Zaijian Zhong Guo (Last post of 2009)

Friday March 20th

Oh my goodness - wow the past five days have been a roller coaster of emotion from pure joy to utter depression. Hangzhou High School is such a wonderful place and Hangzhou is such a beautiful city- leaving is so bitter sweet returning to the comforts of home..but leaving our new friends and this incredible country of China

Wednesday was our final day at Hangzhou High School. I had a bit of a rough start..I had all of these bags that I had to bring to school - gifts, movies that Derek had loaned me, my dress and shoes for the banquet I was running late and ran out of the apartment. As the door closed, I realized that I had left my keys on the table - .locked out and no key to unlock my bike. I starteded walking. To my surprise, William pulled up and offered me a ride!! We pulled into the school -he let me out by the English Office building...miraculously --Rose was standing right there. I told her that I had locked myself out, she told me not to worry and that Wang Huo could help me during first period (Rose had to teach).

William, Rose, Wang Huo and Bruce to the rescue a spare set of keys!! I ran home to get my keys and a few other things that I left behind.... Mark, Li, and Alex headed to the gym for Kung Fu. When I returned I headed towards the gymnasium - walking slowly through the impressive campus of Hangzhou High School. When I walked up the stairs..Bruce and Alex were battling it out on the badminton court Li and Mark were practicing Kung Fu poses and taking photos with Liu laoshi. At the end of class, we took some final group photos and headed to lunch.

After lunch, we had our last cooking class (so sad) with the chef, Wang loashi. This man is awesome! Every day he prepares these amazing lunches for us..and then comes in and checks in on us, He had decided to teach us how to make dumplings! So fun. After cooking, we returned to the English office to practice our speeches.

Helen came rushing up the stairs urging us to get ready for the farewell ceremony. Iit was 3:20 and the ceremony was starting at 3:30 - we had to put our traditional Chinese silk outfits on! We scrambled in different directions and somehow made it to the administraation building on time. We were joined by Madame Miao -- who had just returned from the Second Session of the 11th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China in Beijing. She went as a representative of the education department of Zhejiang province as well as the other administrators and a few of the English teachers. Madame Miao spoke about how impressed with this year's delegation (us!) and the importance of the relationship between Hanggao and DS. Then I expressed our gratitude for our wonderful stay in Hangzhou. Madame Miao presented us with some gifts and then we were off to the banquet.. It was so nice everyone who has been involved with our stay, host parents and siblings, our teachers, English teachers, administrators.all in the same room. Madame Miao and I walked around the room and toasted with everyone at each table Each of us had to give a speech in Chinese! I went first, followed by Li, then Mark, then Alex. A delicious meal was enjoyed - 1,000s of pictures were taken and then it was time to go home... so sad.

Thursday morning Bruce and Ms. Zhu came to my apartment to help me carry all of my things to school. Luckily, Ms. Zhu had a key to the back gate..so we were able to sneak through.

Packing the bus was quite a difficult task-- we have all accumulated so much stuff it is ridiculous between shopping and all of the giifts that we have received we are going to be quite a sight at the Shanghai airport on Saturday morning..

After a send off by the administration, some of our teachers, several English teachers, some students and their families -- full of hugs, some tears, expressions of gratitude and gift exchanges, we were off --heading to Shanghai with Mr. Chen behind the wheel --Derek and Bruce as co-pilots. Bruce is coming to Shanghai with us!! I cannot say it enough. Bruce is so wonderful. He has become such a good friend to us all It took us close to two hours to get into the city..battling the insane Shanghai traffic..

Bruce and I spent the afternoon exploring the city. Mmap in tow we walked to the old section of Shanghai or the Yuyuan section, which includes an antique shopping street full of shops selling silks, Chinese paintings, tea, Mao paraphernalia, abacuses, calligraphy sets. I bargained for some earrings..yet again - this section of Shanghai also includes a traditional Chinese snack area with some very interesting options, the beautiful Yu Garden, and the Old City God Temple. We headed towards the bay -- and walked down the beautiful Bund, the street that lies along one side of the Huangpo River -- it is lined with dozens of historic buildings-- built over time in various forms of architecture and by different countries including Britain, the Netherlands, and Portugal. We walked along the promenade admiring the modern skyline of the Shanghai financial district on the other side of the river which is dominated by the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Shanghai World Financial Center and the Jin Mao building (two of China's tallest buildings) We walked back to the hotel to pick up Alex, Li and Mark then ventured on to the subway-- over towards the area of People's Square to attend a Shanghai Acrobatic show..amazing! Several different acts including juggling, plate spinning, Chinese yo-yo, balancing wine glasses, knife throwing and very impressive acrobatics back on the subway back to the hotel

This morning we slept in pretty late, then walked to a fantastic bakery called 85 C to get breakfast and milk tea! We hung around the hotel for awhile. Alex's former host brother Frank stopped by. He goes to college in Shanghai. Then, Bruce, Li, Mark and I decided to go exploring. We took the subway to the other side of the river..and walked around the financial center... we took a bunch of photos of the Oriental Pearl Tower... we then decided to go to the old section of Shanghai. We did a little bit of shopping..and then walked to the snack section. We went to this place called the Snack Kingdom for dinner. We enjoyed some noodles and dumplings for the last time here in China. We then walked back to the hotel stopping at 85 C for some coffee. Tomorrow we will leave the hotel at 9am to catch our flight at 12:45 to San Francisco, we will have a four hour delay and then a six hour flight to Boston... it is going to be very hard to adjust to waking up when I am used to going to bed and vice versa

Wow, we are leaving China tomorrow...it feels like we just got here..but at the same time as if we have been here forever The four of us have met so many wonderful people! We have been to so many different places. We have seen and done so many amazing things. Thank you to everyone involved with the exchange and for reading our blog!