Hello everyone. Our last day in Hangzhou...and what a long and eventful day it was! Get comfortable, because this is going to be a long blog.
Today was a day of many lasts . I got up at my usual time to eat my last breakfast with Jiawen - delicious baozi, as usual. I seriously want to attempt to find them when I get home...they re pretty awesome. We were a bit more solemn at breakfast than usual, and Jiawen informed me that she d most likely cry at some point during the day. After breakfast, we wrestled my bags down to the car and loaded them in for my last trip to Hanggao. Once at school, we took my bags to the front building only to find that the bus that was supposed to be waiting for us was M.I.A. I had promised Sandy I would help her get her bags to the apartment, so I left my bags and headed to meet her. We ended up getting a good arm workout out of it because the key to the gate to the school near her apartment hadn t arrived yet. The two Westerners dragging bags down the middle of Silk Street got some pretty weird looks. Unfortunately the bus still hadn t arrived when we got there, but Wu Laoshi was nice enough to less us leave all of our stuff in her office until we could load it in.
Once our luggage was all squared away we went up to the English office to wait to go to our 10:30 farewell meeting. When we got there we realized that nobody d seen Lauren. Her host dad had dropped her bags off and they were with the other luggage but there was no sign of her. I went to her class to find her and she was there...taking a nap on her desk before class started. Apparently this is a regular occurrence. I wish I had her ability to sleep so easily and to to wake up so quickly. With everyone together we sat and chatted with Helen until our host siblings arrived and it was time to go. Everyone s host siblings had little presents for us, as did Liam. My favorite one was an adorable frame given to me by Yin - It looked like a cat. She knows I really like cats. After she gave it to me, she, Jiawen, and I took a picture together so I can fill it when I get home.
We again went to the meeting room where we d originally been welcomed and had met Madame Miao. This time the room was at its most full. We began by hearing a speech from the headmistress bidding us farewell and welcoming us back again (translated for us by Derek). Then, we each said a small piece about how we felt about our time in Hangzhou and what we loved about the experience. Afterwards, each of our host siblings spoke about what they d gained from living with us for two weeks. Each one was very heartwarming, but I was most moved (of course) by my own sisters. Jiawen cried, as promised, and Yin told me she loved me. At this point, it was all I could do not to keep from crying. After a couple more speeches by the administration we got into the bus to go to the restaurant in which we d be having our banquet lunch.
When we got to the restaurant Alaina, Lauren, and I all changed into our dresses and Sandy changed into her jacket. Alex had come prepared...he was already in his vest. We emerged to kind compliments and sat down to a complex and wonderful lunch. My favorites were some garlic mashed potatoes, baozi filled with meat and onions (of course), and congee made with rice and greens. About halfway through the meal we began our speeches. I was incredibly nervous - not only do I dislike speaking in front of large groups of people, but I was also worried I d utterly butcher my Chinese pronunciation. But we were met by laughter and applause at all of the right times, so I think we were pretty successful. I think Ning probably made the funniest comment...when Lauren asked her if she could understand the speech, Ning said Yes...now...may I please have a copy of the speech so that I can read it? . After our speeches we sat back down to dinner. Once we'd finished eating we proceeded to take what must have been hundreds of pictures...we all joked that it was like prom.
We changed again (ironically, it was raining and we didn t want to ruin the silk) and got back into the bus to go back to the school. We had some time to kill, so Alex hung out with Derek, while the girls and Liam went to grab some milk tea and talked about travel dreams of ours. Soon enough our time had run out and we made our way back through the rain to the school.
I ll be frank, the next half hour was pretty miserable. All of our host siblings met us at the first of building of the school. While everyone was attempting to avoid thinking about it, we all knew that final goodbyes were impending. Finally, Derek told us it was time to go and we all made our final goodbyes to all of our siblings. I promised to email both of my host sisters as soon as I got back to America, partook in many hugs, and waved goodbye through foggy bus windows.
We got to the train station a bit early, so we sat amid our many bags and talked with Liam, Derek, Tianle, and Charlie. They had all come to help us get onto the train. All too soon 17:44 rolled around and we made our way onto the train. It was a bit rushed and our goodbyes at the station were hurried, but that was probably for the better as the earlier farewells had been difficult.
The train was quite nice! Each room had four beds and a small table near the large window. We could barely hear the sound of the train as we sat on our beds. The four kids were in one room, while Sandy was next door. From 6 til about 10 (we went to bed early as we knew we had to get up early) we talked, did MadLibs, and ate the snacks we d brought with us. Then we said goodnight and went to bed. I stayed up for a little while to look at the Chinese landscape flying past the window, then fell asleep.
So that s all from me as far as blogs go... It s remarkable that we ll be heading back to the States soon. I ve had a wonderful and life-changing time here over the past eight weeks. Goodbye and see everyone soon!
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