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The last few weeks in Jiujiang have shot by. The busy period of goodbyes and leaving-related jobs began at the end of May with an observed lesson each Nicole and I had to give for the other teachers in the lecture hall. We'd been given plenty of warning for this, and we could choose the grade and class we wanted to teach, so I wasn't too worried - until Winston rang me at 7pm the night before I was due to teach at 9am, to tell me that I couldn't teach the class I wanted because he'd just spoken to their teacher and it turned out they were on a field trip the next morning. TYPICAL. In the end, I borrowed one of Nicole's classes to teach, and they were perfect, so it all worked out okay...
Besides that observed lesson, all of my lessons for the last fortnight or so were a piece of cake. Nicole and I gave out question sheets and word-searches to our younger students, asking them to tell us a bit about themselves and give us some feedback about their favourite/least favourite lessons. Some of these were really funny to read back through and lots of the students left us some very sweet messages. My other lessons before leaving have been goodbye and games lessons: pictionary, Pin the Tail on the Cow (easier to draw and to translate than a donkey) and a game where students have to pick an increasingly small carboard box off the floor using only their teeth, and without hands or knees touching the floor. Surprisingly, seniors were much better at this than Juniors, and some of them unbelievably so. If I haven't already, I'll put up the video I have of one boy picking up a box barely 1cm tall from the floor - it's pretty impressive. I also took a Chinese flag to my last classes to be signed by anyone who wanted to, taken lots of class photos and given out my email address to anyone who asked. It was a bit like the beginning of the year again, what with signing my name for half of every class (the bolder students would ask me to write special messages like "I will miss you" "you are a good girl" or "[name] is very beautiful"). I was also given lots of gifts and letters, which was very flattering! Unfortunately I was having a hard enough time getting all my things into one bag as it was, but I've kept as many things as I could, including jewellery, chopsticks, a piece of calligraphy, a t-shirt signed by a whole class and a scrapbook made for me by one Senior class. The Senior class that gave me the scrapbook also arranged a party lesson for our last class. First, two girls and then a duo of boys took it in turn to sing karaoke for the class; then, I was asked to the front to sing Auld Lang Syne for everyone. Ummm. I ruined this somewhat by not knowing any of the words; instead, I had them all cross their arms and hold hands whilst I mouthed along uncertainly. Next were several rounds of musical chairs, the first of which I was invited to join and which I ended by losing a fight with one boy for a chair and crashing to the ground to the horror of the class (I was fine). At the end, I lurked about by the AC whilst students took it in turns to come and ask for photos with me.
Outside of school, we've had several other important goodbyes to say. First was our Chinese teacher, Jenny, then the little girl, Zheng Yi Yi, I've been tutoring since Christmas. I love this girl! Our tutoring sessions are always semi-ridiculous: I get distracted and end up teaching her stupid things like the 'big-fish-little-fish-cardboard-box' dance; we spend ages arguing over whether the man in the picture has grey or white hair; we bicker about whether or not she has to do the boring reading exercises in her book; I try to get her to teach me some Chinese words and she abuses my horrible pronunciation. One time we were both in hysterics and unable to speak for more than 5 minutes because of a cartoon in her textbook. Basically, I really enjoy teaching her! To say goodbye, her dad treated me, Nicole, Matt (who was still staying with us post-Jiangxi reunion) and Oliver (the English teacher who introduced us) to an incredibly fancy banquet. It was at the fanciest hotel in town, and it was amazing. We were in a private room with ceilings 20ft high, mahogany panelled walls, an enormous glass chandelier the size of a small pond and its own little ante-chamber with a French-style velvet sofa. To order food, we were all taken through to a special food gallery, where great placards displaying pictures of all the things we could order were arranged on tables around the tanks of animals to be eaten. (Zheng Yi Yi and I were pointing out the sizes of the different fish in the tanks and she remembered and did the actions for big-fish-little-fish-cardboard-box, which could well be the proudest moment of my life.) I didn't dare look at the prices. The whole dinner was brilliant - as usual, mostly things I don't know the names for and would take too long to describe, but there was everything from seafood to dumplings. There was a fish the size of a toddler on a huge plate a metre long, and a bowl of crayfish boiling alive in some sort of alcohol. I was offered the latter whilst they were still hopping and squirming about and politely declined...
Wednesday was our designated Last Day with the other foreign teachers in Jiujiang, who've really been our best friends in the city. Nicole spent the day shopping and boating with Kaitlin, Mark and Sam whilst I entertained several students at home, then everyone came to our house for duck pancakes. We ended the night by setting off a huge box of fireworks Kaitlin had brought on the roof. We were a little worried about all the fire-hazard-y trees surrounding the roof and the fact that we only had a couple of metres between the fireworks and where we were huddled by the door to the roof, but actually everything went perfectly to plan and the fireworks were really good! We actually saw Mark and Sam again for lunch that Friday before we left, but this was The Goodbye. Our next goodbye was to the school. This was another nice meal, this time with Winston, the vice principal in charge of foreign affairs and our mentor teachers, Mrs Liu and Mrs Chen. We were given pretty silk scarves as gifts and Winston insisted on alcohol for everyone. Nicole decline beer, expressed her preference for red wine and assured the table that she could finish alone the bottle she was given, which Winston absolutely loved. Last, but not least, we said goodbye to Julie, who was still helping us with odd jobs right up to the last minute. She brought us food for a last meal so we wouldn't have to cook on Friday afternoon, took a present to deliver to Zoe for us, gave us leaving gifts...
Despite all the time we'd had to prepare, somehow leaving came much more suddenly than I'd anticipated. I'd planned to take goodbye postcards to all of our acquaintances from this year, in school and out, find a home for all of the clothes and other bits and bobs we're leaving in Jiujiang and leave the house spotless but I'm afraid I didn't manage any of this. The house was still full of bags of rubbish and littered in the rubble of a year's hoarding and a day's frantic packing when I left, although I think Nicole, whose train left 6 hours after mine, might have managed to improve on the situation when I left*. But yes, I left: Winston picked me up from the house, I ran around shouting and snatching things to stuff into my backpack, everyone laughed at me jumping up and down on my suitcase so I could zip it up and... I left. Scary!
* Then again, she possibly has more important things on her mind as last I heard both her camera and train ticket had disappeared and couldn't be found. She last remembers giving Winston her ticket to show him the times, he says he definitely gave it back. I'm not taking sides, although I am secretly quite scared that it's going to turn up in my purse or something and it will all have been my fault.
PS. I know this is off-topic but the baby sat next to me whilst I write this on the train has been farting explosively for the last 10 minutes and it is unbelievably loud.'
- comments
Jim I love the account of the banquet. It's really vivid and show the side of China that is still very very foreign. It sounds very generous too. Your classes also sounds suitably grateful and the the fireworks sound like a right laugh.
Jo Dear Ella, you feel very close all of a sudden.... Can it be anything to do with your packing to come home sounding pretty similar to what happened the day you left!! Loved this post, because now you are off on holiday and then we will see you again, at last! Xxx