Let the Holidays Begin!

July 25, 2011

Camp is finished and holidays have begun!

Today was a little bit of a hard day. I walked into class this morning and half of my children were crying. I guess Nelly had given them a letter and it made them sad to say goodbye. When they saw me and remembered another goodbye, they cried again! They presented me with a bunch of stuff. Chris and Bianca had made me a card which everyone had signed. It says that they love me. Sophie presented me with a present from the class which is a gold plate representation of the Five Pavilion Bridge from Slender West Lake Park. Nelly presented me with a framed class picture taken on the first day of school. She also wrote me a letter, and gave me a little snow globe and a crab necklace. At the closing ceremonies, Chris gave me a ring which is just my size. I am currently wearing it above my other ring. It is really pretty; it’s got a heart with a blue stone in it. They made me want to cry too.

The closing ceremonies were really long, but I guess good. All of the international teachers were given a certificate and a bunch of paper cut outs that are amazing. Our teachers were given a certificate and our top students were given a medal. Other than that, it was just long and painful.

Right after the ceremony, my children were all collected and taken home. We went for lunch at the cafeteria, but it was buffet style and alright. We picked up our pay after lunch and had a nap. It was nice to not have to get up at any time. Danielle came in about 3 and we headed into town for our massages. We caught a taxi into town (but had to direct him because we didn’t know how to tell him where it was) and had our Gloria Jean’s coffee for the day. Then we headed out to find the massage parlor John had talked about. We found a place which was 1500 Yuan and we knew that wasn’t the right place. We went back to Gloria Jeans and asked (they are like heaven, English and Starbucks drinks!) them. One of them was showing us back to the spa we had found, but we said our male friend had told us about this place, and he said the spa was only for women and we needed to go to this other place. Perfect! This place led us directly to a room for three people and brought a man who speaks English in. We told him that we wanted the 130 Yuan one which was body and feet. They brought us tea as well. We had three men come in to beat us to a pulp. They put our feet in hot rose water and then steamed our feet. During this time, they massaged our shoulders. After this, they massaged our feet. They spent over 20 minutes on each foot. It was amazing. They put these cups with fire in them on our feet (suctioned on). Mine didn’t hurt and Danielle said hers did – I think it was all the mold in my system! Next they beat on our backs. It felt amazing though. 130 Yuan is quite a bit but it felt worth every penny.

We went for a walk to find dinner and ended up at Lou Mein (which translates to noodles) for dinner. I wanted dumplings and they didn’t have them on the picture menu so I mimed it and I got it! They are so great there! After dinner we went to the supermarket. I guess shopping after 8 pm is the way to go; it was crazy packed. We bought some pots and stuff to cook with in the next couple of days (food also stopped today) and some food and other things we needed and came home. We were going to have a movie night but decided against it.

Tomorrow I am moving into Lee’s room. It was empty last year and he says it’s great. He will be gone before 8:30 am, so I am going to move out drawer by drawer. Anything that is moldy is being cleaned and left outside to dry. Thank goodness for heat! We are supposed to get our passports back tomorrow! Then we can leave on Wednesday for Shanghai where we are hoping to meet up with Sophie. Our planning on this end is not going very fast!

Love ya.