The End of an Era

So this is it, last blog before we leave China. It seems like it was just yesterday when I peed in a Chinese public urinal for the first time uncomfortable with the smell and quivering, wondering when the Triads were going to punk my ass and jack my cash in that small town somewhere between Shanghai and Shaoxing. Or, when I walked into our apartment for the first time, it was dark and silent, I was nervous and wondering, "will the emaciated-looking driver eagerly call up his buddies to have them come breakdown our aqua seaweed colored door and hogtie us, throw us in a rice sack, and drag us back to Shanghai to be sold into prostitution?" Now, as I sit here because I am trying to escape working as Mary packs up, I keep thinking of all the good times we've had with the better friends we've made, the travels we've enjoyed to many cities across China, the memories we'll share with our students, both good and bad, and the experiences of just trying to survive in this enigmatic place called China, I think that whatever is to be will be, but it can never be quite like this. C'est la vie. Zai jian.