coming home

well the year in china is over. school ended on the 15th, and the last week was pretty much fun and parties with my classes. my last class was fittingly emotional, the best goodbye party I could ask for. they all wrote me cards, sang me a song, and showed me their slideshow of their own goodbye since they're 6th graders splitting up next year. sad for them since in china these kids stay with the same class the entire 6 years. got a bunch of junky trinkets from a lot of kids in all my classes, but they came with good intentions, so I'll keep them for a year and then figure out what to do with them when I really leave china next year. yeah I'm pretty much coming back here next year. different school though. since that, it was a bunch of goodbye get togethers with people as they left for home.

last week I went off on the last vacation of the year with one of my friends and their friend from home. we went to some villages in jiangxi province, then to Huangshan (yellow mountain, one of the most famous in china), and then to Hangzhou (with the famous West Lake), and then I split off from them to go to Shanghai early since I had to be back in shenzhen earlier. It was a really good trip, a great range of different environments in china. and I really had to use my chinese, which I am proud to say has greatly improved. it better be better after a year I guess. I'm still not past basic conversations, but I can get my point across when I need to.

got back to shenzhen late thursday night, and have been working on packing and cleaning up my apartment, in between running last minute errands and seeing more people for the last time. last dinner of the year tonight was with one of my favorite students, good homecooked chinese food. well, the packing's almost done, and I've got a ton of stuff, most of which I can leave here, packed up in my apartment. I'll have to move it when I get back in august, before the new teacher comes. I've got to fly out of guangzhou tomorrow, saturday the 30th, about and hour and some's drive away, and my school is luckily going to take me. it would really have sucked to have to take bus to train station, train to guangzhou and then to the airport with all my stuff. It's been a good year, lots of ups and downs, but I'm happy I got to do it.

thunderstorms

Ah, South China and it's springtime thunderstorms. Well, I guess they're summertime thunderstorms. Thunderstorms pretty much every day, pouring down rain, with so much lightning, and the most amazing thunder I've ever heard. Being from California and all. But really, I really like it.

And the results are in!

Pre-cut: yes, my hair got long.

Post haircut: trim and some bangs. And a change of side part.

Chinese Pop Star! The completed look. Amazing, eh?

So now I'm back to normal, but with a pretty good haircut that I'm quite satisfied with. The issue of the magazine comes out in July, and knowing China, that'll probably be July 1st or soon thereafter. My flight home is June 30, but be sure that I'll be checking the Starbucks in the days before my departure to see if it comes out early. Hopefully I can snag a few to show you guys back home.