Roundup

I have had a busy few weeks as my tenure here in China comes to an end.  I thought I would do a quick roundup for everyone, although I will soon be able to tell these stories in person.

Over the past two weeks, I've had several goodbye dinners with my expat friends.  We revisited our favorite places in Baoding, spent every waking hour in our favorite coffee shop, and spent one last evening at KTV singing "My Heart Will Go On" and every Taylor Swift song. 

Spending the afternoon at QLH coffee shop.

Our favorite dumpling restaurant.  The owner is our friend, Chinese teacher and "aunt."

I'm going to miss the girls who work at QLH.

KTV!

I should mention we used this opportunity to wear our favorite Chinese fashions...

One of the teachers, Sandy or Miss Liu, at school asked me to spend the weekend at her hometown.  I was a little nervous because she doesn't speak English as well as some of the other teachers, and honestly I didn't know what to expect from a visit to a small Chinese town.  Sandy lives in a small town that is part of Baoding county.  Her repeated warnings about the size of her town had me picturing Iola but less developed, but actually her hometown made Iola look like a tiny tiny hamlet.  People in China simply cannot comprehend someplace with so few people.  Probably in the same way that people from Iola might have difficulty imagining a city of 11 million people.   Sandy's family was very kind and welcoming even though they didn't speak any English.  Her mother would not stop feeding me all weekend long.  Even when I repeated "Chi Bao Le" (I'm full) over and over, Sandy and her mother kept giving me more dumplings and potatoes and fruit.  

Sandy's mom found out I like dumplings, so she made dumplings for me and then offered to make some for me to bring home to my family.  I thanked her profusely but had to decline.

 Sandy's 12-year-old sister followed us like a shadow all weekend long, and although she studies English in school, she wouldn't talk to me. 

We spent most of the time just walking or biking around her hometown and eating.  Sandy, her sister and I went to a weird 5-D movie where the seats moved and water and air was squirted in our faces.  We spent a morning at a museum near her hometown built around the tunnels that the Chinese used to fight against the Japanese during WWII or as some people call it, the Anti-Japanese War.  Many Chinese people are actually still very angry about the war, and very prejudiced against Japanese people.  Recent events between the two countries haven't helped matters.  While I found the tunnels themselves interesting, the amount of anti-Japanese and other nationalist propaganda was a little disturbing. 

On Tuesday this week, I made an impromptu trip to Beijing to visit my Carleton friend Marios before leaving China.  As always, he found a great restaurant and we spent a few hours talking about China, Carleton friends and everything in between.  I spent the rest of the week in Hua Shan, but I'll write a separate post about that tomorrow so I can do it justice.  Now I just have a few days left in Baoding to pack and say goodbye to all my favorite places and people before starting my epic journey home.  In case anyone's interested, my total travel time adds up to (Train to Beijing West 1 hour+ Subway to Beijing South 1 hour+ Train to Shanghai 5 hours + Flight to Toronto 14 hours + Flight to Chicago 2 hours +  Drive to Iola 4 hours) 27 hours not including layovers.