really aren't any partner dances in China.

After English Corner Jay and I cleaned the supply room for the end of the year. It looks immaculate in there. I wish I had a picture of the trash dump it was when we showed up. It's been transformed. Once we were done I headed back down to the printing room again and printed off the 100+ pages of journal I've written while in China so that I could have a hard copy to take home. I was beyond sweaty at that point (it's not so much the heat here but the intense humidity) so a shower was a top priority. Jay and Mikelle went downtown to get their nails done and I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my student profiles. Since I had about 55 profiles to fill out it was taking a really really long time.

After dinner everyone was pretty much gone in town so I hung out with Luke while he packed and Sam was working on carving the Chinese character for double happiness out of a soapstone block. When Jay and Mikelle got back we finished the night off by watching Raiders of the Lost Ark. I remember loving it as a kid but it's amazing how different things are years later. It was still good though and I'll forever be an Indiana Jones supporter. It did make me hate the new one a little bit less because now I realize they're all a little bit cheesy.

Saturday 6/22:

Saturday I got stuck home alone all morning. Half the group was on a home visit, Mikelle was out with Candice (the calligraphy teacher) and Sam was at some jade shop. I ended up spending the entire morning packing and even found 100 yuan I had forgotten about in a folder I used to stash money. I filled up my laundry bag with shoes and clothes to throw away. I'm glad I brought trashy clothes and shoes to China because most of them are now in the trash. Between wearing them multiple times and the horrible washer and the mold and sweat... it was time to let them go.

I walked downstairs to eat lunch but made it through two bites before I decided I just couldn't make myself eat cafeteria food anymore. I borrowed the key to the kitchen (which the head teachers had randomly locked again) to make the last of the potatoes I'd bought earlier in the week. While it was unlocked I sorted out a bunch of stuff I was leaving which helped with packing and making my room a little cleaner.

Sam came in and jokingly asked if I would help him pack. I'd already packed for Melanie and Mikelle and had had two other people ask me to help them since I like packing so much. After I showered I went in to “help Sam pack” and sat in his room working on student profiles while he packed until they were finally done. It was nice to have each other to keep company while we were working, especially because I was so tired I would have just fallen asleep if I'd gone back in my room.

Right after I finished Mikelle got back and I took a nap for a couple hours while she watched TV and then we headed down to the JiaJiaYue for dinner. I got one of the burrito/wraps and then stopped at the JJY to buy some Chinese food to bring home with the extra money I'd found that morning. I still had money left over so I got blue streaks dyed in my hair again and Mikelle got her hair cut again. Marley and Mark were happy to see us again and Marley (the hair guys) was talking to another guy there about how we were friends and kissed my hand to prove his point. I really like Marley so I got a good laugh out of it.

When we got back home Mikelle and I played Monopoly Deal until we were too tired to focus and stopped with me being up by two games. I'm finally winning!!

Sunday 6/23:

Sunday morning I woke up still feeling a little sick to my stomach like I had the night before so instead of going down to the gate to stand there for the new parents coming to school to look at I stayed in bed and played on my computer all morning with Mikelle. I took a quick shower before church and was having a hard time understanding what the speakers were saying so I moved to sit right next to the phone. Even then I wasn't getting enough to pay attention so I walked out of church again and watched the talk “Come, All Ye Sons of God” by President Monson from the priesthood session of conference instead. It ended about the same time as church and afterward Kelly was taking us to Hot Pot (where we'd eaten our first night in China) and then going to an orphanage. I didn't feel like eating but I wanted to go to the orphanage so I met the group at the bottom of the stairs to go. I still ended up eating food at Hot Pot even though I felt sick and don't really care much for that food but when there's food in front of me, I eat it. The best thing there ended up being peanuts in which I found a larvae at the bottom of my bowl. Yummy China..

We all took a charter bus to the orphanage and I was super stoked to go since I'd had such a good experience with the one we went to in Mexico. It ended up being a place for mostly handicap kids.. kinda a physical therapy center. A really really nice therapy center. It broke my heart to see all those little kids in there and I just about lost it and walked out. Not all the kids were like that though and they took us in a classroom with a bunch of kids ranging from ages 10-18 or so. Kelly put us in the front and told us we had 20 minutes to teach them. None of us had any idea this was happening so we awkwardly tried to sing a couple songs with them along with performing a few on the spot. I hated that I was a rich white girl who thinks they had nothing better to do that watch oh-so-awesome-me perform. We were at an orphanage for heaven sakes. It was horribly awkward and uncomfortable. Kelly asked us why we didn't have anything prepared and if we just expected to show up and say hi. That's exactly what I expected was to just show up and hang out with cute little kids. After that we went out on a field and played games like Duck, Duck, Goose and human knot with them which went much better. I'm pretty sure Kelly was kinda miffed at us for not having anything prepared for them (even though she never told us to) but hey, lack of communication in China.. it happens every day.

Back home we discovered that people had started moving the stash of food out of their rooms into the community cupboard in the kitchen so I got to eat refried beans and a Rick Krispy Treat for dinner. Super wonderful to have good food again. Mikelle and I played Monopoly Deal all night and I ended up six games.

Monday 6/24:

I'd been feeling pretty sick to my stomach since Saturday night and around midnight Monday morning my body got rid of whatever it was in my stomach that wasn't happy. I was so proud that I'd spent 4 month in China eating whatever I wanted without getting sick off of it and was a little sad to have that record broken. I was supposed to help out at a carnival all morning but I stayed in bed and slept all morning instead. Mikelle came back at 10 and woke me up to vent to me about how crazy it was down there. I still felt crappy so I stayed in my room and spent the rest of the time until lunch packing some more. I didn't think I had much stuff here but I've managed to accumulate quite the amount of crap in 4 months.

I walked down stairs to have my kids sign my notebook during lunch and spent the entire time doing that since I wasn't interested in eating. When they left to go nap I worked on packing some more until Mikelle got back from buying jewelry with Kelly. We went to the picture frame statue (finally!!) that I've been wanting to see since the first day I got here. I would love a picture of me actually up in the picture frame but I'd need a ladder or a few more people to lift me up into it. Plus, there was a guard there so I didn't know what the rules were. It's a gorgeous statue. It's two 20 foot tall hands holding a picture frame that you look through out into the ocean. Beautiful. It was kinda weird that my trip was a chiasm in a lot of ways. The first thing I saw in Weihai was the picture frame and that ended up being the last thing I saw. The first place I went out to eat with the group was the Hot Pot and that's the last place we ate together. Just little things like that.. After the picture frame Mikelle bought a Blizzard and I got noodles for the last time. After pretty much an empty stomach for almost 3 days they were even more delicious than usual. I will MISS that place.

On the bus on the way home I turned around to discover that Joel was on the bus with us again!! Mikelle had her camera this time but the batter had just died minutes earlier so we still didn't get a picture. He was with a friend and we were looking at each other and they were talking about us and we were talking about him. When a seat cleared near them he motioned for us to come sit with him so Mikelle took the empty seat and Joel gave me his. He doesn't speak much English and I don't speak much Chinese so the only talking we did was through a translator on his phone but it was still fun. I wanted his QQ number so I could get a picture of him later but I didn't have a pen to write it down. I almost always bring my notebook and a pen with me but hadn't because we were just heading down quickly this one last time. He ended up writing his QQ number on the back of Mikelle's DQ receipt with an eyeliner pencil that he pulled out of his man purse. Chinese men are very feminine here so it's going to be weird to get back home with guys that don't always look gay. He got off the stop before us and said that we would meet again and I was really sad to tell him that we were leaving for America in the morning so that just wasn't going to happen. It's probably a good thing though since we don't speak the same language and he has long pinky fingernails that only drug addicts have here. I made sure to stop at the school on the way back and say goodbye to May since I might not get the chance in the morning since she lives off campus. I had given her the stuffed dog Brianna bought for me to bring here so she told me how she now sleeps with her arms wrapped around BuMS at night.

Mikelle and I went back to packing the last of our things when we got back with Sam occasionally dropping in. He told me that lighters make a popping noise when you throw them at the ground when they're empty. He scared me pretty well when the one he had exploded at my feet in the cleaning room which echoed ridiculously loud. After a while Sam wanted to go to the JiaJiaYue one last time and grab some noodles but I wanted to tuck my kids in and wouldn't have been able to get back in time so I just walked him down to the gate. Mikelle and I tucked our kids in which ended up being pretty worthless so I might as well have just gone with Sam. I still had milk in my room that I wasn't going to drink that my kids had given me before so I took them with me and gave them to some of my other students. My kids ended up giving me more milk so I kept one that was a flavor I liked and gave the rest away to other students.

When they went to bed I finished packing and then wanted to walk down to the beach with Sam. He said he was going to grab a couple things but 15 minutes he still hadn't come back so I went down to his room to see where he was and discovered him draped over Luke's bed completely asleep. I told him we didn't have to go to the beach and that he should just go to bed instead. Mikelle and I carried out suitcases to the bottom of the stairs in the building so we wouldn't have to do it in the morning and then I showered one last time China style before we spent the rest of the night playing Monopoly Deal until I was up by 9 games.

Tuesday 6/25:

Tuesday was the longest day of my life-- 39 hours. Mikelle and I got up at 4:20 am to watch the sunrise and I tried to wake Sam up for it too but he was smart and just went back to sleep. The entire sky was actually clear for once except where the sun rises so it ended up being another crackless dawn in China. We went back to sleep and woke up at 6:26 to this stupid generator outside they use for construction that they've been turning on at the exact same time for the past several days and is unbelievably loud.

We grabbed the last of our things and walked out of my room for the last time and said goodbye to 5F that we'd devoted 4 months of our time to. We ate our last breakfast of scones with onions in them at the cafeteria with our kids and then headed down to their classrooms for a final farewell. My 5^th graders merely waved goodbye but my 4^th graders swarmed me in a heat wave of bodies hugging me one last time. It got really hot and seemed more dramatic than sincere so I was ready to be gone. We took a bus to the airport along the same route we'd driven in 4 months prior and I spent a majority of the drive staring out the window sorting through memories in China. By the end of the ride Sam and I ended up having a conversation with Kelly about different ages to marry and have kids. I'm going to miss those moments of Americans trying to figure out China and vice versa.

Waiting at the gate in Weihai Mikelle and I played our last game of Monopoly Deal before we got on our flight to Seoul. Once in Seoul we had a 4 hour layover and started it off with making free traditional Korean masks by putting this foam clay stuff on textured masks. After that we treated ourselves to an American meal and I'm not sure a club sandwich has ever tasted that good. Mikelle and I headed off to find the free showers after and it was nice to be clean to start off another 17 or so hours or flights and layovers. The group split at that point, most going to San Francisco and four of us going to LA. It seemed kinda pointless saying goodbye because there are the people I've accepted existed in my life for only 4 months and I'd already moved on, the people I'm planning on seeing again, and the ones who I'll never really say goodbye to because I simply can't. We started boarding after that and I discovered that I ended up with Mikelle's camera and she had my mask but no worries-- she'll be down in the Valley in a couple weeks so we can switch back then.

The flight home was 11 hours vs. the 13.5 we had going to China which was nice but still plenty long. It's a good thing that I absolutely love flying with Asiana Airlines. They feed you and give you drinks all the time along with good movies and music and they even provide slippers for the flight! I ended up reading and writing for a majority of the flight and then finally gave in to trying to watch The Great and Powerful Oz but quickly quit because it looked pretty lame. At one point the Asian guy next to me asked if I had a pen he could borrow and it scared me when he spoke English and I never talked to him the rest of the flight because I felt so awkward having an American-Asian next to me.. I did stand up and talk with Jay, Crista, and Rachelle for a while but we eventually went back to our seats with music and other distractions. Asiana gave us these chicken burritos for a midnight (it was midnight somewhere in the world, right?) snack that were from Korea but said “taste of Mexican” on them. They actually weren't too bad but I got a good laugh out of the packaging. I ended up watching Warm Bodies at the end of the flight just for something to do since they'd woken me up from my 5-minute nap for breakfast.

Once we finally got off the plane we had to go through customs and then Jay and I headed down to the United terminal. I'm really not a huge fan of LAX and I wasn't excited to be there again. It turned out that Jay's flight was actually booked through Air Canada on a United flight so we had to say our goodbyes at that point with the promise that we'll go to the Badlands in Canada together next year. Rachelle, Crista, and I had a 4 hour layover in LA which turned into 5 when the flight was delayed and then had potential engine problems but we finally got to leave and made it home a short 1.5 hours later.

Walking out of the plane down the ramp is always my favorite part of getting home in the summer because you're instantly enveloped in dry Arizona heat and there's just nothing else quite like that feeling that makes me know I'm home. I met my mom at the curb and headed off for Cafe Rio and my first bite of flavored rice in 4 months.

The End