AHHHH!!!! Today was the last official day of class. In the morning, we went to Dan’s friend’s apartment for debriefing and reflection. We just reflected on the goals we made at the beginning of the course, and what we’ve learned from the course. It was a good session, and it was a lot of fun. Then, we had the rest of the day to do pretty much whatever we wanted. Geneva, Joana, and I had to go to register for our language class for next month, but after that we came back to the hotel to hang out with everyone before they left. Nikki and Tim already left; they both had flights to catch today. Joanna, me, and the moms are flying to Beijing tomorrow morning for the weekend, so we have to say our last goodbyes to everyone tonight. Everyone else is leaving tomorrow or Sunday. It’s kind of sad seeing everyone go…I think partly because I want to go home too, and partly because I will miss them. I definitely won’t be as sad to see them go as I was to see my MMK team go though. I do hope to stay in touch with them though…I do like them and think they’re fun to hang out with. Anyways, we just sat around and talked and signed each other’s notebooks (we all bought notebooks and had everyone write something in them…like a yearbook).
Then, me and Joanna went out to dinner with the moms. We went to the Bund again, but this time Uncle Wu took us to a place next to the river so we could actually see the view. It was BEAUTIFUL (you can see the picture). We ate at an Italian restaurant on the riverfront so we could admire the view. It was a good time. After that we went to see the Pearl Tower up close (not inside though, cuz it was already closed) and took some pictures there for like 5 minutes. Then, we’re all EXHAUSTED, so we decided to come back to the hotel. We all need to pack for our Beijing trip and me and Joanna also have to say our last goodbyes to all the students. Lots to do!
Uncle Wu drove our moms around everywhere today (while we were doing our debriefing/registration) and also at night to the Bund and stuff. He’s so nice! I can’t even speak with him, but I really like him and I feel like he’s family. It’s kind of stupid, though, considering I’ve only met him twice. But he’s so overly generous and I love talking to him because he teaches me Chinese. And he has really clear pronunciation, so it’s really easy to understand and repeat him. And today, my mom told him that me and Joanna like to eat oranges, so he went out and bought us a HUGE bag of oranges. And not just any oranges, but these special super sweet expensive kind. And then, after driving us around the city for like the whole entire day, he didn’t even want us to pay him. We did, of course, insist on it and eventually my mom won because she’s awesome at being Chinese, but he wasn’t even going to take our money! And then, me and Joanna were talking about how our classroom next month is pretty far away from campus and will take probably around 30 minutes to walk there, and he offered to drive us every morning. And I was like UHHH no way, class starts at 8am everyday and that’s just ridiculous. He’s so caring! It’s so strange to me to find a person like him in China, especially a taxi driver. Usually the taxi drivers we talk to are so mean and bitter so they hate talking to you and if you try to talk to them, they just answer with one word. I think G really blessed us with him this trip. When my mom leaves though, I’m scared I won’t see him anymore because I won’t be able to talk to him at all -__- he speaks only a little English, and I don’t speak any Chinese, so I don’t know how easy it will be to call him and ask him for rides.
I think the weird thing is that I feel so comfortable around these people whose language I can’t even speak. Like with the Chinese students, I am super comfortable, and with Uncle Wu, I’m super comfortable too. I don’t get it. Why am I not as comfortable around the study abroad students and Dan? I mean, I can talk to them, but I don’t act like myself around them. I don’t know…interacting with all these pleasant and friendly Chinese people makes me really happy and makes me consider maybe, JUST MAYBE, moving to China to work. I don’t think I will…but it’s definitely a possibility now that I’ve been here. It’s not so bad here…and living here would definitely help me become fluent in Chinese. I don’t know though. There’s still a lot of stuff in America that I could never leave behind..my family being the main one. That’s just something I’ve been considering though . And I don’t know whether it’s just my own possible desire or G placing it on my heart because that’s his will for me. I’m not sure where it’s going…but I think it’s a definite possibility. Maybe not even in China, maybe I’ll live abroad somewhere else..like Japan or something. I dunno. Just something I’m thinking about.
Anyways, tomorrow at 8:30am we catch a plane to Beijing and as soon as we get there, we’ll go to see the Bird’s Nest and the Great Wall. I’m excited!! I’m really excited to see the Great Wall since I’ve never seen it before except on TV.
On Monday we start the language program, which I’m also really excited about. I just hope that it will be beneficial to my Chinese though. The thing is that I’ll be taking the course with a lot of other international students, so it will be a lot easier for me just to speak to them in English and I won’t be practicing my Chinese. That’s the one thing I’m afraid of. Dan said that kids who took courses with international students tend to learn more about the languages of the international students than they do about the course language. And I saw some of the course list, and there are people from Japan and Turkey and other places in my class, so I hope that I’ll keep my focus on learning Chinese. I’m excited though! I have a lot of Chinese students who promised they will practice with me, and also Laurie and Evonne (Joanna’s friend) said they’d practice with me too. And there’s also Uncle Wu! :)
Anyways, I need to pack and say my last goodbyes so…time to go!
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