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Well, the goodbye process has officially begun. A bit early, perhaps, but there's no doubt these next months will fly by. Martin and I realized we have only 2 more lessons with each class, maybe even less if our schedules get all jumbled up (as they so often do), so we've started telling our students when we're leaving. June 15th marks the end of our 'contract' with the school, but I doubt we'll actually teach up until that day. We just booked flights for an end of the year trip-- we fly to Kuala Lumpur late on the 15th, then train down to Singapore for a few days, fly over to Bali in Indonesia, back to KL and then back to Hong Kong on the 30th! We'll have just a few more days at our school to say any final goodbyes and pack up, as we then have to leave Mainland China by July 3rd, per our visa requirements.
A year ago, we were anxiously awaiting the months to come, completely unaware of what our lives would be like for the next year. We laugh now thinking about those days-- 'we'll be gone for 9 months!' as we somehow never calculated correctly-- we will have been gone 11 months and 3 days when we fly back on July 6th.
It will be impossible to explain our year to others when we return. It won't be that we don't try-- it's simply that living in China is something one has to experience to understand. There's something about being in a country where you are made completely illiterate. If we were in Europe, we could mostly get by. That's not to say living in Europe isn't hard (i think anytime one picks up and leaves their home country for another, it shows a true sign of bravery and adventure) but it's not hard in the same way that China is hard. Europe is still Westernized. Europe still uses the alphabet, and I guarantee you we could all understand the 'gist' of things in a European language. We probably wouldn't be laughed at, and we most certainly wouldn't stand out as a 'foreigner' other than perhaps our choice of clothing. There wouldn't be as many shocking cultural differences- things that made us mad in the beginning but to which we shrug and laugh now. There's something about a country where the people are FASCINATED by foreigners. Sometimes this irritates you, sometimes it works in your favor...but mostly, it means that we've had countless interactions with people who are simply curious and end up being incredibly friendly.
We would have never made it through these experiences without the lovely invention of video chat, regular packages & postcards from back home, and the support and love of 6 incredible friends that were strangers a mere 9 months ago and now will be part of our lives forever.
In these 11 months (9 months so far), a lifetime worth of experiences have occurred. I've become very absorbed in thinking about how we've changed, what we've learned, how we've grown, what we've missed and what life will be like when we come back. A year ago, I was deliberating what I would miss from the US. I had no idea that a year from then I would be sadly deliberating what I would miss from China. 'Surely', I thought, 'I will be glad to get back to the conveniences and ways of an American lifestyle.' I'm sure we will, in small ways. But this year in China has changed us both in ways we may never be able to articulate.
It's time to start making lists of those things we'll miss. 😊
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mama clare
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Lifelong Experience and memories made
Wise words DiL!!! I know it'll be hard to translate all you'ver experienced, but I will be eager to hear anything and try to "feel" some of your time there. I always knew it was longer than nine months but didn't want to sound whiney ha ha. After all I and so happy for the both of you to have made this journey together, to have grown closer together thru it all, to have made such likelong friends and to have had the opportunity to experience a culture so unlike our western ones. But can't wait to hug you both, xoxomamamc