Day 290: Songjiang.....the Final Goodbyes

Today was a hard day, but it was a good day, too. I said a lot of goodbyes to students and handed in my final grades.

It was a hot day--I got on the 11:30 am bus--and I happened to run into both Raymond and Boris.  It was nice to have people to talk to!  As Raymond says, it always makes the bus ride shorter. We promised each other that we'd get together before I left; I hope this comes to pass. The bus stopped right in front of the School of English Studies, and Leona, one of my grad students, was waiting there by the Shakespeare statue.

So first I had lunch with several of my graduate students from the gender studies reading group (Cora, Leona, Katniss, Charmian, and Yiming) at a place called Lesvila off-campus. They have a lot of really good Western food, including a great pizza. We ordered a beef supreme pizza, a fried platter (with chicken wings and pork rinds and fries), a chef's salad, and some spaghetti. I also got a lemon coke. The best part was an amazing ice cream dessert! It was cool, because we shared everything: only 250 RMB for six people, which is only about $6 per person.  I think that the Chinese "sharing" method actually enables people to save money. We chatted a lot about America and China. I gave the girls some gifts: fans, pens, cards. And I gave Cora a special gift, a scarf, for starting the gender studies group. We walked back to the School of English Studies in the 96 degree heat; I kept running into other students on my way to the main office, including Hannah, from my Short Novels class, who gave me a gift!  All of the students I ran into, like Rebecca, a grad student who couldn't make it to the lunch, were friendly and said "hi" to me. Fortunately, the office where I handed in the grades was much cooler. I submitted my grades to Maggie and left the building. Most of the girls left, but Cora followed me to the Admin building, where I needed to submit my grades to the Honors College. I thanked her for all her hard work and hugged her goodbye. I think I will miss Cora most of all, to paraphrase Dorothy. She was such a hard worker and the one who initiated the idea for the gender studies reading group.

In the Honors office, one of the secretaries was there (not Katherina). She did have the money to reimburse me for the cab ride from last week, and I submitted my grades. She said I could take a rest in the office, so I did--they had good Internet in there. I left the office at 5 pm and hung out in the Honors lounge on a yellow couch. I was tired and hot--I'd been sweating all day. Around 5:30, I ventured over to the SISU canteen and met up with Lola, one of my Honors students, who took me to the restaurant where we had dinner. A lot of students there: 11 from my current class and 2 from last ssemester! Plus me, there were 14 total. The students were already ravenous and eating when I got there. They asked me to order more food, so I ordered some spring rolls, mushrooms, and peanuts. I can't say I liked all the food: some of it, like the fish, was way too spicy for me. However, I loved the fried steak, the mushrooms, the peanuts, the eggplant...and the watermelon at the end!  Mostly Laura (who's very chatty) and Siqi (from last term) talked to me; the other students were pretty quiet. Laura and Siqi asked me a lot of questions, mostly about the USA, and I answered them. The students also applauded when I told them that I was invited back to teach in the summer next year. So that was cool. Before we all departed, they gave me an amazing gift: postcards, where each of them had written an individual message to me, telling me how much they liked me and/or my class. THIS IS PROBABLY THE BEST STUDENT GIFT I'VE EVER RECEIVED. Personal, irreplaceable. Christy, one of the students, even wrote me a letter--wow! Alison also got me a photo book, cookies (that tasted more like onion crackers, and tea. I was overwhelmed. I barely made the 8:40 bus going home (5 minutes to spare), but I did. I gave Laura and Cathy hugs goodbye and then boarded. I told them to study hard but to have some fun, too.

On the way home, I read over the students' letters as well as I could sitting in the dark (the driver turned the lights off). There were only about 7 people on the bus. Got off the bus, walked to Chifeng station. Fortunately, there was a 745 pulling up right when I got there. The driver went fast going home--about a 12-minute ride, but I got home about 10:22 pm.  Kerry was already there, home from his gaming. We talked about our days, and I ate some leftover food: I went to bed soon after.

Photos of the day....

(left to right) Leona, Cora, Katniss, Charmian, me, Yiming.

(left to right) Vivian, Cynthia, Jessica, Amy. Eating watermelon!

Gifts from students! The T-shirts are from Cora; the one in the wrapping is from Hannah (it was a cute turtle).